Outline and briefly evaluate the view that gender identity is created and reinforced through socialisation
Outline and briefly evaluate the view that gender identity is created and reinforced through socialisation.
Gender identity is a person's private sense, and subjective experience, of their own gender. This is generally described as one's private sense of being a man or a woman, consisting primarily of the acceptance of membership into a category of people: male or female. It can be argued that socialisation reinforces this sense through primary socialisation which is done by the family and secondary socialisation which is done through agents such as media, peer group, education, religion and workplace.
Gender identity is created and reinforced through primary socialisation which uses family as its agent. Oakley’s study (1982) identifies four processes central to the construction of gender identity: manipulation, canalisation, domestic activities and verbal appellations. These processes are reinforced through eh use of rewards and sanctions addressing each gender differently. For example boys will be rewarded for not crying whereas girls will be rewarded for completing domestic activities mean to train her for when she is expected to be a mother. However it can be argued that this study now lacks validity due to the fact that it is over 30 years old, an example of this is the increasing number of parents who are raising their children as gender neutral like Sasha Laxton.
Media is an agent of secondary socialisation that reinforces gender identity. As identified by Billington et al (1998) the mass media presents men as dominant and women as weak and restricted to their domestic chores in the house hold. This reinforces gender identity because the mass media is available to the majority of the population therefore people are being brought up with these hegemonic views of gender and are likely to reflect that behaviour, expectations and treatment in their own lives.
Another agent of secondary socialisation that reinforces gender identity is the peer group. Mort (1996)
Gender identity is a person's private sense, and subjective experience, of their own gender. This is generally described as one's private sense of being a man or a woman, consisting primarily of the acceptance of membership into a category of people: male or female. It can be argued that socialisation reinforces this sense through primary socialisation which is done by the family and secondary socialisation which is done through agents such as media, peer group, education, religion and workplace.
Gender identity is created and reinforced through primary socialisation which uses family as its agent. Oakley’s study (1982) identifies four processes central to the construction of gender identity: manipulation, canalisation, domestic activities and verbal appellations. These processes are reinforced through eh use of rewards and sanctions addressing each gender differently. For example boys will be rewarded for not crying whereas girls will be rewarded for completing domestic activities mean to train her for when she is expected to be a mother. However it can be argued that this study now lacks validity due to the fact that it is over 30 years old, an example of this is the increasing number of parents who are raising their children as gender neutral like Sasha Laxton.
Media is an agent of secondary socialisation that reinforces gender identity. As identified by Billington et al (1998) the mass media presents men as dominant and women as weak and restricted to their domestic chores in the house hold. This reinforces gender identity because the mass media is available to the majority of the population therefore people are being brought up with these hegemonic views of gender and are likely to reflect that behaviour, expectations and treatment in their own lives.
Another agent of secondary socialisation that reinforces gender identity is the peer group. Mort (1996)