Sociological Explanations Of Gender Differences

Contemporary feminist, sociological, and psychological theories tell us that social factors contribute to the way we grow, learn, and develop into men and women. The term 'doing gender' refers to a constructed identity arising out of environmental influence rather than inborn character. Psychologists and sociologists alike offer research based on the idea that becoming a man or a woman is a result of causal construction. Within this context, the definitions of gender are many, not easily characterized, and often confused with the term sex. Moreover, gender in relation to sexuality is often viewed as something that is hierarchical and/or patriarchal, within a social life system that supports wearing a masking façade over our true nature from our early years.
Differences in definition reflect differences in perspective when we discuss gender. The term ‘doing gender’ offers us the idea that there is action linked with social role play. It is these very roles, based on the façade we present, that offer position within society,
Chodorow (1995) has stated that gender is a matter of having masculine or feminine personalities that develop early in childhood, as a response to parental influence. If it is that a child is raised to wear clothing, behave, and fulfill certain roles according to a specific gender, this child grows up to become a member of this gender 'class'. The onus in this theory is on parental and teacher environmental influence, that inaugurates the effect of gender either way.
Fausto-Sterling (2000) has argued that the man-woman model of sex is not straight forward. This research has gone further to suggest that intersexed individuals are alive on the planet and that it is incorrect to think that humans are only male or female. One may postulate that there may be a continuum of human sexual nature from male toward female and everything in between, offering us a broad and complex spectrum for defining gender and roles within