Gender And Culture | EssayIvy.com

Question: Gender is shaped by culture while gender identities and gender relations are critical

aspects of culture because they shape the way daily life is lived in the family, community and the

work place. Write a 6 to 10 page paper on Gender and culture

List of abbreviations

UN: United Nations

UNESCO: United Nations Cultural and Scientific Organization

USAID: United States Agency for International Development

Introduction

Gender is not sex which comprises only the biological aspects of being either female or male.

When we talk about gender, we include the psychological, social, cultural, and behavioral

characteristics that are associated with being female or male. Gender is defined by one's gender

identity or the recognition that one is either male or female based on both biological and

psychosocial considerations, and the internalization of this gender concept into one's self-

identity. (Eldis, 2009).However, gender affiliation and identity is greatly influenced and formed

by cultural values, social interaction and family, but sex is phenomenon that is biologically

determined, and would describe the physical parts on a person, such as composition, body

structure, facial hair and genitalia (Bryson, 1999, p.38).Therefore, males and females are

differentiated by their biological characteristics known as sex. Sex is biological and permanent,

while gender is social and temporary, often changing with changes in culture and attitude of

society (Bryson, 1999, p.38).

Gender and culture

In any given society where human beings are, there are always a core set of values and beliefs

held by its people often referred to as culture. Culture is tacit, deep-seated, and often remains

constant in an ever-changing external environment. It is important to understand how gender

influences culture in society. This paper proposes to understand how women influence culture

and how culture affects them within their organizations, through management and leadership

styles in an ever changing society.

Northouse (2001) notes that over the past 20 years, women leaders and managers have built a

large body of literature addressing three fundamental questions: first; if women can be leaders;

secondly- Do male and female leaders differ in their behavior and effectiveness in organizations

based on cultural orientation?.Lastly, he addresses the issue as to why so few women leaders

reach the top?. Gender-related issues have a great deal of information in this era and age. For

example, information exists about gender roles, sex stereotypes in advancing to the top of

organizations referred to as the ‘glass-ceiling’ effect (Hughes et al., 2002; Manning & Curtis,

2003) and situations in which societal culture is defined from the very beginning through

leadership qualities, traits, and styles common to their gender. They posit that very little is

known about how gender directly or indirectly influences the culture of an organization when the

culture is already subconsciously in place.

Van Vianen and Fischer (2002) says that because culture is so intangible and conceptual in

nature, it is difficult to analyze it through many common methods like say for instance through

research. This is attributed in part to the difficulty of grasping this phenomenon through

methodical studies. Helgesen (1990) reported while doing research on women managers that,

“Although the open-ended nature of their jobs certainly demanded long hours, women did not

permit this to mean the sacrifice of important family time” (p. 22). Family-oriented values are

definitely part of the organizational culture of the female as compared to their male counterparts.

Culture and Gender roles

Under normal circumstances, it is society that assigns what to do and what not to do by both

sexes. This is what we are referring to as gender roles. In this scenario, owing to the unfairly

non-proportional division in society and culture, women tend to work longer and more days than

men. The roles that are assigned to women are usually divided into three: namely, the

reproductive role, productive role and community management roles.

Reproductive role is the implication of the naturally given ability of women to bear children,

which is physically impossible for the man. However, along comes rearing the child and all other

household responsibilities (Kabeer, 1994, p.275), which the man is not expected and in some

societies not even allowed to participate in.

The second role given to women is related to the work place in cases where women, on top of the

burdensome reproductive role have the time, qualification and approval by society to go to work.

Here, women are not allowed, again, by an unseen code, to participate in all job types. On the

contrary, some jobs are considered women’s jobs by the society; these are normally labour

intensive and low-income jobs like cleaning. The deprivation of women does not end there;

because the woman will also have to participate in community management roles. Community

management roles are those chores that are considered necessary for a community to co-exist,

like planning weddings, arranging funeral and neighborhood gatherings, whereby some social

activities are planned and implemented for all to enjoy, but for women to work harder every day

(Kabeer, 1994, p.275).

During such occasions, Men are not expected to take part in the work since they are set aside

specifically for women. Matters are made worse still by the fact that the work of women is

neither recognized nor appreciated.

Furthermore, men’s activities are regarded as more important than women’s, irrespective of what

those activities are. Men may be involved in activities of hunting, weaving or cooking, and if

accepted as appropriate by society, then both women and men consider these activities to be

important, but these same activities are perceived as of less importance when performed by

women (Richards, 1980, p.157). This also demonstrates that the inequality of work is reinforced

by both men and women alike.

Gender and peace

Peace and conflict Resolution experts have a task of establishing gender roles in peace building,

conflict Resolution and post conflict reconstruction and development. For a long time, this aspect

has been either ignored or not explored at all. However, the earlier we all accept the role of

gender and especially that of women, the better for all of us as we strive to resolve conflicts

across the globe. This is due to the immense role that women play in our society (CEDAW,

2001).

According to the United Nations Resolution 1325, Policy makers need to consider the issue of

gender when coming up with programs such as post conflict projects design and policy, gender

disparities and decision making. For example, women’s war time experiences cannot be

overlooked or sidestepped in while pursuing transformative approach in peace building. Men at

the same time need to be empowered and especially the ex-combatants, with skills that can

enable them be reintegrated back into civil life and society. An example of this scenario is the

post conflict reconstruction strategy employed by the Rwandese after the 1994 genocide.

In peace building in a post conflict situation, it is important to look at the dimension of pre-

conflict inequalities which may have led to hostilities and eventually to conflict and war.

Opportunities that arise after the conflict should have a purposeful focus on women’s capabilities

and empowerment and how they can contribute to the post conflict agenda.

Gender mainstreaming is another dimension that cannot be overlooked. This can help create

women’s contribution and participation, inform policy implementation, and strengthen

macroeconomic and microeconomic development activities. Macroeconomic policies have to be

looked at with regard to how they affect both men and women, in rural and urban setups, the

poor and the rich and different ethnic groups.

Microeconomic activities will raise issues like who benefits from which resources, human capital

investment and how women and men may or may not relate effectively within them. There is a

great link between Gender, Environment, Population, Sustainable Development and peace. This

can be revealed by the consensus reached during the major global conferences of this decade, the

UN conference on Environment and development in 1992, the World conference on Human

Rights in 1993, and the International Conference on population and Development in 1994, just to

name but few. It is true that in as much as Research on gender dimension of conflict and peace is

still young, there is adequate data to show the role of gender in militarization war and post

conflict re-construction.

Gender and property rights

According to the USAID paper on Women's property held in 2002 in Nairobi Kenya, Women

rights are property and inheritance rights enjoyed by women as a category within society at any

point in time. The patterns and rights of property ownership vary between societies and are

influenced by cultural, racial, political, and legal factors. The lack of control over both

productive and non-productive resources that is evident in both rural and urban settings places

women at a reduced level of advantage in areas of security of home, maintaining a basis for

survival, and accessing economic opportunities (USAID, 2002). All over the world,

Development-related problems are linked to women’s lack of property and inheritance rights,

especially in regards to land and property ownership, encompassing areas such as low levels of

education, hunger, and poor health. Thus land property rights, through their impact on patterns of

production, distribution of wealth, as well as market development, has evolved as one of the

prerequisites of economic growth and poverty reduction.

Globally, Women play an important role in the production of food and goods, from work in

fields, factories, and home-based business. There is a critical relationship in the role that women

play and the sustenance provided for families, communities, and nations. Worldwide, an

estimated 41% of women headed households live below the poverty line in those areas, with one-

third of the world’s women either homeless or living in housing facilities that are not

enough(USAID,2002). Matters are made worse by exclusion of women from access to land,

which forces them to go towards cities, where they join the increasing number of women-headed

households in slum areas. However, through the processes of globalization and industrialization,

there has been a noted increase in the numbers of women entering in the waged labor sectors.

Gender, culture and Education

Dumais (2002) posits that any educational system works at doing away with giving explicitly to

everyone what it implicitly demands of everyone hence making educational sys-tem demand of

everyone alike that they have what it does not give. Such thing consists mainly of linguistic and

cultural competences and a relationship of familiarity with culture which can only be produced

by one’s family upbringing by transmitting the dominant culture.

Gender equality is one of UNESCO’s work on heritage, creativity and cultural diversity

(UNESCO, 2000). The equal participation, access and contribution to cultural life of women and

men are human rights as well as cultural rights, and an important dimension for guaranteeing

freedom of expression for all. A growing body of evidence from UNESCO programmes points to

how gender relations come into play in the transmission of knowledge on heritage and the

fostering of creativity. Inclusive development and socio-economic empowerment requires that

spiritual, intellectual and creative expressions be included as interests of members of the

community. Indeed, ensuring that the spiritual, intellectual and creative expressions and interests

of all members of the community are reflected has proven to be an important enabler of inclusive

development and socio-economic empowerment. However in some societies, access to culture

can often be restricted to certain social groups, with women and girls in particular facing

complex barriers to participate in the cultural life of their communities (UNESCO, 200). There

exist unequal opportunities for women to share their creativity with audiences, women

persistence of dominant views on gender and negative stereotypes.

Gender culture and Language

According to Gergen (2001), language can create a world and also frame the truths that can be

told. Therefore the same language can be studied to understand how categories are socially

constructed. He goes further to discuss how, when men and women interact, they reinforce

essential gender differences and therefore maintain a power difference and identity. In

many

societies, men dictate what gets talked about and by whom. In other words, what is considered

important in the conversation is constructed by men who direct conversations and the women

who accept this reality.

In his research, Gergen (2001) demonstrates that female flight attendants are able to allay fears

of passengers and played ‘hostess’ to make passengers as comfortable as possible during the

flight as compared to their male counterparts. Not only are the women able to perform essential

femininity but the airline itself, on the corporate level, produces gender as well. For example, an

advertisement for airlines that includes a smiling female flight attendant with a slogan like “we

move our tails for you” makes profit from making a business out of gender construction.

Conclusion

In this paper, we have looked at the relationship between culture and gender, gender roles and

culture, gender and education among other things, and how they are affected by social and

cultural stereotypes in societies all over. We have looked also at the property rights based on

gender issues and how women in particular are affected and discriminated against in property

ownership especially where land is concerned. All these factors which have been consolidated

over centuries’ worth of cultural beliefs and practices have had one major impact on women;

women not only face discrimination, but also tackling this problem is given less practical

attention. This however should not be taken lightly, as it has noticeable implications on the

performance of women and their productivity. For example, women who are discriminated

against in the work place will be dissatisfied employees, and the opposite will be true if they are

recognized and appreciated based on their abilities rather than on their gender.

Reference

Dumais(2002) Sociology of Education, Vol. 75, No. 1 (Jan., 2002), pp. 44-68: American

Sociological Association.

Eldis, (2009), what is gender? Available at: http://www.eldis.org/go/topics/resourceguides/

Gender [Accessed 25 November 2015].

Gergen, M. (2001). ‘’Feminist reconstructions in psychology: Narrative, gender, and

performance.’’ Thousand Oaks, CA; Sage Publications, Inc.

Gutek, B.A., Cohen, A.G. and Tsui, A., (1996), "Reactions to perceived sex

Discrimination", Human Relations, Vol. 49 No.6, pp.791-813.

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