When a baby is born the way to tell what gender they are is from examining the baby’s genitals and it is this, which will have much power on what its succeeding experience is. Here, a gender identity is built up. This concept applies to their own feelings and awareness of whether they are a woman or man and there he or she will apprehend their gender role, which is what society sees as suitable for the specific gender. The set of requirements that society has for the specific gender, differ depending on the manner that masculinity and femininity is labelled.
Since it is some people in society who choose the definition of male and female individuals, therefore, they have to identify themselves as one or the other, so females would usually identify themselves as feminine whereas males identify themselves as masculine. However, as these are socially constructed classification it does make space for a person to be a male but also see themselves as having some femininity and vice versa. The individual learns to define what their gender identity is from social institutions such as the family, school and church: “within these complex power relations, certain hegemonic masculinities and emphasized femininities are institutionalised”. (Ghail 1996:39) In addition, also in other social situations such as friends but here they can start to move away from what these situations classifies as masculine or feminine and begin to form their own gender identity. for example, an woman may identify herself as female and the society’s stereotypical way that a female should be is ‘emotional’, ‘passive’, ‘warm’ but instead of seeing herself in this way she perceives herself in the manner of a stereotypical masculine mode, for instance ‘dominant’, ‘brave’ and ‘rational’. This results in many individuals defining themselves as having combination of both feminine and masculine manners.
The three major perspectives which give an explanation of what femininity and masculinity consist of are: social learning theory, psychoanalytic theory and cognitive development theory. Moreover, what all three theories have in common is that they: “are all concerned with the notion of ‘identification’, the process through which girls come to identify with the feminine model and boys with the masculine model”. (Garrette 1987:21).
However, despite having that in common they differ on the belief they have about when the age of gender identity actually takes place. What needs to be taken into consideration is if being given a gender role leads individuals to believe they have a gender identity or alternately whether the notion of having a gender identity directs individuals to the acceptance of gender roles and finally the position of the upbringing in the progress of these.
The psychoanalytical theory argues that a child develops its gender identity by identifying themselves with the parent who’s the same sex as them, so therefore, a boy would discover what masculinity is from his father whereas a girl would discover what femininity is from her mother.
Cognitive development explains the events of gender identity development through cognitive roots unlike psychoanalytic theory, which does so through psychosexual roots. Cognitive development in comparison to other two theories claims that gender identity is formed before the child identifies themselves with the identical sex parent although, this also has an effect after, they argue that gender identity takes place once the gender of the child is recognized.
It is the learning theories in their development of gender identities, which are mainly social of the three. According to these theories the gender identity of the child is constructed through its social environment, for instance influence from educators and parents, it is they who coach the masculine and feminine behaviour of the children, they do this directly and indirectly punishing or rewarding the child for looking a certain way for example, the child would be rewarded for what they wear so for girls their dress code would be dresses and for boys it would be trousers. This is also done the same way for the inclination of certain toys so the object choice for girls maybe dolls and boys’ trucks. The same punishment and reward is done also for behaviour, for instance girls being dependent and obedient and for boys independent and hostile.
The ways in which masculinity and femininity is measured from a sociological perspective is that of a symbolic interctionist view, they use a theory called identity theory which has a great deal in common with the psychological views of Spence and others who had worked with her. According to identity theory the key to gender identity is individuals self-meanings, so the person’s gender identity whether it is masculine or feminine it is from that which society defines their role to be: “one’s gender identity as masculine or feminine is based on the meanings individuals have internalised from their association with the role of males or females, respectively, in society”. (Borgatta and Montgomery: 11). Gender identity is a section of numerous other roles identities we have, for example, a role that a mother takes on to her child or teacher to her student. Moreover, masculinity and femininity and its meanings are essentially comparative. Therefore, to be feminine means not to be masculine since you are a female and the same for the male. In addition, the perspective of the symbolic interactionist approach proposes that we identify ourselves through communication with other people. Furthermore, the individuals gender identity could also be opposite to the gender that they are in terms of their behaviour, for example, the person could be a male but instead of behaving in a masculine way they display the behaviour that is expected from a female: “while gender identity may sometimes be more important than gender in determining outcomes, it is also possible for ones gender (male or female) and one’s gender identity (masculine or feminine) to each result in different displays of behaviour”. (Borgatta and Montgomery: 14). Identity theory also argues that it is during relentless changes in environment that identities are largely probable to change, for instance, women may become more feminine and men more masculine when couples have their first child.
In many societies childcare is viewed as feminine role and in many modern societies most people that look after children whether at home or in other institutions such as schools and nurseries it is women who do this. This is also true in couples who have children, because when they have children the man is the one who goes out to work while the woman stays at home to look after the children although there are cases when both have to work and in that case a carer has to look after the child, nevertheless, it is the mother who has to do the childcare majority of the time. This role of the females being the nurturer is defined to women by society as their expected gender roles at a young age. Some also argue that the construction of masculine and feminine identities actually first begins within the family, as the father is the role model of the boy and the mother for the girl. Also within the family often the father is the head and shows his masculinity by being unemotional and dominant although, some argue that this has weakened in modern societies and that there is a more equal relationship between the man and the woman, however, feminist disagree with this and state that men still exercise patriarchy within the family.
Another area where masculinity and femininity can be identified is certain types and paid work. Many of the high position jobs are done by men, these positions are ones of authority, dominance and power in contrast, women’s work consist of jobs that involve nurturing and careering for people, for instance nursing and teaching. However, it what has come into notice is that these gender roles are changing; evidence does show that some women are going into high position jobs and men are going into professions that were classified as women’s work.
Gender identity (femininity and masculinity) in late modern societies has changed as societies are changing. What was once considered a masculine identity has also become a feminine identity and vice verse. For example, fashion, appearance and style has become more mixed as well as paid work. In addition, the concept of the ‘new man’. However, certain aspects of femininity and masculinity are still visible, for example, society still sees women as carers and nurturers as well as judging them on their appearance.
Bibliography
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Garrett, S (1987) Gender. Tavistock Publications
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Golombok, S and Fivush, R (1994) Gender Development Cambridge University Presss
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Adkins, L (2002) Revisions: gender and sexuality in late modernity Open University Press
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Ghaill, M (1996) Understanding Masculinities Open University Press
