Although the primary role of a woman was still seen as that of the housewife/ mother, many returned to work between 1914 and 1950. Women faced an uphill struggle to be accepted as equals by men, many of whom could not accept women being anything other than quiet and obedient to her husband. “We, as an organisation are opposed to the introduction of women as a general principal.” Jack Tanner, Amalgamated Engineering Union, (Cited in Walby 1987).
1970 saw the Equal Pay Act, which meant that women were to receive equal pay to men if they were employed to do similar work of the same value. In 1975 the Sex Discrimination Act was brought in to stop discrimination on the grounds of sex in employment, education and equal chances of promotion. Women in work i.e. paid employment have recently increased, between 1971 and 1997 (E.O.C. briefings, Work and Parenting) the percentage of women in work has increased so that women have now caught up with men in the labour market. The main reason for this is that more and more married women are going outside the home to work, although lone mother’s statistics have dropped. (Harolambos and Holborn). Sylvia Walby in Gender Transformations (1997) agrees with the E.O.C. findings, saying that since the 1980’s integration of women in the male dominated workplace has increased dramatically, the number of women occupying higher ranking positions mainly in the professional and managerial careers has risen by 155% as opposed to a 33% rise by men. An increase in women’s educational qualifications is seen as one of the main reasons for this remarkable boost to women’s involvement in higher ranking jobs. (Cited in Robinson and Richardson 1997).
A hundred years ago it was widely accepted that, women, ethnic minorities, people with disabilities and the poor had few rights and chances in society. Nowadays, things appear quite different and those groups who were so much on the fringes of society a century ago are now far less excluded and have access to far more opportunities in terms of employment and work. However, despite various measures to address equality of opportunity, the divides still exist. Individuals still encounter direct and indirect discrimination because of their gender.
Childhood:
Gender is different from sex, which is biologically determined and unchanged by social influence. Although we see that gender roles are predominantly socially constructed, it is undeniable that biologically based characteristics also lead to the development of some traditional social roles. Since women are the carriers of babies and have the ability to breastfeed, it is not strange that women should be assigned the role of the caretaker of the home, while men, who are physically stronger, are the protectors and providers (Rossi, 1984). It is a universal characteristic that boys are more physically active and aggressive than girls, while girls engage in activities that require precise motor skills. Biological factors do, to some extent, contribute to the development of gender roles and behaviour.
At this point the case of Joan/John Reimer seems relevant. After a routine circumcision went wrong a male identical twin became part of an experiment which was meant to settle, once and for all, the fraught nature-versus-nurture debate: to prove that gender was so fluid that by a mere change in childrearing practice, plus a little surgery, a boy could be turned into a girl, while his twin developed as a male. Masterminded by a prominent Baltimore physician, John Money, the child, originally named Bruce, was renamed Brenda and the male twins were brought up as brother and sister. Things started going wrong almost straight away. The children’s mother, Janet Reimer, recalled dressing Brenda in her first dress just before the child was due to turn two. "She was ripping at it, trying to tear it off. I remember thinking, 'Oh, my God, she knows she's a boy and she doesn't want girls' clothing." Brenda was bullied viciously at school. When she urinated standing up in the school lavatories, she was threatened with a knifing. It is notable that Money's narrative of the twins case does not mention these issues. The experiment also ended before his subjects reached adolescence. Moneys’ final report in 1978 says: "Now prepubertal in age, the girl has . . . a feminine gender identity and role distinctly different from that of her brother.. . .The final and conclusive evidence awaits the appearance of romantic interest and erotic imagery." Had Money continued his research he would have been aware that at the age of 14, ‘Brenda’ became ’David’ and began life as a man. He was married for a while but both he and his brother had been psychologically damaged by their childhood. In 2002, David’s brother Brian Reimer, apparently killed himself, taking an overdose of drugs he was taking for schizophrenia. In May 2004 David killed himself. This, I believe is where Moneys research truly ends.
My view as a mental health youth worker is that both twins were left very much on their own to deal with their true emotions, Doctors only being concerned with the success of the transformation. Childhood trauma rarely goes away if left undealt with and in such an extreme case, both individuals were denied advocacy and support throughout their childhood, being shunned by their peers and their only support network being family. Both children must at times have experienced negative emotions towards their parents and each other about the situation, yet neither had anyone to talk to. Could their suicides have been prevented? It is too late to know but all professionals in contact with young people must learn from this.
The society in which we live plays an enormous role in shaping the different attitudes and behaviour of all those who are a part of it. These differences are reflected most strongly perhaps in the development of certain gender-related social roles and behaviour traits. Within every society gender is a socially constructed term, and the development of gender roles often begins earlier than birth, albeit only in the minds of parents and people affected by the conception.
Society uses the term ‘gender’ to make clear distinctions between the two sexes, and to define their characteristics through gender roles, shaping much of what people consider masculine or feminine (Williams, 1983). In most societies, to be masculine is to have power, assertiveness, freedom, brainpower, and to be a hard worker. Femininity however, suggests virtuousness, weakness (both physical and mental), compassion and a caring and loyal nature. An experiment by Condry and Condry, in which couples were asked to describe a newborn infant demonstrates the extent of this. When told the infant was a boy, the couple would describe the newborn using words such as strong, mischievous, and alert. In contrast, if the couple was told the infant was female, it would commonly be described as weak, beautiful, and delicate. Rubin (1974), conducted a similar experiment in which parents described their newborn child and produced the same results. In reality they showed no differences in height, weight, or health. The results from both experiments show that gender-role stereotypes and gender-role socialization begins at birth.
Indeed the choosing of names tend to be gender dependant; one for a boy and one for a girl. Few names are unisex and those that are differ in spelling e.g. Lee for a boy and Leigh for a girl. Society expects us to have feminine or masculine names depending on our gender. Girls names tend to be soft and gentle, for example Rose and to have sensuous meanings. Even less obvious ones such as my own name Susanna, means great white lily. Although this does suggest slightly more strength, both are beautiful, delicate and sweet smelling flowers; tender to the touch and easily damaged. Boys however, tend to have bold, assertive names such as Ricky (powerful and rich) and Bernie (Bold as a Bear) There is very little leeway for this gender specific naming of offspring, mostly due to the stereotypes and assumptions made within society. A girl named Bruce would find false assumptions and discrimination made about her throughout her life.
The ever conventional ideas of a baby being dressed in blue or pink, gender depending still continues. As the child ages, the educational toys chosen for him or her also echo the gender stereo types. Society discourages any crossing of these barriers. Boys are encouraged to play rough and tough and in the dirt. They are given toy soldiers to fight with, guns, toolkits and footballs. They are led to think that crying is a female trait and that boys who cry are sissies. Girls are taught womanliness. Dolls are acceptable, robot making isn’t. Lady like manners are taught at a very early age along with how to clean house or take care of a baby.
There are many sources that contribute to the development of gender roles. Already mentioned is the influence of the parents' expectations for their sons and daughters. According to Jeanne Block (1983), "parents give their girls’ roots, and their boys wings." Eleanor Maccoby (1988) argues that parents are not the only socializers of gender roles, and many of the differences in gender behavior among children result from peer relationships and group identification. She has found that adolescent children are segregationists in the way that they seek out same-sex playmates in spite of adult encouragement for group play. Because of gender-role socialization in group play, girls and boys develop in different psychological environments, which shape their perception of the world and contribute to their gender identity. Within group settings youth workers have the power to encourage or to challenge
gender stereotyping.
Although it is less extreme for today’s generation of young people, the majority of adults in contact with them will have been brought up with gender segregating values. I strongly believe that these ‘lessons’ taught to us at such a young age are part of the reason today’s young people still consider it negative for a man to be sensitive and a woman to be aggressive. Today there are more men and women prepared to cross these boundaries but those who do are subject to negative stereotyping. For men, they are considered “gay” and for women, they are considered to be “dikes.” The terms “mummies boy” and “tomboy” establish this gender stereotyping from an early age, so even if a girl prefers football and cars to Barbie dolls, she is taught to view them as masculine traits.
Social learning theorists suggest that individuals learn what gender is for themselves through modeling and re-enforcement. Television and mass media play a significant role in a child's growing beliefs and attitudes about what it means to be male or female in the world. Recent films and television programmes have begun to challenge gender stereo typing. In the movie ‘Billy Elliott’, Billy is a young man pushed into the ‘manly’ sport of boxing by his domineering father, determined to turn his weak son into a “real man”. Billy discovers ballet dancing and after keeping his newfound hobby secret for a while, realises he has true talent.. The film follows his struggle to success in his chosen career despite the prejudice and adversity surrounding him. ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ shows young women in a new light with Buffy, a teenage school girl who also is a ‘slayer’. Buffy protects the world from vampires by fighting and of course, slaying them. Unfortunately both of these have their downfalls. Billy Elliott was mentioned during the FYWG consultation as “the poofy dancing boy film” and as Buffy became a sex icon, many women found themselves trying to live up to an unachievable role model.
Psychologist Sandra Bem believes that a healthy society must strive to achieve androgyny in order to stop biological differences becoming female disadvantages. As mentioned before, there are some biological roots for gender development but gender-role stereotypes are still largely socially constructed and influence development from birth. Therefore youth workers have a responsibility to observe each young person individually and to respect them for who they are, not what society thinks they should be.
Education:
Education is vital. It takes up a significant proportion of our lives, and to some degree it affects the rest of our lives. Its expense must not be forgotten as in 1992 government expenditure on education in the UK was 32.3 billion pounds, 12.7% of all public expenditure (social trends, 1994). The educational system, however, continues the reaffirmation of masculine and feminine roles within society. It is generally found in schools that although boys are shown how to sew, cook and practise a range of skills, including those previously thought of as women’s work, women are still discouraged from many ‘masculine’ activities such as rugby and engineering. During the FYWG consultation, 2 women from different schools and of different ages brought up their experiences of not being allowed to play football when in school. Their parents had been fine with ‘kicking the ball around on the village green with the lads’ but the schools had refused to even set up a girls only team.
At GCSE level, girls and boys choose many subjects according to gender related roles. This stereotyping is carried forward to post-16 education and is evident in statistics regarding training, higher education and employment. A study by the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC, 2001a PP 3-4) shows that advanced modern apprenticeship level, in June 2000, almost 100% of places in the four categories of Engineering and technology, Motor industry, Construction and Electrical installation engineering were taken up by males, whilst apprenticeship such as Health and Social Care and Hairdressing were female dominated. Out of the data collected for this essay, only 1 female gave a ’masculine’ job (mechanic) as their career choice, the other women opted for careers in nursing, care and secretarial work “My mum says there is always work for a secretary … you don’t get treated right if you get a boys job…”. The pay scale for modern apprenticeships also differs, with the average engineering placement having a weekly wage of £115. Of the 609 students on this placement, only 14 were female. The health placement has a weekly wage of £60. Of 251 students 222 were female. This discrimination continues in the workplace, where women earn, on average, £3054.00 less than men a year (pay finder.com/league.asp). It is the youth workers role to assist young people reach their full potential. If we allow the gender divide to continue in our own lives we are setting a bad example. Such pay discrepancies are a bad example.
Those who work with young people must address their own prejudices and embrace equal opportunities themselves. A study by Griffin (1985) during the early 80’s shows the importance of this. She noted that of the girls in her study, about a third; ‘…had been interested in a ’male’ course or job at some stage. Discouragement, overt opposition and lack of support from teachers, careers advisors, relatives and friends had pushed most of them back towards more acceptable ‘choices’. (P80)
When considering gender related perceptions, we should also be aware of other influences such as social class, ethnicity or age which gender rational theories accentuate (Oakley, 1972,PP 173 - 188) For example, the different quality of education a young person from a working class background attending a comprehensive school can expect in comparison to one whose family can afford to send them to a private school.
Not all young people who attended private schools consider this to be an advantage. One FYWG member who had been to single sex private schools (both day and boarding) recalled the pressure she felt every day to succeed and be the best. Only A grades were acceptable. Contact with the opposite sex was discouraged in case the girls’ attention was drawn away from their studies. She explained that many of the students suffered from eating disorders. She believed it was due to the pressure they were under to succeed and to be ladies, not girls. Indeed, studies by the Eating Disorder association have suggested that many more young women from middle/upper class backgrounds suffer eating disorders than those from working classes. Other members were shocked by this and most felt happier with the education they had received, stating that much of their education had been from the “school of life” rather than when in school.
The FYWG recommended that youth workers should neither encourage nor discourage gender identity but be a positive role model by being proud of who and what they are regardless of ‘feminine’ or ‘masculine’ traits and push young people to consider their ‘self’ identity before gender, class or race issues.
Conclusion:
Gender equality is still a myth that I personally believe will not be solved in the immediate future, although it has certainly improved in past few decades. I acknowledge that men have been somewhat discriminated against also but their rights have not been suppressed to the same extent as those of women and not for such a long period of time. In an ideal world men and women would share equal rights, education, pay and status in all societies. However, the process of gender equalising cannot happen overnight and will involved sustained work, a fact recognised by Spencer and Podmore (1987) who, in a study of women in the highly male dominated area of Law during the early 1980‘s, stated: ‘We recognise that change in the deeply held assumptions which this chapter has highlighted will be a lengthy, difficult and conflictual process.’ (P130) Although I do wonder if the importance we play upon equality does sometimes reinforce the idea there is a big diffrence in young peoples minds. Several young people stated they noticed no difference between themselves but the constant questioning by society about gender equality made them think about it and, they felt, not in a constructive way.
I believe we should just start from day one with this issue. Teach young boys and girls about all their feelings, don’t push them into their gender stereotype, and let them explore all their feelings and emotions for themselves. Don’t discourage boys from crying and don’t discourage girls for getting a little dirty. I think when this occurs it won’t fix the differences between men and women, but what I do think is that it will help tremendously. It is about time that men and women let down their so-called “brick wall” and learnt a bit more about each other. We are all individuals and we can’t have one another figured out just because of our gender. Time is needed in order for gender inequalities to be eradicated and we must start from conception educating both parents and children about gender equality and how they can narrow the present divides. Maybe then there will be more understanding and respect for the biological differences between men and women and we can discard the socially constructed stereotypes in existence now.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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Haralambos, M. and Holborn, M. (2000) Sociology Themes and Perspectives. (Fifth Edition) London: Harper Collins
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Hood, J. (1997) Men, Work and Family. London: Sage
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Lewis Group, The (2002) .www.theglassceiling. Panama City
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Norris, P. (1987) The Comparative Position of Women in Western Democracy’s. Brighton: Wheatsheaf
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Robinson, V.and Richardson, D. (1997) Introducing Women’s Studies. (Second Edition) Basingstoke: Macmillan
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Walby, S. (1986) Patriarchy at Work. Oxford: Blackwell
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Oakley, A. (1972) Sex, Gender and Society. Ashgate Publishing Limited
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Walby, S. (1997) Gender Transformations (International Library of Sociology). Routledge, an imprint of Taylor & Francis Books Lt
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Colapinto, J. (2001) As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who Was Raised as a Girl. Perennial
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Rossi, A. (1985) Gender and the Life Course. Walter de Gruyter
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Maccoby, E. (1980) Social Development: Psychological Growth and the Parent/Child Relationship. Thomson Learning
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Block, J. (1984). Sex Role Identity and Ego Development. Proquest Info & Learning
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Bem, S, (1993). The Lenses of Gender: Transforming the Debate on Sexual Inequality. Yale University Press
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Spencer, A and Podmore, D. (1986). In a Man's World: Essays on Women in Male-dominated Professions. Routledge, an imprint of Taylor & Francis Books Lt
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Payfinder.com/league.asp
Articles
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Burkeman, O and Younge, G. (May 12th 2004). Being Brenda. The Guardian Newspaper.
Consultation work
- Zebedees youth Café,Truro
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Hear Our Voice. Falmouth Young Women’s Group,
APPENDIX
- Example of questionnaire.
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Questionnaire results