While identity can change through agency influencing structure it can also change through structure influencing agency. Changes in the economy or the types of work available can force a change in identity. For example, miner John Greaves, and the community he lived in, were forced into a change of identity when the pit he worked in closed (p26-29). His identity as a miner and his community’s identity as a successful mining village were changed when the symbols and representations of that identity were no longer there.
Mead (1934) theorized that people use symbolizing and representations, such as language, clothes, images and gestures, to signal our identities to others and to know which people we identify with or who are different to us (p 12).
This ‘us and them,’ ‘similarity and difference’ way of thinking, helps create collective identity, such as that of a nation. Governments and other agencies influence this construction of collective identities by the use of passports, ID cards, membership cards and licences. This marks other people as the same or different to us.
However, we can buy symbols of an identity, for instance if we want to be seen as successful we can buy things that represent success, such as an expensive car. Advertisements often show goods as depicting a certain identity in the hope that consumers will identify with it and make a purchase. This concept of being recruited into an identity or recognising yourself in a particular identity was described by Louis Athusser (1971) as interpellation (p19).
So we can identify with an identity and actively take it up. Due to the interrelationship between agency and structure we don’t have to fit into a pre-classified, fixed identity, we do have a degree of choice.
To conclude, while interaction within the social world shapes identities, we each interpret the social world and place ourselves into the part we play in it. And while social structures can act as a constraint to certain identities, people have the control to influence changes to their social world, and by doing so can recreate identities. We do have to use existing symbols and representations of identity but we can choose which we identify with. In this way identity is not fixed but is fluid and this fluidity is created by the relatively large degree of control we have in shaping our own identities.
Word count: 763
References
Woodward K (2004) questioning identity: gender, class, ethnicity, London: Routledge in association with The Open University
Part (b): Show how gender may be important in forming our identities.
This essay will look at how gendered identities are formed and will explore the influence of social and biological factors, the effect gender has on a child’s school expectations and performance, and how gendered identities can change through time.
Young children define their own and other’s gender identity by taking an essentialist approach, viewing gender categories as fixed and stereotypical, consisting of an in-group and an out-group based on differences. To identify their own gender identity as masculine or feminine children use the process of self-categorisation.
Turner et al (1987) claim that similarity and difference influence self-categorisation, and therefore identity, as people are more likely to identify with a category they are similar to than one they are different to (p47). Therefore if a child feels a sense of similarity to the appearance or characteristic traits of a particular gender, be it masculine or feminine, their self-categorisation will place them into that gender category regardless of the actual sex of the child.
However as children get older and become more aware of the social structuring of gender, in that gender is, ‘the systematic structuring of certain behaviour and practices which are associated with women or men in particular societies’ (p21), their fixed essentialist approach changes to a more flexible one. They become able to understand the factors which categorise individuals as women or men, and behaviour as masculine or feminine. That is, gender categories are influenced by both biological factors and social factors.
Individual and collective ideas about which behaviours, positive and negative, are suitable for women and men strongly influence our gender identities and limit the opportunities we have for choosing our gender identity. The different life, social and cultural experiences that individuals have also influence which characteristics they consider are masculine or feminine, and affect which aspects of gender identity they take up.
Gender identity is formed by a mixture of biological and social factors. Freud claimed that who we are is significantly linked to an awareness of our identity as women or men (p17), but gender is more than the sex of our bodies. Individuals can change their bodily form to fit their chosen gender, by changing their clothes, hair, behaviour, even their sexual organs, but their sex is determined at birth, and, in the UK at least, is unchangeable. This limits any bodily change, but while it is not possible to totally change sex, gender identity is also formed through social factors, such as the social practices surrounding gender specific behaviour and characteristics. Due to this mix of biological and social factors gendered identities are flexible and can change through time and in different societies.
An example of this change can be seen in gendered identities in schools. It has been frequently argued by educational psychologists that gendered identities result in different and unequal school experiences, exam results and work opportunities for each gender. Children’s performance in school is affected by their experiences and opportunities therefore if the experiences and opportunities are based on gender the performance is going to be unequal.
Murphy and Elwood (1998) claim that in their schoolwork girls and boys draw on skills that have developed through their gendered life experiences (p70), although cognitive testing has pointed to men and women having different strengths in different tasks showing a potential innate difference (p75).
Murphy and Elwood (1998) proposed that gendered identities are formed by the culturally-based socialization practices which structure the experiences of boys and girls. They believe that, due to the influence of social and cultural factors, boys and girls have different interests, attitudes and behaviours before entering school and that these are then perpetuated in school by the expectations the teachers and society have for each gender, and by the subsequent activities, experiences and opportunities which are offered to each gender (p70).
Several decades ago education and the world of work was a male domain. In recent years boys remained ahead of girls in educational achievement, particularly in maths and the sciences and this was seen as socially acceptable for the feminine gender. However more recently boys are now underachieving in school while girl’s achievement rises. This has created a social panic as educational achievement, now being in the girl’s domain, is viewed as un-masculine, thus influencing boy’s behaviour, attitude and self-perception and changing their gender identity.
Gender is a series of stereotypically feminine and masculine characteristics and traits which are structured and determined by our society. Our gender identity is shaped by which characteristics we identify with and where we place ourselves. But our gender identity influences and is also influenced by the life experiences and opportunities that society offers or ‘allows’ each gender, therefore in conclusion our gender is very important in forming our identities.
Word count: 787
References
Woodward K (2004) questioning identity: gender, class, ethnicity, London: Routledge in association with The Open University