Argumentative paper. Discuss problems associated with the ways that gender is constructed in our society.

by shamballa (student)

12/11/2011 Word Count – 1,206 excluding citation list.

Title: Argumentative paper. Discuss problems associated with the ways that gender is constructed in our society.

This discussion will focus upon societal gender construction and how it affects the health of the individual. Following an introduction to the differentiation between ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ there will be a brief overview of the principles, history and ideology of traditional gender role construction. An overview of gender related health inequalities in modern society will be introduced followed by a discussion about current proposals to address the question of health inequalities attributed to societal gender role construction.

It is important to define the difference in sex and gender roles at the outset of this discussion. The World Health Organisation (WHO) WHO gender mainstreaming strategy -Integrating gender analysis and actions into the work of WHO states that sex refers to the biological characteristics of the individual, as opposed to gender, which refers to the socially constructed roles, behaviours, activities, and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for men and women.

These socially constructed roles have been and continue to be the subject of much contention amongst sociological and anthropological theorists

Talcott Parsons and John Bowlby argued the functionalist perspective that marked differences in gender roles contribute to social stability and integration. Parsons expressed the view that a stable social base stemmed from clear lines of sexual division of labour. Women should follow ‘expressive’ roles involving care and support of the child in the home, while men held ‘instrumental’ roles, as providers for the family (Giddens 113). Bowlby argued further that a child’s bond with its mother was crucial and that where the maternal bond was broken, serious social and psychological damage could result (57). This functionalist, paternalistic perspective was prevalent for many years and contributed to the idea that working women were neglecting their children and that venturing outside societal gender constructs was detrimental.

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The feminist approach to gender roles in the 1970’s illustrates a sharp contrast to the functionalist perspective and argues that there is no biological basis for clear division of roles; rather that gender role compliance stemmed from conditioning within the cultural norm. There has been further evidence to support their argument in the form of data that shows that children’s educational performance and overall development is enhanced when both parents are employed (O’Brien and Jones, 599-621 ), negating the belief that the conventional societal feminine role construct held any real scientific basis.

Societal gender role construction has an impact on ...

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Societal gender role construction has an impact on the health status of individuals and the effects have also been discussed, evidenced and documented for many years. Health inequalities have far reaching consequences for many individuals based on social status, age, cultural background and also gender. Naidoo and Wills suggest that cultural and societal gender role expectations explain some health behaviours (23); women from an early age in the traditional model are encouraged to take on the passive ‘sick role’ a term coined by Talcott Parsons (Sheaff 91) while men are encouraged from boyhood to be aggressive thus tend to indulge in riskier behaviours that may be detrimental to their health.

Blurring of the lines between societal gender role constructs, sex and sexuality has provided liberation in many respects for groups of people who were before bound by traditional roles and conditioned into male or female gender roles. However, for transgendered individuals, such social constructs have been restrictive and extremely detrimental to their physical and mental well-being and despite a change towards a more well informed society, statistics show that as a group they remain at a disadvantage when attempting to access health services.

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) apply the ‘minority stress model’ to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LBGT) community, suggesting that these groups experience chronic stress as a result of their stigmatization within society (221). Chakraborty et al (143-148) and Mustansky et al (2426-2432) produced statistical data to suggest that individuals within the LGBT adult and adolescent community frequently presented with mental health problems in numbers that mirrored the same prevalence of mental illness in other minority groups.

Traditionally, health professionals have treated gender differences as an illness and this precludes many people with non-traditional gender roles from discussing their sexuality or health issues openly. Coupled with the health risk behaviour associated traditionally with masculine and feminine roles within society and issues of age, income, cultural background, location and local policy it is clear that sections of society who do not conform to the traditional gender roles society places upon them find themselves at a great disadvantage in terms of their health status.

That these prejudices exist in the healthcare community is acknowledged by the WHO suggesting that health-care professionals worldwide should be sensitized and helped to overcome their prejudicial, homophobic and transphobic attitudes in order to deliver an effective sexual health service to individuals within these groups and their partners (6).

Hines discusses the need to move away from the medicalization and traditional social constructs of gender difference and move towards ‘citizenship’ in gender and sexuality (1.2). In the UK, following political lobbying and public campaigning, the Gender Recognition Act (2004) was passed, allowing transgender individuals to formally change the gender on their birth certificate from female to male or vice versa. The issue of gender and gender roles is continually in the public and political arena; however, there appears to be a long way to go in terms of understanding the scope of gender identity outside the dual construct that remains within societal norms and within the international legislative, economic and political structures which shape our society.

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Cited Works List

Bowlby, John The Making and Breaking of Affectional Bonds 2ndedn. Abingdon: Routledge.2010

Chakraborty,A, McManus,S. Brugha,T, Bebbington,P and King,M. “Mental health of the non-heterosexual population of England”. British Journal of Psychiatry February 198: (2011): 143-148.

Giddens, Anthony. Sociology 4th Edn. Cambridge: Polity Press. 2001.

, Sally. “(Trans)Forming Gender: Social Change and Transgender Citizenship” (2007)

Newcastle University Sociological Research Online, Vol 12, Issue 1 (2007). 12/11/2011 <>

IOM (Institute of Medicine). The Health of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender People: Building a Foundation for Better Understanding. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. 2011 12/11/11 <http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=13128#description>

Mustanski, Brian S., Garofalo, Robert, Emerson, Erin M. “Mental Health Disorders, Psychological Distress, and Suicidality in a Diverse Sample of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Youths” Am J Public Health 100 (2010): 2426-2432

Naidoo, Jennie and Wills, Jane. Foundations for Health Promotion. 3rd Edn. Edinburgh:Elsevier.2009

O’Brien, Margaret and Deborah Jones. “Children, Parental Employment and Educational Attainment: an English Case Study”, Cambridge Journal of Economics, 23 (1999): 599-621

Sheaff, Michael. Sociology and Health Care: An Introduction for Nurses, Midwives and Allied Health Professionals. Maidenhead: Open University Press. 2009.

World Health Organisation Strategy for integrating gender analysis and actions into the work of WHO” 2007. 12/11/2011 <>

World Health Organisation Prevention and treatment of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections among men who have sex with men and transgender populations: report of a technical consultation, 15–17 September 2008, Geneva. 2008 12/11/2011

< http://www.who.int/hiv/pub/populations/msm_mreport_2008.pdf>