Introduction
Globally, every society has its gender characteristics and the social construction of gender roles, behaviors, and expectations, which is an essential aspect of the current culture. While gender is based on biological variations between men and women, unlike sex, it is intentionally imposed and socially manufactured. Gender roles, actions, attitudes, and expectations are social constructs shaped by society and upheld by social conventions. Therefore, this argumentative essay will explain how gender is socially constructed and how social work practitioners should respond to this issue. Therefore, gender is a social construct, and persons imply that culture and society have developed gender roles and have established them as the ideal or appropriate conduct for someone of that gender.
The ironic thing about gender is that individuals are conditioned to think it is something individuals are born with. Gender is produced, acquired, and constructed by the larger society. Gender is biologically based and decided from birth, and the child is subjected to socially constructed roles. Therefore, gender is a social construction, and gender expectations and duties are particular to every community (Alexandrowicz, 2020). As social agents, people play a significant part in constructing gender roles, attitudes, and expectations. They are not just passive consumers of cultural expectations for how men and women should behave.
Additionally, gender roles are socially constructed and not intrinsic, and the naturalness argument for gender lacks a biological foundation. Society is structured according to a patriarchal gender schema, with men and women occupying the dichotomous members of the gender hierarchy and being located on the opposing extremes of the schema (Robertson, 2020). Therefore, it is hard to comprehend how gender roles and expectations are constructed in contemporary Western culture without first grasping the pervasive patriarchal nature of our society, which is described as a sort of social organization where males are viewed as superior to women. In addition, patriarchy is a subconscious, regional phenomenon (Robertson, 2020). In reality, matriarchy—a civilization in which women rule—has been observed in various locations, including Latin America, India, and Africa. Despite the world’s diversity, patriarchal contemporary Western civilization has significant ramifications in different social spheres.
The gender hierarchy explains social stratification based on different societal norms. Women tend to be overrepresented, including teachers, nurses, and librarians, and are characterized by poor pay and low status. Interestingly, Devor notes that these positions frequently depend on the same traits perceived as being inherent to women (Caza et al., 2018). Consequently, the gender hierarchy explains social stratification. As a result, social scientists employed femineity and masculinity as cultural and historical evidence. It is clear from the traditional definitions of masculinity and femininity that society views men and women as having different roles. People frequently view them as two quite distinct individuals when they are combined. The adjectives that describe both genders further prove that gender is a social construct.
Women are characterized as delicate, cooperative, empathetic, cooperative, graceful, nurturing, emotional, dependent, weak, and passive. As a result, a woman or girl is considered feminine when she exhibits several of the abovementioned characteristics. Conversely, terms like brave, self-assured, aggressive, energetic, modest, autonomous, intelligent, and violent are used to describe masculinity (Mazzuca et al., 2020). Therefore, one or more of the traits mentioned earlier must be present in any male for him to be considered to be masculine. These indications support the claim that gender is socially created and that social factors influence our speech, physical appearance, and choice of clothing. Today, it would be difficult to see someone asserting that women must wear dresses to fulfill their biological needs; this would be an example of sexism and sex stereotypes.
In light of this, sexism is a plague in American culture that degrades the general well-being of women in the present. The view that one sex is superior to the other is known as sexism, and it typically connotes concepts of sex and gender superiority and inferiority. Numerous social and historical issues outside this project’s purview help explain why American culture is patriarchal (Miller, 2020). Even though American women have achieved enormous progress over the past century in the social, economic, cultural, and political realms, sexism still pervades the culture. While sexism might be overt, latent, or hidden, it does exist and has a wide range of adverse societal effects.
How Gender is Socially Constructed
Social workers are responsible for addressing the social construction of gender by promoting equality. Gender equality is not only a fundamental human right but also a precondition for and a representation of human-centered, sustainable development. Given that men and women encounter or have different societal issues, both genders demand services and consideration specific to their genders (Viswanath & Mullins, 2021). Social work practice glaringly lacks gender mainstreaming.
Additionally, because it is not included in the overall concept of social work or is not given much attention in social work textbooks, promoting gender equality is not viewed as a crucial objective for social work practice. Therefore, n gender, Aaron Devor makes a strong case for the social construction and cultural specificity of gender. In light of this, gender role expectations are mostly a product of social factors and the outcome of structural power disparities in our society. These attitudes and expectations are societal constructs that support gender-based discrimination. Furthermore, our culture sees masculinity as superior and femininity as inferior because of the hierarchical structure of gender in our culture (Suhr, 2022). These social constructions of gender impact behaviors, roles, attitudes, and expectations. Therefore, a socially imposed gender code altering our deeply ingrained conceptions of gender is challenging.
Nonetheless, social workers think it is essential for men and women to agree on what is right for them and what family responsibilities should be split equally. Additionally crucial are the nature of the connections inside the family and the shared conviction that gender equality is a good thing in the home. According to the informants, social work practice and the advancement of gender equality are not closely linked. They provide solutions for macro, mezzo, and micro practice (Cox, 2020). The promotion of gender equality at the micro level of social work practice should begin with an evaluation of the family’s social risk situation and the planning of the intervention, instruction of the family on how to divide housework equally, empowerment of women to be economically independent, as well as an increase in male responsibilities in the family.
Promoting gender equality in families at social risk becomes challenging because the findings show that the informants do not connect the gender component with social work practice. Double stereotyping occurs towards families at social risk, including those with various social issues and those who adhere to traditional gender norms (Tabassum & Nayak, 2021). Social professionals feel powerless in addressing gender issues in the family because of the adamant opposition of the clients. Social workers and other organizations that assist families in danger place too much responsibility on women who are mothers, making it challenging to advance gender equality. The informants also note that because they lack knowledge of gender equality and strategies for implementing it, they lack the authority to contribute to gender mainstreaming. Therefore, their focus is to advocate for disseminating knowledge about gender issues and the inclusion of certain subjects in children’s educational curricula at the macro and mezzo levels (Tabassum & Nayak, 2021). It is also crucial that many institutions and experts work together to promote gender equality. However, social workers lack the tools necessary to translate these theoretical concerns into actual social work practice.
Conclusion
Finally, since individuals are all products of our respective unique societies, it is challenging to exclude the notion that gender is a product of social construction from the conversation. It occurs from when a kid is born until that youngster grows up and assumes certain communal obligations. The society also contributes significantly to the subject since it defines each person’s gender-specific duties. The gender construct, however, appears to benefit the genders in specific duties.
References
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