Gender Inequality

"Male sexuality is seen as a force of natural energy... it is like a missile, once launched there is no stopping it... while female sexuality is passive... submissive... associated with motherhood and reproduction" Discuss

Harris .S. (1999) Sociology A2 & AS Revision Express, Longman.

Male babies get the blue blankets, while females get the pink ones. Boys are expected to play with trucks, blocks and toy soldiers; girls are given dolls and kitchen goods. Boys must be masculine - active, aggressive, tough, daring and dominant whereas girls must be feminine - soft, emotional, sweet, vulnerable and submissive. These traditional, unwritten social rules have been influential in the socialization of children.

People stick by these traditional views of proper "masculine" and "feminine" behavior due to the fear of being different. Male sexuality or female sexuality is something one learns to become; one is not born with it. Hence, it has little to do with biology.

Adults, play a critical role in guiding children into those gender roles deemed appropriate in a society. Parents are normally the first and most crucial agents of socialization. Other adults, older siblings, the mass media, and religious and educational institutions also exert an important influence on gender role socialization. A girl or boy may develop a feminine or masculine self-image by identifying with females or males in his or her family, neighborhood and in the media. If a young girl regularly sees female characters on television working as doctors, lawyers and judges, she may believe that she herself can become a doctor, lawyer or a judge. And it will not hurt, if women in her life, like her mother, sister, parents' friends or neighbors are doctors, lawyers or judges. By contrast, if this young girl sees women portrayed in her society as secretaries and nurses her self-image will be quite different.

Traditionally, marriage is seen as the true entry into adulthood. And women are expected not only to become mothers but to want to be mothers. Obviously, men play a role in these events, but they do not appear to be as critical in identifying the life course for a man. Society defines men's roles by economic success. While women may achieve recognition in the labor force, it is not as important to their identity as it is for men. Men's roles are socially constructed in much the same way as women's roles are.

Conflict theories contend that the relationship between females and males has traditionally been one of unequal power, with men in a dominant position over women. Men may originally have become powerful in pre-industrial times because their size, physical strength and freedom from childbearing duties allowed them to dominate women physically. In contemporary societies, such considerations are not so important, yet cultural beliefs about the sexes are long established, as anthropologist Margaret Mead and feminist Sociologist