Overview

Write a 3 page evaluation of gender and education in the United States.

This assessment asks you to consider the ways gender may concretely impact a major societal institution.Toggle Drawer

Context

The Assessment 4 Context document reviews key findings from research on gender. You may wish to review the document for an overview of these key concepts and ideas.

References

Barr, K. R. (2013). Male and female communication styles [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://www.livestrong.com/article/188130-male-and-female-communication/

Lieberman, S. (n.d.). Differences in male and female communication styles. Retrieved from http://www.simmalieberman.com/articles/maleandfemale.htmlToggle Drawer

- We enter a gendered society at birth and continue to receive messages about gender throughout our lives. (Wood &Bodey, 2011, p. 100). Is gender learned? Are we born with a specific gender? What does the research suggest? These are the questions we often consider when we study gender.

As you explore these questions, think about how foundational pieces of our identities are shaped throughout our life. It is important to understand that our identities are formed by our culture and other key influences that shape who we are as we grow and develop. The truth is that we do not passively receive gender, but, rather, we select messages to accept or reject over time.

• Gender is learned.

• We are born with our sex (male, female), and we learn our gender (masculine, feminine).

• We learn and express our gender through interactions with others and with the media.

• Cultures create gender by giving social meanings to biological sex.

• Gender differs from culture to culture.

• Currently, in the United States, masculinity is associated with strength, ambition, rationality, and emotional control.

• Currently, in the United States, femininity is associated with physical attractiveness, deferential and nurturing behavior, emotional expression, and concern with people and relationships.

• Gender is not stable.

• Cultural and individual meanings of gender can change over time and context.

• New identity labels (people who reject traditional gender categories) challenge our ideas about gender.

• Gender is a relational concept. We can only understand masculinity in relation to femininity, and vice versa. Changing ideas about one gender affect the other.

• Gender is a social, symbolic construction that varies across cultures, over time within a given culture, over the course of individuals' life spans, and in relation to the other gender.

• Self-as-object is a central process in personal identity formation. In this process, we are able to think about, reflect upon, and respond to ourselves. As we internalize others' views of us, their views become important to how we see and evaluate ourselves.

• Monitoring is a second process in identity formation, in which we engage in internal dialogues with these internalized perspectives. Through these dialogues, we remind ourselves what others have told us to think, do, look like, feel, and so on.

References

Wood, J. T. (2010). Gendered lives: Communication, gender and culture. Beverly, MA: Wadsworth.
Wood, J. T., &Bodey, K. R. (2010). Gendered lives: Communication, gender and culture [Instructor's Resource Manual]. Beverly, MA: Wadsworth.