Part One: How is the gender dichotomy and hierarchy in our society reinforced by societal institutions such as the paid labor force, religion, media and the family?  Base your answer on what you have learned in the Newman textbook and the Baby X reading. Provide examples of gender dichotomies and hierarchies from your own life, or from someone you know. Be sure that you are specific about what the dichotomy and/or the hierarchy is, and how it is reinforced.

Part Two: Newman discusses how children are socialized to fit gender norms, and that these gender norms reinforce the gender dichotomy and hierarchy discussed in Part One. Respond to two of your classmates’ posts, and provide examples of gender socialization which occurred in your childhood or the childhood of someone you know, and explain how socialization to these gender norms reinforced the specific gender dichotomy or hierarchy your classmate wrote about in their post. Don’t forget the Baby X reading in answering this question.

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CHAPTER SUMMARY

Identity includes a person’s sense of self and the social categories to which she or he belongs. Our identities are formed through socialization in the social, historical, and cultural context into which we were born.

Social Structure and the Construction of Human Beings

In the nature vs. nurture debate, those who favor nature argue that we are what we are because of our genetic inheritance, while those who favor nurture hold that we are born a blank slate and become who we are because of our environment. Recent genetic research suggests a significant role for nature, but most sociologists maintain that our social environment plays a much larger role. Cultures and societies define which genetically determined traits are treated as meaningful differences.

Socialization: Learning Who We Are

Socialization is the process of learning the rules, values, and beliefs of a society. It is through socialization that a society reproduces itself, creating new members who share its culture. Socialization is a lifelong process during which we continuously learn new sets of norms and beliefs and form new identities based on our changing relationships and experiences (for example, Cahill’s work on the professional socialization of funeral directors).

The Socialization of Self

An early development in the socialization process is the emergence of a sense of self. The self is both the source and the object of behavior. Our ability to carry on an internal dialogue with ourselves (reflexive behavior) allows us to incorporate the perceptions and expectations of other people into our behavior. We can thus control our conduct and modify our behavior in different social contexts. The acquisition of self is the process by which children are socialized into self-aware, self-controlled members of society.  Charles Horton Cooley referred to the process in which we use the reactions of others towards us as mirrors in which to determine self-worth as the looking-glass self.

Through social interaction, young children acquire cognitive abilities such as the differentiation of self from others, the mastery of symbolic language, the development of role taking, and acknowledgment of the “generalized other.” George Herbert Mead described the mastery of role taking as a two-stage process. In the play stage, children practice taking the perspective of one “other” at a time through imaginary play. In the game stage, children are able to take on a group’s perspective and are able to attend to multiple perspectives at once. At this stage, children are able to play games with rules and multiple players. Finally, children are able to utilize the “generalized other”—the perspective of society—in regulating their behavior.

Resocialization and Total Institutions

In total institutions, such as prisons and military training camps, individuals are isolated from the wider society and purposefully (even forcefully) resocialized to meet the needs of the organization or of society. In some situations, the power of resocialization has been exploited to tragic ends.

The Structural Context of Socialization

Our culture, our position in the social structure, and the social networks in which we exist condition our experiences, and thus influence the self-concept which we develop. Social institutions such as the education system, religion, and the media are central socializing agents in our society. In school, children learn various skills, political and social values, and ideas about their position and opportunities in the social hierarchy. Functionalists see schools as dedicated to the general socialization of young people, while conflict theorists see schools as existing to train children to be conforming and passive members of the current social system. While there have been shifts in the ways individuals experience religion, this institution still plays a role in socialization. Today, people are more likely to change religions over the course of their lives. The media not only create a particular view of reality, but they also provide us with an avenue through which we learn dominant cultural values and stereotypes.

Social category memberships also affect individuals’ socialization. Social class, race/ethnicity, and gender all influence socialization. For example, social class influences how parents raise their children. Kohn (1979) found that middle class parents raise their children to be self-directed and curious, while working class parents raise their children to be obedient to authority. These traits are related to success in middle class versus working class occupations.

The social constructions of race and ethnicity also influence socialization. Race-conscious societies such as our own use racial and ethnic characteristics to attribute traits to members. Categorical definitions of race, the one-drop rule, and the construction of race as difference all influence racial socialization and identity. Different racial groups are taught different messages about race. Members of minority groups must learn how to be members of their own group, members of the dominant society, and minority members of the dominant society.

The Socialization of Gender

The distinction between sex (a biological classification) and gender (the learned social, psychological, and cultural interpretations of sex) is important because it suggests that many of the differences between men and women and between masculine and feminine are socially constructed. In many cultures, sexual characteristics do not necessitate particular gender roles, and gender may be seen as shifting throughout the life course. In our culture, the dichotomization of male and female is central to our social structure, and the consequent gender dichotomy organizes individual life and the larger social institutions. In fact, our insistence on two and only two sexes has meant that intersexual people (hermaphrodites) are surgically altered to conform.

Gender socialization is a process that begins at birth. Girls and boys are treated differently, learn different expectations and goals, and develop different self-concepts. Most parents conform to gender-based expectations in their child rearing, though this may be unconscious. Children also receive messages about gender-appropriate behavior from the media and in school. For example, the majority of characters in children’s stories, television programs, and films are male, and the activities and personalities of the male and female characters tend to be portrayed in stereotypical ways.

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