How Gender Role Impacts on Identity Essay - 930 Words

When contemplating the topic of gender role and its impact on identity one cannot help but realise that these gender roles have a huge part to play on a person’s identity. As gender is a combination of male and female it gives way for a number of characteristics to accompany each sex making them different from each other. This has an important position to play on identity which Kath Woodward stated in her book â€Å"Questioning Identity: Gender, Class, Nation† where she said â€Å"Without difference there would not be such thing as identity†. (Woodward, 2000, pp.51) Unfortunately, however, with these differences there are inequalities. In this essay I would like to elaborate on this further by looking at the meaning of gender and how it impacts†¦show more content†¦Gender can be described as â€Å"the social attributes associated with being a woman or a man in a particular society† (Woodward, 2000, pp.47) A person’s gender is then determine d by their sex which is â€Å"a biological classification†. (Woodward, 2000, pp.47) As gender is a social attribute the identities of people of different genders vary from society to society. For example, in many religions, women do not have place in the rituals of the religion as it is simply only for men to do. (Chryssides and Geaves, 2013, pp.331) As religions were formed in certain cultures this shows a clear divide caused by gender roles based on the cultural origin of the religion but also shows that this has an impact on the identities of the male and female members of the religion. This being that the males feel they have more authority over the females of the religion. A lot of inequality among the sexes is simply based on stereotypes. Stereotypes can be explained as â€Å"one-sided and exaggerated images of men and women which are deployed repeatedly in everyday life†. (Scott and Marshal, 2009, pp. 279) A great example of stereotypical sexist views is portray ed in the humours video of the character Ali G who interviewed a lady about her views on feminism. In this video he seems to be making fun of some sexist notions such as the idea of people being uncomfortable about flying in a plane piloted by a femaleShow MoreRelatedThere Comes A Time In Life Where We Finally Reach A Point1683 Words   |  7 Pagesfor each gender that they are expecting. A feminine floral pink baby shower for a girl or a blue, masculine one for a boy. 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