Sex, gender and gender roles

Gender Studies · Concepts and theory. The idea in plain words, the rules to remember, the mistake to avoid and a worked example, written and checked by Mega Lecture.

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The idea

Sex is biological: chromosomes, hormones and reproductive organs. Gender is social: the roles, behaviour and expectations that a society attaches to being a woman or a man. Sex is much the same everywhere, but gender changes from one society and one period to another, which is why scholars call it socially constructed.

People learn gender through gender socialisation in the family, school, peer group and media. What they learn includes gender roles, stereotypes and a sense of gender identity.

Gender is also about power. Gender relations describe how authority, resources and work are shared between women and men. Where men hold the main authority, the system is called patriarchy.

Rules to remember

Common mistake

Students treat matrilineal and matriarchal as the same thing. Matrilineal is about the line of descent and inheritance; matriarchal is about who holds power.

Worked example

In a community, land passes from mother to daughter, but the village council that takes all decisions is made up only of men. Is this community a matriarchy?

  1. Inheritance through the mother's line makes the community matrilineal.
  2. Matriarchy needs women to hold the main authority and power.
  3. Here the council of men holds authority, so power is still male.

Answer: No. The community is matrilineal but not matriarchal.

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