Gender differences as a socio-cultural phenomenon

People quite often do not understand what is the difference in terms of "gender" and "gender" differences between a man and a woman. Although theoretically it is quite simple: there are features inherent only in one or only another group, but there are some that can belong to both. It is the latter that relate to gender or gender. It can be said that only physiological or biological differences have a permanent link to the sexual group. Only they are always and only masculine or feminine.

To better understand this problem, it should be remembered that human beings have many different traits that divide them. This is not only sex, but also race, nationality and other such things. They make us individual and special, but in many circumstances they can interfere. Gender differences refer to such personal characteristics, which depend not only on nature, but also on culture, upbringing, even the economic situation. They greatly affect our lives, changing it both in good and bad ways, can even serve as a cause of violation of our rights.

Gender differences are caused by socially acquired behavior and represent the expectations of society from a person who belongs to one or another gender. But the very process of forming a man or a woman is cultural. Just like a race or class, this category comes from a huge variety of social life and affects relationships with other people. Sex also describes biological belonging to a group of human beings with certain physiological characteristics.

Gender differences are a term invented by sociologists who sought to focus on the fact that we are talking about a cultural phenomenon. For example, sexual characteristics include the fact that women have children, and men do not, that mothers can breast-feed their children, and fathers will need a bottle with milk for this process, that during puberty boys have a voice breakdown, and girls - no. These statements do not surprise anyone, and, as a rule, everyone agrees with them. But if we turn to social roles, then everything will change immediately.

Many people believe that small girls should be quiet and restrained, and boys - stubborn and bold. But this is not gender, but gender differences. As well as the fact that in the Middle Ages, men had the right of inheritance, and women - no, that husbands make decisions, and wives are engaged in the upbringing of children. These differences are not permanent. They can change over time, depend on the country, the accepted traditions and way of life. But they are the reason for the fact that in many countries the salary of women is 70% of the male, and among the latter there are many more parliamentarians, presidents, managers.

Gender differences are often due to stereotypes that exist in a given society, that is, generalizations, through which the features and characteristics inherent in a part of a given group (and not necessarily greater) are extended to the whole of it. For example, men are often presented as aggressive, courageous, willing to rule. Women, on the contrary, are described as tolerant, weak, passive and emotional. In such stereotypes, the justification for the imbalance of power that exists in human society between the sexes is laid. Such generalizations deprive people of their dignity and help to discriminate against them.