Gender issues in the USA

The concept and sex, and especially his studies in psychology and sociology at the present stage. The history of the study of the concepts of masculinity and femininity. Gender issues in Russian society. Gender identity and the role of women in America.
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CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION 3

CHAPTER I. THE NOTION OF GENDER 6

1.1. History of sociological gender 12

1.2. Femininity and masculinity 41

1.3. Gender issues in Russia 51

CHAPTER II. GENDER ISSUES IN THE USA 55

2.1. Gender identity 55

2.2. Gender role of women in America 60

2.3. Gender equality in America 67

CONCLUSION 72

BIBLIOGRAPHY 74

Introduction

Views on gender-based differentiation in the workplace and in interpersonal relationships have often undergone profound changes as a result of feminist and/or economic influences, but there are still considerable differences in gender roles in almost all societies. It is also true that in times of necessity, such as during a war or other emergency, women are permitted to perform functions which in «normal» times would be considered a male role, or vice versa.

Gender has several definitions. It usually refers to a set of characteristics that are considered to distinguish between male and female, reflect one's biological sex, or reflect one's gender identity. Gender identity is the gender(s), or lack thereof, a person self-identifies as; it is not necessarily based on biological sex, either real or perceived, and it is distinct from sexual orientation. It is one's internal, personal sense of being a man or a woman (or a boy or girl). There are two main genders: masculine (male), or feminine (female), although some cultures acknowledge more genders. «Androgyny,» for example, has been proposed as a third gender. Some socities have more than five genders, and some non-Western societies have three genders - man, woman and third gender. Gender expression refers to the external manifestation of one's gender identity, through «masculine,» «feminine,» or gender-variant or gender neutral behavior, clothing, hairstyles, or body characteristics.

Gender role theory posits that boys and girls learn the appropriate behavior and attitudes from the family and overall culture they grow up with, and so non-physical gender differences are a product of socialization.

Social role theory proposes that the social structure is the underlying force for the gender differences. Social role theory proposes that the sex-differentiated behavior is driven by the division of labor between two sexes within a society. Division of labor creates gender roles, which in turn, lead to gendered social behavior.

The term «gender identity» was originally a medical term used to explain sex reassignment surgery to the public, but is also found in psychology, often as core gender identity. Although the formation of gender identity is not completely understood, many factors have been suggested as influencing its development. Biological factors that may influence gender identity include pre - and post-natal hormone levels and gene regulation. Social factors which may influence gender identity include gender messages conveyed by family, mass media, and other institutions. One's gender identity is also influenced by the social learning theory, which assumes that children develop their gender identity through observing and imitating gender-linked behaviors, and then being rewarded or punished for behaving that way. In some cases, a person's gender identity may be inconsistent with their biological sex characteristics, resulting in individuals dressing and/or behaving in a way which is perceived by others as being outside cultural gender norms; these gender expressions may be described as gender variant or transgender.

The topicality of the diploma paper is in the fact that the theme is very interesting and actual for today youth, who deals with sociology of USA and is interested in gender issues.

According to the American Census Bureau, by 2050 there would be 383 million people in the USA and about 195 million of them would be women. How many of them would be known as famous scientists, writers, doctors etc? How many of them will affect the national policy? Will the number of the women representatives in the government increase? At present there are 5 women in the US Government: Secretary of Agriculture, Secretary of the Interior, Secretary of Labor, Director of EPA and the last but not the least - National Security Advisor - Condoleeza Rice. Females are allowed to enter the Navy, the Air Force and Marine Corps.

In 1990 75% of women received a high school diploma compared to 76% men high school graduates. But there were times when a woman wasn't allowed to vote and the only priority she had in life was house and children. Women wanted more than that and understood they need to fight for their rights and they still continue doing it.

One of the donators to www.feminist.com described a feminist as «each and every politically and socially conscious woman or man who works for equality within or outside the movement, writes about feminism, or calls her - or himself a feminist». Feminism stands for «reproductive freedom» (including access to safe, legal and accessible abortion), equality of rights with men, and is against sexism, representing woman as a sexual and maternity object only (an image created by media), domestic violence etc.

So feminism is the movement for social, political, and economic equality of men and women. Organized feminism did not really form until the first Women's Conference held in Seneca Falls (USA) in 1848. To begin with, the Women's Movement evolved out of social reform groups such as the Abolition of Slavery, the Social Purity and Temperance movements. Women began to realize that in order to transform society they would need their own organizations to do so. They campaigned upon a whole range of issues: guardianship of infants, property rights, divorce, access to higher education and the medical professions, equal pay and etc.

The main aim of the diploma paper is to tell about gender issues in USA. There are the following tasks to reach the given aim:

· To give information about the notion of gender: especially history of sociological gender, femininity and masculinity;

· To tell about gender issues in Russia.

· To analyze gender issues in the USA: gender identity, gender role of women in America and gender equality in America.

The diploma paper consists of introduction, two chapters, conclusion and bibliography.

1. The notion of gender

Gender is a set of characteristics distinguishing between male and female, particularly in the cases of men and women. Depending on the context, the discriminating characteristics vary from sex to social role to gender identity. In 1955, sexologist John Money, introduced the terminological distinction between biological sex and gender as a role. Before his work, it was uncommon to use the word «gender» to refer to anything but grammatical categories. However, Money's meaning of the word did not become widespread until the 1970s, when feminist theory embraced the distinction between biological sex and the social construct of gender. Today, the distinction is strictly followed in some contexts, like feminist literature, and in documents written by organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO), but in most contexts, even in some areas of social sciences, the meaning of gender has expanded to include «sex» or even to replace the latter word. Although this gradual change in the meaning of gender can be traced to the 1980s, a small acceleration of the process in the scientific literature was observed when the Food and Drug Administration started to use «gender» instead of «sex» in 1993. «Gender» is now commonly used even to refer to the physiology of nonhuman animals, without any implication of social gender roles.

In the English literature, the trichotomy between biological sex, psychological gender, and social sex role first appeared in a feminist paper on transsexualism in 1978.

Some cultures have specific gender-related social roles that can be considered distinct from male and female, such as the hijra of India and Pakistan.

While the social sciences sometimes approach gender as a social construct, and gender studies particularly do, research in the natural sciences investigates whether biological differences in males and females influence the development of gender in humans; both inform debate about how far biological differences influence gender identity formation. Etymology and usage

The historical meaning of gender is «things we treat differently because of their inherent differences». It has three common applications in contemporary English. Most commonly, it is applied to the general differences between male and female entities, without any overt assumptions regarding biology or sociology. Sometimes, however, the usage is technical or overtly assumes a particular theory of human nature, which is usually made clear from the context. Finally, gender is also commonly applied to the independent concept of distinctive word categories in certain languages. Grammatical gender has little or nothing to do w...