Social Construction of Gender

The social construction of gender is a central feature of contemporary gender studies within sociology as well as within other social science and humanities fields. The term and attendant theories assert that the behaviors, beliefs, embodied identities, and the experiences of men and women are not the product of innate biology. Instead, processes of socialization based on the norms, values, and social structures within a particular social context shape individuals. As an elaboration of the metatheory of social constructionism, arguments about the social construction of gender emerged as part of the feminist critiques of sexism and phallocentrism within the lives and social roles of individuals, in scientific knowledge creation, and in society at large. Since then, the theories and methodological practices that rely on an ...