Gender

History of the Gender Category in Anthropology

Until the 1970s, few anthropologists had given detailed attention to gender (Margaret Mead was one of the few). But in the 1970s, feminist anthropology started to investigate women's situations in different social, political, and economic order; the roots of women's subordination; and the general roles of women in different cultures and economies. In the 1980s, the focus shifted from “women” to “gender.” “Gender” appeared to provide the key for talking about sex/gender differences without relying upon linked dichotomies based on Western ideas, which were seen as culturally specific. As the focus shifted from “women” to “gender,” “men” and “masculinity” also came to be studied in their own right and investigated as cultural constructions. Both were considered as complex and changing categories, with masculinity itself viewed as just as problematic as femininity. Finally, during the 1990s, the distinction between sex and gender itself became murky. Increasingly, studies presented the sexed body itself as historically and culturally constructed.

Traditional Gender Roles

In Western and some non-Western societies, gender roles are traditionally strictly divided into feminine and masculine and are assigned to males and females at latest at the moment of birth. Powerful cultural mechanisms operate to ensure that “boys will be boys and girls will be girls.” The process of training girls to be feminine and boys to be masculine is largely unconscious. Boys are supposed to grow up to be powerful, to hide their weaknesses, to be independent, demanding, and aggressive. Occupations thought appropriate for men are therefore mainly in politics, economics, and sports. Girls are encouraged to be good mothers and expected to become what is needed to fulfill this role, such as being giving, emotional, and intuitive. They are expected to sacrifice their ambitions and personal needs in order to please and care for others. If they do not adhere to these gender roles—if they are, for example, ambitious, demanding, and tough or rough—they are considered unfeminine. Males who do not evince the expected traits of masculinity are called “feminine” or “effeminate.” As the system is a hierarchical one, these men and boys are degraded. Although these roles have diversified, gender roles limit what men and women can feel, think, and do.

Gender and Biology/Nature

Is gender determined by biology/nature, or is it the result of culturally given meanings to biological sex differences? Many cultures have a “natural attitude” with respect to gender. This attitude is made up of the assumptions that (a) gender behavior is the result of sex, not the result of cultural interpretations; (b) that there are only two genders; and (c) that one's gender is invariant and permanent. The question is not settled, but the data demonstrating that a gendered behavior is unquestionably biologically determined do not exist today.

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