Question

Please give a brief account of Gender socialization and Nancy Chodorow’s views on it.

Answer 1

Gender socialization is the process by which individuals in the society are taught how to behave in the society with their assigned gender. There are specific masculine and feminine characteristics and the males and females are made to abide by the rules. gener stereotypes can be a result of gener socialization, girls and boys are expected to act a certain way right from the time of their births. Gender socialization is the process wherein the females and males are educated about the norms,behaviors,values abd beliefs of groups and are instructed to act upon it.

Nancy Chodorow is an American sociologist and is also known as a humanistic psychoanalytic sociologist and psychoanalytic feminist. According to Chodorow, the psyches of men and women are different due to different childhood experiences. The contrast between the childhood experiences and different ways of upbringing explains the social construction of gender roles.According to Chodorow, there is a universal degradation of women in culture which is mainly due to the roles and views that are instilled in them from a tender age by the mother and other care takers around as well as the society wherein she grows up. The fathers consciously teach their sons to be more masculine. Right from a young age they are asked not to cry and are shunned away when they like the colour pink and are taught that men are the protectors of women and that women cannot thrive alone in the world without the help of a male.

References

1- Lumen Learning. (2016). Gender Socialization | Introduction to Sociology. https://courses.lumenlearning.com/cochise-sociology-os/chapter/gender-socialization/#:%7E:text=Gender%20socialization%20is%20the%20process,sex%2C%20usually%20during%20childhood%20development.

2- Wikipedia contributors. (2020, July 4). Nancy Chodorow. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Chodorow#:%7E:text=relationship%20and%20identity.-,Gender%20Personality,society%20after%20Second%20Wave%20feminism.