Social Construction of Gender

Olde Town Augusta

Heritage Academy

A private school on Greene Street between 3rd and 4th Streets.

This is a picture of Heritage Academy on Greene Street in Olde Town Augusta. It is a private school for young children.

Social construction of gender happens to individuals for their whole life, but mostly in their youngest years. “In early childhood, humans develop gendered personality structures and sexual orientations through their interactions with parents of the same and opposite gender. Schools, parents, peers, and the mass media guide young people into gendered work and family roles,” (Lorber 278) meaning that gender is learned. Gender is a process. People “do” gender: they are not born into gender, they are taught gender. Many people confuse sex and gender. Sex is what one is born as biologically. Gender is a way of expressing what society deems as “masculine“ or “feminine.” Gender is “so pervasive that in our society, we assume it is bred into our genes,” (Lorber 276). These young children at Heritage Academy are learning how to “do” the “appropriate” gender when the girls and boys are separated to play different games and are separated to wear different clothes. The girls wear skirts for their private school uniform and the boys wear pants. Boys play competitive sports in order to learn how to be aggressive, logical and successful. Girls play leisurely games such as “house” in order to learn how to be cooperative, nice and passive. All of these things such as pink for girls and blue for boys lead to the social construction of gender, so the girls will appropriately behave feminine and the boys will appropriately behave masculine. Not everyone can afford private school, however, so skip to “Privilege.”