First impressions after reading the short piece was - how very true! However, as we delved deeper into the discussion, one particular issue popped into my mind: is 'Gender' due to Nature or Nurture? One of my group member argued that 'Gender' is essentially a product of the socialization process that we all inadvertently go through. This runs contrary to the essentialist, primordialist or the 'it's in your blood' argument. I tend to agree with my group member more than not. Nonetheless, if we were to buy into this argument fully, it begs the question: What about the very first human beings? Who or what socialized them into the 'gender roles' that have since been passed on to us?
Another group member mentioned that perhaps it was the evolution process that humans went through that shaped our 'gender roles'. For example, men in the past tended to be the hunters while women generally take care of the family and the young. These, he argues, causes men and women to develop differing skill sets which eventually crystallized into the 'gender roles' as we know them today. The question then becomes: why were men more predisposed towards hunting roles whereas the women, towards caring and nurturing roles?
Perhaps there is no straightforward answer after all and it is simply another case of "did the egg or the chicken come first"? What do you say?
With regards to why men and women were more predisposed to certain roles:
ReplyDeleteFemales give birth. This is not something males can do. The process of carrying a foetus to full term and subsequently giving birth to it is an energy and resource consuming affair. She is, to a certain extent, weakened by her pregnancy. I would think that this lays a very strong foundation for males then having to do the more laborious tasks like running after animals and hunting.
Nature is always at odds between the desire to specialise, which means greater efficiency, and generalise, which means greater prospects at being able to overcome certain environmental changes that are not in one's favour.
Perhaps the strengthening of the gender roles over time can be viewed as the members of society specialising in different tasks to improve the day to day functioning of the society at that period of time. Something we have since carried over to the present day where this does not seem to really hold true in all cases anymore given current circumstances- brawn is not necessarily required for survival in many developed countries in particular.
But then...this is all just hypothetical(Except about nature's tendency to specialise). Is there any concrete evidence to support this I wonder?
yes you may be right Dhava about different skills being central to survival these days - teh nature - vs - nuture debate is alive and well in gender studies and discussions of prehistoric development of gender roles are part of the debate. The other side of that dialog is the fact that some scholars believe prehistoric societies were largely matriarchal, and that the patriarcal bias that is so pervasive in current societies developed later.
ReplyDeleteHiya, Alex here, the blogger list for our group can be found here.
ReplyDeletehttp://alex-ysy.blogspot.com/2011/01/blogger-list.html
Is it possible to argue that some of the gender roles already exist even before we evolve into humans? In mother nature today, especially among mammals, it is always more common to see the female animals taking care of the young. The male also tends to be physically stronger and faster then most of the female and usually fulfills the job of finding the food especially in a pack or group based mammals, and both of these hold true even before we evolve into humans.
ReplyDeleteSo, I think it is not wrong to say that some of the gender roles were already there before a society was formed, in fact, before we develop the ability to think rationally as humans. Its hard to say though, whether this is nature or nurture at work, it might even be possible to argue that animals have their own societal behaviour similar from humans, and nurture was already at work before we evolved.