Gender sociology studies the roles of gender and sex in society, including the distribution of power and gender stratification. It focuses on the social aspects of gender, which may refer to physical sex. The term “gender” can refer to biological or social constructs, and the field is closely related to feminist theories. The sociology of gender examines how societies create gender and its effects on hidden inequalities or disadvantages. While it often focuses on women, it also examines the social construction of masculinity.
Gender sociology is a branch of sociology primarily concerned with the roles of gender and sex in society. Typically, the focus of this type of sociology is on the ways in which gender roles play out in a given society and the relevant categories relating to gender in that society. In most cases, sociology focuses not only on describing elements of various societies but also on the reasons why those categories and situations exist. Gender studies in a sociological lens can focus on the distribution of power in relation to gender, as well as the ways in which gender stratification occurs.
A complicated aspect of the sociology of gender is the use of the term gender in this discipline. In the social sciences, a distinction is typically made between biological sex and social gender. This distinction is not recognized in all sociological texts, and it is important to understand what kind of gender, biological or social, is being discussed in a given sociological theory. There are also debates within this field of sociology that question whether gender, even when discussed as a social construct, is completely free from biological inputs. In most cases, the sociology of gender mainly studies the social aspects of gender, which at least in part refer in most cases to physical sex.
The development of the sociology of gender is closely related to feminist theories and other types of sociology with very important gender roles. For example, the sociology of the family is closely related to the sociology of gender due to the way families often play gender roles. Feminist theory often gives this type of sociology a focus on the systematic oppression of women, both in commonly recognized and often obscured ways. Sociology of this type may focus on how people learn about gender roles, but this type of study often blurs the line between sociology and, say, psychology.
In many cases, the sociology of gender is concerned with the ways in which societies create gender. The idea that genders are not the same across cultures is often difficult for beginners to understand, but this is clearly demonstrated by the fact that there are some cultures with three genders and two biological genders. By observing how genders are socially created, it is argued, it is possible to clarify the ways in which gender stratification leads to hidden inequalities or disadvantages.
Given the close links between the sociology of gender and feminism, this type of sociology often focuses on women. It’s important to recognize, however, that masculinity is also socially constructed. The sociology of gender has the potential to examine all the ways gender is constructed and used from a sociological perspective, but topics involving power and social roles are the most popular.
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