Gender Theory

Term Paper # 96008

Gender and Sexuality > Theories of Gender
Sociology > Theory
Women Studies > Feminism

Gender Theory

This paper is a literature review of the development of gender theory.

2,900 words () | 13 sources | MLA | 2007 France

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the development of gender theory by reflecting on the underlying nature of cultural thinking that both assures and enforces secondary status for women. The author points out that the two major and opposing modern theories employed to explain the reasons for the universal devaluation of women are based either on biological determinism or on social and cultural factors. The paper relates that one of the roles that women perform is to act as the converting agency between nature and culture by the socialization of children. The paper includes some long quotations.

Table of Contents:
Introduction
Gendering the Sexes
Nature and Culture
Sex is to Gender as Nature is to Culture

From the Paper:

"The culture/nature association is in itself a product of culture, as are all contemporary thoughts and ideas, with women being delegated to an inferior role within society due to her apparent dependency on the male, which is brought about through her ability to procreate. Born within their perspective cultures, the majority of women reflect their surrounding environment, and normally accept its given values and customs - although there is some debate as to the reasons for this. De Beauvoir, quite rightly, points out "that in her heart of hearts she finds confirmation of the masculine pretensions" while accepting her "misfortune"."

Sample of Sources Used:

BBC. Online Article, Indian Athlete Fails Gender Test, 2006. Information retrieved 06/10/2007. < http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6188775.stm>
de Beauvoir,S (1949) 'Introduction.' The Second Sex. New York: Vintage: 19-36. HQ1208/ P3122A.
Dominic Strinati. An Introduction to Theories of Popular Culture. Publisher: Routledge. Place of Publication: New York. Publication Year: 2004.
Flax, Jane. Thinking Fragments: Psychoanalysis, Feminism, and Postmodernism in the Contemporary West. Berkeley: University of California Press, c1990 1990. http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft6w1007qv/
Gayle Rubin. The Traffic in Women: Notes on the 'Political Economy' of Sex, in Toward an Anthropology of Women, ed. Rayna Rapp Reiter (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1975), pp. 159, 166, 168, 169.