ABSTRACT

Many of the qualities that are shaped throughout our lives are socially constructed rather than biologically determined. Our views of gender are developed from a very early age. How fathers play with their sons and mothers with their daughters is determined not so much by the attributes that the child brings into the world but the particular views that parents have of male and female children. As infants enter the world, forces are at work which define maleness and femaleness in socially acceptable ways in a particular culture or context. This is evident from cultures where male and female roles are reversed; for example, men are passive and women are aggressive, or both men and women adopt either a masculine or feminine way of being. Gender is determined not only by personal qualities but also by roles in society.