Title: Gender Role | Cultural Anthropology
Headings: Gender Role
Gender Role
Background
References

Content: Gender Role | Cultural Anthropology
Gender Role
A gender role is a set of societal norms dictating what types of behaviors are generally considered acceptable, appropriate, or desirable for a person based on their actual or perceived sex. These are usually centered around opposing conceptions of femininity and masculinity, although there are myriad exceptions and variations. The specifics regarding these gendered expectations may vary substantially among cultures, while other characteristics may be common throughout a range of cultures. There is ongoing debate as to what extent gender roles and their variations are biologically determined, and to what extent they are socially constructed. Various groups have led efforts to change aspects of prevailing gender roles that they believe are oppressive or inaccurate, most notably the feminist movement. The term ‘gender role’ was first coined by John Money in 1955 during the course of his study of intersex individuals to describe the manners in which these individuals express their status as a male or female, in a situation where no clear biological assignment exists. Background
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines gender roles as “socially constructed roles, behaviours, activities and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for men and women”. However debate continues as to what extent gender and its roles are socially constructed (i.e. non-biologically influenced), and to what extent “socially constructed” may be considered synonymous with “arbitrary” or “malleable”. Therefore, a concise authoritative definition of gender roles or gender itself is elusive. Some systems of classification, unlike the WHO, are non-binary or gender queer, listing multiple possible genders including transgender and intersex as distinct categories.