Topic 8: Stratification and Social Construction of Gender

Hi, this essay is about Gender. Below are instructions for this paper. This I will also attach resources to help with the essay. Please answer the following questions in detail provided in step three. Thank you. This paper has to be in ASA format!
Step I – Background reading
Read Ch. 11: Gender Stratification, focusing on the section, “Social Construction of Gender” (pp. 259-263) and the concepts of gender, gender roles, and gender-role socialization, as well as the section, “Interactionist Perspective” (p. 266). (Note: socialization, as defined in Ch. 4, is “the lifelong process in which people learn the attitudes, values, and behaviors appropriate for members of a particular culture.”)
Step II – Observation
Select a specific situation or series of similar situations to observe (friends having a meal in the cafeteria, a classroom discussion or discussions, a club or church group meeting, a family dinner conversation, a date, an online conversation, etc.), and gather data on how people “do gender” by reinforcing traditionally masculine and feminine actions and behaviors. Approach this as if you were a stranger, an alien from another planet. What differences do you notice between girls and boys, women and men, differences in appearance and especially differences in behavior? (Note: Simply asking people what they do won’t work because people aren’t always aware of their behaviors. Also, do not use yourself as one of the participants -- it’s difficult to be objective when observing your own actions.)
Optional: Observe situations within different “cultures” or cultural settings and compare how people “do gender” in the different settings.
Step III- Essay
Introduce the topic and the reading to which you are responding.
Describe what you observed. Try to write as if you are reporting back to other aliens who know nothing about gender or sex differences on this planet. Be sure to describe the setting (including the size, shape, and atmosphere of the place) and the people you observed (including their relationship to one another, what they were doing, and how they looked). Context and sensory details are important.
Analyze your observations. What patterns emerged? What was surprising?
Optional: if you observed situations within different cultures, note the variation in gender performance.
Reflect on gender socialization and stratification and its consequences (for you personally and/or for society). For example, do you think it’s inevitable, functional (and for whom) or dysfunctional or unjust? Do things need to change? What things? How?