Is Gender Identity the Result of Biology?

Human beings are born sexual. They develop a strong sense of being male and female, the human behaviour of being a man or a woman is called gender identity. The characteristics of being a man or a woman involve biological, psychological, and sociological factors.

People from all cultures have acted in relationships in different ways that are influenced by their cultural traditions and laws about sex. Human sexuality and how males and females act within the relationship can be considered as physically influenced by biology, for example hormones, brain centres, networks of nerves, and sex organs all shape the character of the male and female. However there are various arguments to this. hjwatson24, please do not redistribute this paper. We work very hard to create this website, and we trust our visitors to respect it for the good of other students. Please, do not circulate this paper elsewhere on the internet. Anybody found doing so will be permanently banned.

Among the influences of gender identity, are body development and socialisation. Gender identity is related to physical appearances, feelings of attraction, wanting to dress and act in ways considered to be male and female. Cultures have acceptable roles for behaviours based on sex, called gender roles. These roles are partly determined by a person's position within the family and economy. In Western culture the family represents a unit based on love, care and preparing the young for adult life. Physical work outside the home in the past has been considered as part of the male role, work- related gender roles have changed. The female role was to give birth and maintain the home.

A lot of social debate is about the relationship between the biological and the social. At one end of the debate there are those who see activities such as sexual behaviour entirely based on biology, they are called biological determinists who argue that there is biological bases for child rearing and different sexual orientations and also refer to pre- programmed behaviour. At the other end of the scale are those who see sexual and other kinds of behaviour as entirely social constructed, they see that people learn their behaviour through their culture.

Biological differences are believed to be responsible for differences in the behaviour of men and women and the role that they play in society. According to males and females physical characteristics, like organs that produce sex cells and different hormones, women are capable of bearing children and letting them breast-feed whereas men can not. Also there are differences between the physique of men and women, men are usually stronger and more muscular. In 1968 Stoller said that it does not necessarily mean you have to be feminine if you are a girl or masculine if you are a boy. Girls should not always be presumed, as caring and expressive and boys do not have to be aggressive and competitive. Weber refuted hjwatson24's structuration .

Anne Oakly (1972) takes Stollers argument a step further. She states that feminine roles, such as housewives and mothers who look after their children do not initially take part in these tasks from a result of human biology. With men she believes that just by being male does not mean that they have to be the breadwinner in the family. Stoller and Oakly refer to female and males roles in society as a result of their culture, based on actions and norms learnt in their society. Many sociologists support