NIOS Class 12 Gender Studies Chapter 2 Gender Meaning and Concept

NIOS Class 12 Gender Studies Chapter 2 Gender Meaning and Concept Solutions English Medium As Per New Syllabus to each chapter is provided in the list so that you can easily browse throughout different chapters NIOS Class 12 Gender Studies Chapter 2 Gender Meaning and Concept Notes and select need one. NIOS Class 12 Gender Studies Chapter 2 Gender Meaning and Concept Question Answers Download PDF. NIOS Study Material of Class 12 Gender Studies Notes Paper 340.

NIOS Class 12 Gender Studies Chapter 2 Gender Meaning and Concept

Also, you can read the NIOS book online in these sections Solutions by Expert Teachers as per National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) Book guidelines. These solutions are part of NIOS All Subject Solutions. Here we have given NIOS Class 12 Gender Studies Solutions, NIOS Senior Secondary Course Gender Studies Notes for All Chapter, You can practice these here.

Gender Meaning and Concept

Chapter: 2

MODULE – I: UNDERSTANDING GENDER STUDIES AN OVERVIEW

INTEXT QUESTIONS 2.1

1. What gives us our gendered identity?

Ans: Our names, actions, and social relationships are all based on our gendered identity. This awareness is generated through the process of socialisation.

2. What is the difference between sex and gender?

Ans: Sex is biological and natural, i.e. an individual is either a male with an XY chromosome or a female with XX chromosome. Gender was assumed to be social and a product of one’s natural (sexual) identity. It is generally assumed that those who have primary and secondary sexual characteristics will also fall into the gender category of a man or a woman.

In a common sense understanding, ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ are assumed to coincide, i.e. those with the physical characteristics of females will be like women, and those with physical characteristics of males will be like men.

3. How does Ann Oakley explain sex and gender?

Ans: Oakley defined sex based on anatomical and physiological characteristics and gender as socially constructed masculinity and femininity. She said one becomes a man or a woman through social and cultural processes. In this understanding of sex and gender, one assumes that gender will automatically follow from sex.

INTEXT QUESTIONS 2.2

1. What is meant by gendered socialisation?

Ans: Gendered socialisation means the learning of gender roles. It is important to understand how one becomes a man or a woman. Through socialisation, one learns the norms associated with one’s gender. This implies that they understand and perform these roles through socialisation through agents like the family, peer group and mass media.

2. How does socialisation take place actively?

Ans:Consciously, the children are taught gender-appropriate ways of conducting themselves.

3. How does socialisation occur passively?

Ans: Passive socialisation is powerful in learning gender roles. It takes place through observations and is unconsciously learnt.

INTEXT QUESTIONS 2.3

1. How do parents socialise their children?

Ans: Parents treat their children in different ways, have a very strong impact on gendered socialisation. Through a system of rewards and punishments, parents reinforce certain patterns of behaviour.

2. How does the family act as a passive agent of socialisation?

Ans: The roles that women and men play within the family and society also have a powerful impact on gendered socialisation. Children, while growing up, observe their mother and father and others in their extended families. Likewise, they observe their roles in the household and society.

3. What is cross-gender play?

Ans: When boys play girlish games and behave like girls, and when girls behave and play like boys, this is referred to as cross-gender play.

INTEXT QUESTIONS 2.4

1. Explain the role of peer groups in socialisation.

Ans: The peer group, too, influences the pattern of socialisation. For example, it is visible in sex-segregated play, i.e. boys and girls do not typically play with one another and play separately.

2. How is peer group socialisation different from socialisation by parents?

Ans: Socialisation through peer groups is more dialogic and less authoritative. However, on the other hand, socialisation by parents is more authoritative.

3. What is sex-segregated play?

Ans: Sex-segregated play is a pattern of socialisation where boys and girls do not typically play with one another and play separately.

It is through this form of play that the peer group, too, influences the pattern of socialisation. This activity again reinforces the norms of society.

INTEXT QUESTIONS 2.5

1. Name the different kinds of media that influence socialisation.

Ans: The media that influence socialisation are radio, television, computer games and films.

2. Explain the impact of real characters on the people.

Ans:The roles of reel characters (in media like television, films, and computer games) unconsciously become role models for children, who emulate these reel characters without realising them.

The way these characters dress and behave has a very powerful impact, reinforcing societal gender norms (e.g., women as dependent and domestic; men as aggressive and authoritative). This leads to the learning of 1 specific behaviour pattern.

INTEXT QUESTIONS 2.6

1. What is the name of the book by B.B. Whiting and J.W.M. Whiting? What is the book about?

Ans:The name of the book by Whiting and Whiting is Children of Six Cultures: A Social Psychological Analysis. It compared child-rearing practices in six cultures- North America, the Philippines, Mexico., India, Kenya and Japan.

2. What were the findings of Whiting and Whiting?

Ans: Whiting and Whiting’s findings revealed that the goal of all parents was to teach children how to survive, develop family attachment and learn appropriate gender roles.

INTEXT QUESTIONS 2.7

1. What did Margaret Mead study?

Ans: Margaret Mead, an anthropologist, studied patterns of gendered socialisation. In her book, Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies (1935) wrote about the cultural differences in maleness and femaleness in three societies in the Papua New Guinea region.

2. What were the names of the three societies studied by Mead?

Ans: These societies were the Arapesh, Mundugumor and Tchambuli.

3. What were the traits of men and women in Arapesh?

Ans: Amongst the Arapesh, men and women were equal. There were no clearly defined roles for both. There was a single-sex pattern. Men and women were both peaceful and nurturing. They were gentle, loving and cooperative. Men, for example, at the time of childbirth, imitate their wives and took to bed. Both of them ‘bear a child’. Boys and girls are raised to follow these traits.