Sociology

When children are born, they have no idea of their gender type and have no clue of the meaning of being a female or male. However, as they grow into early childhood, they incorporate stereotypes of their culture in their lives and begin taking notice of how a male or female should dress, behave, talk and fit into the society. A good example is the social learning theory that says, Children become gender- typed by being rewarded for gender appropriate behavior (Ashton 2). Consequently, several studies have been carried out to try and elucidate the aspect of gender acquisition. This paper intends to argue out that despite the different forms of acquisition, education stands out as the greatest influence on gender acquisition. This is characterized by its ability to model a positive self-perception from the otherwise self-defeatist image created by the society.

Education is a means of acquiring knowledge through a training program of a particular subject. Educating a particular gender, for instance females, will influence the way the members of a society will perceive the educated gender. Such females may rise to higher ranks and command respect from people if they come from a society that does not value education.

Gender conceptions are influenced by this factor of education. In fact, it is here that the issue of inequality stems from in todays society, and to understand gender, we must understand social inequality (Collier 101). An educated woman and an uneducated woman have outstanding differences in appearance in that their level of exposure influences their taste in style, fashion, eloquence and behavior. For instance, an educated woman, has more chances in the job market, she can earn more money, appear beautiful by applying makeup, look shapely and therefore, attract more men. In essence, what this means is that the woman who takes care of her body and dresses attractivelydisplays her womanliness and testifies to the good judgment of her man (Collier 104). The way a woman appears tells more about the kind of husband or lover she is seeing. On the other hand, the uneducated woman who lacks exposure and lives in the countryside having a poor appearance sends a message that she has failed both inwardly and outwardly. Therefore, education influences gender acquisition by opening the minds of the unexposed, in this case, women, by informing them about what it is they have that can define their womanhood. On the other hand, what education conveys about gender is that it makes both males and females aware of their strengths and abilities by imparting more skills in executing tasks.

Education imparts skills and exposure to handle the social life. There is a distinctive difference between an educated individual and an illiterate person. Practically, education is known to impart knowledge that cuts across all dimensions in that, it will definitely make any gender, more aware of themselves by knowing what defines their womanhood or manhood. For example, through education, one can learn what attractive features a woman has that a man can be attracted to and this can drive women to acquire such features, like a shapely body. Furthermore, there is no way one can claim that an illiterate woman can measure up to the standards of an educated woman in the sense of dressing and appearance. The most important values of an uneducated woman are the kitchen, family and gardening but not appearance while the educated woman will not allow herself to be confined in the kitchen but will be going places. Therefore, education plays a major role in shaping the mind set of women by making them get in touch with their womanhood.

As controversial as it is, the biology of women has had detrimental effects on the female gender. Their ability and position in the work place has been defined by baseless ideological views, thereby placing women in a vulnerable position in society. As Hubbard puts it, women have been looked at as though they were walking ovaries and wombs (120). In simple terms, the biology of women implies how their emotions, height, weight and strength get in the way of their work. For instance, women have been said to be overly emotional that they are not in a position to handle executive positions in the work place or they seem to lack the strength of doing manual jobs. Thus, such jobs have been left to the male gender that have been portrayed to have the extra muscle and are more stable emotionally. True to the word, women who are not educated might hold tight to this belief. However, difference comes in when the level of education increases. As they get empowered through education, women start to realize that they are capable of doing exactly what men can do, if not doing better. Therefore, education acts as a mechanism to change the gender perception through the development of a positive self-evaluation and perception.

As stated earlier, womens biology as perceived by society has undermined womens ability to the extent that they are seen as incapable of other job titles even if they have the necessary qualifications. During the nineteenth century, scientist had the notion that women could not undergo training because our brains are too small (Hubbard 120). However, when women started defying this belief by getting education, the same scientists questioned whether the education was good for women. This seemed like a backward way of arguing out concepts. This view of women seems to be constructed by the society and culture. According to the enculturated lens theory, every culture has a set of beliefs and assumptions that are deeply embedded in all aspects of that society (McDonald 390). Therefore, in a society that declares how women should behave and why they behave that way, has in a way, built that concept in the womens minds. It has given them the mentality that that is the way they ought to be, hence, shaping their behavior. Thus, such norms of society end up being self-fulfilling prophesies (Hubbard 120) that say how women should be but not how they are. However, do these perceptions persist in a woman who has acquired education The answer is no because with education, the way of thinking changes. Physical characteristics become mere aspects to differentiate gender but not their abilities. Educated women are capable of doing what men had monopolized. In fact, they do it better. This means that with education, all other forms of gender acquisitions are restructured. 

Womens biology in the work place seems to work in defining the positions they ought to hold in offices. This is evident when one looks at the political arena, construction sites and executive positions in the work place. It is obvious that these places are almost devoid of the female gender thanks to societal norms that have shaped the female gender in a self-defeatist manner. The society has created the idea that there are natural limits and differences between either genders. This has resulted in females fighting for equality in the workplace, something that has proved to be a daunting task as men continue to get the upper hand in the workplace.

The way of talking in a particular society has come to influence the perceptions of people towards a gender. Language is known to be a powerful instrument in many societies although few people have realized the power beyond interactions and communication.

Certain aspects in language have conveyed the ideas that are dominant in the society while some aspects are driven to change these ideas. It may be a reinforce of a status quo or social change agents. Some gender languages that are still in use include the use of statements such as police officer instead of saying policeman, saying his or her instead of generalizing to the male gender (he). Such languages were the result of womens movement to change the gender language and use neutral terms. Among children, research has shown that this usage calls to mind the image of a man (Kernberger 20).

The interpretation of children to the word he is literal since they lack understanding of the generic meaning. By generalizing the word he to refer to all people, then the male gender will be viewed as the stronger and most popular gender. The female gender, in this case will be side-lined making seem less importance. Therefore, an uneducated woman may find herself imprisoned in such perceptions of male dominion. Contrarily, an educated woman is independent. She understands that she can do what men can and hence equality. Communities with educated females holding high professional positions offer role models that assist younger females to understand that even women can hold such positions and hence change their perception on male superiority.

These refer to every day practices that may occur in the work place. By developing a repetitive habit over an activity, an individual easily makes that activity to be part of his or her working life thereby abandoning whatever was normally done. However, by developing a means of objective and positive self-judgment, this can be abandoned. Education is the tool that can offer an individual ability to have a positive view of him or herself.

In her book, Romero describes how housemaids that have their own children participated in activities they considered parenting, and thus crossed the bounds of paid child care (159) and the very common ritual that occurs in domestic service is giving discarded items to employees (164) such as old clothes and dilapidated furniture. This just demonstrated how a higher class treats people of a different class. It is important to recognize that the gender being talked about here is females that is, mothers. Mothers working as housemaids and happen to carry their daughters to work may make their children think that they will eventually do what their mothers do.  Romero puts it well when she says that, daughters of domestics see their mothers labor and perceive domestic work as a real possibility in their life (167). Thus, the female gender in these examples is conveyed as people who are easily manipulated by their employers and their families seem to be at the mercy of their employers.

A repetition of an activity, also referred to as a ritual, has an impact on gender. As the example on the employer engaging in the common ritual of giving old items to housemaids, gives the impression that she is vulnerable and needy. In other words, it portrays her occupation to be associated to stigma and shame. This also has a direct influence on the daughters that make it a ritual to accompany their mothers to their workplace. Whatever they perceive will influence their approach and attitude towards life. However, as mentioned above, by acquiring education, the way of thinking of such children may change completely. Education will give them a new approach to life. It will allow them to make decisions differently hence empowering them to have a positive self-realization. This will make them stop thinking that they are destined to be housemaids.

In conclusion, it is clear that education seems to be the most powerful means of gender acquisition in todays society. Education, in itself, is a powerful tool that has proven to change the behavior of people, culture, attitude towards life and most important of all, gender. Children that have been educated grow up knowing that there is a difference between a male and a female, the meaning of him or her, they observe one another and appreciate the fact that the female and male gender both can be described by specific adjectives such as strong, beautiful, sensitive and rough. In other words, they develop a mind site regarding gender. It therefore goes without saying that education is the most powerful means of gender acquisition.