Gender,the social constuction related to one’s behaviour and attributes is one of the major factors in our society.Gender identity is different from sex.While sex is the biological aspect of an individual,gender identity is personal,internal perception of oneself,which may not the sex,which was assigned at birth.In gender perspective an individual an individual can see himself/herself as a man, women or having no gender. One’s gender role may influence wide range of factors like behaviour, clothing and personal relationships.
While talking about the evolution of gender, It is important to look in to the past.Historically the gender was attributed to an individual by birth,with reference to biological differences. The word ‘Gender’ was also used synonymous with ‘sex’ in the last centuries. By the last decades of the 20 th century th use of ‘gender’ is increased.This can be attributed to the feministic movement of the second half of 20 th century. According to those theories,the social distictions based on sex was arbitary.As said earlier,One’s biological sex was directly tied to their gender roles.Judith Bulter considered that being a woman it has more challeges,owing to society’s social category and sense of self, a culturally conditioned or constructed identity. This categorization of people into social role creates a great problem.ecause they have to be at one end of a liner spectrum and must identify themselves as man or woman and act respectively. So, these dueties mostly are in favour of men and it creates an imbalance in power and gender inequalities.These roles vary from to culture.But there is no universal standard to these roles across all cultures.Earlier being a female, characterizes one as weak,emotional,submissive and incapable of doing certain tasks attributed only to ” mam”. The gender role attributed to an individual from birth and it is included in simpler the colour of the baby’s outfit. However a person’s gender does not always allign with what has been assigned by birth.Females were always subjugated as part of these gender roles and they faced a lot of inequality.
Feminism was the major movement contributed to the equality of all genders.It included issues
on reproductive rights, political rights, equal pay for equal work, suffrage right and sexual
harassment.First wave has on the suffrage and political equality.The second wave attempted to abolish more social and cultural inequalities. The first wave was oriented mainly on white upper class woman.But the second wave of feminism included more women from all social class. Third wave of feminism was against financial inequalities and fourth wave was against system of power.So, feminism contributed immensely to the empowerment of women in all fields and ensured equality in many sectors of society including political and financial.
LGBTQIA is a umberlla term related to gender.Transgender are opposite to cis-gender, whose gender identity is different from the sex assigned at birth. They reassigned their sex by changing physiological or other attributes of sex.Transgender people were considered as ‘ third-gender’. Transgenders were also faced a lot of discrimination from the society as well as their homes. They were not accepted as equal to cis-genders.From the second half of 20 th century many transgenders movements and activists worked for ensuring equality for the community and fighted for their rights, to eliminate discrimination and violence against transgenders.This, similar to faminism included demanded for equality in all sectors of society. Many people from transgender communities are holding high position in our society as a result of this movement and the government also ensures their equality through laws. Many people are coming forward nowadays declaring their gender,confidently and undergoing organ transition surgeries.
Gay and lesbian are other two terms related to sexual orientation.Gay is the term used to represent men who attracted to men in romantic/sexual behaviour.Lesbian refers to a woman who has sexual orientation towards woman similarly.Bisexual is a person who experiences sexual attraction to more than one gender,not necessarily at the same time and same degree.So, LGBTQ community was considered as backword and they were not equally accepted in the society.As a result in this patriarchal society, they were forced to suppress their sexuality. But as a result of 2000s movement for same marrige, gay liberation movement of the 1960s and 1970s they ensured equality. In India on 2018 court decriminalized section 377 as it was unconstitutional.Eventhough legal protection is ensured for LGBTQIA communities they even face inequality in our society.
These are the various steps in the evolution of gender.Eventhough legally all genders are considered as equal, many still faces a lot of insecurities and inequalities.These inequalities starts from homes,to work places, educational institutions to all public sectors. But as part of the evolution of genders ,the condition of woman and LGBTQIA are improving.
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