Week 9: Social Construction of Gender

I agree with the book in saying that gender is learned through socialization.  Once society determines whether you are male or female you are expected to act in a certain way.  If you break the norm, then society is shocked.  Growing up, boys are typically given trucks and action figures to play with while girls are given dolls and dresses.  Boys are just expected to be stronger and more into playing rough and getting dirty than girls.  If a girl would rather play in the mud than play dress-up, people call her a "tomboy" or other such terms.  Although men and women may have different body-builds, I think it is ridiculous to say that men are smarter than women or vice versa.  Different people, regardless of sex and gender, have different skill sets and they shouldn't just be pegged a certain way because they are male or female.

I'm studying to be a mechanical engineer; the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech is only around 20% female.  Only around 5% of working mechanical engineers are female.  When people find out that I'm an engineering student, they are usually surprised because society seems to think that only men can build and design big machines.  It's definitely taken a bit of getting used to being constantly outnumbered in classes.  I had a math class my first semester that was 45 students and I was the only female.  It didn't take long for my professor to learn my name in that class.  Being a female in this field, it seems that I have to prove myself a little more than the guys to show that I do belong which I think goes back to society "assigning" genders.