Functionalist and Social Constructional Perspective of Gender Divide

Running Head: FUNCTIONALIST AND SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONAL PERSPECTIVE
OF GENDER DIVIDE
Functionalist and Social Constructional perspective of Gender Divide
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Table of Contents

FUNCTIONALIST AND SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONAL PERSPECTIVE OF GENDER
DIVIDE
1
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Discussion..................................................................................................................................2
Marco-issues through Action and Middle-Range Theories.......................................................3
Social construction and Structural Functionalism......................................................................5
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................8
References................................................................................................................................10

FUNCTIONALIST AND SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONAL PERSPECTIVE OF GENDER
DIVIDE
2
Introduction
A sociological aspect to the working of our society invokes in us the curiosity to
understand the working of the psychological ability and the social adherence on which it is
carried out. However, one can notice the binary division in almost every aspect of the society
which leads us to the learning form on which we as a race conform to, and the dichotomy of
binary division comes into existence. It was in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century
that society and the way it is formed and the older forms instead of being decomposed are
merged into them were considered by sociologists as the science of the social structure of the
society. The approach of the study of sociology in scientific term to find a coercive result
started with Weber and Marx. Their approach was based on the changing working of the
society, and the changing relationship between the factors influencing and the influenced was
based on the functionality which was adapted. The division of the society based on gender
and the understanding of the difference between gender and sexuality could be seen in the
process of the formation when the world of women was fighting for radical rights of voting
and equality in pay with Beauvoir’s work, The Second Sex. The thesis statement of the paper
follows the assessment of the working of gender and sexuality and the functional division
based on the biases and how it depends mostly on social construction. The paper will also
show the practical application of functionalist theory in the social structure of society.
Discussion
The perspective of functionalism can be seen as the approach where the social
structure and the division on which the working is based on can be understood with the help
of social assessment tools. These tools act as the major contributors, which leads to the
formation of the normative working that is laid and accepted in the society as the standard
definition. The functionalism aspect of theory to evaluate the social structure can be seen to
be dependent on the actions which define it, such as the adherence of the family as the basic

FUNCTIONALIST AND SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONAL PERSPECTIVE OF GENDER
DIVIDE
3
tenet of the society. Therefore, the working of a family forms a spiral web in which other
social elements gets involved in forming the structure on which social life and the context of
gender and sexuality can be studied. It can be read and understood with the help of a
comparative study between the works of Durkheim, Spencer to that of the later perspectives
of Parson and Merton who were all considered to be scholars who established the theory of
structural functionalism (Lumen 2020). However, the theory of former and the later scholars
differed hugely based on their view of the society and its integration and the structural
process. While Durkheim and Spencer considered society as an integrated system as similar
to that of the human anatomy where each part of the body function accordingly in order for
the whole body to work without fail; the approach of Parson was derived from the
functionalist aspect. However, there was a gap in the approach as Parson saw that there was a
massive data gap in the studies and argument of functionalism, and it was mainly pointed out
in the ignorance of the motives (Cornwell et al. 2016 pp. 1). The social structure on which the
society functioned was considered as a primary form. However, Parson pointed the gap in the
literature on which the arguments are based showing that the social structure is not inherent
but is made coherent to display it as the intentional way in which things should be
interconnected (Gintis 2016 pp. 6). The paper will show how the different theories and
approaches rising from structural functionalism is demonstrated by the division of the society
and the how those structural forms make up for the contribution which forms the construct of
gender and sexuality in the society.
Marco-issues through Action and Middle-Range Theories
The gender construct that one usually observes in the societal emerges from the
primary tenant on which functionalism is based, that is the family. The family is considered
to be the primary level through which functionalists evaluated the social structure of the
society. It represents a micro-level in which social life on the society can be observed. Here