ERASMUS+ PROGRAMME, KEY ACTION 2

CAPACITY BUILDING IN HIGHER EDUCATION

Furthering International Relations Capacities and Intercultural Engagement to

Nurture Campus Diversity and to Support Internationalisation at Home
(FRIENDS)

Unit 8: Understanding gender and gender roles in

different cultural contexts
Part 4
Dr. Cemre Erciyes

TRANSCRIPT

We have been saying gender is a social and cultural construct since the beginning of this unit.
Now knowing the concepts related to gender and how many dimensions exist that construct
a gender identity, the cultural norms and childbearing practices reflecting those norm and
value systems, you know that our understanding of gender is influenced by what we learn
from early ages.
It must be remembered that gender is constructed around a power relation. Till recently
what we saw as representations of masculinity or femininity both in academic works and
media was the representation of a dominant group of men and women, always in relation to
each other. What I mean by saying “in relation to each other” is what boys are and do is the
other of what girls are and do.
Before I referred to hegemonic masculinities and how they construct society, let’s talk about
it a bit more.
Hegemonic masculinity is produced, reproduced and perpetrated in a cyclic pattern. Gender
stratification, learned from childhood, create power inequality. Power inequality creates
social and health inequality in the society. This helps to manifest patriarchy, that is male
hegemony, in the society. The social reproduction of patriarchy creates hegemonic
masculinities, where men of dominance are represented as the ideal masculinity of a
particular society. In this regard, boys and men also face discrimination if they cannot live
up to that hegemony. In return, the circle continues.

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views
only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the
information contained therein. 1
In more recent works, like in the previous unit we referred to many Englishes; there is a
reference to various masculinities and femininities, in terms of power relations and cultural
norms and values in that particular context.
So, for example, women who play football or other sports are no more thought of as more
masculine, despite their physical attributes such as muscles, haircut, dress code, etc. not
fitting to the traditional understanding of feminine look or their actions being competitive,
aggressive etc. are no more seen as part of a masculine code of behaviour. Instead, they are
accepted as a sort of femininity.
When different cultural groups come together, it is important to remember the diversity in
understanding of woman-ness and man-ness, what can one do or what one cannot do in a
society. The best thing to avoid conflict while in contact with a new person is to keep an open
mind and not be prejudiced, and try to understand the specific femininity or the masculinity
traits of the person opposite you.
I would like to share with you an experience I had back in Britain when I went there for my
studies.
In the UK I the chance to start fencing, a sport I had admired for a very long time. After our
second fencing-practice, with all the other students who were training with me – both
professionals and new students – I went to the pub; to socialise. At the pub, I was talking
with this person who was telling me about a desire to learn Spanish and how hard it was to
find a speaking partner to practise. Without realising my prejudiced language and approach,
I responded to the person – assigning him a male identity – that he should find a girlfriend
from Spain to practice Spanish. This is a very cultural thing in Turkey that to learn a language,
you should have a partner speaking that language. This is actually a very patriarchal joke.
And my approach was not very nice, but the person was not offended, silently responded
back to me saying “or a boyfriend”. I felt like I had lost my face and there was no way to
correct my mistake. So, I responded “or a boyfriend”. The person opposite me this time
responded “or a girlfriend”. And I had to stop for a moment with all my face being red and
said “or a lover”. And the person responded back to me “that’s a better way to say it”.
That was how I noticed the regional and local variations in terms of gender roles, friendship,
emotional relations and how these influences our language, creating hidden barriers in our
communication. These relations lead to the misunderstandings and conflict due to the
gendered cultural communication we have. This Unit had helped to develop an
understanding of how gender is a social construct, I hope. And enjoy the rest of the course.

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views
only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the
information contained therein. 2