Night to His Day: The Social Construction of Gender.

Judith Lorber
Human activities affect societies and in return societies define the landscapes of human
lives. Based on the experiences as human beings and interactions with others, a semblance of
order is created when objects, people, or ideas are categorized. These labels reflect the system
of organizing used by the community. Gender is one of the labels used by society to organise
the lives of the individuals.
Society through culture and social practices defines the roles and responsibilities of men
and women thus creating gender classification / organisation or segregation. It is completely
embedded in our society and seems like a part of human nature inherited from the genes of
our ancestors. But in fact it evolves continuously based on human interactions impacting all
areas of social life. Subconsciously everyone is involved in gender segregation activity and
absence of gender segregation is noticed only when its disrupted or missing. As soon as a
baby is seen, people try to identify its gender based on its clothes or other physical features.
Further, taking care babies has been identified as the responsibility of women and when men
are seeing performing this role its noticed immediately as an exception, an unnatural
phenomenon.
Each gender is treated in a certain manner and is trained to respond in a fashion which is
identified with that particular gender. Belonging to a particular gender group defines the
personalities of the individuals as per the norms of the group. Almost every facet of life is
driven by gender. Each gender is given a certain position in society. Each parent is expected
to play a different role in the maintenance of the family. Most of the jobs are allocated on the
basis of gender. All these experiences contribute to the social construction of gender which in
turn shape the lives of the individuals and also build the structure / patterns of the society.
Segregation by race, ethnicity, and colour has been outlawed, but gender segregation is
legitimatized on the false pretext that its something which is integrated with the human

Aditi A Shirke, aas151.

Night to His Day: The Social Construction of Gender. Judith Lorber

physiology. But gender segregation is not only based on biological differences, instead these
differences are transformed into gender statuses by culture and social practices.
Individuals and society have opposite views on gender. Individuals identify themselves as
part of a certain group due to the similarities they have with the other members of the group,
whereas society differentiates individuals into two groups man and woman, due to the
differences between them. These two social statuses are assigned different / unequal rights
and responsibilities. Each group needs to be taught the meaning of being a male or female
and each gender has to follow certain rules created by society which differentiates them.
Gender inequality arises from the assigning of unequal rights to the gender groups. Each
society has a different level of gender inequality, but in all societies the male gender is the
valued gender with more rights whereas the female gender is the devalued gender with fewer
rights.
Recently society is undergoing significant changes and the gender roles are changing.
Jobs are opening up to both genders with equal opportunities. The roles within the family are
switching with men staying home and looking after the house, kids and the women becoming
the bread earner of the family. There is resistance to these changes as it threatens the
organisational structure setup by society.

Works Cited
J, Lorber. "Night to His Day": The Social Construction of Gender. J, Lorber. Paradoxes of Gender.
Yale University Press, 1994. 13-36.

Aditi A Shirke, aas151.