Work, Age and Gender The age and sex of members of any workforce influence the dynamics of personal and professional lives, both from the perspective of the individual (micro perspective) and also that of society and nation(macro perspective). The health and development of children and women is at stake when they are forced into labour that is not suitable to their physiological and psychological state. These segments of the population as well as the elder population need attention from several perspectives. Let us briefly discuss the challenges facing these three groups.
Gender Issues in Relation to Work Nature distinguishes the two sexes clearly in most forms of life, with biological and functional differences being well established. Human beings generally differentiate between the two sexes, i.e. men and women. However, lately India’s Supreme Court has recognised transgender people as a third gender who are also refered to as transsexual, cross dressers etc.
The differences between men and women range from biological to socio- cultural. The terms ‘ sex ’ and ‘ gender ’ indicate the differentiations from the biological to the social and cultural perspectives. The term sex and gender are often used interchangeably, but strictly speaking they have different biological meanings. Sex refers to the bilogical categorisation based on genetics, reproductive organs or similar things, whereas, gender is based on social identity.
Male denotes boys and men whereas female denotes girls and women. The external manifestation of sex is through the primary sexual organs or the genitals. This difference is due to XX and XY or some other chromosome combinations. In every society, the social and cultural practices determine how various genders are expected to behave and the type of work they do, thus constructing the identity of individual’s right from an early age which slowly continues to impact all throughout their growth and development.
The members of any society or community are expected to perform their roles in particular ways as demanded by social and cultural traditions thereby creating and establishing norms of gender role identity. Over a period of time, these norms and practices become stereotyped and then