Women Soldiers and Male Nurses – Adjustment of Gender Identity

Women Soldiers and Male Nurses – Adjustment of Gender Identity

Sivric, Marijana

It is said that gender identity can be seen as either unidimensional or multidimensional depending on its realization within society. The question is how gender identity is connected to social groups. Membership in a social group profoundly influences human behavior, with both positive and negative implications. On the one hand, positive social identity is promoted by the feeling of belonging to a group, which enhances individuals‘ self-esteem and a sense of connectedness to others. On the other hand, membership in a social group can promote negative bias toward outgroup members, in-group members who violate group norms can be derogated, and the whole group can be negatively stereotyped in certain areas (for example, women in the military). In our research we will try to prove that such positioning within social groups, in a way, enforces the adjustment of gender identities, breaking the stereotyped frames of gender, which is especially evident in ‗male‘ or ‗female‘ occupations. We will also show how continuous construction of a range of masculine and feminine identities is reflected in discourse. The examples will be taken from ‗male‘ or ‗female‘ occupations, e.g. military opposed to nursing, to illustrate that specific shift from typical construction of identity into a new sphere of genderness.

Conference or Workshop Item
PeerReviewed

2011-05

119