The Social Construction of Gender:
Historically Changing Meanings of (White) Feminity and Masculinity 1910- 1980

From the late 1920s, more and more commodities were being 'marketed' with an almost crude association between women and men. In Al3i, ii for instance, the social power relation between the men and women are made very blatant. We see how the women concentrate on making themselves beautiful either for men's benefit (Al3i) or to succeed in the 'marriage trade' (Al3ii). Either way, it is the woman's beauty (clear, fresh, white skin or lovely complexion) which is her saleable aspect. 'Being beautiful therefore becomes the woman's trade.

In A12, the woman is visually presented as waiting (passively) for a man who will create (actively) a good impression. The passive woman once again supports the submissive role of woman vis-a-vis men. The men are never referred to as beautiful. They are 'distinctly dressed' (A12) or 'millionaires' (Al3). It is good clothing rather than beautiful skin which are essential to the man's appearance. The men are therefore clearly linked to the world of business or trade implying a 'provider' role) while the focus for woman is on her being a woman that does not 'make mistakes' and is perfect for the man. The sexual\romance part as opposed to the functional part of the relationship between women and men, therefore begins to gain greater prominence in the ideological representations. The old accepted roles and gender functions were no longer so easily assumed. The gender social power relation had been challenged and even if the majority of women were still performing household duties, the dominant portrayal of this relationship was shifting.

A number of significant features of the transitional period I have identified, 1930-1960, need to be highlighted. Firstly, many technological aids were being produced which began to 'deskill' household production. As Game and Pringle argue, the labour process of production (within the household) was slowly being transformed into a labour process of consumption (egAl4-l7).

The status and worth that women previously obtained from doing visibly difficult and necessary labour was waning. Shopping for and consuming goods was not going to be seen as important as producing them. During these 'transitionary' years, the dominant image of women seems to shift from her being demure to almost alluring, romantic and glamorous (eg A18-19). She becomes more and more specifically connected with men and we can see a development of 'romantic' ideology, 'dating', a blatant 'genderisation' of qualities attributed to commodities (eg A20: the tailored hats are 'mannish in design, yet full of feminine charm'). A definite masculinity - separate from the business world' as it were, also become more visible (it is linked at this stage to the war - 'our fighting men' in A21, eg). During the war years, the women were not only obliged to emotionally encourage and support the men, they were also appealed to as workers to 'serve the cause' in an apparently unproblematic way. In A22, for example, we can see the way in which previous ideas about women and what they are capable of doing, are completely upturned. The war recruiting advert, is however, juxtaposed with the fashion advert, showing women in a 'glamorous', almost decorative manner.

These two adverts could have been appealing to different classes of white women, or they could have simply been reflecting some of the contradictions of the period. The large numbers of women that were labourmg outside the home in these years, in conjunction with the fact that many men were away from home, led to significant changes in gender relationships (Mrs. B and Natal Mercury, 1/6/1946 editorial on break-down of family.) Women had an opportunity to explore the world beyond ‘home' and get a taste for ‘independence'. They would become involved in extra-marital and experimental affairs, which significantly altered their perceptions of their own sexuality. The production of items like sanitary towels and the displaying of women's underwear in shop windows; in combination with a more 'alluring' image of women, somehow assisted in the shift from a reverential attitude towards sex to one which was more 'daring' as it were. The rise in employment opportunities provided by industrial war time expansion and the increased production of consumer commodities like cosmetics, cereals (eg A23) etc., gave women both the chance to spend more (with money in their pockets) and to be defined increasingly as consumers.

During the twenty years of the third period I have identified, 1960-1980, changes in world capitalism in a general sense had severe impacts on gender relations. Progressive phases of capitalism, for instance, have varying requirements. Expanding commodity markets would of necessity have to redefine individuals, as spenders and consumers. As D'Emilio argues, contemporary capitalism has weakened the material bonds that one kept families' (and productive household units) together. The development of many technological aids, marketed as household labour much of 'production' from household labour. The effects of this expansion of market relations increased both the necessity and the potential for purchasing the means of life. in dis placing many productive activities into light industry, it also 'opened up' more employment opportunities (See Table III).

These transformations can be seen to have had a twofold, perhaps even contradictory impact. Firstly, it became increasingly possible (materially) for individuals to live independent lives as alternatives to 'nuclear' families. Most goods and services that we needed for individualized reproduction could be bought as commodities; household labour had been deskilled so that it was easier for more people (ie. other than women) to perform its tasks; the role of schools, media, peer groups etc. have become increasingly important in child rearing, and individuals have learnt to fend for themselves, rather than to exist as part of a group. The larger percentage of adults who have been drawn into the 'free' labour system (including women), the mass development of oral contraceptives and the challenge of the 'sexual revolution' ²⁸ to the synonymy of procreation and sexuality, have all served to intensify the focus on 'individualism' and sexual identity in both women and men (see A24-28, for eg.)

As Game and Pringle suggest 'eroticism threatens to break out of existing structures of masculinity and femininity'. It is no longer sufficient for a man to be a provider/breadwinner/head-of-household in a functional sense; or for a woman to be a 'mother/housewife/hostess'. They now have to assert a specific masculine or feminine sexual identity in relation to each other, to make clear what exactly this difference is. when (1910-1930) the sexual division of labour was predicated on primarily females reproductive (biological') capacity, gender relations were established in terms of clear role definitions between women and men; with men in a structurally dominant and powerful position. Once these 'roles were in part challenged, the foundation of men's power could potentially be eroded. However, for the gender power relation to be maintained, the constant factor in the equation - biological sex had to be asserted more forcefully. Both because it was women S reproductive sexuality that previously defined her role, and because ‘biology' is 'natural', there was an emphasis on sexual identity. In relying on ‘biology' and 'nature', the social content of this identity becomes obscured.

In A24 for instance, we can see how 'woman' is defined as the female of the species'. (Note 'species' is symbolically used to refer to nature.) Furthermore, this deodorant, Dante, is 'strictly animal'. Of course it is nothing of the sort. It is so animal/natural, that it has to be produced synthetically, and when used in fact destroys 'natural' body odours. The text, however, implies that the 'woman' who wears Dante will be provocative like the 'animal' she emulates. It will make her more fascinating and mysterious for the 'men' against whom it offers no protection. Indeed, it allegedly tells every man in range that she is a woman ie. available; provocative; 'ready' for him like an animal. He is of course the hunter'-aggressor. Underlying the whole advert is her availability for an explicit sexual encounter. In other words, the deodorant, a commodity, is being advertised or put on offer. The woman's sexuality in turn is also being portrayed as 'on offer or available. By association therefore, the woman be comes a sex-commodity.

Since technological changes provided the pre-conditions for the demise of the sexual division of labour, 'the consumption sphere is organized around (hetero) sexuality, around a supposed complementarily of masculine and feminine'. Two, almost extreme stereotypes become necessary to retain and/or maintain the gender power relation. The contradictory way in which capitalism 'has socialized production while maintaining that the products of socialized labour belong to the owners of private property', has led to serious instabilities in the system. Note that for individuals who seek and can afford alternative lifestyles, these conditions can in part be '1iberatory'. Many self-conscious feminists would probably fall within this latter category of people.

In sum, many of the material forces which have previously propelled women and men into families, and kept them there, have weakened, The ideology of capitalist society, on the other hand, has in fact 'enshrined the family as the source of love, affection, and emotional security, the place where our need for stable, intimate human relationships is satisfied'. This factor, clearly correlates with the second important impact of the changes stemming from capitalist technological development. At the level of the household, the most important effect of these changes for the housewife (and the social relations of gender) have been to deskill household labour. While some tasks have been made easier (eg. washing, ironing, cleaning, cooking), old craft skills have been replaced or incorporated into machines. Housework has been divided into various separate, routine tasks, devoid of old craft knowledge. "There has been a shift from what might be loosely called productive work to work as sociated with the transformation and servicing of commodities'.

To a large extent, there has been an acceptance of consumption as a way of life, with the ‘bought' considered superior to the home-made'. As Williamson has pointed out: 'instead of being identified with what they produce, people are made to identify themselves with what they consume'. Moreover, the older model of the family as an important locus of social control inhibited the new needs of expanding consumer markets. The new technological aids may have lightened the burden in the 'new' household labour process of consumption; but it needs to have necessarily reduced the time spent on such labour or the drudgery involved. For instance, in mass consumption society, the acquisition and transformation of commodities is necessary labour that is time-consuming. In South Africa, the extent to which domestic workers perform various aspects of this labour on behalf of white women makes their bur den even lighter.

As Schindler's research shows, domestic workers are not often al lowed to use labour-saving appliances in white households. Various aspects of household labour have therefore not necessarily become 'deskilled' for such workers. It is interesting to note that these domestic workers have effectively been rendered invisible by the dominant ideology. I only found one advert\media representation which 'portrays' a black domestic worker as a part of a white household (see A29). It seems therefore that these workers were either treated with such disdain and insignificance that they were non-existent for the advertisers. Or else it was 'embarrassing' for the white public to be visually presented with the stark reality of intimate black:white household relationships? The role and impact that African domestic workers have had on the gender construction of white middle-class women needs further exploration. I would tentatively suggest, however, that its effect is a contradictory one.

On the one hand, white women are 'saved' from aspects of domestic drudgery. On the other, the 'sexualisation' of the remaining aspects of domestic labour is particularly heightened and a feminist consciousness' inhibited. In fact, in a situation where a woman\wife does not earn her own money but is dependent on a man/husband to provide for her, both the impact and perceptions of black - domestic labour are contradictorv, Men pay for domestic labour in order to relieve women of their burden. Women's (house) wife function is therefore trivialized at a personal/individual level, not only at the level of capitalism. Men then demand or expect that women perform the remaining domestic labour for love. The possessive and ownership characteristics of the '1ove' relationship are further masked.

Whether linked to new technological aids, paid domestic workers, or both, the remaining aspects of domestic labour have assumed sexual and emotional connotations out of proportion to their own inherent value. This labour is trivialized and despised because it is not 'productive', and women now do it for 'love', therefore rendering its economic content invisible. The values of the expanded consumer commodity markets (eg. 'choice' of products, 'freedom' to consume), have moreover permeated the 'marriage contract'. The women 'choose' their partners 'freely' and 'choose' to labour' for '1ove'. They are shown more specifically as living for or existing for men. while they are occasionally (especially so in the late seventies) shown as independent, 'career' women, their image is predominantly sexualized. Women's bodies (from the sixties ap proximately) were increasingly used to sell commodities. They were not only defined as consumers, but became 'the objects of consumption'. As sex objects they were expected to find pleasure in pleasing men. These 1shifts, were so managed as not to threaten the domestic sphere.

In fact they went alongside the emotionalisation of housework and the establishment of private life as the place where we 'find our real selves'. Women's 'function' was no longer (as in 1910-1930) sufficient to guarantee her a man/provider protector, she now had to sell her sexual-self to achieve this goal. With the changed commodity markets then, women have become defined as consumers, have become sex objects and are related to as commodities. In advertisements A30-32, for instance, we can see the assumed (hetero) sexual\romantic connection between the women and the men. It is the men's power and control which is emphasized in this relationship. In A30, he 'is the special guest'. 'At social gatherings he stands still and others circulate'. The poise of the woman subtly implies that it is not only the 'waiters who wait' on the 'man whose look prompts service'; it is the woman who in a romantic/sexual sense waits on him as well. Similarly in A3, the man is described as 'the man about town'. 'He is a leader among men and a magnet among women'. Again, the poise of the woman suggests that she exists to be drawn towards the 'magnet' (ie. the man) in order to support and serve him. The man's 'smart' look and expensive suit combined with the textual messages of control, also imply that he has economic power.

In a different context (M2) we see how the 'woman' (implicitly the man's wife -ie. a social relationship) is worth (money/value connotations) a carpet! The advert clearly reflects the gender social relations foil the situation. The woman/wife is in all senses living for the man, not her- self. She uncomplainingly(?) raises his children; darns his socks; looks beautiful for him; makes him laugh etc. in fact her 'labour' is even described as a tough job, which is valuable because it's 'worth' a present). The superficial reality of the two peoples' lives is presented in the text (she as wife who works hard for him, he as husband who earns and controls the money), but the social power that the man has in the situation, and the economic nature of their relationship is masked. She works for 'love'. if he gives her a gift, perhaps she will carry on forever. In other words, as far as the (subordinated) woman is concerned, her change the situation, gender power relations will remain intact.

Moreover, while advertisers do stress the virility of 'male' products (see A28), it is rarely claimed that the product is essential to masculinity. They rather stress that the product is compatible with masculinity. For women however, the advertising is directed to her need to please, which is essential to contemporary femininity. Or, as Marjorie Ferguson argues, women have to be taught femininity. She suggests that femininity as a career is a lifelong commitment. It requires refresher courses and occasional updating of its central tenets.' In addition, women/housewives have considerable purchasing power in the new commodity markets. In consequence, there are extra pressures directed specifically

From the above analysis of the advert illustrations, it is hopefully clearer how and why gender is socially constructed. That is, it has a specific social meaning that changes over time, depending on changing historical and material conditions.

Furthermore this meaning is an intrinsic part of the definition of individual women and men within specific race and class groupings. In this paper I have began to explore the meanings of femininity and masculinity specific to the dominant/ruling group in Durban - namely the English speaking, white middle class.

Given the expansion of capitalism; the commoditization of everyday life and the power that the ruling classes have over 'creating' meaning in society, it is essential to understand both the process and the implications of gender construction. Gender is currently constructed within and as part of a social power relation that continues to define 'women' as subordinate to mens but within subtly altered terms, to satisfy social and economic requirements and new types of social agents. Because it is so intrinsically linked to people's self-identity, any struggle for social change needs to confront this power relationship in order to really work for the 'freeing' of human potential.

While I have focused on changing gender meanings for the white middle classes, the dominant ideology had serious ramifications for other social groups. A glance through contemporary magazines aimed at the lack consumer market' (for eg. Bonn, True Love) clearly illustrates the influence of the current 'sexualized' gender images. This is an obvious area for future research. Some of the questions that ought to be investigated include: how closely related are these images with black peoples' lives? Do they only influence the middle classes? what is the gender meaning of the working classes - both black and white? How important are these images in constructing peoples' perceptions of themselves and\or life aspirations?

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