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In sociology and gender studies, "doing gender" is the idea that in Western culture, gender, rather than being an innate quality of individuals, is a psychologically ingrained social construct that actively surfaces in everyday human interaction. This term was coined by Candace West and Don Zimmerman in their seminal article ''"Doing Gender"'', published in 1987 in ''Gender and Society'' magazine. According to this research, an individual's performance of gender is intended to construct gendered behavior as naturally occurring. This façade furthers a system through which individuals are judged in terms of their failure or success to meet gendered societal expectations, called the accountability structure. The concept of doing gender was later expanded by West and Fenstermaker in the book ''Doing Gender, Doing Difference''. ==Concept== The concept of "doing" gender came from West and Zimmerman's article by the same title, originally written in 1977 but not published until 1987.〔 As of 2009, ''Doing Gender'' was the most cited article published in the journal ''Gender and Society''.〔 West and Zimmerman illustrate that gender is performed in interactions, and that behaviors are assessed based on socially accepted conceptions of gender. Rather than focusing on how gender is ingrained in the individual or perpetuated by institutions, West and Zimmerman emphasize the interactional level as a site where gender is invoked and reinforced. They begin by differentiating sex from sex category and gender. In this piece, sex is the socially agreed upon criteria for being male or female, usually based on and individual's genitalia at birth or chromosomal typing before birth. Sex category is the assumed sex of the actor, regardless of the actor's actual sex, based on his or her body and behaviors. This is "established and sustained by the socially required identificatory displays that proclaim one's membership in one or the other category" (p. 127). Gender is the degree to which an actor is masculine or feminine, in light of societal expectations about what is appropriate for one's sex category.〔 Doing gender according to west and Zimmerman "is to advance a new trap house understanding of gender as a routine accomplishment embedded in every day interaction".〔"West and Zimmerman 2009"〕 for people who are unfamiliar with sociology, it would be quite difficult to comprehend. Basically West and Zimmerman argued that gender is something that humans created. As humans we have the urge to categorize and define everything.if someone was not in favor of their gender role or did something that was not deemed correct for that gender this person would be committing an act of social deviance. Gender is further described as 'omnirelevant,' as it is apparent and relevant in almost every interaction. In their article, West and Zimmerman use examples such as bathrooms, sports, coupling, conversations, professions and the division of labor to illustrate the ways in which gender is prevalent in many taken for granted activities. West and Zimmerman employ the example of a professional woman in a male-dominated field, through which it becomes apparent that the woman will have to make decisions as to whether or not she should engage in unfeminine behavior that would otherwise be an integral part of her professional identity.〔 Another component of this theory is gendered assessment of behavior. In the above example, the woman is engaging in behavior that will be assessed as either masculine or feminine by her coworkers. According to West and Zimmerman, this woman will be evaluated based on how her actions compare to accountability standards of the sex category she belongs to. Deviations from these expectations do not have an immediate effect on the accountability structure itself. Instead, failures to meet these standards are attributed to the individual rather than to the rigidity of recognized categories. With this theory, West and Zimmerman stress the importance of social interaction in maintaining the gender structure. Because individuals do and assess gender in interaction, gender is visible in a wide variety of activities such as conversation, appearance, mannerisms, body language, and the type of activity.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「doing gender」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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