In ‘The Egg and the Sperm’, Emily Martin discusses the effect that culture might have on the language used in science, and how this language might allow for the continuation of stereotypes relating to gender. She uses the example of the egg and the sperm to illustrate this relationship. She talks about how the male biological processes related to reproduction are described in a more positive way and with more ‘enthusiasm’ than female processes, contributing to the reinforcement of stereotypes.
In ‘Night to his Day’, Judith Lorber talks about how gender is a human construction that is created and continued by social structures and has social functions and a social history. Gender, as an institution, allows for human beings to organize their lives by creating statuses that determine the rights and responsibilities of each person in society. However, these statuses are not equal, and so gender contributes in creating inequalities in society. Hence, even if men and women are performing the same task, the social construction of gender requires it to not be considered the same. Lorber also talks about how society has placed the two categories of gender (males and females) into watertight compartments and so any rupture or deviation from these categories makes people uncomfortable.
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