Content area
Abstract
Gender can be viewed as a social construction. A dominant gender discourse exists within the community. Amongst many things that are shaped by the discourse, it shapes the role and identity of women. Within the discourse there arise certain expectation of women. Gender dilemmas exist where a women’s role and identity is constructed in alternative ways, ways that don’t correspond with the ways expected within the dominant discourse. The effect of gender dilemmas in the lives of women are “stress, tiredness, depression, relational problems, conflict and a low self-esteem”. Women’s gender dilemmas give birth to internal discomfort and a loss of experiencing the self as meaningful.





