I. Gender and Inequality

A. Gender refers to the personal traits and social positions that members of a society attach to being male and female.

            Gender operates as “a dimension of social organization.”

            Gender stratification refers to the unequal distribution of wealth, power, and privilege between men and women.

B. Male-female differences. It is important not to think of social differences in biological terms. Sociological “act of faith.” Agree?

            Marathon example.

            Differences: men taller, stronger (on average). Women have babies.

C. Gender in Global Perspective.

1.  Sex is considered as irrelevant to most areas of life in the Israeli kibbutzim, yet traditional gender roles seem to be reasserting themselves there.

2.  Margaret Mead studied gender in three New Guinea societies:

a.            Among the Arapesh, both sexes would be described by U.S. citizens as feminine.

b.            Among the Mundugumor, both sexes would be described by U.S. citizens as masculine.

c.            Among the Tchambuli, gender roles reverse U.S. standards.

d.            Mead concluded that these case studies prove that gender does vary across cultures.

e.            Critics charge that Mead oversimplified.

3.  George Murdock surveyed over 200 preindustrial societies and found substantial but not complete agreement concerning which tasks are feminine or masculine. Farming. Issue is: status hierarchy.

4.  In sum, what is considered to be female or male is mostly a creation of society.

D. Patriarchy and sexism.

                       1. Patriarchy is a form of social organization in which males dominate females.

2.  Matriarchy is a form of social organization in which females dominate males. No matriarchal societies are known to exist or to have existed.

3.  Sexism is the belief that one sex is innately superior to the other. It underlies patriarchy and harms men, women, and the society as a whole. Sexism becomes institutionalized.

4.  Patriarchy is not inevitable because modern technology has eliminated most of the historic justifications for it.

         Is it embedded in social and cultural institutions? Example: football.

 

II. Gender and Socialization.

A. Gender roles are attitudes and activities that a culture links to each sex.

B. Parents treat male and female children differently from birth.

C. Peer groups reinforce these differences.

1.   Boys and girls play different kinds of games and learn different styles of moral reasoning from games.

D.       Curricula in schools further reinforce a culture’s gender roles.

E.  The mass media, especially television, also serve this function.

              Older actresses vs. older actors

              Female politicians vs male politicians

F.  The Beauty Myth. Naomi Wolf: Women socialized to define themselves by relationships with men. Please men, avoid challenging them. Striving for beauty becomes obsession: eating disorders, surgery, etc. Men want to possess beautiful women. Hierarchy of beauty.

 

III. Gender and Social Stratification.

A.       In the United States and other industrial societies, women working for income is now the rule rather than the exception. Half of U.S. married couples depend on two incomes.

B.  Women continue to enter a narrow range of occupations, with almost half in clerical or service work. Furthermore, the greater a job’s income and prestige, the more likely it is that the position will be held by a male.

              Glass ceiling: 341.

C.        Second shift: Women’s entry into the labor market has not substantially reduced their share of the housework, as husbands have resisted increasing their participation in these tasks. 16.5 vs 9.2.

D.       The average female full-time worker earns about 79 cents for every dollar earned by a male full-time employee.

1.  Most of this results from the different kinds of jobs held by men vs. women.

2.  The greater responsibility for family and childcare tasks that our society has traditionally assigned to women is another factor explaining the earning differential. Mommy track.

3.  Discrimination is a third critical factor.

           D1. Wealth even more unequally distributed.

E.  Our society still defines high-paying professions as masculine; this helps to explain why an equal number of women and men begin most professional graduate programs, but women are less likely to complete their degrees.

 Female involvement in politics is also increasing, although very slowly at the highest levels.

G. As technology blurs the distinction between combat and noncombat personnel, women are taking on more military assignments, though equality has not yet been achieved.

I.  Minority women are doubly disadvantaged. This fact is at the heart of intersection theory, the investigation of the interplay of race, class, and gender; often resulting in       multiple dimensions of disadvantage.

J.  Violence against women:

1.   Family violence is frequently directed against women.

2.   If our way of life encourages violence against women, it may encourage even more violence against men. Our culture tends to define masculinity in terms of aggression and violence.

3.   Female Genital Mutilation in Global Perspective. Female genital mutilation is practiced extensively in parts of Africa and the Middle East.

4.  Female Genital Mutilation: Violence in the Name of Morality.

5.  Sexual harassment refers to comments, gestures, or physical contact of a sexual nature that is deliberate, repeated, and unwelcome.

a.            Women are more likely to be sexually harassed than are men.

b.            Some harassment is blatant but much of it is subtle. Quid pro quo

6.  Feminists define pornography as a form of sexual violence against women, arguing that it demeans women and promotes rape.

 

IV. Feminism.

A. Feminism is the advocacy of social equality for the sexes in opposition to patriarchy and sexism.

B. Basic feminist ideas:

1.  Working to increase equality.

2.  Expanding human choice.

3.  Eliminating gender stratification.

4.  Ending sexual violence.

5.  Promoting sexual freedom.

C. Types of feminism:

1.  Liberal feminism. Equal rights.

2.   Socialist feminism. Need a revolution.

3.  Radical feminism. Men are the enemy.

4. Madonna

D. Opposition to feminism.

1.   Opposition is primarily directed at its socialist and radical forms, while support for liberal feminism is widespread.

2.   There is a trend toward greater gender equality.

 

V. Gender: Looking Ahead

A.  Change so far has been remarkable: A century ago, women were second-class citizens; today, although women remain socially disadvantaged, the movement toward equality has surged ahead. Many women and men have deliberately pursued social equality.

B. All change creates problems, produces unintended consequences. E.g., child care.