GENDER (CHAPTER 11)

Kendall introduces the Sex/Gender chapter with the illustration of
"The Beauty Myth," the view that women/girls are more prone to obsess
about their physical characteristics than men. Why is this important?
Issues of:
  --culture
  --socialization
  --power
  --conformity 

NOTE: KNOW BASIC DEFINITIONS FROM THE CHAPTER - WE WILL NOT COVER MANY OF
THESE IN CLASS (And, know the summary at the end)

OUR POINT: GENDER IS A *SOCIAL CONSTRUCT*

SEX: Your biological status as male or female; The social expression of sex 
and sex roles

GENDER: The culturally and socially constructed differences between
males and females, and the beliefs, meanings, and practices associated
with "masculinity" and "feminity."

Why is it significant?

GENDER IDENTITY AND SEX ROLES:   SOCIETY IS ORGANIZED AROUND A
HIERARCHY OF STATUS AND REWARD SYSTEMS BASED ON SEX.

GENDER ROLES: The attitudes, behaviors, and activities that are
socially; defined as appropriate for each sex and are learned
through the socialization process
 
GENDER IDENTITY:  THE  SELF-CONCEPT ONE HAS OF  BEING MALE OR FEMALE. 
(EG - TRAITS SUCH AS BEING TOUGH, GENTLE, EXPRESSIVE, ETC)

SOCIALIZATION IS A KEY IN DETERMINING GENDER ROLE,
NOT BIOLOGY (BUT DOESN'T  MEAN BIOLOGY  ISN'T IMPORTANT--JUST  MOLDED BY
SOCIALIZATION & SOCIAL EXPECTATIONS).


GENDER STRATIFICATION:
It varies across societies and cultures. 
 --Did it exist before the ownership of private property??
 --How did it evolve?
 --Today: Income, power, job opportunities, deviance issues (explain)

IS HETEROSEXUALITY AN INSTITUTION?
Instructor says "yes." 
Why?

(NOTE: Is HETEROSEXUALITY an INSTITUTION?
  YES: It's a higly regulated, ritualized, and organized practice, an
  "established order madeup of rule-bound and standardized behavior
   patterns (See Chrys Ingraham's WHITE WEDDINGS for a book for your
   critique)
       
DEFINITION:  SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS ARE ORGANIZED PATTERNS OF
BEHAVIORS CENTERED AROUND BASIC SOCIAL NEEDS.
WHAT HOLDS IT TOGETHER?

We are not hardwired to dress as we do, to act in certain ways or be
channeled into certain forms of behavior DEFINED BY our sexuality.

Our text book defines sexism as "The subordination of one sex, usually
female, based on the assumed superiority of the other sex."
The text adds that sexism has three components:

   a) negative attitudes toward women
   b) Stereotypical beliefs that reinforce, complement, or
      justify prejudice
   c) discrimination--acts that exclude, distance, or keep women
      separate

MARGARET MEAD  (ANTHRO)  FOUND TWO SOCIETIES  (NUMDUGUMOR AND
ARAPESH)  WHERE THERE  WAS NO DRAMATIC SEX  ROLE DIFFERENCES
BETWEEN MEN & WOMEN. The type of society (eg, rural, agrarian) shapes
how gender roles occur

THEORETICAL APPROACHES TO STUDYING GENDER:

1. FUNCTIONAL--SOCIAL STABILITY  (gender roles provide division of labor,
reward HUMAN CAPITAL (eg, education), and promote tradition)

2. CONFLICT--SEX-ROLES EQUAL POWER RELATIONSHIP/RESOURCE STRUGGLE

3. INTERACTION--HOW PEOPLE CREATE GENDER  ROLES THROUGH INTEACTION
(These DON'T REALLY EXLAIN IT,  JUST DESCRIBE  HOW IT WORKS AND THE
CONSEQUENCES) (EG, LANGUAGE/INTERUPTING, TOUCHING, ETC)

4. FEMINIST PERSPECTIVES: Sees patriarchy as cultural and institutionalized
(NOTE:  Many variants: liberal feminism, radical feminism, 
and socialist feminism)

ARE WOMEN OPPRESSED?  (DISCUSS) (POINT: WHY ARE WOMEN OFTEN CALLED
AN "OPPRESSED MINORITY?"

(REMEMBER WHAT "INSTITUTIONALIZED" Means: "A highly regulated,
ritualized, and organized practice," that provides rule-bound
and standardized behavior patterns. So, sexism can be an INSTITUTION
(as can heterosexuality).

WOMEN IN THE WORK FORCE:

  A) Women constitute about half (46.2 pct) of the U.S. work force
  B) STIL UNDERPAID FOR SAME WORK
  C) STILL IN SEX-TYPED JOBS (SECRETARIES)
     AND UNSKILLED LABOR
SEXUAL HARASSMENT: (DESCRIBE)
WOMEN & SOCIAL CHANGE:
   A) EMPLOYMENT CHANXGES
   B) CIVIL RIGHTS
   C) CHANGING ROLES
M
   D) SOCIAL PSYCH CHANGES
   E) ROLE CHANGES
   F) FAMILY PATTERNS (?)

SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT from symbolic interactionist Erving Goffman:
SUMMARY of his article:

"In modern industrial society, as apparently in all others, sex is at the
base of a fundamental code in accordance with which social interactions and
social structures are built up, a code which also establishes the
conceptions individuals have concerning their fundamental human 
nature (Goffman, 1977: 301)."

DEF SOCIAL SITUATION: 
"I define a social situation as a physical arena anywhere within which an
entering person finds himself exposed to the immediate presence of
one or more others; and a gather, all persons present, even if only bound
together by the norms of civil inattention, or less still, mutual 
vulnerabilty" (Goffman, 1977: 301).

In all societies, infants at birth are placed in one of the two
sex CLASSES similar to the placment of domestic animals. The
placement by physical configuration allows a sex-linked label of
identification (Goffman, 1977: 302).

"     In all societies, initial sex-class placement stands at the
beginning of a sustained sorting process whereby members of the two
classes are subject to differential socialization" (GOffman, 1977:303).

"     Insofar as the individual builds up a sense of who and what he
is by referring to his sex class and judging himself in terms of the
ideals of masculity (or feminiity), one may speak of
GENDER IDENTITY (orig ital). It seems that this source of
self-identification is one of the most profound our society
provides, perhaps even more so than age-grade, and never is its disturbance
or change to be anticipated as an easy matter" (Goffman, 1977: 304)

"On should think of sex as a property of organizms, not as a class of 
them (Goffman, 1977: 305)."

Notes five examples of institutional reflexivity, of social organization,which "have the effect of confirming our gender
stereotupes and the prevailing arrangment between
the sexes:

  --sex class division of labor
  --siblings as socializers
  --toilet practices
  --looks and job selection
  --identification system

How in modern society do such irrelevant biological differences
between sexes take on such significations, and "how, without
biological warrant, are these biological differences 
elaborated socially?" ( goffman, 1977: 319)

Not an environment that dictates it, but an environment in some
sense designed for the purpose of this evocation (so how does this occur
in prisons?)

"...every physical surround, every room, every box for
social gatherings, necessariliy provides materials that can be used in
the display of gender and the affirmation of gender identity."
(Goffman, 1977: 324"

Membership in a sex/gender catetory sorted by biology provides a neat and
tidy device (goffman, 1977: 330).

Return to Jim Thomas's homepage

Page maintained by: Jim Thomas - jthomas@math.niu.edu