Sociology Chapter 4

Conservatives on Gender

Conservatives place great importance on the traditional family. They see the trend toward gender equality as a problem. They say that this trend weakens families and educes the importance of parenting, and they claim that children may suffer when both parents work outside the home

Education

Gender stereotyping steers women away from fields of study (such as engineering and physics) considered masculine. Despite policies against gender bias in college sports, men's sports typically receive more funding and public attention

Mass media

Historically, TV and film have cast women in mainly supporting roles . Advertising reinforces gender stereotypes by pitching products to women and others to men

Earning difference

In 2005 a woman made 77 cents for every dollar earned by a man. Women workers in their prime earning years make 38% of what men make.

Family

In poor countries the world over, parents value sons more than daughters, encouraging selective abortions, and in some cases, female infanticide. In the US, gender shapes people's experience of marriage, which is often an unequal partnership that favors the man

Liberal feminism

Liberal feminists wanted to treat both genders equally. Basically, let women do what men do. It seeks reform within existing institutional arrangements

Liberals on Gender

Liberals object to gender inequality that limits the earning power of women and discourages women from assuming leadership positions. Liberals look to government to raise the social standing of women by putting an end to gender discrimination and by increasing women's economic opportunities and providing affordable child care.

Third Wave of feminism

Occurred in the 1990s. It attempted to address multiple sources of oppression. It acknowledged oppression based on race and ethnicity, social class and sexual orientation in addition to sex. It promoted inclusion of all social locations

The Radical Left on Gender

Radicals on the eft claim that gender stratification is deeply rooted in present social institutions. They belive that reaching the goal of gender equality requires basic change in the economy, political system and family life. Socialism would allow women and men to work collectively for the benefit of everyone.

Social Feminism

They argued equality needs to accommodate women's biological and socially constructed gender. They wanted to provide both genders with equal resources for the workplace, child care, healthcare, family, paid domestic work too. (Links gender equality to broader class revolution, following Marxist principles)

Symbolic-Interaction Analysis of Gender

This theory highlights how gender influences people's actions in everyday situations. Gender involves social power: Our society gives men greater freedom in personal behavior an allows them to use more space than women do. language also reflects the social dominance of males

Social-Conflict Analysis of Gender

This theory sees gender as a dimension of social inequality, with men having greater wealth, power and privileges than women. Engles linked gender stratification to men's desire to pass on property to their offspring. The rise of capitalism fostered patriarchy by forcing men to work long hours in factories; the burden of housework and child rearing fell to women

Structural-Functional Analysis of Gender

This theory views gender int terms of complementary roles linking men and women, building families, and integrating society as a whole. In traditional societies, women bear children are primarily responsible for the household; men link the family to the larger world by their participation in the workforce. With greater control over reproduction, modern societies have less gender specialization.

Relgion

Traditional religions allow only men to be leaders. Many religious writings teach women to submit to the social dominance of men

Military

Until recently, the claim that women are not as strong as men has allowed the military to bar women from certain assignments. Women represent 15% of the US armed forces. Sexual assault direct at women is a serious problem in today's military

First Wave of feminism

Was made up of primarily, white upper-class women. They sought the right to vote; suffrage. They used different frames; the patriotic frame vs. the difference frame. Also, they were considered radical at the time. Around the 1920s.

Paid v Unpaid Labor

Women make roughly 77% of what men do on average. On top of receiving less compensation in the workforce, the unpaid burden of domestic duties/maintain the household often fall on them.

Violence against women

a serious problem in the US and throughout the world. US government agencies receive more than 2 million reports of nonsexual assaults and 215,000 reports of sexual assault each year

Patriarchy

a social pattern in which males dominate females. Almost all societies display some degree of patriarchy.

Income

an important dimension of inequality. In the US, women working full time earn 77% as much as men. Child rearing duties often cause women to fall behind their male colleagues in career advancement

Second wave of feminism

began in the 1960s. It was made up of liberal, social and radical feminists. They sought the passing of the Equal Rights Amendment, but it was not passed successfully. The ERA had a liberal feminist and upper-middle class swing to it so it divided the women's vote and lost political power. Working class women were against it and it actually removed some women's rights laws

Radical feminism

calls for the elimination of gender itself, partly through the use of new reproduction technologies to liberate women from childbearing. Also says patriarchy is Marxist and gender inequality is the basis of overall inequality and more influential than race or class inequality

Sexual harrssment

came to be defined as a social problem in the 1980s; about 50% of women surveyed claim to have received unwanted sexual attention in th workplace

Horizontal segregation

is the separation of genders in labor sectors. Employer and institutional discrimination help maintain the separation of women and men in the workplace. Socialization encourages children to internalize gender expectations of others, which shapes their occupational aspirations and preferences.

Work

many people think of certain jobs as "women's work" and others as "men's work." Although gender discrimination in the workplace is illegal, officials investigate thousands of discrimination complaints each year.

Vertical segregation

men into the best-paid and most desirable occupations, whereas women remain in lower-paid positions with no job mobility.

Gender stereotypes

one form of prejudice against women, which devalues what a society defines as feminine.

Glass escalator

refers to how men in female-dominated careers, such as teaching and nursing, often rise higher and faster than women in male-dominated fields.

Gender

refers to the personal traits and life chances that society links to each sex, creating the cultural concepts of "feminine" and "masculine." It is a dimension of social stratification

Housework

still performed mainly by women, despite the fact that women have been entering the labor force in record numbers in recent years

Glass ceiling

subtle discrimination that effectively blocks the movement of women into the highest positions in organizations

Sexism

the assertion that one sex is less worth than or even innately inferior to the other

Sex

the biological distinction between females and males. It is determined at the moment when an embryo is conceived

Ideas about sexuality and beauty

they have consequences for giving men power over women. Reproduction is also an important issue because controlling reproduction gives women the freedom to work outside the home

Politics

women only hold 21% of seats in the world's 188 parliaments. Until 1920, women were barred from voting in national US elections. In 2012, a record number of women were elected to congress