Gender Exam One

Which of the following is the best example of a person in the "unmarked category"?

A cisgender, able-bodied man who works as a nurse

Gender identity

A persons sense of being a man, woman, or something in between

Why might a woman make a patriarchal bargain?

A woman might make a patriarchal bargain in order to share in the privledges of men. Like a stay-at-home mom would get the benefits of the mans income, insurance, etc. but in exchange, she "performs" feminimity by taking care of the children and home.

Give one example of why a person might break a gender rule. Then explain how they might be able to avoid or mitigate the consequences of breaking that rule.

A woman using a public mens restroom. They might avoid consequences by explaining that the women's rest room was occupied and they just couldn't wait.

Social Construct

An arbitrary but influential shared interpretation of reality

Give one example (can be from class, but from your own life experiences is okay too) of how people alter their social performances to fit a specific audience.

At home, I am likely to be found in sweats and a t-shirt, hair pulled up in a pony tail, and no make up. At work or school, I am dressed in nice fitted pants, a business casual top, make up, and my hair down and curled.

According to the authors of your textbook, why might men who rank low in the masculine hierarchy still defend hegemonic masculinity?

Because it assures them that they are at least superior to women

Give one example of how behaviors defined as feminine are de-valued in society.

Being kind and gentle are often associated with femininity, but they are also considered weak and men who are gentle are considered less powerful.

A woman holds the door open for a man who is hurrying into a building behind her, but he hesitates to go through it. The fact that men resist being on the receiving end of chivalry reveals that __________ is about power and inequality, not just being nice or gentlemanly.

Benevolent sexism

The concept of intersectionality arose from:

Black feminists who felt that their experiences were erased from both the feminist and Black pride movements in the 1970s.

Name examples of secondary sex characteristics

Body Hair

Researchers have observed differences in the visual-spatial abilities of men and women, such as in performing the task of mental rotation. What is the most plausible cause of such differences?

Cognitive skills are affected by instruction and practice, and men are more likely than women to engage in activities that develop the skill of mental rotation.

Because they have the highest social standing and therefore the "most to lose", upper-class men feel the most negative effects of aging.

False

Black, Asian, and Latino men are all stereotyped as being less masculine, and more feminine, in American society

False

Brain plasticity describes the inherent strengths and weaknesses of men's and women's brains.

False

Sociologists tend to prefer an "injection model" of gender socialization over a "learning model".

False

Give an example (from the textbook or elsewhere) of a double bind that women experience in contemporary U.S. society.

Female politicians like Hilary Clinton exchange femininity for power. Because they become more powerful, they are then seen in a negative light (bitches, ballbusters, etc) because the power makes them not feminine enough.

What is it called when someone doesn't have a fixed gender identity?

Gender fluid

Social construction theory demonstrates:

Gender is a social construction but sex is not.

Responses to the violation of gender rules aimed to promote conformity are called:

Gender policing

Which of the following best characterizes gender policing?

Gender policing is something we sometimes do to ourselves and our loved ones with the best of intentions

Gender expression

How a person displays their gender, ie: clothes, hair style, behavior.

What does evolutionary psychology/sociobiolgy have to say about the existence of gender differences?

Humans survive better if men hunt and women tend to kids and gather. Because of this, generations of biological trait differences between men and women become hard wired and cannot be shaped by social interaction. This is called hardwiring paradigm.

Under what conditions might a woman be most likely to adopt a "Family Focused" gender strategy?

If they have a husband who is a "Breadwinner" and has the means to support this strategy. It is also more likely for white, upper-class women to fall into this strategy.

Which of the following is characteristic of the "Nordic model" for promoting gender equality?

Implementing quotas for women in political and private sector leadership

A society that recognizes more than two gender categories, what they are called and the role they play

India and Bangladesh, the hijra are considered a third sex. They might be men transitioning to women, or gay people, but it is accepted as its own gender. Neither male nor female.

The concept of intersectionality is criticized in sociology because:

It becomes too complex and specific to be useful for scientific generalization

When names (such as Ashley and Taylor) started to become commonly given to baby girls, parents of boys stopped giving those names to their sons. This is an example of:

Male flight

Which of the following statements best describes R.W. Connell's theory of hegemonic masculinity?

Masculine norms are desirable for both men and women, feminine norms are desirable only for women.

Efforts to enhance the illusion of the gender binary are:

Men are more likely than women to get breast reductions and women are more likely than men to get breast implants.

How has gender shaped social roles in human history?

Most human communities throughout history have divided social roles by gender, but how they gender the tasks has varied over time and place.

Studies on language processes in our brain have demonstrated that the words "human," "individual," and "person" tend to conjure up cognitive images of men, not men and women. This finding reflects the cultural idea that

Most of us see men as people and women as distinct and modified.

Can scientists clearly and unequivocally distinguish an individual as either male or female?

NO

Are there larger gender differences in studies based on experimental methods than studies based on ethnographic methods.

No

Sociologist Michael Messner described how in his youth he bullied a nonathletic boy while participating in sports himself. Your textbook uses this as an example of:

Patriarchal bargains

Dr. Howard asks a group of men to identify themselves by their gender before giving them a test of heroism. What concept is Dr. Howard demonstrating:

Priming

Give an example of how social context can influence biological processes

Running speed. Women were not allowed to compete in marathon races until the 1970's so they did not have the same length of time to develop this skill. The social construct limited women and created an opportunity for men to excel at something women could not.

Describe the difference between sexism and androcentrism.

Sexism rewards people because they are male. Androcentrism rewards people who are masculine, and this could be women with masculine qualities, or women wo "do" masculinity.

List one strength and one weakness of survey research methods.

Strength: They are potentially confidential so people being surveyed may feel more comfortable being honest. Weakness: Recall bias. People not remembering facts accurately so reporting inaccurately.

Professor Smith runs a lab that employs both men and women as research assistants. Rates of pay don't vary by gender in the lab, but Professor Smith expects only the women assistants to schedule meetings, take notes during meetings, and provide drinks and refreshments for the staff. Using the terminology as described by your textbook, this scenario is best described as:

Subordination

The 1960s/70s gender revolution was more effective at addressing androcentrism than sexism.

TRUE

The gender revolution is "stalled" because women have increasingly embraced the opportunities that masculinity and masculine arenas provide, but men have not equally embraced femininity.

TRUE

Women can alternate between different gender strategies to maximize their autonomy, unlike men whose only real option is to adopt hegemonic masculinity.

TRUE

Give an example of a way that a Black man might overcome the stereotype that he is aggressive and dangerous.

The chapter spoke of a man who whistles classical music while he walks or jogs at night. Some might make sure the dress in a way that doesn't accentuate their masculinity. They might aim to keep their voices calm and demeanor deferential.

The feminine apologetic describes:

The expectation that women balance their appropriation of masculinity with emphasized femininity

Doing gender refers to:

The process of actively obeying or breaking gender rules

Toxic masculinity describes:

The ways in which the performance of hegemonic masculine norms hurts both the men who perform them and others around them.

The analysis of sex differences in psychology by Zell demonstrated that:

There are many statistically significant differences between men and women but few are large.

Men's and women's marathon records are becoming both faster and more similar over time. What conclusion about sex differences can we draw from this.

This demonstrates that opportunity and practice matters. Given the chance to run the same races, women will progress just as men have because they have had the opportunity for a longer time.

Conforming to gender norms can help some lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals mitigate the effects of homophobia.

True

Gender strategy describes the set of actions we take to manage opportunities and constraints as well as affirm a valued gender identity in a specific way.

True

The idea that blue is a "boy" color while "pink" is a girl color developed fairly recently in U.S. history, and does not exist in other countries.

True

The most economically prosperous countries often have the most stark gender segregation in fields of education and employment.

True

Give an example of benevolent sexism (from the textbook or elsewhere).

When women are admired for things like small, graceful bodies, but also considered weak and in need of male protection because of the small body. This makes women dependent on men.

If a subject is reminded of a stereotype before a test, will the test results reflect the stereotype?

Yes

Modified patriarchies are societies:

in which women have legal gender equality and the power of masculinity remains central to daily life.

The way that children do gender is:

more rigid and binary than the way adults do gender because they are still learning the complexity of gender rules