CHAPTER 11

Men and Women in the Office terms: Descriptive or numerical representation, Substantive representation

Descriptive or numerical representation: The number of members of a particular group who hold office Women are a small number of political office-holders Substantive representation: The representation of group interests, or the extent to which the members of the particular group represent the interests of that group when they are elected (does having more women in political office make a difference?)

The Gender of Human Trafficking terms: feminization of poverty

Increased vulnerability is often tied to the feminization of poverty, or the economic disadvantage experienced by female-headed households relative to male-headed or couple-headed households The U.N. suggests that between 700,000 and 2 million women are trafficked across international borders every year

Hijab and Ethnocentrism terms: Burkas, hijab,

Many of the U.N.'s defined basic human rights focus on the right to be free from coercive forms of power Burkas: A tent-like version of hijab that covers the woman's entire body, leaving a tiny transparent bit of cloth for women to see out of and negotiate Hijab is important because Muhammad's directions toward Muslim women was to "lower their gaze and be modest and...to draw their veils over their bosoms"

Nations and Gender terms: nation-state, state, nation is akin to ethnicity, missile envy

Nation-state is a concept that links nation as a sense of identity and community with the state as a political and geographic entity (like the US, Palestinians have a sense of nationalism but no state that organizes those people) The state is what we usually think of as government, the set of institutions that set laws and govern life within a set of geographical boundaries The nation is akin to ethnicity: Cultural ties that unite (or seek to unite) people who may or may not reside within the borders of the state Citizenship within a nation has been, for much of human history, a male privilege missile envy: using the language of sex and anatomy to describe the weapons and their effects

Gender as Power terms: gender outlaws

Power exists at the micro level among individuals and groups, as well as in the influence exerted by dominant social institutions Many feminists and gender scholars argue that power is closely linked to gender; gender is part of a larger system of inequality Gender outlaws are individuals who seek to escape the boundaries of this rigid gender system in a variety of ways

Power and Authority terms: power, coercive power, authority, institutionalized power

Power: The ability of some actors to influence the behavior of others, whether through the use of persuasion, authority, or coercion Coercive power is the ability to impose one's will by force, threats, or deceit This is often what comes to mind when people think of the word "power" Authority: The power that comes from a position in an organization or institution that is widely regarded as legitimate Institutionalized power: Power that derives from the strength of an institution (Take the person put of the institution, the referee out of the game and out of his/her particular league or organization, and the power is largely gone)

The "Smoke-Filled Room"

The world of politics has traditionally been conceived of as clearly located in the public sphere (thus masculine) There are cultural variations in gender politics: Peru experiences a strong support for women in politics; women seen as a positive alternative Linked social institutions: Politics and education - If women in a particular society have less access to education, then there will be fewer women with the means to run or perform in elected offices

Gender Rights and Human Rights

There are cultural and ideological variations in moral definitions of human behaviors Questions of "choice" become important: Do women "choose" prostitution, or are they forced into it through violence or other coercive means? Much evidence supports the latter explanation The issue of choice also influences government and social (in)action about prostitution: Beliefs about coercion are connected with government action (women punished not the man who forced it, Sweden: to sell sex is legal, to buy it is not)

Sexual Assault on Campus terms: Armstrong, Hamilton, and Sweeney study

Armstrong, Hamilton, and Sweeney's study of the prevalence of "party rape" on college campuses demonstrated that multiple levels of context and structure can combine to create a rape-prone culture: Many students come to college already socialized with the expectation for partying in college Partying was the primary way for heterosexual women to meet men

What percent of college Women are sexually assaulted in college?

By their fourth year of college 10% of women report having been physically forced to have intercourse, 15% report that someone attempted to physically force them unsuccessfully, 11% report having had unwanted intercourse when incapacitated, and 25% of women report experiencing at least one of these things.

Sexual Assault on Campus terms: deference, interaction routines

Deference: Women accept their status as a group subordinate to men and do not challenge men's control over them Most of the party rapes were influenced by alcohol and manipulation of the environment Armstrong et al. shows how even the specter of violence can complicate women's participation in the public sphere Interaction routines: patterns or norms of speech or action that are followed with regularity to accomplish some task in an interaction. There are taken for granted rules that dictate how to have fun at a party.

Strangers in the Halls of Power terms: ethic of justice, ethic of care, state feminism

Ethic of justice: Men tend to be more concerned about people interfering with each other's rights in moral dilemmas Ethic of care: Women are more worried about not helping others when they could be helped, or with the possibility of omission State feminism: Refers to all the activities of governments that are officially charged with furthering women's status and rights

Geography of Fear terms: geography of fear, Wesely and Gaarder studies

Geography of fear: The assessments of vulnerability and fear in certain spaces that women are forced to make due to the threat of potential violence, assault, or harassment Fear of violence in public spaces can become a means for keeping women in the private sphere Wesely and Gaarder conducted interviews and surveys among women who use a public park They found that the fear of certain trails and areas of the park was often grounded in specific experiences Often the women felt that it was their responsibility to keep themselves safe

Chapter Eleven

How does gender help determine who has power and who doesn't?

Hijab and Ethnocentrism terms: cultural relativism

If we look through ethnocentric eyes, we may see veils as oppressive; however, there is a value in adopting a more culturally relativist perspective (perspective that encourages us to view other cultures through their own sense rather than ours) Muslims interpret instructions to veil that are found in the Koran differently: Different forms of veiling (face-veil, body-veil) Many women in Islamic cultures see veils as a sign of their devotion to Allah (God) and believe that veils free them from harassment and the "male gaze"

Masculinity and Power terms: hegemonic definition of manhood, emasculation

Is having power is an integral part of what it means to be masculine? Even in the most egalitarian societies, men still seem to be in possession of more power than women However, many individual men say they feel powerless - which is often the product of relations with other men Hegemonic definition of manhood: Masculinity is "a man in power, a man with power, and a man of power" The power of a man being called a "sissy" Emasculation: Taking away or reducing masculinity, whether by women or other men The willingness and ability to use violence becomes an important way in which to prove and defend one's manhood

Coercive Power terms: marital rape, head and master laws

Men are more likely to inflict violence (on women and other men) and this permeates many different institutions - feminist perspective: this fact affects all relations between women and men) Feminist analysis points out that much of the coercive power exercised by men against women was not seen as particularly wrong (coercive power in this form is the building block on which all other forms of gender power are built. Willingness to be violent --> gain power --> men's violence is primary source of power) Marital rape: Rape occurring within a marriage; until 1976, marriage gave husbands the right to have sex with their wives whenever they chose, regardless of their wives' consent Head and master laws dictated that husbands had final say regarding all household decisions and joint property in a marriage, and a husband could make decisions about these matters without his wife's knowledge or consent

Strangers in the Halls of Power terms: challenges facing women office-holders

Numerical representation (holding office as a group) and substantive representation (acting in the group's interests) are closely related The ability of women to successfully pass legislation is aided by women occupying powerful positions with the governing body Challenges facing women office-holders: Women often feel pressure to represent all women or to stay focused on only women and family issues

Gender Gaps in Politics terms: political gender gap, traditional gender gap, modern gender gap

Political gender gap: Originally described what appeared to be a new trend emerging in the political behaviors of women and men, especially in regards to voting preferences Gender differences in voting influence election outcomes Traditional gender gap: Slight tendency of women to vote more conservatively, or for right-wing candidates This conservativism was linked to longevity, greater religiosity, and lower trade union memberships Modern gender gap: Women tend to vote for Democratic candidates

Rape-Prone and Rape-Free Cultures terms: rape culture, rape myths

Rape culture is characterized by a certain set of ideas about the nature of women, men, sexuality, and consent Rape myths create an environment conducive to rape Example: The belief that female victims of rape and sexual assault "ask for it" through their style of dress or their choice to put themselves in certain situations

Rape-Prone and Rape-Free Cultures terms: rape-prone culture, rape-free culture, equality through complementarity

Rape-prone cultures are those where the incidence of rape is reported by observers to be high Rape is excused as a ceremonial expression of masculinity, or rape is an act that men use to punish or threaten women Rape-free cultures are those in which the act of rape is either infrequent or does not occur Not all rape-free cultures are actually completely free of any instance of rape; rather, in a rape-free culture, sexual aggression receives social disapproval and is severely punished Ceremonial importance and respect means men and women are in relatively balanced spheres of power and are, therefore, characterized by a belief in equality through complementarity - men and women may not do exactly the same thing in a culture, but the contributions of both genders are equally valued and "each is indispensable to the activities of the other".

The Gender of Human Trafficking terms: slavery, human trafficking

Slavery is an economic and social relationship between two people characterized at its core by violence Human trafficking uses coercive force to sell a person for exploitative uses: Human trafficking is a gendered issue because many of the forces that contributed to the rise of modern slavery have an uneven effect on men and women Women and children are more vulnerable to human trafficking

The "Smoke-Filled Room" terms: political socialization, political efficacy

Some argue that democracy increases women's participation; however, there is limited support for this argument Political socialization is the process by which people learn what is expected of them in their particular political system Many women are not socialized into political efficacy or the sense that what a person does really matters in the political realm (women aren't meant to believe that they can make a real difference in the political realm)

Men and Women in the Office terms: politcal elite

The political elite are the small group of people who hold high-level positions of power and responsibility in a government: For the better part of U.S. history, the political elite was composed exclusively of men Women tended to have roles in social movements and civic organizations: Boundaries between the "masculine" political domain and "feminine" civic groups reflected separate spheres ideology