Gender - Exam 1

Gendered organizations

- Aims to uncover the gendered nature of seemingly gender-neutral organizations - Studies ​social aggregates​, because where and how a group is organized is more important than the characteristics of people in them - These regulate what people do, and the individuals themselves don't regulate them - When gender is relevant in the functioning of these social aggregates it comes in a top → down form

Feminist social movements: 3rd wave

- Diverse theories among academics and among activists - Attempt to make many kinds of women heard - Essentialist tendencies of treating gender as one specific, universal thing was now questioned - Inclusive feminism: ​Get minorities and men involved in studies - Influenced by postmodernism, postcolonialism, Foucault, queer theory

Gender in sociology before feminism

- First sociologists didn't deal with gender and used men as "standard" humans. - But there have been differences in the experiences of men and women, so neither gender could be really well used to describe a "universal" experience. - Plus, women have been excluded from full participation in many areas of life. Thinking that women's experiences don't matter or are the same as men's doesn't give an accurate picture. Mainstream sociology remained uncritical of this until the 70s.

How to correct it? (Feminism)

- Fundamental changes in the basic structure of society are necessary to achieve gender equality - Consciousness-raising activities are necessary for linking personal experiences to politics and the structure of society Example: sexual harassment is not an isolated, personal incident, but a fundamental product of the patriarchal structure - Men use intimidation - Radical feminism critiques how society functions to uncover gendered implications

Doing gender (​ ethnomethodological approach)

- Gender doesn't exist outside of interaction - Gender = performance, and we are all constantly on stage How do we study taken for granted rules that govern our social life? By breaking some rules and observing the situation Goal: Uncovering assumptions concealed in the way we think Example: Transexuals' experiences (because gender determines sex, they feel a push to change their sex as well)

Questions to ask about theories:

- How do they define gender? - What is their relation to sex? (Biosocial or constructional approach?) - Where do they locate gender? Individuals (Sees gender as sex-related or socialized and working from within us as individuals ) Interactions Institutions - Large organizations create and reinforce gender (Ex: gendered organization and social network theories) - How do they explain gender inequality? - What are their implications?

Homophily: social network approach to gender

- Social structure is important, not an individual's characteristics - Social network: what counts in one's relationship with others - Gender = product of social relationships - What's masculine and feminine are the results of our positions in particular social networks - Networks are h​ omophilous​ - very similar people are in it - Society is created from relationships with people like you - Starting in childhood already, boys and girls are treated differently - As kids get older, they form more and more connections with people of the same sex as they are - Girls and women: more connected to family, more dense and local networks - Connections with them are good for one's physical and mental health

Sexuality includes a broad range of

- behaviors - feelings - identities All of these have gendered aspects.

views on relationship between sex and gender:

- biosocial approach - constructionist approach

Individiaulist approach

- concerned with how we work from the inside out. - The research found differences, but differ socially. -they vary across societies There is a lot of overlap, and small differences in averages. What can differences be used for

To reveal social constructions we use 2 main approaches:

- historical approach - crosscultural approach both of these make it clearer that gender is a construct, as it differs from society to society, and changes over time.

A strong social constructionist perspective

- not only gender that is a social construct but sex itself is a social construct too. - There is no point in using sex categories to explain anything, even if we are able to put most people into two categories by sex. From a strict social constructionist perspective, we are always talking about gender.

Sexual desire

- objective physical responses - subjective psychological or emotional responses to a stimulus

Why study gender?

- to understand the ways in which gender is socially constructed we study how the effects of gender vary based on place and time by looking at it in - global and historical context - to debunk ideas about what is normal or abnormal for men and women (by looking at it in its complexity, globally, and intersectionally) - to understand the consequences of gender. Gender doesn't only put people into two different categories but creates a system of inequality. It distributes power unequally, privileging men and disadvantaging women.

Ambiguous genitalia

.How do we determine sex? By the presence or absence of a penis. But how do we tell the difference between a penis and a clitoris? When it's longer than 1 inch (2.5 cm) it gets declared a penis If it is shorter than 1 cm it gets declared a clitoris

stages of gender socialization. (Kohlberg)

1st stage (2.5-4 years): When children become aware of their gender identity and can identify gender in others. 2nd: (5 years): they know that their gender is permanent = gender stability. 3rd: (7 years) they understand that even if someone dresses or acts differently from what their gender dictates, they still have fundamentally the same gender = gender constancy. Afterward: children become motivated to act their gender, and strive to be seen as feminine or masculine. They work to achieve gender congruency. The society they live in determines what these categories mean. Critique: the original theory had a male bias. It makes sense for boys to want to be perceived masculine because that brings privilege. But this theory does not explain why would girls want to be feminine as opposed to masculine? This theory places gender socialization quite late in childhood.

Radical feminism

2nd and 3rd wave What's the origin of inequality? - Men and women are fundamentally different - Source of differences: gender is a system of class differences, with different socialization patterns - Gender is a system that distributes power and resources differently among people and among groups - Inequality is built into all aspects of society and affects personal lives - Subordination of women premised upon and creating women's inferiority

life course perspective

: our life course events all add up to our individual experiences of old age. Important life events, such as marriage, parenthood affect how we think of ourselves throughout our lives following these events. They also change how we think about gender in our lives.

Modernization Theory

A theory asserting that as societies developed, they would take on a set of common characteristics, including democracy and capitalism

Sample Q: Liberal feminism

A. Argues that men and women should be treated equally because they are essentially the same B. Claims that inequalities are created and enforced by institutions C. Providing equal opportunity regardless of one's gender will lead to equal outcomes

Ex Q: Men and feminism

A. Feminists argue that a more gender-equal society would benefit everyone. B. Even though there are feminists who like men, they started a power struggle between men and women and are fighting men. D. Men have always been present in feminist movements.

Example Q: Radical feminism

A. See gender as a system of inequality built on gender differences B. Gender inequality is built into all aspects of society D. Considers consciousness raising necessary for treating women as equals of, and not inferior to men

Example q: Status characteristics theory

A. Sees gender as the thing that we do when we interact with people. B. Claims that we differentiate people by sex automatically, all the time. C. We consider men to be generally more competent than women

Privilege

A. is a set of mostly unearned rewards B. is the absence of barriers, i.e. not having to convince others that they can trust you C. is mostly invisible to those who have privilege

Gender is a social construction, which means that

A. our understanding of gender varies over time C. gender has different meanings in different societies D. our gender categories determine our sex categories

Why do sociologists study gender?

A. to debunk ideas of what is normal and abnormal for men and women B. to understand the consequences of gender C. to understand the ways in which gender is constructed

Gender and aging: does gender fade away?

Aging brings changes in parental roles, and in our roles as workers, when we retire.

The Rules of Attraction Summary

All cultures have a basic idea of love and intimacy. - Patterns of love and intimacy are influenced by culture's notions of gender. - The types of people for whom we feel affection, the way we express affection, and the meaning of that affection are all affected by our gender.

Anthropological approaches to gender

Anthropology has focused more on societies within the developing world. Ethnographic studies are based living among the group they study to gain an insiders perspective of the group's culture and society.

Gender wasn't studied in sociology before feminism because

B. Women were excluded from most of social life, so their experiences were not considered relevant. C. Men were used as 'standard' humans in social science. D. Almost all the social scientists and academics were men, so they were unaware of inequalities.

Why do we use theories to understand gender?

B. because theories explain characteristics of our social life C. to help us see aspects of gender we haven't paid attention to D. to be better able to argue against a given theory

Feminism

B. feminist movements began in the Western world in the 19th century C. claims that equal rights for men and women are a basic human right D. relies on diverse theories

Social learning theory

Builds on behaviorism. We shape people's and kids' behavior with a system of rewards and punishments (these include withholding a reward, ignoring a behavior, and more). Sex-typed behaviors are learned by kids because certain behaviors are perceived as more appropriate and by gender, and are therefore encouraged. This is not done consciously by the adults who socialize the kids. Children also learn by imitating, and social learning theorists posit that children model themselves more after same-sex people and peers, and build stronger bonds with their same sex parent. One they identify with a gender, children also copy behavior without specifically being rewarded for it. According to this theory, children are very passive in their socializing process.

The one-child policy and gender in China

Chinese have preferred sons over daughters because daughters leave their parents when they marry, while boys stay at the home and look after their parents in old age. (Those living in rural areas, have no social security in China.) Consequences: 83% women illiterate in 1949 when communism took power. Families invested in educating their sons more (40% illiterate) When communists took power, they made education almost free, which considerably reduced gender differences one education. The introduction of the one-child policy to stop overpopulation 1979: Negative: skewed the gender ratio, sex-selective abortions and abandoning baby girls, parents desired sons more positive: parents invested more in their girls (creating no differences in math scores by gender, girls sharing the same aspirations as boys) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What does this teach us about gender socialization? - the importance of society's structure in how we learn gender, and what we learn about it - values can change in a society - parents' attitude matters in how they socialize their children

Psychoanalythic theory

Chodorow attempted to provide a social explanation for women's subordination. Argues that women's status as mothers is deeply embedded in our personalities from very early on. psychoanalytic identification = we modify our sense of self to incorporate abilities or attributes that we see in others. This ability to tell right from wrong is part of our sense of self.

Friendships have two unique features

Choice and Obligation. They're entered into voluntary and are altruistic. Family bonds are altruistic, but we usually do not choose our family. Friendships are entered into to enjoy each there's company, but our friendships are also influenced by the society we live in. Friendships are between people who consider themselves equal, and this narrows the circle of people we can be friends with. - The meaning of friendship varies among societies.

How are sexual norms for men and women converging more in the new forms of relationships: hookups and 'friends with benefits'? What double standards remain?

Dating is being replaced (especially college) with hookups and FWB. Having no time to date but still having sexual desires, instead of engaging in hookups. - Neither men nor women feel bad about engaging in hookups. - When things don't go so well, women complain about their male partner being too pushy or aggressive. Both men and women complain about drinking too much alcohol. - Men are more likely to express regret about getting together with an unattractive or undesirable girl because of a promiscuous reputation. Sexual behaviors are converging but there is a double standard. that some girls get a bad reputation for having many sexual partners. - Feminism always emphasized the importance of women taking control of their own sexuality. - Sexual convergence has been a feminist goal. Since we have birth control, it has become possible for our culture to change. Young people now get married around age 30, dating in order to find a spouse makes less sense when they are younger. FWB is considered a safer relationship, in which intimacy is less scary. FWB sometimes leading to love (10%), but most don't. A third remain friends Norms about sexuality are changing in marriage as well. The prohibition of having sex before marriage is practically gone, and there has been an increasing liberalization of sexual norms in marriage as well.

Feminist social movements: 1st Wave

First wave: the goal was right to vote - Social movement suspension: ​Basic idea alive but decreased activism - Suffragettes in the Western 19th century

Intersectionality.

Gender is one of the important categories that affects people's lives. Race, class, immigration status, etc. are also very important, and they all combine to shape people's lives. We do not experience these categories separately from each other, or irrespective of the other categories. To understand how gender works, we need to understand how it works for people with various other identities. Why don't we change our ideas about sex categories to make it work for intersexed people too? social constructionists: we do this because it is our gender ideas that lead to our sex categories. (And we don't want to give up our gender categories, they are part of our lives in too many ways.) These criteria reflect our assumptions about the differences between women and men. Our gendered ideas about what is important to male behavior inform our understanding of "biological" categories of sex.

Interactional theories: status characteristics theory

Gender: t​he thing we do when we interact with people We rely on cultural cues to differentiate by sex, and we do it automatically. theory that links social roles and expectations from a larger society to stratification processes in groups We always take it into account, and never interact in gender-neutral ways Some kind of difference to which a sense of lesser or greater value and esteem is given Gender status belief: ​men are superior and generally deemed better and more competent than women

Thomas Principle

If people define situations as real, they are real in their consequences One example of that is race. People came up with racial categories, put people into them, and these have real consequences, making race a reality in American society. There are no biological bases of these racial categories, but in the US slavery and many other government policies lead to a deep rooted belief that African Americans are inferior. And people have lived with the consequences of being categorized by race.

Does sexuality have a gender?

In our world, reproduction is not a relevant issue during most of our lives, so sex is rarely about that. we create the idea of gender in part based on what it means to be sexually a man or a woman. Sex and gender categories are only real insofar as we make them matter. We give them meaning.

Give an example of an alternative categorization to the male/female sex categories used in our society.

Intersexuality. Nonbiological. The Five sexes Fausto-Sterling laid out a thought experiment considering an alternative spectrum model of gender containing five sexes: 1. male 2. merm-male-herm 3. true herm 4. ferm female herm and 5. female

Institutional and structural theories

Locate gender at the level of institution aka social structure of society

Men and Feminism

Men have been present in movements but the majority have been women - Feminists argue that a more gender-equal society is good for everyone - Women's liberation → will liberate men as well - What do men need to be liberated from? Strict rules that require masculinity - Men aren't privileged in every aspect not all of them enjoy privileges equally - Feminists: accused of disliking men or starting a power struggle with men - Sociologists increasingly interested in how gender works for both men and women and masculinity is an important topic of research.

gender ego boundaries

Mothers unconsciously push their sons further away from themselves than their daughters. Thus, girls develop more empathy and less of an ability to differentiate themselves from others. - Men have stronger ego boundaries. - Masculinity is learned by rejecting femininity. This makes masculine identity-less stable, less grounded, and it is learned from stereotypes. This same process of gender socialization recreates itself over generations. Girls have more empathy, less sense of ego boundary, and will continue to be as nurturing as their mother. This theory explains the subordination of women and things feminine because masculinity = devaluing women.

Functionalism

Optimal performance is derived when men contribute to the well-being of their family and society by being active in the economic domain, and women take care of home and children. - Seen as a natural arrangement that benefits everyone

Interactional theories: Performance expectations

Our best guesses about how useful someone is going to be in performing some task - They are hunches, not rational calculations Influence how we engage in the interaction, how others react to us, and how we act Performance expectations regarding women in interactions generally put them at a disadvantage relative to men - These expectations can also become important because of the power of self-fulfilling prophecies (especially when we need the cooperation of others to succeed) - We succeed differently in same-sex groups

primary groups

Our main primary group is our family, later in life our friends. intimate, enduring, unspecialized relationships.

Who Is Better at Being Friends?

Our societies emphasize intimacy, trust, caring, and nurturing, so today women are identified as better friends. If these characteristics are considered feminine, than the "mask of masculinity" makes intimate friendships more difficult among men. Hegemonic masculinity discourages emotional intimacy, which makes making, being, and keeping friends more difficult for men.

Cognitive development theory

Piaget emphasized children's active role in their socialization. he described stages of development in how kids think, feel, and understand the world.

Mathematical models of intersectionality

Problematic: considering categories to be dichotomous and trying to figure out whether an individual is advantaged or disadvantaged don't in fact work well

Intersectional feminist theory

Questions that were raised, and that led to this approach: - How do theories deal with other categories, such as race, social class, sexuality, etc? - Do our gender theories contradict each other? - Can we isolate gender from other social categories that also affect people's lives? Or can we develop theories that describe all of these experiences?

Choose one of the societies given as an example in the textbook, and describe how social status and sexual behavior are related.

Same-sex sexual behavior has found that social status in the form of age is often important in dictating appropriate and inappropriate forms of sexual behavior. A practice common in Sambia in Papua New Guinea tribe is a boy-inseminating ritual. - An important part of boys transition from boy to adulthood - semen is believed to have the magical power to transform itself into mother's milk. - believe men are not born with semen and must be provided by an outside source. The male body does not naturally create semen. The boy-inseminating ritual serves this purpose, and it involves oral sex between younger and older boys (between the ages of 10 and 15).

Feminist social movements: 2nd wave

Second wave: in the 60s - at a time of civil rights and independence movements, an active social movement cycle New strategies - Sit-ins - Hunger strikes - Connections between movements Stereotype of feminists: angry, overly masculine - Diverse women were involved - Studied how private life is political, how politics affects individuals - Different experiences by lesbians, women of color, etc.

Gender Similarities in Friendship

Social network theory claim's that gender differences are the result of different networks. validated by the fact that men and women in the paid labor force have more similar friendships. Gender differences disappear in longer-lasting friendships, as men share their feelings and intimate inner life with their long term friends, and women share many activities, not just discussions about their feelings with their long term friends. - Elderly people also display friendship similarities. In terms of values, both men and women value trust and authenticity in their friendships.

Accounts

The description we engage in as social actors to explain what we think is going on - In our interaction we work to make our interactions accountable so that others recognize our actions for what they are - Doing gender: making sure our actions are accountable as gendered Gender: inherently interactional

Multiple consciousness ​and ​interlocking models of intersectionality

The metaphor of interlocking identities rather than additive or multiplicative identities so we don't have to decide which system of domination is more important than the other

Matrix of domination

The social structure of race, class, gender and sexual orientation work with and through each other - Assumption: gender needs the social structure of race, class, and sexual orientation in order to work - These social structures are interlocking and simultaneous

Allocation

The way it is decided Who does what? Who gets what?

Social network theory (Homophily)

Theorists have been interested in finding out how kids tech other gender through interactions with each other when there isn't much interference from adults.

gender schema theory

This theory was developed specifically to explain gender socialization. Characteristics and behavior get classified as either masc or fem as a consequence, we perceive the world around us through our gender filter. schema = everything that we have learned about the world is organized gender schema = the information we possess sorted by gender.

Defining friendships

What defines friendship most are sentiment and sociability. Sociability means spending time with others simply because we enjoy spending time with them. We also develop emotional attachments to our friends. Rubin's study found that the idealized definition of a friend has twelve characteristics including trust, commitment, and acceptance. Must have an equal status in the relationship and must maintain a balance.

List three things that we learn from the one-child policy's effects on gender in China.

What does this teach us about gender socialization? - the importance of society's structure in how we learn gender, and what we learn about it - values can change in a society - parents' attitude matters in how they socialize their children

Liberal feminism

What's the origin of inequality? - Inequality is rooted in how institutions treat women, They limit opportunities - Equal rights ​ as basic human rights - Master frame of equal rights - Argument based on similarities between men and women. We're basically the same → we deserve equal rights How to correct it? What we need: equal opportunity for all Remove legal and cultural obstacles Assumption: once women have equal rights to education, property, and are free of discrimination at work → attitudes will also change

Privilege

a set of mostly unearned rewards (I.e. heterosexual love sanction) - Economic benefits - Tax benefits - Health insurance - Social legitimacy and approval Privilege can be the absence of barriers. Having to convince strangers to trust you is a barrier that those in privileged situations don't have to deal with. - The effect of gender was less visible to privileged men - Having privilege, one doesn't have to spend much time dealing with it and thinking about all the privileges that you have. Privilege is similar to wind at your back when riding a bicycle, as opposed to pedaling against the wind

essentialist perspective

accepts gender as given, well defined categories. Studies gender differences, and the consequences being labeled men pr a woman has people's lives.

process of androgenization

adopting some qualities of the opposite gender. example: men becoming gentler and kinder in old age.

Social Aggregates

determines how we get to act in gendered organizations 1. Division along gender 2. Symbols 3. Produce types of interactions 4. Impact identity 5. Gender create reinforced.

Intersexuality

evidence that sex categories themselves are also socially constructed The case of intersexed people helps us see gender socialization as a complex, fragile, incomplete, less than perfect process, and let people choose. Societies have also used different categories, then the 2 sexes, providing further evidence that our sex categories - not to mention the importance we attribute to them - are arbitrary social constructs. Studying intersex people: what is more important for us: nature or nurture? In our current approach where doctors and patients pick a sex and perform surgery, the goal is not to preserve reproductive ability or physical sensation but to construct normal-looking genitalia of one kind or the other.

widowhood

exiting an important stage of doing gender Being a spouse and parent means many responsibilities but also brings many rewards. plus, they are important parts of our self concept. All of these are steeped in gender. People don't see themselves as a parent, but as a mother or father, and not as a spouse but as a wife or husband. Does age fade with age? Its meaning changes, but is stays important, as taking off our gender costumes is neither easy, nor is it desired by most. Our gender identities are very important for our self image throughout our lives.

biosocial approach

explains gender roles based on sex differences. Using sex they conclude that there are two categories of people: males and females. Sex is not just a category that we attach gender to, but also an important factor, and it is important that we clearly distinguish people by sex. For example, though there have been great variations in gender roles in societies, taking care of babies has generally been the job of women. Thus, sex can affect gender roles. Thus, sex categories are treated as objectively real.

gender polarization

feminine <—> masculine are opposites - Behaviors are sorted into either/or categories - When these norms are broken, the people who break them and the action will be labeled unnatural, immoral, pathological. This is how a strong link between sex and gender is maintained.

constructionists

focus on gender being a social construction. Interested in how we have created gender in different societies, and how it changes over time.

Categories of theories based on gender

individual interactions institutions

secondary socialization

learning the norms and rules of a secondary group. secondary groups are larger, more temporary, more impersonal, and more specialized around one thing. Gender socialization is a lifelong process. We learn new norms through our new roles throughout the course of our lives.

primary socialization

learning the ways of society in infancy and childhood begins even before a baby is born, based on how much value that society places on a male or female infant. In some societies, sons are responsible of taking care of their parents in their old age. Family name, profession, farm, etc. are often be inherited by male heirs. In these societies female infants and girls don't survive as well as boys. In some other societies girls are more valuable for there parents because they are the ones who hunt, or go to work outside the farm for pay, or the parents receive bride price.

Ethnocentrism

looking at the world from the perspective our own culture, as if our culture was better or more correct than another culture. Labeling all same-sex behaviors as homosexual is ethnocentric. Categories of sexuality are often based on dominance more than on gender.

androcentrism

masculinity is superior to femininity. Also, femininity is a deviation from the standard. Therefore, it is more acceptable for women to behave in masculine ways than for men to act feminine.

The intersectionality of gender and friendship

men and women form and sustain friendships differently. People's actual experiences are not what they describe based on their gender ideologies. Conclusion: social class affects gender differences in friendship.

Gender socialization

process through which we learn the gender norms of our society + develop our internal gender identity. Gender socialization begins the moment we are born.

Gendered behavior

product of expectations we have of each other

Psychological approaches

psychology and sociology often overlap, when they study indvidiual - group interactions. Psych tends to study why and how individuals do things, while sociology is more intended in groups and organization

How do we use theory?

resociliaze us into a new way of thinking about the role of gender.

Link between liberal and radical feminists in 2nd wave

rights cannot be achieved and used without a change in attitudes

Cognitive theory

says that much of our important socialization happens in childhood, and that children play an active role in their socialization.

ego boundaries

sense of psychological division between ourselves and the world around us. we develop this sense of division in early childhood. The way we relate to people will be different depending on our gender. Our "relational potential" will be different depending on our gender. Both boys and girls identify with their mother initially. When they realize that they are separated from their mother, plus they are dependent on their mother while their mother is not dependent on them, they become upset. The way boys and girls resolve this tension is radically different. Little girls can hold on to the connection with their mothers longer than boys. Plus, the gender identity they need to learn is readily available to them. How do boys acquire the masculine identity without a masculine identification to rely on? In the absence of strong identification with a male figure? They have to severe their sense of connection that they have with their mother. As a consequence, they develop their sense of separation better than girls.

Gender norms

sets of rules about appropriate masculine and feminine behavior in our culture

Sex or gender: what's the difference?

sex = biological differences gender = social construct, or social meanings that we give to differences in sex

Socialization

the way in which we learn to become a member of a group (including humanity) = continuous learning of how to be successful members of our society.

Sexual dimorphism

there are two discrete categories (male/female) of people. We can tell them apart based on primary and secondary sex characteristics.

Queer Theory

throws away disciplinary boundaries, not interested in what is more scientific, or objective, or rational. Begins with a deep suspicion of current intellectual Aegues that rationality and science do not solve worlds problems

Sex role​

type of social role that is attached to status or position in society. Statuses create expectations - One way to know what's expected of us is to find out what gets us into trouble (what society doesn't approve of)

Gender Differences in Friendship

women's friendships are described as more "face-to-face". Women have friends who are their intimate confidantes, someone to share feelings with, so they spend their time talking to each other, facing one another. Men's friendships are described as more "side-by-side," because men share activities while they are together. Men's networks are helpful for their jobs and their promotion. Women tend to have smaller networks and have more kin in networks. So gender is a key structural influence on the number, quality, and significance of friendships.