Gender, Sex, and Sexuality
What is the nuances of the gender wage gap?
- making men kinder, gentler, and more interested in their kids - making women more respected in their jobs - making women more competitive, bargain
How does functionalist explain gender?
- produce new members - one more way that we categorize people & creates structure to make our lives more predictable
How should we address gender stratification in society?
- women made choices to smaller admonitive returns - best legislation is to change certain aspects of our school system. extending the day and the year of schools. - the cost of the amenity and the supply of who request the amenity - both women & men take paternity leave when taking care of their children
How is sexuality a social construct?
1. sexuality (sexual script) varies from culture to culture 2. norms related to sexuality vary over time (in culture) 3. norms related to sexuality vary among different groups (within one society) 4. norms related to sexuality change over the course of your life
What is Kinsey scale?
Brought by Kinsey the biologist - rates people's sexuality - argues that almost no one is exclusively heterosexual/homosexual & identified in the middle of the scale - very rarely the binary system
Book: Part 2
Children become aware of gender roles in their earliest years, and they come to understand and perform these roles through socialization, which occurs through four major agents: family, education, peer groups, and mass media. Socialization into narrowly prescribed gender roles results in the stratification of men and women. The impacts of discrimination and inequality have deep implications for economics, social mobility, and political power. The feminist movement undertook protests, improvement programs, and political focus in order to improve equality and the lives of women. Each sociological perspective offers a valuable view for understanding how and why gender inequality occurs in our society.
DOMA
Defense of Marriage Act, a 1996 U.S. law explicitly limiting the definition of "marriage" to a union between one man and one woman and allowing each individual state to recognize or deny same-sex marriages performed in other states
Quiz: Which of the following statements best describes how most sociologists believe behavioral gender differences develop between men and women?
Gender differences are based on social factors
Quiz: Rather than being purely homosexual or purely heterosexual, some psychologists and sociologists believe that most people fall somewhere on the:
Sexual orientation continuum
Quiz: We learn the norms in our society regarding sexual behavior, identity, and orientation. What we learn is best known as the:
Sexual script
Quiz: In 1973, the American Psychological Association (APA) declassified homosexuality as an abnormal or deviant disorder. Which sociological perspective would be most interested in the statement the (APA) made to society?
Symbolic Interactionism
Book: Part 1
The terms "sex" and "gender" refer to two different identifiers. Sex denotes biological characteristics differentiating males and females, while gender denotes social and cultural characteristics of masculine and feminine behavior. Sex and gender are not always synchronous. Individuals who strongly identify with the opposing gender are considered transgender.
Why does society have gender stratification? What are the theories?
We often hear stats such as "Women, on average, make 77% of men." Statistically, that may be true. But it doesn't really help us to understand the true complexities of the gender wage gap. - doesn't show at the beginning - temporal flexibility: working at home or outside the typical schedule. women value family time and like less demand - occupational segregation - not working a lot of hours - cooperate, law, and health occupations = large gap - technology/science/ small health occupations = small gap - more flexibility = pay less - discrimination doesn't seem to be the main thing in the gender age gap
Book: Part 3
When studying sex and sexuality, sociologists focus their attention on sexual attitudes and practices, not on physiology or anatomy. Norms regarding gender and sexuality vary across cultures. In general, the United States tends to be fairly conservative in its sexual attitudes. As a result, programs such as sex education are often limited or selective in what topics they cover.
gender dysphoria
a condition listed in the DSM-5 in which people whose gender at birth is contrary to the one they identify with. This condition replaces "gender identity disorder"
sexuality
a person's capacity for sexual feelings
gender identity
a person's deeply held internal perception of one's gender OR an individual's sense of being either masculine or feminine
sexual orientation
a person's physical, mental, emotional, and sexual attraction to a particular sex (male or female)
sex
a term that denotes the presence of physical or physiological differences between males and females
gender
a term that refers to social or cultural distinctions of behaviors that are considered male or female
How does conflict theorist explain gender?
a tool used by those in power to oppress everyone else. gender conflicts!
transgender
an adjective that describes individuals who identify with the behaviors and characteristics that are other than their biological sex
homophobia
an extreme or irrational aversion to gay, lesbian, bisexual, or all LGBTQ people, which often manifests as prejudice and bias
heterosexism
an ideology and a set of institutional practices that privilege straight people and heterosexuality over other sexual orientations
glass ceiling
an invisible barrier that women encounter when trying to win jobs in the highest level of business
Quiz: While the notion of gender refers to sociological characteristics, the concept of sex refers to ________ characteristics.
biological
sex orientation
hetero, homo, pan = sexuality attracted to
How does social interactionist explain gender?
how we interact based on the concept of gender - gender is a symbol
What is sexual script?
ideas (norms) of how people are supposed to interact with each other, including how different genders should behave in sexual or romantic situations. - outside abnormal if went agaisnt
Intersectionality
is a term coined by (1989) Black legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw Links to an external site.that names the ways in which people with multiple marginalized identities experience oppression and discrimination For example, Black women experience racism and sexism simultaneously in the form of misogynoir (misogyny or prejudice against women experienced by Black women, Moya Bailey), which is significantly different than the sexism that white women experience and the racism that Black men experience.
How are we socialized into our opinions and behaviors related to sex?
it is socially constructed by our society. we have made it up!
intersex
people born with sex characteristics (including genitals, gonads and chromosome patterns) that do not fit typical binary notions of male or female bodies.
biological sex
physical characteristics that define male and female
social construction of sexuality
socially created definitions about the cultural appropriateness of sex-linked behavior which shape how people see and experience sexuality
gender role
society's concept of how men and women should behave
sexual orientation continuum
some are strongly heterosexual to strongly homosexual, others in between norm: binary system of society hetro or homo
biological determinism
the belief that men and women behave differently due to inherent sex differences related to their biology
double standard
the concept that prohibits premarital sexual intercourse for women but allows it for men
pay gap
the difference in earnings between men and women
misogyny
the hatred of or, aversion to, or prejudice against women
What is feminism?
the idea that women should enjoy the same rights as men
doing gender
the performance of tasks based upon the gender assigned to us by society and, in turn, ourselves
sexism
the prejudiced belief that one sex should be valued over another
sexual identity
the role you have play out in public
Transsexual
transgendered individuals who wish to alter their bodies through medical interventions such as surgery and hormonal therapy
Sexual behavior
who you are actually having sex with