1. Sex and Gender
Chapter 10

2. Sex and Gender
Sex = biology
Gender = cultural differences

3. Sex Characteristics Primary sex characteristics
Distinguishes male from female at birth
Secondary sex characteristics
After puberty
Used to distinguish male from females
Cause of new hormones

4. How Much Do You Know About Body Image and Gender?
True or False?
Most people have an accurate perception of their physical appearance.

5. How Much Do You Know About Body Image and Gender?
False
Many people do not have a very accurate perception of their bodies.
For example, many girls and women think of themselves as “fat” when they are not.
Some boys and men believe that they need a well-developed chest and arm muscles, broad shoulders, and a narrow waist.

6. How Much Do You Know About Body Image and Gender?
True or False?
Young girls and women very rarely die as a result of anorexia or bulimia.

7. How Much Do You Know About Body Image and Gender?
False.
Although the exact number is not known, many young girls and women die as a result of starvation, malnutrition, and other problems associated with anorexia and bulimia.

8. Hermaphrodites Caused by a hormone imbalance
Combination of male and female genitalia
Western societies acknowledge two sexes
other societies recognize three:
Men
Women
Berdaches - males who behave, dress, work,and are treated as women.

9. Individual’s preference for emotional relationships
Sexual Orientation
Individual’s preference for emotional relationships
Heterosexuality
Homosexuality
bisexuality

10. Sexual Orientation
Homosexual and gay are most often used in association with males who prefer same-sex relationships.
Lesbian is used in association with females who prefer same-sex relationships.
Heterosexual individuals, who prefer opposite-sex relationships, are sometimes referred to as straight.

11. Gender: The Cultural Dimension
Most “sex differences” are socially constructed “gender differences”.
Gender is embedded in the images, ideas, and language of a society.
Gender is used as a means to divide up work, allocate resources, and distribute power.

12. Microlevel Analysis of Gender
Gender role – attitudes, behavior, and activities that are socially defined as appropriate for each sex and are learned through the socialization process
Gender identity – a person’s perception of the self as female or male
Body consciousness – how a person perceives and feels about his or her body
In US society, males are expected to demonstrate aggressiveness and toughness, females are expected to be passive and nurturing
Gender identity is established between eighteen months and three years of age
Developed through interaction with others
Most develop an identity matching their sex
Body consciousness – small and weak is ideal for women, but bad for men

13. Macrolevel Gender Analysis
Gendered institutions – structures creating inequality
Society places tasks on men and women
Gender belief system – all the ideas regarding masculinity and femininity are held to be valid
Macrolevel analysis is looking at structural features that help perpetuate gender inequality
Tasks like child rearing, warfare
Gender belief system is legitimated by religion, science, law, and other societal values
System can change as times change, but popular stereotypes tend to remain

14. The Social Significance of Gender
Stereotypes
Men – strong, rational, dominant, independent, less concerned with appearance
Women – weak, emotional, nurturing, dependent, anxious about appearance
Stereo types are exemplified by eating disorders
Three most common – anorexia, bulimia, or obesity
anorexia, a person has lost 25% of body fat due to a compulsive fear of becoming fat
Bulimia – binge then induce vomiting, excessive exercise, laxatives, or fasting
Obesity – 20% or more above their desirable weight
White, middle-class, heterosexual women tend to be primary victims
Bodybuilding is another gendered experience – more common in men than women

16. Sexism
Subordination of one sex, usually female, based on the assumed superiority of the other sex
3 Components
Negative attitudes toward women
Stereotypical beliefs that reinforce, complement, or justify the prejudice
Discrimination – acts that exclude, distance, or keep women separate
Like racism, sexism is used to justify discriminatory treatment
When they participate in gender-inappropriate endeavors, they are targets of prejudice and discrimination
Found in undervaluing of women’s work and in hiring and promotion practices

17. Sexism
Patriarchy – a hierarchical system of social organization in which cultural, political, and economic structures are controlled by men
Matriarchy – hierarchical system of social organization in which cultural, political, and economic structures are controlled by women
Sexism is interwoven in the patriarchal society in the US
Few societies are organized by a matriarchal system, older societies in Africa and Asia kind of were
Explains part of the reason we’ve never seen a female president

18. Polling Question
If you were taking a new job and had your choice of a boss, would you prefer to work for a man or a woman?
Man
Woman
No preference

19. Gendered Division of Labor
Three factors
Type of subsistence base
Supply and demand for labor
The extent to which women’s child-rearing activities are compatible with certain types of work
Three factors determine the gendered division of labor in a society
Subsistence refers to the means by which a society gains the basic necessities of life
Three factors vary according to a society’s technoeconomic base, or the level of technology and the organization of the economy
Five bases have been identified
Hunting and gathering societies
Horticultural and pastoral societies
Agrarian societies
Industrial societies
Postindustrial societies

20. Hunting and gathering societies were the earliest known division of labor between men and women
Men hunt, women gather
Relationship is equal because neither gender has the ability to provide all the food necessary for survival
Relationships between men and women are equal
Social stratification does not exist because people do not acquire a food surplus
Horticulture and Pastoral Societies
Women make a contribution because hoe cultivation is compatible with child care
Equal in horticulture because neither gender controls the food supply
Inadequate moisture leads to pastoralism – domestication of large animals
In these societies a woman’s primary value is simply in producing more males
Agrarian
Gender inequality and male dominance become institutionalized
Agrarian tasks require more labor and greater physical strength than horticulture
Women are removed because they are weak and these tasks do not comply with child-rearing responsibilities
People acquire property, gain a surplus
Strongest type of society for male dominance
Industrial
Husbands worked in factories, women stayed home
Body image became more important (as people were not doing labor intensive work, but instead lifting weights, eating other foods, and watching their weight, office work required dressing up)
Postindustrial
Opportunity is present for both genders, however women tend to remain in lower positions with less likelihood of moving up

21. Gender and Socialization
Gender appropriate behaviors are learned through socialization
Parents generally prefer sons
Initially believed that only a son could care for parents
Belief comes from socialization
parents, teachers, friends, and the media all serve as gendered institutions that instruct us on the social meaning of male or female

22. Parents and Gender Socialization
Starts at birth
Children's clothing and toys reflect their parents' gender expectations.
Children are often assigned household tasks according to gender.
Baby boys are thought of as less fragile than baby girls
Parents are more prone to sing to a crying baby girl
Boys will mow the lawn, taking out the trash, washing vehicles
Girls will cook, clean, and sew

23. Peers and Gender Socialization
Peers help children learn gender-appropriate and inappropriate behavior.
During adolescence, peers often are more effective at gender socialization than adults.
College student peers play an important role in career choices and the establishment of long term, intimate relationships.
Children want to fit in with their peers, which generally means taking on a gendered role
Male peer groups tend to place more pressure on males, than females do
Females will wear jeans, play sports, do masculine things

24. Schools and Gender Socialization
Teachers provide messages about gender through classroom assignments and informal interactions with students.
Teachers may unintentionally show favoritism toward one gender over the other.
Teachers socialize more at earlier levels, while kids still look up to their teachers a great deal
Research shows teachers devote more time to boys than girls
Many take a boys will be boys attitude when boys misbehave or are accused of sexual harassment

25. Sports and Gender Socialization
From elementary school through high school:
Boys play football.
Girls are cheerleaders, members of the drill team, and homecoming queens.
For many males, sports is a training ground for masculinity.
Boys play the competitive sports
Girls are involved in much more uncompetitive activities
Studies show that males are more apt to physical exertion than females
Some say this difference is linked in what is gender-appropriate behavior
Girls shouldn’t get sweaty and dirty

26. Mass Media and Gender Socialization
On television:
Male characters typically are more aggressive, constructive, and direct.
Females are deferential toward others or use manipulation to get their way.
Men outnumber women in TV
Grey’s Anatomy – same number of male to females, but males are the higher ranking doctors, while females are interns or nurses
Magazines and advertisements help influence gender ideas
Most ads of women are young, beautiful, and skinny

27. Adult Gender Socialization
Jobs teach appropriate conduct
Double standard of aging exists after age forty
Women will battle more with the notion of working and raising a family, this is never an issue for me
Gray hair on men is considered a sign of wisdom, it is unattractive for women

28. Gendered Division of Paid Work
Gender-segregated work
Concentration of women and men in different occupations, jobs, and places of work
Gender-segregation in professional labor market has decreased
Labor market segmentation results in women having separate and unequal jobs
Pay gap is best-documented consequence
ex. 97% of secretaries are women, 88% of engineers were men
Women are underrepresented at the top of the corporate structure
Professional labor market – doctors, lawyers, accountants, managers)
Labor market segmentation – the division of jobs into categories with distinct working conditions
Women are seen as secondary wage earners, more as wives and mothers
Hurts both, keeps men out of traditional “female” jobs, in which they are constantly defending themselves and their occupation

29. % of Women, African Americans and Hispanics in Selected Occupations
Managerial, Professional
50.0
8.3
5.1
Technical, sales, support
63.7
11.4
9.1
Service jobs
60.4
17.9
16.3
Operators, laborers
23.3
15.6
17.7
Across all categories of occupations, white women and all people of color are not evenly represented

30. Pay Equity (Comparable Worth)
Occupational segregation contributes to a pay gap
Pay equity or comparable worth
Belief that wages ought to reflect the worth of a job, not the gender or race of the worker
Pay gap is calculated by dividing women’s earnings by men’s to yield a percentage, also known as the earnings ratio
How do you determine comparable worth?
Compare actual work of women’s and men’s jobs and see if there is a disparity in the salaries paid for each
Break job into components like education, training, skills required, extent of responsibility for other’s work, and working conditions
Allocate points for each

31. Paid Work and Family Work
Most women combine paid work with family work
Domestic responsibilities consume a great deal of time
Many belong to the sandwich generation
Even though many women share responsibility in bread winner’s role, men do not share responsibility in house keeping
Sandwich generation – females caught between taking care of children and elderly

32. Functionalist and Neoclassical Economic Perspectives
Men and women have distinct roles
Essential for the survival of society
Women’s roles as nurturers are more important in industrialized societies
Men provide instrumental tasks
Women provide expressive tasks
Traditional division of labor is the natural order of the universe
Most basic division between men and women is biological – men are stronger and women are only one who can bear and nurse children
In industrialized societies, men perform instrumental tasks of providing economic support
Women provide expressive – providing affection and emotional support
If traditional order is upset, relationships between men and women are damaged and family life suffers

33. The Human Capital Model
Functionalist Model
Individuals vary in the amount of human capital they provide
What individuals earn is a result of their own choices
Human capital is acquired by education and job training, it is the source of a person’s productivity and can be measuredi n terms of the return on the investment (wages) and the cost (schooling or training)
Women diminish their human capital when they leave the labor force to raise a family
They miss training and are out of the loop
Critics of functionalist perspectives argue that problems inherent in traditional gender roles are minimized (ex. Some men may want to spend more time in child rearing process)
Ignores fact that women have to hold jobs due to economic necessity
Does not take into account why some opportunities are more readily available for others
Critics say wages will be higher for men, regardless of choices women make

34. Conflict Perspectives
Gendered division of labor is a result of male dominance over women and resources
Marxists assert that gender stratification results from private ownership of the means of production
men’s dominance reaches its peak in agrarian societies, where women are completely reliant on men to provide

35. Feminist Perspective Liberal Feminism Radical Feminism
Gender equality is equated with equality of opportunity
Radical Feminism
Male domination causes all forms of human oppression
Socialist Feminism
Women’s oppression results from dual roles as paid and unpaid workers in a capitalist economy
Multicultural Feminism
Identifies struggles of females of differing races
Feminism – the belief that women and men are equal and should be valued equally and have equal rights
Holds in common with men’s studies the view that gender is a socially constructed concept that has important consequences in the lives of all people
Liberal feminism - Roots of women’s oppression lie in women’s lack of equal civil rights and educational opportunities
Only when these constraints are removed will women succeed
Radical feminism – trace roots of patriarchy to women’s childbearing responsibilities, which makes them dependent on men
Patriarchy must be abolished to see change
Socialist feminism – gendered job segregation is the primary mechanism in capitalist society that maintains the superiority of men over women because it enforces lower wages for women in the labor market