Gender Stratification

Gender and Inequality Gender refers to personal traits and social positions that members of a society attach to being female and male Gender stratification unequal distribution of wealth, power and privilege between men and women Male-female biological differences

Gender in a Global Perspective Israeli kibbutzim- gender equality Margaret Mead’s research- masculine and feminine are cultural not biological George Murdock’s research- tasks based on physical characteristics Gender and culture What it means to be male or female is mostly a creation of society

Patriarchy and Sexism Matriarchy Sexism The costs of sexism A form of social organization in which males dominate females Matriarchy Social dominance by women A form of social organization in which females dominate males Sexism Belief that one sex or the other is innately inferior or superior Institutional sexism The costs of sexism

Gender and Socialization Gender role (sex roles) are attitudes and activities that a society links to each sex

Gender and the Family Is it a boy or girl? Color-coding gender Traditional notions of gender identity Handling of children Female: passivity and emotion Male: independence and action

Gender and Peer Groups Playing games Janet Lever (1978) Boys favor team sports with Complex rules and clear objectives Girls team sports are different Games teach interpersonal skills and the value of sharing and cooperation Carol Gilligan’s gender based theory of moral reasoning (1982) Schooling – educational choices

Gender and Schooling Correll (2001) -gender shapes our interests and beliefs about our own abilities, guiding areas of study, eventually, career choices.

Social Stratification Almost 60% of all women work Administrative support and service sector jobs make up the type of work done by 50% of all working women Women hold primary responsibility for household duties (the second shift) On average, women earn 77 cents for every dollar earned by men (2004) Largely due to kind of work done and family responsibilities Corporate women and the glass ceiling Just 17 of the 1,000 largest U.S. corporations have a woman chief executive officer

Education, Politics & Military Gender and education 56% of all associate and bachelor degrees are earned by women; Since 1993, women also earned a majority of postgraduate degrees Nineteenth amendment (1920) Women active in local – state politics 15% of all armed forces personnel were women (2003) and 7% of all deployed forces Culture influences our views of women in the military

Minority Status of Women At all levels in the class system, women have: Less income Less wealth Less education, and Less power than men Minority women Multilayered system of disadvantage for some and privilege for others

Intersection Theory The interplay of race, class, and gender, often resulting in multiple dimensions of disadvantage.

Violence Against Women “Rule of thumb” 150 years ago Sexual assaults, rapes, attempted rapes, and physical assaults Campus and university gender violence Female genital mutilation

Global Map 13-2 (p. 348) Female Genital Mutilation in Global Perspective Detail

Theoretical analysis of gender Structural-functional analysis Gender functions to organize social life Talcott Parsons: complementarily roles for family units in order to carry out various tasks Social-conflict analysis Friedrich Engels’ ideas Gender and class

Applying Theory: Gender (p. 350)

Feminism Working to increase equality Expansion of human choice Eliminate gender stratification Ending sexual violence Promote sexual freedom