Society, Seventh Edition Gender Stratification

Society, Seventh Edition 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

Society, Seventh Edition Gender in a Global Perspective Israeli kibbutzim Margaret Mead’s research George Murdock’s research Gender and culture –What it means to be male or female is mostly a creation of society

Society, Seventh Edition Patriarchy and 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 Inevitability of patriarchy

Society, Seventh Edition 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

Society, Seventh Edition 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

Society, Seventh Edition Role of Media White males have center stage Minorities of all kinds locked out Women receive roles based on sex appeal Advertising some changes The “beauty myth”

Society, Seventh Edition 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 On average, women earn 73 cents for every dollar earned by men (2000) –Largely due to kind of work done and family responsibilities Corporate women and the glass ceiling Recently, 12% of richest Americans identified by Forbes were women

Society, Seventh Edition 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 (2001) –Culture influences our views of women in the military

Society, Seventh Edition 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

Society, Seventh Edition Violence Against Women “Rule of thumb” 150 years ago Sexual assaults, rapes, attempted rapes, and physical assaults Campus and university gender violence Wolf whistles and pinch to physical assaults “rape culture” Female genital mutilation

Society, Seventh Edition Sexual Harassment and Pornography Comments, gestures, or physical contact of a sexual nature that are deliberate, repeated and unwelcome 1990’s rules for workplace interaction Causes of sexual harassment –Culture encourages men to be sexually assertive and perceive women in sexual terms –Most people in positions of power are men –Under the effect standard a hostile environment involves different perceptions of the same behavior Pornography

Society, Seventh Edition 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 Engle's: capitalism intensifies male domination

Society, Seventh Edition Feminism Importance of change Expansion of human choice Eliminate gender stratification Ending sexual violence Promote sexual freedom

Society, Seventh Edition Types of Feminism Liberal feminism –Free to develop own talents and interests - individualistic Socialist feminism –Pursue collective (male and female) personal liberation Radical feminism –Eliminate idea of gender –Egalitarian, gender-free revolution Opposition to feminism –Threat to male status and self-respect –Growing body of evidence that men and women think and act in different ways –How should women improve social standing? Individual abilities or collective rights