1. Gender Stratification
Lecture 7
Gender Stratification

2. Sexual Division of Labor
Almost all societies have a sexual division of labor
As the structure of society changes, gender roles and gender equality also change
Hunter Gatherer
Agrarian/Agricultural
Industrial
Post-Industrial

3. Industrialization and the Family
Industrialization created one of the biggest shifts in gender relations and family life
Separation of work inside/outside home
Requires both paid and unpaid labor
Family-wage economy: an economic system in which families have one member earning wages to support the family
High pay
Benefits
Skilled labor (investment in education)

4. Gender Ideology, Family, and Work
Separate Spheres Ideology
Cult of Domesticity
Femininization of domestic labor
Naturalization of male/female roles
Men as providers
Women as caretakers

5. Social & Economic Invisibility of Household Labor
Mom’s “market value” is about 30K greater than the average man’s wage…but
Labeled “unoccupied” in our national accounting system
No retirement, unemployment, health benefits, nor individual social security
“Second Shift”: in dual-income households women often do most of the unpaid labor
Working women have 9 hours more housework

6. What does your family’s division of labor look like?

7. His and Her Family
Dichotomization of morality for men and women in family life
Men are encouraged to focus on self-interest for the family
Women are encouraged to focus on self-sacrifice for the good of the family

8. Occupational Segregation
“Female” and “Male” professions: In 2003 women were
96% of secretaries
91% of nurses
95% of child care workers
99% of dental hygienists
and 97% of kindergarten and preschool teachers
But also, 30% physicians, 14% architects, 27% lawyers
Why do we see women entering men’s professions, but not the other way around?

9. Male Pattern of Work
The most rewarded careers in our society (prestige and $) are generally based on the assumption that:
Time commitment while young
long hours
flexibility in your schedule
and limited household responsibility
Imagine what is takes to become a:
Medical doctor
Lawyer

10. President of Harvard Fewer Tenured Women in the Sciences…
“And the relatively few women who are in the highest ranking places are disproportionately either unmarried or without children…[T]here are many professions and many activities, and the most prestigious activities in our society expect of people who are going to rise to leadership positions in their forties near total commitments to their work. They expect a large number of hours in the office, they expect a flexibility of schedules to respond to contingency, they expect a continuity of effort through the life cycle, and they expect-and this is harder to measure-but they expect that the mind is always working on the problems that are in the job, even when the job is not taking place. And it is a fact about our society that that is a level of commitment that a much higher fraction of married men have been historically prepared to make than of married women.”

11. Does Silicon Valley have a Glass Ceiling?
Of CA’s 400 largest companies only 11.6% of executive officers are women
Santa Clara county companies are last in the state for gender equality
What are the explanations?
Career confusion
Structural barriers
Networks favor men
Tech culture

12. Wage Gap: For Every White Man’s $...
Year
Black men
Hispanic Men
White Women
Black Women
Hispanic Women
1970
$.69 na
$.58
$.48
1980
$.70
$.55
$.50
1990
$.73
$.66
$. 69
$.62
$.54
2003
$.78
$.63
$. 75
$.65

13. Post-Industrial Economy
Dual-income Families are becoming a feature of the post-industrial economy
Increasing gender equality in the workplace, but gender norms moved little in the private realm
Deinstitutionalization of the marriage/family life
Increase in cohabitation, divorce, same sex marriage

14. How do you think family roles and family will change?
What do you think will be the social norms regarding family and marriage for your generation?