Chapter 4
Gender and Family
Key Terms
•
Sex
The biological aspect of being male or
female.
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Role
Culturally defined expectations that an
individual is expected to fulfill in a given
situation in a particular culture.
•
Gender role
The role a person is expected to perform as a
result of being male or female in a particular
culture.
•
Gender-role stereotypes
Rigidly held and oversimplified beliefs that
males and females, as a result of their sex,
possess distinct psychological and behavioral
traits.
•
Gender role behaviors
Actual activities or behaviors that we or
others engage in as males and females.
•
Gender identity
Refers to being male or female.
•
Patriarchal societies
Societies in in which males dominate political
and economic institutions and exercise power
in interpersonal relationships.
•
Egalitarian societies
Societies in which women and men enjoy
similar amounts of power and neither
dominates the economic or political
institutions.
•
Matriarchal societies
Societies in in which females dominate
political and economic institutions and
exercise power in interpersonal relationships.
•
Bipolar gender role
In this model, males and females are seen as
polar opposites, with males possessing
exclusively instrumental traits and females
possessing exclusively expressive ones.
•
Sexual orientation
The nature of someone’s sexual preference,
be it for partners of the same or opposite sex
or both.
•
Social construct
An idea or concept created by society
through the use of social power.
•
Gender Theory
Asserts that society may be best understood
by how it is organized according to gender
and that social relationships are based on the
socially perceived differences between
females and males that are used to justify
unequal power relationships.
•
Gender-resistant feminism
Advocates more radical, separatist strategies
for women out of the belief that their
subordination is too embedded in the existing
social system.
•
Gender-role attitude
Refers to the beliefs we have regarding
appropriate male and female personality traits
and activities.
•
Social learning theory
Derived from behaviorist psychology and its
emphasis on observable events and their
consequences rather than internal feelings
and drives.
•
Modeling
Learning through imitation.
•
Cognitive development theory
Focuses on the child’s active interpretation of
the messages he or she receives from the
environment.
•
Peer
A child’s age-mates.
•
Post-gender relationship
Relationships lived outside the constraints of
gender expectations.
•
Gender-rebellion feminism
Tends to emphasize overlapping and
interrelated inequalities of gender, sexual
orientation, race, and class.
•
Social feminism
The belief that workplace and family supports
are essential if women are to experience a
high quality of life.
•
Profeminist men’s movement
Profeminist men believe that men ought to
share responsibilities within their households
and that women and men ought to be equal
partners. Also, profeminists argue that men
and children would both benefit from closer
connections between fathers and their
children.