Gender
Sex, Sexuality, Gender
• the body is "simultaneously a physical and
symbolic artifact, both naturally and culturally
produced, anchored in a particular historical
moment" (Scheper-Hughes & Lock)
• Sex, sexuality, & gender
– Not the same thing
Sex
• differences in biology
• Is this a man or woman?
– How do you know?
Sex & the Social Order
• Tells us part of the story,
but not all of the story
Sexuality (reproduction)
• all societies regulate sexuality
– lots of variation cross-culturally
• degree of restrictiveness not always consistent
through life span
– adolescence vs. adulthood
• Varieties of “normative” sexual orientation
– Heterosexual, homosexual, transexual
• Sexuality in societies change over time
Gender
Gender
• GENDER - the cultural construction of male &
female characteristics
– vs. the biological nature of men & women
• SEX differences are biological - GENDER
differences are cultural
• behavioral & attitudinal differences from
social & cultural rather than biological point of
view
• Gender refers to the ways members of the two
sexes are perceived, evaluated and expected to
behave
Gender Boundaries
• since gender is culturally constructed the
boundaries are conceptual rather than physical
• Boundaries require markers to indicate gender
• the boundaries are dynamic, eg. now it is
acceptable for men to wear earrings
Boundary Markers
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Voice
Physique
Dress
Behaviour
Hair style
Kinetics
Language use
Boundary Markers & Inter-personal
Interaction
• How do we react when
someone seems to have
traits of each category?
• social intercourse
requires that the
interacting parties know
to which gender
category `the other'
belongs
Felicita Vestvali
1824 - 1880
New York opera star who specialized
in singing contralto "trouser roles."
Women cross dress
all the time.
The difference is
perception.
Acceptance or
Rejection by society
Blurring the Boundaries
• persistence of dualisms in ideologies of gender
• a particular view of men and women as opposite
kinds of creatures both biologically and culturally
• essentialism of western ideas of sexual dimorphism dichotomized into natural & then moral entities of
male & female that are given to all persons, one or
the other
• other categories - every society including our own is
at some time or other faced with people who do not
fit into its sex & gender categories
“Third” Gender
• a significant number of people are
born with genitalia that is neither
clearly male or female
– Hermaphrodites
• persons who change their
biological sex
• persons who exhibit behavior
deemed appropriate for the
opposite sex
• persons who take on other gender
roles other than those indicated by
their genitals
“Third” Gender
• multiple cultural & historical worlds in which people
of divergent gender & sexual desire exist
– margins or borders of society
• may pass as normal to remain hidden in the official
ideology & everyday commerce of social life
• In some societies when discovered - iconic matter out
of place - "monsters of the cultural imagination“
• third gender as sexual deviance a common theme in
US
– evolution & religious doctrine
– heterosexuality the highest form, the most moral way of
life, its natural
The Hijras of India and Pakistan
The Hijras as “Third Gender”
• Hijra means hermaphrodite in Urdu but most
Hijras are homosexual transvestites, some of
whom have gone through a crude sex-change
operation (transexual)
• Cultural descendants of the court eunuchs of
the Mughal Empire (1526-1858)
• Perceived neither as men nor women but as a
third gender
Hijras and Social Roles
• Hijras now earn their living as
beggars, prostitutes. and by
dancing at carnivals, weddings and
births.
• both feared and pitied in Pakistan
– feared for their supposed ability to
place curses
– pitied for being outcast children of
Allah
– Believed to hold great power because
of their close relationship with the
Mother Goddess - Mata Bahuchara
• getting dressed for a job
entertaining at a Pakistani
wedding
Is it possible to have a genderless
society?
Third Gender Cross-Culturally
• provokes us to reexamine our own
assumptions regarding our gender system
• emphasizes gender role alternatives as
adaptations to economic and political
conditions rather than as "deviant" and
idiosyncratic behavior
• rigid dichotomozation of genders is a means of
perpetuating the domination of females by
males and patriarchal institutions.
GENDER ROLES, STEREOTYPES,
STRATIFICATION
• gender roles - tasks & activities that a culture assigns
to sexes
• gender stereotypes - oversimplified strongly held
ideas about the characteristics of men & women &
third sex-third gender
• gender stratification - unequal distribution of rewards
(socially valued resources, power, prestige, personal
freedom) between men & women reflecting their
position in the social hierarchy
Gender & the Social Order
Social Stratification & Gender
• Gender is an important dimension of social
inequality
• Gender stratification frequently takes the form
of patriarchy whereby men dominate women
• Do women in our society have a second class
status relative to men? If so How?
universals versus particulars
• universal subordination of women is often
cited as one of the true cross-cultural
universals, a pan-cultural fact
– Engels called it the “world historical defeat of
women”
• even so the particulars of women’s roles,
statuses, power, and value differ tremendously
by culture
persistence of dualisms in ideologies
of gender
• a particular view of men and women as
opposite kinds of creatures both biologically
and culturally
• nature/culture
• domestic/public
• reproduction/production
Production, Reproduction & Social
Roles
• Production roles – making a living
• Reproduction roles - those minimal institutions
and modes of activity that are organized
immediately around one or more mothers and
their children
• women everywhere lactate & give birth to
children
• likely to be associated with child rearing &
responsibilities of the home
a long running controversy in
anthropology
• Sherry Ortner’s famous article “Is Female to
Male as Nature is to Culture”
• argument is that across cultures, women are
more often associated with nature and the
natural and are therefore denigrated
• Ortner - in reality women are no further nor
closer to nature than men - cultural valuations
make women appear closer to nature than men
Gender Roles
Redd Evans and John
Jacob Loeb,
"Rosie the Riveter,"
(New York: Paramount
Music Corp., 1942
ROSIE THE RIVETER
All the day long,
Whether rain or shine,
She's a part of the assembly line.
She's making history,
Working for victory,
Rosie the Riveter.
Keeps a sharp lookout for sabatoge,
Sitting up there on the fuselage.
That little girl will do more than a male will do.
Rosie's got a boyfriend, Charlie.
Charlie, he's a Marine.
Rosie is protecting Charlie,
Working overtime on the riveting machine.
When they gave her a production "E,"
She was as proud as she could be.
There's something true about,
Red, white, and blue about,
Rosie the Riveter.
In the 1940s, women were
encouraged to help the war
effort by getting a job outside
the home. But it was family and
country rather than money,
status, or power that they were
encouraged to toil for .
Coke 1942
November 1942
“For whether she rears a family or
mans a rangefinder, a woman needs
the physical support of a good
foundation." and "Amongst other
munitions of war, Berlei are still
making foundations.".
1950s - mass
consumption in
high gear, TV ads
idealized the
woman as the wife
and homemaker,
and the man as
the bread winner.
But also the sex kitten
Cascade Dishwashing Detergent
1958 issue of Lady's Home Journal.
The man in this advertisement is
envious of his hostess' spotless drinking
glasses.
Rather than giving him advice on how
to get his glasses just as clear, she
advises him to tell his wife to use
Cascade.
The designers of this ad assume that
washing dishes is a woman's chore.
The roles are strictly defined; it never
crosses the woman's mind that Jean's
husband might have something to do
with dishwashing in his household.
1990s 2000s
She is a "multifaceted success
machine”.
She is a nurturer and a seducer.
She is the twenty-four hour a day
woman, and she never sleeps.
This ad is striking
because it shows a
man in what is
typically thought of
as a woman’s role.
What does the fact
that he can open
the pail “without
passing out” say
about men?
Men are domesticated.
Sex objects
DOMESTIC - PUBLIC
DICHOTOMY (M. Rosaldo)
• opposition between domestic (reproduction) &
public (production) provides the basis of a
framework necessary to identify and explore
the place of male & female in psycho, cultural,
social and economic aspects of life
• degree to which the contrast between public
domestic (private) sphere is drawn promotes
gender stratification-rewards, prestige, power
domestic sphere
• clearly drawn in societies where division of
labor encompasses more than age & sex
differentiation (complex societies)
• inequality in material rewards for labor
• less clearly drawn in societies where division
of labor beyond age & sex is minimal
(egalitarian)
• rewards are highly valued social roles with
prestige rather than material goods
Domestic : Public Spheres
• mobility & gender
• Domestic : public dichotomy not only distinguishes
activities, but culturally encodes space
M. Rosaldo and the Ilongot of the
Philippines
• positive cultural value placed adventure,
travel, knowledge of & experience with the
outside world
• Ilongot men as headhunters visited distant
places, amassed experiences & returned to
express their knowledge-receive acclaim
• Ilongot women - these activities not available
to them
Mobility, Public : Domestic (Private),
and Gender Stratification
• mobility not just through geographic space but
social space (forms of association)
• veiling & Islamic women
• factory women in Malaysia
• US & Canada - WW2 & factory women for
war effort
• 1960s, 70s, 80s - changing gender composition
of economy
Labor Force Participation for U.S. Women and Men, aged 25-55
1950-2000
Women’s increased
participation in paid work is a
central change in gender
relations over the last 50 years.
Labor force participation is
often seen as the prime indicator
(and cause) of changes in
women’s status.
Social theory often focuses on
women’s employment because
employment determines their
access to resources and their
ability to make independent
decisions.
Gender Stereotypes
What is the thinnest book in the world?
What men know about women!
What do you call a man with an I.Q. of 50? ----- Gifted!
Why are blonde jokes so short?
So men can remember them.
What is the difference between men and government bonds?
Bonds mature!
How many men does it take to change a roll of toilet paper?
We don't know - it's never happened.
How many honest, intelligent, caring men in the world does it take to do
the dishes? ------- Both of them.
Why are married women heavier than single women?
Single women come home, see what's in the fridge and go to bed.
Married women come home, see what's in bed and go to the fridge.
A woman walked into the kitchen to find her husband stalking
around with a fly swatter.
she: Intrigued, "How can you tell
she: "What are you doing?"
them apart?"
he: "Hunting Flies"
he: "3 were on a beer can, 2 were on
she: "Oh. Killing any?“
he: "Yep, 3 males, 2 Females," the phone."
Are women universally or always subordinate to men?
1. Biologically men are physically stronger than women
2. therefore this results in a sexual division of labour with
men doing the harder work
3. In other words biology influences behaviour
4. implies that the relationship between biology and social life
is one of cause and effect.
If biology explains the
political and economic
dominance of men
then surely one must
simply accept that fact
So much for that theory --- in many societies women are the
real labourers
biological differences cannot provide a universal basis for
social definitions of `man' and `woman'
But so what
it is true, generally men are physically stronger than women
• this may account for some of the division of labour
But nothing in the biological differences between the sexes
can account for women’s secondary status
Gender stratification is not inherent in biological
differences between the sexes
what is really important is the different
values that are placed on being a man or a
woman or on the work that is done
An alternative explanation for the secondary
status of women must be found
there must be some cultural or sociological regularities that
must account for male dominance.
 the inequalities are due to the fact that societies place
different values on biological sex
 and apparently universally value female sex lower than
male sex
Which card is
ranked higher?
Anthropological Theories of Gender
Inequality
• political power that results from the ability to give &
receive goods in exchange (redistribution)
• allows for sexual stratification in non-class societies
• female status dependent on degree to which men &
women participate in activities of reproduction,
warfare, subsistence
• not rights & control over production but rights of
distribution & control over channels of distribution
critical for gender stratification
RETHINKING SUBORDINATION
• Ardener - muted models that underlie male
discourse
• diversity of one life or many lives
• gender roles, stereotypes, stratification
– changes over time
– changes with position in lifecycle
– status of men & women i.e. in male dominant
societies
• decision making roles belong to men but as women
reach menopause; change with marriage status, virgins,
wives, widows (and men)
RETHINKING SUBORDINATION
• women, like men, are social actors who work
in structured ways to achieve desired ends
• formal authority structure of a society may
declare that women are impotent & irrelevant
• but attention to women's strategies & motives,
sorts of choices, relationships established, ends
achieved indicates women have good deal of
power
• strategies appear deviant & disruptive
– actual components of how social life proceeds