Sexual stratification
Prior Knowledge:
•
•
•
•
What is feminism?
When did it start?
Where is it now?
Is it everywhere?
Feminism
1. Belief in the social, political, and economic
equality of the sexes.
2. The movement organized around this belief.
Feminism
• General movement to empower women worldwide.
• Feminism can be defined as a recognition and
critique of male supremacy with efforts to change
it.
Goals
– Demonstrate the importance of women
– To reveal that historically women have been subordinate to
men
– To bring about gender equity.
When did women first get to vote?
•
•
•
•
1918
2015
1920
1893
Simply put
Feminists fight for the equality of women
and argue that women should share
equally in society’s opportunities and scare
resources.
History
• First wave feminism (1830 – 1930) - suffrage
movements - women's right to vote (Susan B.
Anthony)
• Second Wave – Legal and social equality (Bette
Friedan)
• Third Wave – Rights for women around the world,
women assertive, powerful, and in control of their
own sexuality
History
• The origins of the feminist movement are found in
the abolitionist movement of the 1830’s.
History (first wave)
• Suffrage movement (women should vote)
• Conservative Christians
• Matrimonial Causes Act in 1923 gave women the right
to divorce same as men.
• Blacks NOT permitted
History
• The convention marked a 22 year battle to gain
women the right to vote in the United States.
• 1917 Canada allows women to vote (Quebec 1940)
• 1920 U.S. women won the
• right to vote.
Max Weber
Weber thought that women should be treated
equally in the social institution of marriage, along
with all the other social institutions. Ahead of his time
Second Wave
• Began in the 1960’s.
– Free love helped escape the sexual
double standard.
– Divorce became commonplace
– Women reject “happy housewife”
– Higher level employment and fulfillment
outside the home were becoming the norm
Bette Friedan
• 1957, Friedan was asked to conduct a survey of
College classmates
• Found that many of them were unhappy with their
lives as housewives (though wealthy)
• Prompted her to begin research for “The Feminine
Mystique”
• Became Manifesto of movement
“A problem without a name”
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Classmates were “successful”
Married, stay at home moms
Middle, upper middle, upper class
Unhappy
Popped pills (tranquilizers)
Thought it was them
What was “the problem”?
Liberal Feminism
• All people are created equal and should not
be denied equality of opportunity because
of gender (Murdered Mozarts)
• Liberal Feminists focus their efforts on
social change through new laws and
regulation of employment practices
Liberal Feminism
• Inequality stems from the denial of equal
rights.
• The primary obstacle to equality is sexism.
Marxist Feminism
• Division of labor is related to gender role
expectations.
• Females give birth. Males left to support
family
• Bourgeoisie = Men
• Proletariat = Women
• All jobs became equal
in
communist states
Radical Feminism
• Male power and privilege is the basis of
social relations
• Sexism is the ultimate tool used by men
to keep women oppressed
Beliefs
• Women are the first oppressed group
(historically) True or False?
• Women's oppression is the most widespread
(as opposed to racism) ???
• Women’s oppression is the deepest
Radical Feminism Tenets
• Men control the norms of acceptable sexual
behavior
• Refusing to reproduce is ultimate act
• Do not take husbands name
• Do not conform to traditional view
of “feminine”
Socialist Feminism
• Views women’s oppression as stemming
from their work in the family and the
economy
– An increased emphasis on the private sphere
and the role of women in the household
– Equal opportunities for women in the public
sphere
Third wave
• Attempts to criticize the
dominant order
• About reproductive rights (abortion), rape, sexism,
AIDS effect on family
• Rejects claim that only rational, scientific
methodology can lead to valid knowledge (using “I”
in essays, informal, friendly academic writings).
Third wave
• Realization that women are of "many colors,
ethnicities, nationalities, religions and cultural
backgrounds“ (second wave was all about white
middle-class women).
• No all-encompassing single feminist tenet
Third Wave
• Looking to the past is no longer the way to
go.
• We are a global economic world highlighted
by technology.
• “Girl Power”
http://g4gyourebeautiful.blogspot.com/2012/01/girl-power.html
•
•
•
•
•
Meant for girls to take
charge of their sexuality
Mixed messages of hyper-sexuality
Media movement - Spice Girls
Co-opted by media
Little girls can be anything they want when they grow
up (Barbie)
• Gets politicized – adapted by punks
• Also associated to Riot Grrrl (video)
R
I
o
t
G
r
r
r
l
•Punk meets feminism
•Violence and overt
actions
•Pussy Riot in Moscow
(still in jail)
Dorothy E. Smith
Family
• North American family – legally married couple sharing a
household
• Male earns the primary income and female cares for
family and household
– Ideals reinforced by Martha Stewart, Home and Gardens, etc.
• Today’s family presents many variations
• Found that many women get caught up in the role that
society expects of them
• Difficult to divorce – WHY? (hint – stratification)
Dorothy E. Smith
Schooling
• Issues concerning girls and
women in schooling
• Universities and colleges have
incorporated successful programs, but
public schools have not
• Change so girls a larger say in school
dynamics
Patricia Hill Collins
Black Feminism
Focus of sociological theory should be
the “outsider” groups
Especially those that lack a “voice”
• Three key themes in black feminism:
– The Meaning of Self-Definition and Self-Valuation
– The Interlocking Nature of Oppression
– The Importance of African-American Women’s
Culture
Patricia Hill Collins
Black Feminism
• The Interlocking Nature of Oppression
– Gender, race, and class are interconnected
– Society through media teaches black women
that racism, sexism, and poverty are inevitable
– Awareness will help black women unite their
fight against oppression and discrimination
Carol Gilligan
Developmental Theory
Noticed males were reluctant to discuss feelings
• morally undeveloped
• Men and women do have differences in moral
reasoning: Justice orientation (male) versus Care
(female)
Carol Gilligan
–When girls are quiet in relationships,
depression and eating disorders enter
–When girls are outspoken in relationships,
partners find it difficult to remain in the
relationship
Joan Jacobs Brumberg
Females Bodies and Self-image
• Western society is obsessed with the
female body.
• The mass media reinforces an ideal
image that girls seek to reach
• Girls put more emphasis on good
looks than good work.
Gender Differences
• Girls suffer clinical depression form the frustration
they experience when their bodies changes.
• more vulnerable to eating disorders, substance
abuse, and dropping out of school than boys.
• By thirteen, 53 percent of American girls are
unhappy with their bodies
• by seventeen, 78 percent are dissatisfied.
Society’s Influence
• Women find a sense of self in their bodies
• Today many young girls worry about the contours
of the bodies especially shape, size, and muscle
tone.
• Fashion and the film industry are two huge
influences on societal expectations that
women display their bodies sexually.
• The sexual revolution liberated women
from sexual repression but led to a
commitment to diet and beauty.
Role of Mass Media
• Men routinely hold positions of power in
media production and create normative
expectations (what we think we should look
like)
• new “problem without a name” - so firmly
entrenched in media that most women don’t
even question it
Women's’ role in Media (Canada)
women dominate the clerical field (secretaries) in
screen industry (85%), they account for just under:
• 10% of directors
• 15% of film and video camera operators
• 22% of film and television editors
• 4% of grip lighting positions
• 13% of computer programmers (EKOS, 2004).
• Only represent 24.9% of the Canadian ICT labour
force (ICTC, 2007)
In USA
• of the top 100 movies of 2005-2008, only 2-5%
were directed by women (ImbD, 2009) down
from 7% in 2000 (Lauzen, 2005).
• 2% of cinematographers
• Only 13% of the writers
• 17% of all executive producers. (Lauzen, 2005).
Who cares?
• “I’m watching these shows and movies
with my daughter, and counting
the number of male characters and female
characters, and three out of four characters in Grated movies are male. We studied the top 100
movies released from 1990 to 2005. Of characters
shown in groups, only 17% were female. And of the
few female characters that were in these movies,
most of them were highly stereotyped. So what is
the message we send to kids? (Geena Davis, 2007)
We imitate what we see
• “Normative Reflexivity.”
• We live and learn our behaviour through the
media (Johansson, 2007) and find gender
relations and expectations through media
representations.
SO whoever makes TV and film gets to decide
what we want to be (or think we are)
MELISSA SILVERSTEIN, "Men Directed 85% of TV Shows Last Season" SEPTEMBER 28, 2012 (October 12, 2012).
http://blogs.indiewire.com/womenandhollywood/men-directed-85-of-tv-show-last-season
Problem?
• Women outnumber men in Canadian universities
(61%), but women entering ICT at has declined by
18.2% in the past ten years (StatsCan, 2012)
• Women made up only 36 percent of all students
entering US film school (Kearney, 2006)
• Of 491 active members on the W3C HTML Working
Group, the group that controls how web works just 15 are women. (Holzschlag, 2007);
• Females accounted for only 11.5% of workers in the
Game Development Industry (Deuze, 2006);
Gamingcreators: You’re really not
helping
• Typical portrayal of women in games:
Of course you don’t look like this:
Some geek DREW her!
Sid Myers “Pirates”
And?
• When girls don’t produce they don’t get to make
decisions
• Women portrayed as: bimbos, sluts, moms or
naive young girls
• Successful women portrayed as bitches (Fatal
attraction, Devil Wears Prada, Mean Girls, etc.)
CAN YOU THINK OF MORE EXAMPLES?
So what?
• research has suggested that when programs
employed women in pivotal positions such as
writer, creator, or executive producer, the creative
product was different. Remarkably, the employment
of just a single woman creator or writer on a
situation comedy or drama was associated with
significantly different on-screen portrayals of both
female and male characters when compared to
programs with all-male creators and writers”
(Lauzen and Dozier, 2002)
A new Hope?
Shows produced, directed and written by women:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
How I met your mother (76%)
Nurse Jackie (Nurse Productions/Showtime) – 60% - women creators
Jessie (It’s a Laugh Productions/Disney Channel) – 58% - women creator
The Walking Dead (Stalwart Films/AMC) – 53%
Grimm (Open 4 Business Productions/NBC) – 48%
Girls (Home Box Office/HBO) – 44% - women creator
90210 (CBS Broadcasting/CW) – 42%
Dexter (Showtime Pictures Development Company/Showtime) – 42%
Don’t Trust the Bitch in Apartment 23 (Twentieth Century Fox Television/ABC) – 42% - women creator
The Big C (Remote Broadcasting/Showtime) – 40% - women creator
30 Rock (NBC Studios/NBC) – 36% women creator
The Good Wife (CBS Broadcasting/CBS) – 36% - women co-creator
Raising Hope (Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation/FOX) – 36%
Smash (NBC Studios/NBC) – 36% - women creator
CSI: NY (CBS Broadcasting/CBS) – 33% - women co-creators
Grey’s Anatomy (ABC Studios/ABC) – 33% - women creator
Psych (Universal Network Television/USA) – 31%
Torchwood: Miracle Day (Bad Wolf Productions/Starz!) – 30%
Still room for improvement
• Two Broke Girls - 9% written or directed by women
Castle, Cougar Town, Gossip Girl, 13%
New Girl, Parks & Recreation – 11%
The Vampire Diaries -14%
Some improvement
• Women now make up 41% of all journalists in
North America (Peters, 1999)
• 60%v of all journalism students are women
• on-line fan participation close to 80% (Jenkins,
2006)
Critiques of Feminism
• Very biased in their approach.
• relying on such techniques as oral
testimony and the analysis of such
content a diaries risk a lack of
objectivity and bias.
More criticism
• Feminists claim that all sociological theories
are gender-biased but fail to provide any
proof of this claim.
• Gender is just one variable in human
interaction, NOT just gender