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Retrieved July 29, 2007 from:
http://web.clas.ufl.edu/users/kjoos/spring03/syg2000/0226_doinggendernotes.html
Introduction to Doing Gender article by West & Zimmerman, 1987
West is a Professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, Sociology Department.
Her research areas include language and social interaction, the sociology of gender,
conversation analysis, and microanalysis and medicine.
Zimmerman is a Professor of Sociology at University of California Santa Barbara. His
research has been concerned with the issue of how mechanisms of ordinary talk are
adapted to requirements emergency telephone calls. In collaboration with Gene Lerner,
he has recently begun to study peer interaction among very young children.
Conclusion
1. "Doing Gender" is an article whose main contribution is its reconceptualization of
gender as not so much a set of traits residing with individuals, but as something people do
in their social interactions. As such, gender is fundamentally about social interaction and
relationship:
-it is embedded in every aspects of everyday interactions that one's actions in doing
gender simultaneously produces, reproduces, sustains and legitimates the social meanings
accorded to gender. Here, the key concept is that of accountability
-that, insofar as society is structured according to sex categorization of male/female
dichotomy, people come to be required to be accountable for every action they perform to
be appropriate to one's sex category. In this sense, the authors argue that gender is
extremely fundamental in all aspects of social relationships in the sense that one cannot
avoid doing gender if one wants to make actions accountable.
2. The authors argue against the notion that gender is a role, or that it is a display. It is not
merely a role, for while roles are situated identities, gender is a master identity that cut
across situations. Further, to characterize gender as display is also misleading, as display
implies something not so fundamental and limited aspect of human interaction.
3. The authors also argue that to fully appreciate what is involved in asserting gender as a
fundamental guiding principle embedded in all aspects of everyday interaction, three
analytically distinct yet empirically overlapping concepts must be distinguished clearly.
They are the concepts of sex, sex category and gender. Sex is a determination made
through the application of socially agreed upon biological criteria for classifying persons
as females or males. Sex category, while achieved through application of sex criteria, acts
as a proxy for categorization based on "sex" in everyday life and thus it is established and
sustained by the socially required identificatory displays that proclaim one's membership
in one or the other category. It is important to note that it is possible to claim membership
in a sex category even if one lacks the required traits based on biological "sex". Gender is
the activity. It is the activities of managing situated conduct in light of normative
conceptions of attitudes and activities appropriate for one's sex category. Basically, the
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argument seems to be that while sex categorization depends on the commonsense
categorization, in the sense that people are categorized into either male or female sex
category automatically insofar as certain traits grossly contradict that categorization,
gender involves far more complex set of recipes for activities that must be modified
subtly according to different situations.
4. Once again, gender is so fundamental that any type of social interactions and activities
are potentially subject to "doing gender" - that is, making one's actions accountable in
terms of their appropriateness to sex category. The authors call these situations as
"resources" for doing gender.
By doing gender, it in turn has the effect of reinforcing the notion of "essential difference
between females and males". That is, these gendered activities are not so much
expressions of natural gender differences but the very act of the production of these
differences. In fact, the fact that gender differences are made to appear natural and
essential through "doing gender" is crucial in maintaining the status quo of subordination
of women to men, the authors state. Though such conclusion is of course not new, the
authors state that in order to attain effective change modification in cultural and
institutional aspects of sex category, as well as at the interactional level, are necessary.
Note:
-We all "do gender" constantly. "Gender performances" are NOT just something done in
rare exotic/"deviant" situations like "drag queens." We ALL "do gender" everyday... the
way you do your hair, the clothes you wear, whether or not you shave and where you
shave, the scented products you put on, the way you walk and carry yourself, the way you
talk, even the way you're sitting right now are all part of how your communicate your
gender to others.