Richard T. Schaefer
Fifth Edition
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Chapter Seven: Inequality by Gender
McGraw-Hill/Irwin © 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. © 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Inequality by Gender
7-3
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The Social Construction of Gender
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Sociological Perspectives on Gender
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Women: The Oppressed Majority
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Women in the Workforce of the United States
© 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Social Construction of Gender
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Gender roles : expectations regarding proper behavior, attitudes, and activities of males and females
– We socially construct our behavior to create or exaggerate male-female differences
U.S. still focuses on “masculine” and “feminine” qualities
© 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Gender Role Socialization
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Homophobia : fear of and prejudice against homosexuality
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Adults, older siblings, mass media, religious institutions, and educational institutions exert important influence
Parents are normally the first and most crucial agents of socialization
© 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Women’s and Men’s Gender Roles
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Created in part by identifying with females and males in families, neighborhoods, and in the media
– Women experience a mandate to marry and become mothers
© 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
9/5/2012
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9/5/2012
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Gender Roles in the United States
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Society defines men’s roles in terms of economic success
– Brannon and Doyle: male gender role
• Antifeminite element
• Success element
• Aggressive element
• Sexual element
• Self-reliant element
© 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Gender Roles in the United States
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Increasing numbers of men in U.S. criticized restrictive aspects of traditional male gender role
– Multiple masculinities : men play variety of gender roles, including a nurturing-caring role and effeminate-gay role, in addition to traditional gender role of dominating women
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© 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Cross-Cultural Perspective
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Anthropologists have documented highly diverse constructions of gender that do not always conform to out own ideals of masculinity and femininity
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There appear to be no innate or biologically determined gender roles for men and women
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© 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Sociological Perspectives on Gender
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The Functionalist View
– Contributes to overall social stability
• Instrumentality : emphasis on tasks
• Expressiveness : maintenance of harmony and internal emotional affairs of family
Dividing tasks between spouses was functional for the family as a unit
7-10
© 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Sociological Perspectives on Gender
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The Conflict Response
– Functionalist approach masks underlying power relations between men and women
– Relationship between females and males traditionally one of unequal power
– View gender differences as reflection of subjugation of one group (women) by another group (men)
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© 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Sociological Perspectives on Gender
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The Feminist Perspective
– Engels argued women’s subjugation coincided with rise of private property
– Many contemporary theorists view subordination as part of overall exploitation and injustice inherent in capitalist societies
– Matrix of domination : convergence of social forces that contribute to subordinate status of poor, non-white women
© 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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9/5/2012
Sociological Perspectives on Gender
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The Interactionist Approach
– Tend to examine gender stratification on micro level of everyday behavior
– We “do gender” by reinforcing traditionally masculine and feminine actions
– Continuing investigation of role of gender in cross-sex conversations (crosstalk)
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© 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Table 7-2: Sociological Perspectives on Gender
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© 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Women: The Oppressed Majority
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Sexism and Sex Discrimination
– Sexism
• Ideology that one sex is superior to the other
– Individual acts of sexism and institutional sexism occur
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Sexual Harassment
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Behavior that occurs when work benefits are made contingent on sexual favors or when touching lewd comments, or the appearance of pornographic material creates a hostile environment in the workplace
© 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Figure 7-2: Trends in U.S.
Women’s Participation in the Labor Force, 1890-2008
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Women in the
Workforce of the U.S.
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Gender bias limits women’s opportunities for employment outside of home and forces them to carry disproportionate burden inside the home
– Labor force participation
– Glass ceiling
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© 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
The Social Consequences of
Women’s Employment
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Clear gender gap in the performance of housework, although differences narrowing
– Second shift : work outside the home followed by child care and housework
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© 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. © 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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