Sex vs. Gender
GENDER-RELATED BEHAVIOR
Concepts
Sex vs. Gender
Biological vs. Social Male
Biological vs. Social Female
Third Genders
Berdache
Hijras
fa’afafines
Guevodoche
Eunuchs
Castrati
Pseudo-hermaphroditism
Institutionalized Homosexuality
Patriarchal Society
Matriarchal Society
Uniformitarianism
Occam's Razor
Correlation does not prove causality.
Typical does not mean "natural."
A
Ethnobiology
constant cannot explain a variable.
Dichotomous vs. Continuous Sexual Paradigm
Aristotelian
vs.
essentialist
vs.
Infrastructure

Structure
Galilean
conditional

Superstructure
Calpernia Addams is a
pre-operative transsexual
Hermaphrodites
a.k.a.
Intersexuals
Jamie Lee Curtis
* * * * *
Male or Female?
Dr. Anne Fausto-Sterling has proposed that
we replace our two-sex system with a five-sex
system:
1. Males
2. Females,
3. Herms ("true" hermaphrodites)
4. Merms (male "pseudohermaphrodites")
5. Ferms
(female "pseudohermaphrodites")
From a Dichotomous to a Continuous
Model of Sexuality
Dichotomous
Male
Female
Continuous
Male
Female
Forms of Sexuality
In Nature
Typological Approach:
•
The categories are real.
•
Race, species, sex, cultures, etc.
•
Behavior is explained in terms of the
categories. (Aristotelian)
Population Approach:
•
Individuals are real.
•
•
Categories are only abstractions.
Behavior is explained in terms of
conditional factors. (Galileian)
Classification of the Cassowary
among the Karem of New Guinea
SOURCE: “Why the Cassowary is not a bird”, R. Bulmer, Man, Vol. 2, Issue 1, (Mar. 1967)
Species Hybridization
Mallard – Pintail
Hybridization
Species Hybridization
Coyote
Red Wolf
Gray Wolf
Circular Overlap
Asymmetrical
Sterility
Male
Female
YES
NO
Female
Male
Homosexuality
•
64% of human societies surveyed either condone of encourage samesex relationships.
•
•
•
Platonic love in ancient Greece
•
Presentation of the body (with women)
•
Presentation of the mind (with men)
•
Greek soldiers brought young boys on military campaigns
Azande military homosexuality
•
Warriors have boy-wives
•
Boy wives become warriors with their own boy-wives
The Sambia of Highland New Guinea
•
Boys Fallate older men
•
Build up store of semen
•
Prohibition against masturbation
Third Genders
Hijras
Two Spirits
Fa’afafines
(Berdache)
Guevodoche
Castrati
Sworn Albanian Virgins
Eunuchs
Sunflowers
Gender-Related
Behavior
GENDER-RELATED BEHAVIOR
Concepts
Sex vs. Gender
Biological vs. Social Male
Biological vs. Social Female
Third Genders
Berdache
Hijras
fa’afafines
Eunuchs
Guevodoche
Castrati
Pseudo-hermaphroditism
Institutionalized Homosexuality
Patriarchal Society
Matriarchal Society
Uniformitarianism
Occam's Razor
Correlation does not prove causality.
Typical does not mean "natural."
A constant cannot explain a variable.
Ethnobiology
Dichotomous vs. Continuous Sexual Paradigm
Aristotelian
vs.
essentialist
vs.
Infrastructure

Structure
Galilean
conditional

Superstructure
The issue is not whether differences exist
between men and women --which of course they
do-- but rather whether those differences are
relevant for explaining differences in behavior
from one society to the next.
“There are more methodological problems in
regards to the study of cognitive sex differences
and sex differences in general than there are
actual sex differences.”
--Dr. Caroline Jaklin
The Role of Prediction in Science.
(Given a, . . . Then b.)
•
The goal of scientific research is to develop theories and
models that lead to better and better predictions of behavior.
•
Predictability is, thus, fundamental to doing science.
•
Yet, predictability is severely lacking in sex-difference
research.
•
“We gain little in prediction by knowing the sex of a child.”
(Jacklin)
•
Differences generally range from 1- 5% when, in fact, they
differ (Caplan & Caplan)
•
Which means that between 95 - 99% of sex-related behavior
is indistinguishable
Why Does Sex-Difference Research Persist?
•
Given all of the methodological problems associated
with such studies and the consistently small (and
frequently non-existent) differences found, it is
reasonable to ask why such research persists?
•
Would we continue to conduct such inconclusive
research in physics, chemistry, biology or medicine?
•
Would we continue to fund research that after 30
years could not point to conclusive results?
•
Whose interests might be served by such research?
Aristotelian approaches to
the study of Sex and Gender
Commonly used
Aristotelian
Concepts:
Maternal Instinct
Patriarchal Society
Male Aggressiveness
Machismo
Human Nature
Matriarchal Society
Aristotelian concepts of Gender cannot explain . . .
1. Why Net-hunter Pygmy women enjoy a higher social status than
archer women.
2. Why Yanomamo women have much lower social status than
Dobe !Kung women, or why they also have a lower social status
than women in most other Amazonian societies.
3. Why Inuit (Eskimo) women have among the lowest social status
of all women in hunter-gatherer societies.
or . . .
. . . why the role of women and their status in both the
domestic and political economy changed dramatically
among the Plains Indians as they moved onto the Great
Plains and became increasingly dependent on mounted
bison hunting.
1. Among the Sioux, the Cheyenne and other eastern tribes,
the family structure changed from being matrilocal and
matrilineal extended kin groups to individualized
patrilocal and polygynous ones.
2. Among the western Plains Indians, such as the Blackfoot,
which had previously been organized along extended
patrilocal and patrilineal lines evolved male-focused
independent polygynous households.
or . . .
. . . why most of those executed for witchcraft in
Europe and North America during the Great Witch
Craze were women, whereas most of the Pueblo Indians
in the Southwest that were executed as witches by the
early Spanish Conquistadors were men.
. . . or why most witches among the Pueblo, Apache
and Navajo in the American Southwest are believed to be
men.
. . . or why among the Yoruba of Nigeria, not only
do most men suspect their wives of witchcraft, but most
women suspect their co-wives and their mothers-in-law
of witchcraft.
or . . .
. . . Or why . . .
1. 47% of the 95 societies she surveyed were "rape-free",
while 17% proved to be "unambiguously rape-prone.”
2. The Ashanti of West Africa and the Mbuti Pygmies of
the Ituri Forest are rape-free societies, whereas 47.2
rapes per 100,000 persons were recorded for the Gusii
of Kenya.
3. The highest rape rate among Industrial societies occurs
in the U.S. at 13.5 rapes per 100,000 inhabitants. In
contrast, the incidence of rape in Japan, a more
“patriarchal” society than the U.S., is far below that of
the U.S.
_________________________________________
SOUCE: B. L. Benderly, “Rape Free or Rape Prone” Science 82 (1982)
. . . why female income relative to male income in the U.S.
increased from 59¢ to 60¢ per dollar between 1960 and 1980,
whereas it increased from 60¢ to 73¢ per dollar between 1980
and 1990 (during the politically conservative Reagan and
Bush administrations), and only increased from 73¢ to 76¢
per dollar between 1992 and 2000, when Bill Clinton and Al
Gore were in office.
. . . or why average female income increased 10% from
1979 to 1990, while average male income decreased by 8%.
. . . or why White female employment increased 72%
between 1974 and 1977 at the same time that Black male
employment declined by 11%.
. . . or why there was a dramatic increase during the 1970s
and 1980s in the number of individuals in the U.S. claiming:
1. to have recovered memories of childhood sexual
abuse by family members
2. to have recovered memories of sexual abuse
by members of satanic cults
3. to believe that they possessed multiple personalities.
. . . or why:
1. this was a distinctly American phenomenon
2. the overwhelming majority (over 90%) of these
individuals were white middle class females.
. . . why M. Konner reports that 57 out of 94 studies of
aggression showed "statistically significant sex differences" in
aggressive behavior.
1.
in 52 of the 57 studies that showed gender differences
in aggressive behavior,boys were more aggressive
than girls.
2. In 5 of the studies, girls were more aggressive than
boys.
3. In 37 studies there were no gender difference in
aggression.
Gender Differences in Wages
Discrimination
Or
Adaptation?
RE: the Census Bureau statistic that women earn 76% of
what men earn.
“Among women and men aged 27 to 33, who have never
had a child, the earnings of women in the National
Longitudinal Survey of Youth are close to 98 percent of
men’s.”
--June O’Neill, Director
Congressional Budget Office
“It’s the vast majority of us who become mothers who
are responsible for dragging the average down.”
--Danielle Crittenden
New York Times (1995)
Effect of the Differential Opportunity Costs
of Men’s vs. Women’s labor
1. ”Although the role of children is typically ignored in
studies of male labor supply and wage
discrimination, fatherhood has quantitatively and
statistically significant effects on both outcomes.”
2. “Because we observe increases in both hourly
wages and annual hours of work for fathers,
increased specialization of husbands and wives in
response to parenthood is the dominant pattern for
both early (pre-1950) and later (post-1950) cohorts.”
--Lundberg & Rose (2002)
“Tests indicate that housework has approximately
the same impact on wages for men and women
who are not currently married, but that the
negative relation is somewhat stronger for married
women as compared with married men. Evidence
suggests that this differential could be due to
gender differences in the type of housework
performed by married persons.”
--Hersch and Stratton (2002)
Gender Stereotypes
Women and Violence
•
Women commit the majority of child homicides in the
U.S.
•
Women commit the majority of physical child abuse in
the U.S.
•
Women commit about 25% of the child sexual abuse in
the U.S.
•
Women are primarily responsible for infanticide.
•
30% of the women who killed men in one Chicago study
had previous arrest records for assault, battery, and
weapons charges.
Domestic Violence
in
Gay and Lesbian
Relationships
Domestic Violence in Gay and Lesbian Relationships
Kelly & Warshafsky (1986):
46% of gay and lesbians reported using
physical aggression for conflict resolution
with their partners.
Brand & Kidd (1986):
25% of lesbians surveyed reported that they had
been physically abused by their lesbian partners.
Coleman (1990):
Of 90 lesbian couples surveyed, 46% experienced
“repeated acts of violence in their relationships.”
Reyes (1991):
26% of lesbians reported physical, sexual and
emotional abuse in their current same-sex
relationship.
Renzetti (1996):
22-46% of all lesbians have been in a physically
violent, same-sex relationship.
“Arm Candy”
Are these women “victims” of
“patriarchy”, or active participants
in socially accepted gender roles?
Are they being “exploited”, or are
they using the resources they have
to their own advantage?
Comparing the State of Children
1960
5%
1990
Children born to unwed mothers
28%
7%
Children under 3 living with one parent
27%
1%
Children under 18 experiencing the
divorce of their parents
50%
17%
Mothers returning to work within
one year of a child’s birth
53%
10%
Children under 18 living in a
one-parent family
25%
19%
Married women with children under
6 years old in the labor force
60%
______________________________________________
SOURCE: New York Times
Females are capable of taking up arms . . .
One-third of Columbian
rebel soldiers are female.
. . . and killing people
Violent
Women
Jenny Metcalf
Pearl Hart
Circle Piru Blood
French
Undercover
Policewoman
Children’s Military Training in China
Afghan Military Parade
The
Widow’s
Battalion
Black Widows
Rodeo Champion
Helen Bonham, 1917
Champion Cowgirls
1920
Bonnie McCarroll
Pendleton Roundup, 1915
Annie Oakley, 1890s
May Lillie, 1908
Sharpshooter
Southwestern Cowgirl
1880s
Female Army Scout
1896
Women in Politics
We need more women in politics because women are more
nurturing and will transform the political arena.
--Katherine Brown, 1992 Democratic Convention
•
Margaret Thatcher
•
Gale Norton
•
Indira Gandhi
•
Christie Whitman
•
Golda Meir
•
Phyllis Schlafly
•
Madeleine Albright
•
Condolezza Rice
•
Queen Elizabeth
•
Biljana Plavsic
•
Katherine the Great
Ashoura
Women participate in rituals promoting “manhood”.
GENDER-RELATED BEHAVIOR
Concepts
Sex
vs. Gender
Third Genders
Biological vs. Social Male
Biological vs. Social Female
Berdache
fa’afafines
Eunuchs
Hijras
Guevodoche
Castrati
Pseudo-hermaphroditism
Institutionalized Homosexuality
Patriarchal Society
Matriarchal Society
Uniformitarianism
Occam's Razor
Correlation does not prove causality.
Typical does not mean "natural."
A constant cannot explain a variable.
Ethnobiology
Dichotomous vs. Continuous Sexual Paradigm
Aristotelian
vs.
Galilean
essentialist
vs.
conditional
Infrastructure

Structure

Superstructure
The Cost of Being a Male
Men Commit Suicide at a Much Higher Rate than Women
Male suicide is
significantly higher
than female suicide
among the elderly as
well.
The suicide rate for
men over 85 is
1,350% higher than
for women of the
same age.
Men are also far more likely than women to be the victims
of violent crime . . .
Healthy Life Expectancy Rankings
World Health Organization Disability Adjusted Life Expectancy (DALE)
Rank
Country
Total
Male
Female
M/F
1
Japan
74.5
71.9
77.2
-5.3
2
Australia
73.2
70.8
75.5
-4.7
3
France
73.1
69.3
76.9
- 7.6
4
Sweden
73.0
71.2
74.9
-3.7
5
Spain
72.8
69.8
75.7
-5.9
6
Italy
72.7
70.0
75.4
-5.4
7
Greece
72.5
70.5
74.6
-4.1
8
Switzerland
72.5
69.5
75.5
-6.0
9
Monaco
72.4
68.5
76.3
-7.8
10
Andorra
72.3
69.3
75.2
-5.9
*
24
U.S.A
*
*
*
*
70.0
67.5
72.6
-5.1
81
China
62.3
61.2
63.3
-2.1
134
India
53.2
52.8
53.5
-0.7
Titanic
Death Toll
Death on the Titanic
Significantly, of the 1,513 passengers who lost their lives,
1,352 were men, but only 161 were women and children.
While 80% of the men perished, only 26% of the women
lost their lives.
The survival rate of the women was 3 times that of the
men.
Breaker Boys in the Coal Mines
These men lost their legs
due to the Taliban.
The Taliban also cut off this boys arms.
Only men are expected to
be prepared to die for
their country.
*
*
*
Imagine what would
happen if an Affirmative
Action policy were put in
place to draft only
women?
Bloody Lane at Chancellorsville
The Slaughter at Gettysberg
Men Waiting to be Sent into Battle
at Petersburg
The Cornfield at Antietem
Military Casualties in World War I (1914-1918)
Belgium
British Empire
France
Greece
Italy
Japan
Montenegro
Portugal
Romania
Russia
Serbia
United States
Austria-Hungary
Bulgaria
Germany
Ottoman Empire
_______________
TOTAL
45,550
942,135
1,368,000
23,098
680,000
1,344
3,000
8,145
300,000
1,700,000
45,000
116,516
1,200,000
87,495
1,935,000
725,000
_________
9,180,283
Vietnam War Death Toll
Combat Area Casualties Current File
(CACCF)
[Southeast Asia]
in the Records of the Office of the Secretary of Defense
CACCF Record Counts by Sex
Sex
Female . . .
No. of Records
8
Male . . . . .
58,185
_____________
___________
Total
58,193
Iraq War
•
Over 600 soldiers have died in the Iraq war.
•
How many have been male?
•
How many have been female?
Over 17 million men
died in combat
during World War II.
Amount Spent on Gender-Specific Cancer Research
by National Cancer Institute (NCI)
No. of Deaths
Amount Spent
(in millions)
Prostrate Cancer (male)
35,000
$ 55.1
46,000
$ 213.7
$1,574 per death
Breast Cancer (female)
$4,645 per death
*
*
*
*
*
3 times as much money is spent per death on breast cancer
research as is spent on prostrate cancer research.
Finis
GENDER-RELATED BEHAVIOR
Concepts
Sex vs. Gender
Biological vs. Social Male
Biological vs. Social Female
Third Genders
Berdache
Hijras
fa’afafines
Guevodoche
Eunuchs
Castrati
Pseudo-hermaphroditism
Institutionalized Homosexuality
Patriarchal Society
Matriarchal Society
Uniformitarianism
Occam's Razor
Correlation does not prove causality.
Typical does not mean "natural."
A constant cannot explain a variable.
Ethnobiology
Dichotomous vs. Continuous Sexual Paradigm
Aristotelian
vs.
essentialist
vs.
Infrastructure

Structure
Galilean
conditional

Superstructure
Somewhere, deep in the Batcave . . .
Batman: Did you know, Robin, that women's earnings relative to men increased
from 59 to 60 cents on the dollar between 1960 and 1980; from 60 to 73
cents on the dollar between 1980 and 1990, and from 73 to 76 cents on
the dollar between 1990 and 1998. That means that women's earnings
increased annually some 26 times during the conservative Reagan and
Bush Administrations as it did during the largely liberal democratic
administrations of Kennedy, Johnson and Carter, and at more than
twice the rate in which it has increased during the present Clinton
Administration, despite our President's "special relationship" with
women.
Robin:
Holy Hilary, Batman!! How can this be? I have been raised as a true
and loyal liberal to believe that the Republican Party represents the
epitome of greed, cruelty and evil!
Batman: The Lord works in mysterious ways, my young friend.