Inequalities of Gender
& Sexual Orientation
Chapter 9
The Problem in Sociological
Perspective
• Sex is the major sorting device in
every society in the world
• The development of sexism as a
social problem (objective &
subjective conditions)
• Helen Hacker: first to apply the term
minority to women
• Sexism: belief that one sex is innately
superior to the other and the
discrimination that results
The Scope of the Problem
• Is male dominance universal?
• Men’s domination of society has been
in continuous existence throughout
virtually the entire globe from the
earliest times to the present
• Most work is Sex-typed: associated
with one sex or the other
• Universally, men’s activities are
always given greater prestige
• It is the sex that is associated with
the work that provides its prestige,
MAJOR AREAS OF
DISCRIMINATION
•
•
•
•
•
Political and legal
Education
Economic
Social
Women’s three major roles—
sister/daughter, wife, and mother—fit
this pattern of discrimination
Symbolic Interactionism
• Sex: the different biological equipment
of males and females
• Gender: how we express our
“maleness” or “femaleness”
• Socialization into gender roles
– Gender Accomplishment
• Sex is a Master Trait, cutting across all
other identities in life
• Difficulties of Interpretation
– Parents teach gender roles
subconsciously
– Most symbolic interactionists assume
that gender differences are learned
– Stereotypes applied at birth tend to
become reality through the self-fulfilling
prophecy and continued socialization
practices
– Gender bending
Functionalism
• “Rewards for Warriors”
– Social—the necessity to survive warfare
– Biological—innate differences in the physical
strength of men and women
• “Reproduction”
– Throughout history, a woman has been
encumbered physically—unable to participate
fully in the labor market
• Ultimate result was a Patriarchal Society
• But, origins vs. maintenance of power
Conflict Theory
• PRINCIPLES OF POWER
– Power yields privilege
– Privileged lifestyles of powerful encourage
them to feel they are superior beings
– To bolster their feelings of superiority, the
powerful clothe themselves with
ideologies that justify their position
– As the powerful cling to their privileges,
they use social institutions to maintain their
power
FGM - 130m worldwide
• The struggle for equality
• 1800s, Almost every woman was under
the legal control of a man, either a
father or a husband
– Suffragists: Advocates of the extension of
political voting rights to women
• Glass Ceiling: Imaginary blockade
keeping women from achieving greater
success in the workplace
Research Findings
• Are There Natural Differences Between
the Sexes?
– Difficulty of separating culture from biology
has plagued researchers
– First explanation focuses on socialization
in childhood
– SAT—Scholastic Assessment Test
(SAT)
– “All apparent sex differences in
intelligence may be explained by early
learning and continual reinforcement.”
– Machismo—an overt demonstration of
• Studies of animals
– Testosterone—a hormone produced by
the testicles that stimulates primary and
secondary sex traits in men
• The study of Vietnam Veterans
– U.S. government collected data on
hormone levels among Vietnam
veterans
– Further proof that testosterone plays a
role in male aggression
– Does not leave us with the ability to
• Reconciling the findings
– If biology provides males and females
differences in temperament, personality,
or predisposition in behavior, culture
often overrides those differences
– Because people are often unaware of
how environmental factors contribute to
differences among men and women,
biology presents overwhelming evidence
of “natural” and “genetic” differences
– Concerning because “different sexed”
often results in “unequal treatment.”
• Avoiding Ideology
– No conclusive evidence as to whether
nature or nurture leads to aggression,
nurturing, intelligence
– Must examine data with an open mind
– Differences between men and women has
become emotionally charged
– Data, not ideology, may one day answer the
nature versus nurture argument
Suggestion:
Rather than asking what sex or
gender is, we should explore
what sex and gender do.
Inequalities in Everyday Life
• Women encounter antagonistic attitudes
•
•
•
•
from men
Masculinity and machismo represent
strength while femininity is perceived as
weakness
Derogatory feminine terms
Most dismiss remarks as insignificant
Such comments reveal derogatory
attitude toward women and things
feminine
http://video.google.com/videoplay?doci
d=-9632437500432634#
Jackson Katz “Tough Guise”
Education
• Century ago, leading educators claimed
•
•
•
•
that women’s wombs dominated their
mental life (p. 293)
Put women at an educational
disadvantage
Women studied less than men and did
worse overall
Confirm the stereotype that women’s
brains weren’t as capable as men’s
In some countries women still overtly
discriminated against in education
“Acid attack keeps
Afghan girls away
from school”
11/14/2008
The Mass Media
• Children’s Books
• Help to shape gender roles
• Illustrated books for children are more
than entertainment
• Feminists protested stereotypes
• One gender stereotype continues to
linger in children’s books
– Females are now portrayed as doing things
that males do, but males are not portrayed
as doing things that females do
• Television
– More powerful than picture books
• Misogyny
– Hatred or strong prejudice against women
– Adult television creates and reinforces
stereotypes of gender, age, and sexuality
• Body image is key part of gender
accomplishment
– Television effective in teaching what we
“should” look like
• ADVERTISING
– Advertising is an insidious propaganda
machine for a male supremacist society
– Television advertising continues to reinforce
stereotypical gender roles
– Use of the female body—especially
exposed breasts—to sell products continues
• Mass media influences us
– Shape society’s expectations
– Parents changing how they socialize their
children
Target Women: Disney
Princesses
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRVe
Yt2BCj4&feature=player_embedded
Jean Kilbourne’s, “Still Killing Us
Softly, v. 4”
http://vodpod.com/watch/4427614-killing-us-softly-4advertisings-image-of-women
• Music
– Boys learn to dominate male–female
relationships
– Lyrics instruct girls to be sexy, passive, and
dependent
– Those who watch music videos hold more
traditional sex-role stereotypes
– Rap & rock groups glorify male sexual
aggression and revel in humiliating women
The World of Politics
• The Current Situation
– Women underrepresented in political
decision making
• Why Don’t Women Dominate
Politics?
– About 8 million more women than men are
of voting age
– Women who vote outnumber men who vote
by 9 million
Figure 9.2
Figure 9.3
• Dominance is masculine; Politics is a form
of dominance; Therefore, politics is
masculine.
– Perception imposes severe restraints on
women’s recruitment, participation, and
performance in politics
• The Power of Sex Roles
– Women are underrepresented in law and
business, the careers of politicians
– Irregular hours to run for elective office
incompatible with home life responsibilities
– Women are also less likely to have a supportive
spouse
– Men have been reluctant to bring women into
decision-making roles or to regard them as
viable candidates
Women at
Work:
historical
pattern
The World of Work
• Labor Force Participation Rate
– Percentage of those ages 16 and older who are
in the labor force at least part-time
• The Gender Pay Gap
– At all ages and at all levels of education and no
matter the type of work, the average man is
paid more than the average woman
– Between the ages of 25 and 65, the average
man who graduates from college earns about a
million dollars ($1,100,000) more than the
average woman who graduates from college
• Reasons For The Gender Pay Gap
– Tracking in education
– Women are more likely to work at types of jobs
that pay less
– Women professionals, such as physicians,
work fewer hours than men in same profession
– Above factors account for about half the pay
gap
– Other half may be attributed to pure gender
discrimination
• The Fuller-Schoenberger Study (1991)
– Women had to have higher qualifications than men in order to
be offered lower salaries!
Why Is Our Workforce
Segregated by Sex?
• The Conflict And Feminist
Perspectives
– Dual Labor Market
• The Symbolic Interactionist
Perspective
– Men perceive women as less capable,
less productive, and ultimately, less
profitable, they pay them less
• Sex discrimination tends to be selfperpetuating
Sexual Harassment
• Unsolicited sexual advances made by a
person in power
• Traditional view makes it a personal
problem
• Sexual harassment is a structural matter;
built into the marketplace
• Sexual harassment as a social problem
– Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
• Racial–ethnic lines
• Used to be perceived as an exclusively
female problem
Homosexuality
• Homosexual Behavior
– Sexual relations between people of the
same sex
• Homosexuality
– Sexual orientation involving an attraction or
preference for people of one’s own sex
• Americans more tolerant of those
practicing full-time homosexuality
• Women are more likely to favor the
legality of homosexual relations
Figure 9.6
Table 9.4a
Table 9.4b
Table 9.4c
• Homosexuals and The Law
– Lawrence et al. v. Texas
• Hate Crimes
– Ordinary crimes motivated by dislike or
hatred of the victim’s personal
characteristics
• Employment Equality (Sexual
Orientation) Regulations (2003) ban
sexual discrimination in the workplace
Homosexuality Viewed
Theoretically: Applying
Conflict Theory
• Overt discrimination
– Differential treatment that is open and
observable
• Same-sex marriage (SSM)
– Legally sanctioned marriage of two samesex people
• Domestic Partnership or Civil Union
– Not a legal marriage
• Defense of Marriage Act
Research on
Homosexuality
• The Kinsey Research
– Sample was biased and findings no
longer trusted
• The Laumann Research
– 2.2% of women and 4.1% of men in the
United States had had sex with a samesex partner
– Sampling technique allowed
generalization to broader U.S. population
– Narrative Data
• Unstructured data that tells a story
Figure 9.7
• The Humphreys Research
– Devised ingenious but, widely criticized
research method
– “Tea-rooms”
• Situational Homosexual Behavior:
The Prison
– Refers to homosexual acts committed by
people who, if members of the opposite
sex were available, would choose to be
involved in heterosexual relations
– Sociology focuses on learned behavior
Violence Against Women
• Rape And Murder
• Gendered Violence
– In U.S., women are disproportionately
victims of spousal abuse and rape
– Alien to western culture is “Honor
Killings”
• Killings of girls and women who have violated
the family’s honor
• Applying The Conflict And Feminist
Perspective
– Understand violence against women if
viewed as an expression of power
• Applying Symbolic Interactionism
– Sociologists also use symbolic
interactionism to understand gendered
violence
– In American culture, men learn machismo
– Males are surrounded with models of
violence
Social Policy
• The Radical Extremists
– Insist that society is so discriminatory
that it must be restructured
• The Conservative Extremists
– Believe that heterosexual gender
distinctions are natural and desirable and
ought to be encouraged
• Middle-of-the-road Policies
– Innumerable positions fall between two
above extremes
The Future of
the Problem
• The World Of Work
– Significant social trend that will affect
gender discrimination: future employment
of women
• Breaking Gender Stereotypes
– Increasing numbers of women in the
workforce are already changing gender
stereotypes
• New Orientations
– Ultimate possibility for the future is a new
concept of the human personality
WHY MEN ARE NEVER DEPRESSED:
(For laughs, but which ones are stereotypes?)
Your last name stays put.
The garage is all yours.
Wedding plans take care of themselves.
Chocolate is just another snack.
You can be President.
You can never be pregnant.
You can wear a white T-shirt to a water park.
You can wear NO shirt to a water park.
Car mechanics tell you the truth.
You never have to drive to another gas station restroom because this one is just too icky.
Same work, more pay.
Wrinkles add character.
Wedding dress $5000. Tux rental-$100.
People never stare at your chest when you're talking to them.
New shoes don't cut, blister, or mangle your feet.
One mood all the time!
Phone conversations are over in 30 seconds flat.
A five-day vacation requires only one suitcase.
You get extra credit for the slightest act of thoughtfulness.
If someone forgets to invite you, he or she can still be your friend.
Your underwear is $8.95 for a 3 pack.
Three pairs of shoes are more than enough.
You almost never have strap problems in public.
You are unable to see wrinkles in your clothes.
The same hairstyle lasts for years, maybe decades.
You only have to shave your face and neck.
You can play with toys all your life.
You can wear shorts no matter how your legs look.
You have freedom of choice concerning growing a mustache.
You can do Christmas shopping for 25 relatives on December 24 in 25
minutes.
No wonder men are happier.
“Men’s Hidden Depression” - jokes
aside…
See article