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What is GENDER
            Lecture 3
Gender
‘Gender’ refers to the socially constructed
 roles, responsibilities, identities and
 expectations assigned to men and
 women.
It contrasts with the fundamental biological
and physiological differences between
 males and females, which are known as
 secondary sex characteristics.
Difference between Sex & Gender
 The terms ‘sex' and ‘gender' are closely
  linked, yet they are not synonyms.
 Robert Stoller, in the 1960s, has drawn
  the distinction between them.
 He suggested that the word ‘sex' be used
  to refer to the physical differences
  between men and women, while the term
  ‘gender' be used in connection to the
  behaviour and cultural practices of men
  and women.
Difference between Sex & Gender
   Definition of "Sex"
    The term ‘sex' is easy to understand. It
    simply refers to the natural biological
    differences between men and women, for
    example, the differences in the organs
    related to reproduction.
Difference between Sex & Gender
   Definition of "Gender"
    "Gender refers to the cultural, socially-
    constructed differences between the two
    sexes. It refers to the way a society
    encourages and teaches the two sexes to
    behave in different ways through
    socialisation.”
Difference between Sex & Gender
In simple words, gender refers to
 differences in attitudes and behaviour, and
 these differences are perceived as a
 product of the socialisation process rather
 than of biology.
 Gender also includes the different
 expectations that society and individuals
 themselves hold as regard to the
 appropriate behaviours of men and
 women.
Difference between Sex & Gender
  Gender does not concern women only,
  but it relates to both sexes. Gender issues
  are not women issues; they are rather
  issues pertaining to both men and women.
 Viewing gender as a socially-constructed
  phenomenon implies that gender, contrary
  to sex, is not the same over the world. It
  varies between and within societies and it
  can change over time.
Difference between Sex & Gender

Sex (Biological difference)              Gender (Social difference)

                                         Can be changed since gender identity
Difficult to change (we are born male
                                         is
or female)
                                         determined by society.
                                         At different times in history and in
Throughout history and across
                                         different
cultures, sex differences exist.
                                         societies, gender roles are different.
                                         Policies can respond to gender
Policies respond to sex differences in
                                         stereotype and traditional gender
areas to do with the physical body.
                                         roles.
SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON GENDER

Sociologists explain gender roles according to
 several theoretical perspectives, general ways
 of understanding social reality that guide the
 research process and provide a means for
 interpreting the data.
 A theory is an explanation.
 Formal theories consist of logical interrelated
 propositions that explain empirical events.
SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON GENDER

 Sociological perspectives on gender also vary
  according to the level of analysis atwhich they
  events.
 Macrosociological perspectives on gender roles
  direct attention to data collected on large-scale
  social phenomena, such as labor force,
  educational, and political trends that are
  differentiated according to gender roles.
SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON GENDER

    Micro sociological perspectives on gender
    roles direct attention to data collected in small
    groups and the details of gender interaction
    occurring, for example, between couples and in
    families and peer groups.
SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON GENDER

  Early sociological perspectives related to
  gender roles evolved from scholarship on the
  sociology of the family.
 These explanations centered on why men and
  women hold different roles in the family that in
  turn impact the roles they perform outside the
  family.
 To a large extent, this early work on the family
  has continued to inform current sociological
  thinking on gender roles.
SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON GENDER

  Functionalism
 Functionalism, also known as “structural
  functionalism,” is a macro sociological
  perspective that is based on the premise that
  society is made up of interdependent parts,
  each of which contributes to the functioning of
  the whole society.
SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON GENDER
  Functionalism
 Functionalists seek to identify the basic
  elements or parts of society and determine the
  functions these parts play in meeting basic
  social needs in predictable ways.
 Functionalists ask how any given element of
  social structure contributes to overall social
  stability, balance, and equilibrium.
SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON GENDER
Preindustrial Society.
  Functionalists suggest that in preindustrial
  societies social equilibrium was maintained by
  assigning different tasks to men and women.
 Given the hunting and gathering and
  subsistence farming activities of most
  preindustrial societies, role specialization
  according to gender was considered a
  functional necessity.
SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON GENDER
   In their assigned hunting roles, men were
    frequently away from home for long periods
    and centered their lives around the
    responsibility of
    bringing food to the family.
     Domestic roles near the home as gatherers
    and subsistence farmers and as caretakers of
    children and households were assigned to
    women. Children were needed to help with
    agricultural and domesticactivities
SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON GENDER
 Children were needed to help with agricultural
  and domestic activities.
 Girls would continue these activities when boys
  reached the age when they were allowed to
  hunt with the older males.
 Once established, this functional division of
  labor was reproduced in societies throughout
  the globe.
SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON GENDER

   Women may have been farmers and food
    gatherers in their own right, but they were
    dependent on men for food and for protection.
    Women’s dependence on men in turn produced
    a pattern in which male activities and roles
    came to be more valued than female activities
    and roles.
SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON GENDER
   Contemporary Society
    Similar principles apply to families in
    contemporary societies.
    When the husband–father takes the
    instrumental role, he is expected to maintain
    the physical integrity of the family by providing
    food and shelter and linking the family to the
    world outside the home.
SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON GENDER

   Contemporary Society

    While the wife–mother takes the expressive
    role, she is expected to cement relationships
    and provide emotional support and nurturing
    activities that ensure the household runs
    smoothly.
SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON GENDER

Contemporary Society
If too much deviation from these roles occurs, or
 when there is too much overlap, the family
 system is propelled into a state of imbalance
 that can threaten the survival of the family unit.
 Advocates of functionalist assumptions argue,
 for instance, that gender role ambiguity
 regarding instrumental and expressive roles is
 a major factor in divorce (Hacker, 2003).
Gender
   Gender roles differ between cultures and
    communities and over time.
   Goldberg - males
    have an in- built
    dominance tendency
   NB. This view has
    gained increasing
    credibility in recent
    years (ref “Why men
    don’t iron).
Consensus theory
 Parsons: In the family, men tend to
  perform the instrumental tasks (a
  concern with achieving a task or goal) and
  women perform expressive tasks
  (concerned with affection and emotion]
 The consensus view is that these gender
  roles are natural, inevitable and functional.
Consensus theory
 Parsons: In the family, men tend to
  perform the instrumental tasks (a
  concern with achieving a task or goal) and
  women perform expressive tasks
  (concerned with affection and emotion]
 The consensus view is that these gender
  roles are natural, inevitable and functional.
The Feminist view
 In most societies there is gender inequality
  and women tend to be the losers in terms
  of power, status and pay.
 This system of gender inequality benefits
  men at the expense of women.
The Feminist view
       Friedan: It was not women’s
        biology that held them back
        from competing with men on
        equal terms, but the feminine
        mystique
       This was an ideology that
        defined what it was to be truly
        feminine, e.g. sensitive,
        intuitive. BUT this implies
        that women are not naturally
        rational, logical and assertive.
The feminist view (continuted)
 Friedan argued that the feminine mystique
  prevented women from seeing their
  potential and kept them locked in their
  roles as as wives, mothers and carers.
 Kate Millett: developed the concept of
  Patriarchy: male domination. She argued
  that the oppression and exploitation of
  women by men are build into every aspect
  of the way society is organised.
Cross-cultural evidence about Gender
        (Social Constructionism)
Gender is based on ‘nurture’ – socialisation and social
environment- Each society creates its own set of gender
expectations. Can you think if any examples that
illustrate this?
   Ann Oakley -the Mbuti Pygmies of the Congo
    have very little division of labour by sex; men
    and women hunt together and share
    responsibility for childcare.
   Margaret Mead - differences in childrearing
    techniques in three New Guinea tribes – extract
    from soc in focus page 40.
Gender as Socially constructed
 On the basis of cross-cultural evidence, it
  is difficult to conclude that differences
  between women and men in social roles
  are purely the result of biology.
 Sociologists have therefore explored the
  role of culture in shaping male and female
  gender identities.
 In particular, the part played by gender
  socialisation.
GENDER ROLE
SOCIALISATION
    Much of our identity and
     behaviour is the result of
     experiences of interaction with
     other people, especially during
     childhood.
    Our gender identity is no
     exception. Gender expectations
     are transmitted to the next
     generation through gender role
     socialisation.
Gender role Socialisation:
            The Family
   Gender identity stems from:
   imitation of parental role models;
   parents rewarding gender-appropriate
    behaviour (manipulation);
   parents discouraging gender-inappropriate
    behaviour;
   Parents adopting different modes of speech
    and terms of endearment depending on the
    gender of the child;
The Family (continued)
   Mothers’ preoccupation with female children’s
    appearance;
   Parents giving children gender-specific toys,
    books and games (canalisation);
   Children being dressed in gender-specific
    clothes and colours;
   Parents assigning gender-specific household
    chores to children;
   parents socially controlling the behaviour of girls
    more tightly than boys.
TASK - THE FAMILY & GENDER ROLE
             SOCIALISATION

 Find the following studies and note down
  their evidence:
 Moss (1970)
 Will, Self and Datan (1984)
 Oakley (1981)
 Damon (1977)
 Statham (1986)
Gender role Socialisation:
              Education
   Until the 1990s the hidden curriculum
    transmitted gender-stereotyped assumptions
    about feminine behaviour through teacher
    expectations, timetabling, career advice,
    textbook content etc..
   There still remains gender differences in subject
    choices, especially in H.E.
   Working class girls are still following traditional
    gender routes - leave school at 16, temporary
    jobs, marriage, motherhood.
Education (continued)
   The hidden curriculum, through teacher
    expectations, may be resulting in working-class
    boys following traditional gender routes into
    manual jobs. Controlling masculine behaviour
    may become more important than ensuring boys
    receive a good education.
   Young males may reject academic work
    because of equating learning with femininity.
TASK: EDUCATION AND
GENDER ROLE
SOCIALISATION
 Find the following studies and note down
  their evidence:
 Sue Sharpe (1976;1994)
 Michelle Stanworth (1983)
 Dale Spender (1983)
 Lobban (1974)
 Thomas (1990)
 Christine Skelton (2002)
Gender role Socialisation
        The Peer Group
 Working class boys may reject the goals
  of schooling and set up anti-school
  subcultures (Paul Willis);
 Mac An Ghaill - such subcultures may be
  a reaction to a ‘crisis in masculinity’, as
  working-class boys learn that traditional
  working-class jobs and roles such as
  breadwinner and head of household are in
  decline;
The Peer Group (continued)
   Membership of deviant subcultures may confer
    status on boys for exaggerating masculine
    values and norms while negatively sanctioning
    behaviour defined as feminine.
   There is an assumption that men and women
    have different sexual personalities. If women
    behave in a similar way to men, they will be
    labelled and will ‘develop a reputation’ (Sue
    Lees)
Gender role socialisation
        The Mass Media
 Feminists are critical of a range of mass
  media that socialise females into either
  domestic or sexualised patterns of
  femininity:
 Popular literature, especially fairy tales
  and children’s stories, portray females as
  the weaker sex and males as heroes;
 Children’s books portray traditional gender
  roles;
The Mass Media (continued)
   Magazines for teenage adolescents encourage
    them to concentrate on appearance and
    romance rather than on education and careers;
   Women’s magazine’s are apprentice manuals
    for motherhood and domesticity;
   Adverts continue to show women
    disproportionately in domestic roles and
    emphasise their physical looks and sex appeal
    at the expense of ability and personality;
The Mass Media (continued)
   ‘New lads’ magazines and pornography
    assert a very traditional view of
    masculinity organised around interpreting
    women as sexual objects, sport and
    drinking culture.
TASK: THE MASS MEDIA
AND GENDER ROLE
SOCIALISATION
 Find the following studies and note down
  their evidence:
 Gay Tuchman (1981)
 Angela McRobbie (1982)
 Marjorie Ferguson (1983)
Quiz
   What does the biological determinism theory suggest
    about gender?
   What is social constructionism?
   What does the above approach suggest about gender
    roles?
   Who did Margaret Mead study in 1935?
   What is gender role socialisation?
   What does Goldberg suggest about something being
    inbuilt in males?
   What does consensus theory suggest about gender
    roles?

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Lec 3 gender & hr

  • 1. What is GENDER Lecture 3
  • 2. Gender ‘Gender’ refers to the socially constructed roles, responsibilities, identities and expectations assigned to men and women. It contrasts with the fundamental biological and physiological differences between males and females, which are known as secondary sex characteristics.
  • 3. Difference between Sex & Gender  The terms ‘sex' and ‘gender' are closely linked, yet they are not synonyms.  Robert Stoller, in the 1960s, has drawn the distinction between them.  He suggested that the word ‘sex' be used to refer to the physical differences between men and women, while the term ‘gender' be used in connection to the behaviour and cultural practices of men and women.
  • 4. Difference between Sex & Gender  Definition of "Sex" The term ‘sex' is easy to understand. It simply refers to the natural biological differences between men and women, for example, the differences in the organs related to reproduction.
  • 5. Difference between Sex & Gender  Definition of "Gender" "Gender refers to the cultural, socially- constructed differences between the two sexes. It refers to the way a society encourages and teaches the two sexes to behave in different ways through socialisation.”
  • 6. Difference between Sex & Gender In simple words, gender refers to differences in attitudes and behaviour, and these differences are perceived as a product of the socialisation process rather than of biology.  Gender also includes the different expectations that society and individuals themselves hold as regard to the appropriate behaviours of men and women.
  • 7. Difference between Sex & Gender  Gender does not concern women only, but it relates to both sexes. Gender issues are not women issues; they are rather issues pertaining to both men and women.  Viewing gender as a socially-constructed phenomenon implies that gender, contrary to sex, is not the same over the world. It varies between and within societies and it can change over time.
  • 8. Difference between Sex & Gender Sex (Biological difference) Gender (Social difference) Can be changed since gender identity Difficult to change (we are born male is or female) determined by society. At different times in history and in Throughout history and across different cultures, sex differences exist. societies, gender roles are different. Policies can respond to gender Policies respond to sex differences in stereotype and traditional gender areas to do with the physical body. roles.
  • 9. SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON GENDER Sociologists explain gender roles according to several theoretical perspectives, general ways of understanding social reality that guide the research process and provide a means for interpreting the data.  A theory is an explanation.  Formal theories consist of logical interrelated propositions that explain empirical events.
  • 10. SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON GENDER  Sociological perspectives on gender also vary according to the level of analysis atwhich they events.  Macrosociological perspectives on gender roles direct attention to data collected on large-scale social phenomena, such as labor force, educational, and political trends that are differentiated according to gender roles.
  • 11. SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON GENDER  Micro sociological perspectives on gender roles direct attention to data collected in small groups and the details of gender interaction occurring, for example, between couples and in families and peer groups.
  • 12. SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON GENDER  Early sociological perspectives related to gender roles evolved from scholarship on the sociology of the family.  These explanations centered on why men and women hold different roles in the family that in turn impact the roles they perform outside the family.  To a large extent, this early work on the family has continued to inform current sociological thinking on gender roles.
  • 13. SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON GENDER Functionalism  Functionalism, also known as “structural functionalism,” is a macro sociological perspective that is based on the premise that society is made up of interdependent parts, each of which contributes to the functioning of the whole society.
  • 14. SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON GENDER Functionalism  Functionalists seek to identify the basic elements or parts of society and determine the functions these parts play in meeting basic social needs in predictable ways.  Functionalists ask how any given element of social structure contributes to overall social stability, balance, and equilibrium.
  • 15. SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON GENDER Preindustrial Society. Functionalists suggest that in preindustrial societies social equilibrium was maintained by assigning different tasks to men and women.  Given the hunting and gathering and subsistence farming activities of most preindustrial societies, role specialization according to gender was considered a functional necessity.
  • 16. SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON GENDER  In their assigned hunting roles, men were frequently away from home for long periods and centered their lives around the responsibility of bringing food to the family. Domestic roles near the home as gatherers and subsistence farmers and as caretakers of children and households were assigned to women. Children were needed to help with agricultural and domesticactivities
  • 17. SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON GENDER  Children were needed to help with agricultural and domestic activities.  Girls would continue these activities when boys reached the age when they were allowed to hunt with the older males.  Once established, this functional division of labor was reproduced in societies throughout the globe.
  • 18. SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON GENDER  Women may have been farmers and food gatherers in their own right, but they were dependent on men for food and for protection. Women’s dependence on men in turn produced a pattern in which male activities and roles came to be more valued than female activities and roles.
  • 19. SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON GENDER  Contemporary Society Similar principles apply to families in contemporary societies. When the husband–father takes the instrumental role, he is expected to maintain the physical integrity of the family by providing food and shelter and linking the family to the world outside the home.
  • 20. SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON GENDER  Contemporary Society While the wife–mother takes the expressive role, she is expected to cement relationships and provide emotional support and nurturing activities that ensure the household runs smoothly.
  • 21. SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON GENDER Contemporary Society If too much deviation from these roles occurs, or when there is too much overlap, the family system is propelled into a state of imbalance that can threaten the survival of the family unit. Advocates of functionalist assumptions argue, for instance, that gender role ambiguity regarding instrumental and expressive roles is a major factor in divorce (Hacker, 2003).
  • 22. Gender  Gender roles differ between cultures and communities and over time.
  • 23. Goldberg - males have an in- built dominance tendency  NB. This view has gained increasing credibility in recent years (ref “Why men don’t iron).
  • 24. Consensus theory  Parsons: In the family, men tend to perform the instrumental tasks (a concern with achieving a task or goal) and women perform expressive tasks (concerned with affection and emotion]  The consensus view is that these gender roles are natural, inevitable and functional.
  • 25. Consensus theory  Parsons: In the family, men tend to perform the instrumental tasks (a concern with achieving a task or goal) and women perform expressive tasks (concerned with affection and emotion]  The consensus view is that these gender roles are natural, inevitable and functional.
  • 26. The Feminist view  In most societies there is gender inequality and women tend to be the losers in terms of power, status and pay.  This system of gender inequality benefits men at the expense of women.
  • 27. The Feminist view  Friedan: It was not women’s biology that held them back from competing with men on equal terms, but the feminine mystique  This was an ideology that defined what it was to be truly feminine, e.g. sensitive, intuitive. BUT this implies that women are not naturally rational, logical and assertive.
  • 28. The feminist view (continuted)  Friedan argued that the feminine mystique prevented women from seeing their potential and kept them locked in their roles as as wives, mothers and carers.  Kate Millett: developed the concept of Patriarchy: male domination. She argued that the oppression and exploitation of women by men are build into every aspect of the way society is organised.
  • 29. Cross-cultural evidence about Gender (Social Constructionism) Gender is based on ‘nurture’ – socialisation and social environment- Each society creates its own set of gender expectations. Can you think if any examples that illustrate this?  Ann Oakley -the Mbuti Pygmies of the Congo have very little division of labour by sex; men and women hunt together and share responsibility for childcare.  Margaret Mead - differences in childrearing techniques in three New Guinea tribes – extract from soc in focus page 40.
  • 30. Gender as Socially constructed  On the basis of cross-cultural evidence, it is difficult to conclude that differences between women and men in social roles are purely the result of biology.  Sociologists have therefore explored the role of culture in shaping male and female gender identities.  In particular, the part played by gender socialisation.
  • 31. GENDER ROLE SOCIALISATION  Much of our identity and behaviour is the result of experiences of interaction with other people, especially during childhood.  Our gender identity is no exception. Gender expectations are transmitted to the next generation through gender role socialisation.
  • 32. Gender role Socialisation: The Family  Gender identity stems from:  imitation of parental role models;  parents rewarding gender-appropriate behaviour (manipulation);  parents discouraging gender-inappropriate behaviour;  Parents adopting different modes of speech and terms of endearment depending on the gender of the child;
  • 33. The Family (continued)  Mothers’ preoccupation with female children’s appearance;  Parents giving children gender-specific toys, books and games (canalisation);  Children being dressed in gender-specific clothes and colours;  Parents assigning gender-specific household chores to children;  parents socially controlling the behaviour of girls more tightly than boys.
  • 34. TASK - THE FAMILY & GENDER ROLE SOCIALISATION  Find the following studies and note down their evidence:  Moss (1970)  Will, Self and Datan (1984)  Oakley (1981)  Damon (1977)  Statham (1986)
  • 35. Gender role Socialisation: Education  Until the 1990s the hidden curriculum transmitted gender-stereotyped assumptions about feminine behaviour through teacher expectations, timetabling, career advice, textbook content etc..  There still remains gender differences in subject choices, especially in H.E.  Working class girls are still following traditional gender routes - leave school at 16, temporary jobs, marriage, motherhood.
  • 36. Education (continued)  The hidden curriculum, through teacher expectations, may be resulting in working-class boys following traditional gender routes into manual jobs. Controlling masculine behaviour may become more important than ensuring boys receive a good education.  Young males may reject academic work because of equating learning with femininity.
  • 37. TASK: EDUCATION AND GENDER ROLE SOCIALISATION  Find the following studies and note down their evidence:  Sue Sharpe (1976;1994)  Michelle Stanworth (1983)  Dale Spender (1983)  Lobban (1974)  Thomas (1990)  Christine Skelton (2002)
  • 38. Gender role Socialisation The Peer Group  Working class boys may reject the goals of schooling and set up anti-school subcultures (Paul Willis);  Mac An Ghaill - such subcultures may be a reaction to a ‘crisis in masculinity’, as working-class boys learn that traditional working-class jobs and roles such as breadwinner and head of household are in decline;
  • 39. The Peer Group (continued)  Membership of deviant subcultures may confer status on boys for exaggerating masculine values and norms while negatively sanctioning behaviour defined as feminine.  There is an assumption that men and women have different sexual personalities. If women behave in a similar way to men, they will be labelled and will ‘develop a reputation’ (Sue Lees)
  • 40. Gender role socialisation The Mass Media  Feminists are critical of a range of mass media that socialise females into either domestic or sexualised patterns of femininity:  Popular literature, especially fairy tales and children’s stories, portray females as the weaker sex and males as heroes;  Children’s books portray traditional gender roles;
  • 41. The Mass Media (continued)  Magazines for teenage adolescents encourage them to concentrate on appearance and romance rather than on education and careers;  Women’s magazine’s are apprentice manuals for motherhood and domesticity;  Adverts continue to show women disproportionately in domestic roles and emphasise their physical looks and sex appeal at the expense of ability and personality;
  • 42. The Mass Media (continued)  ‘New lads’ magazines and pornography assert a very traditional view of masculinity organised around interpreting women as sexual objects, sport and drinking culture.
  • 43. TASK: THE MASS MEDIA AND GENDER ROLE SOCIALISATION  Find the following studies and note down their evidence:  Gay Tuchman (1981)  Angela McRobbie (1982)  Marjorie Ferguson (1983)
  • 44. Quiz  What does the biological determinism theory suggest about gender?  What is social constructionism?  What does the above approach suggest about gender roles?  Who did Margaret Mead study in 1935?  What is gender role socialisation?  What does Goldberg suggest about something being inbuilt in males?  What does consensus theory suggest about gender roles?