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Lecture Eleven - Gender

This lecture looks at gender. The focus is on gender definitions, socialization, and stratification in modern society. The position of women in western societies has changed in the last century. Gender equality and freedom have became accepted as normal. This was not always so. Today, the position of women around the world is a major factor in poverty, child death, war, violence, and other human suffering. If human societies are to progress in the 21th century then it will have to be the century of women. Many of America's social problems: daycare, poverty, health care availability, domestic violence, rape, economic inequality, and others are directly related to the powerlessness of women. Other problems such as crime, drugs and alcohol, violence, and poor health are related to the socialization of men. All in all the subordination of women in society is a fundamental block to human societies. This lecture begins a dialogue by questioning the current social order.

I. Defining Gender and Sex

Gender is a social construct. Society dictates expected roles for men and women. Sex is a biological construct. We are born with a certain sex. Even this birth right can vary for some people. Gender is something that is learned. Everything from posture, doing dishes, or what we expect from a one year old child is shaped by our own gender expectations. Gender identity, roles, and performances are part of the creation of social reality. Girls can be engineers and guys can be nurses. Men can take care of children and women go to war. Gender distinctions are changing in the modern world. Yet, we still often act on believed differences between men and women.

Sexism is seeing a group as inferior because of their sex. Today, as women gain social status the mass media and other social institutions are also changing. Yet gender inequality is still present.

II. Socialization

Cultures vary as to the roles and performances that are attributed to women and men. Gender expectations are central to people's lives. They vary not only between cultures but also in different historical periods. Women on a college campus today ask guys out, attend classes, wear hats, drive cars, wear pants, play sports, teach, administer, and construct buildings. They have obtained these rights through out the last one hundred years. Today, it is expected that women have these rights. As we will see below, it is still normal for women not to participate in politics or not to operate in positions of authority within society.

Gender socialization and sex roles vary between cultures. The anthropologist Margaret Mead found that Samoans did not regard gender roles or opposite sex relationships as absolutes. She found that both homosexuality and heterosexuality are part of the human experience. Homosexuality is a human potential. We know that society influences us in a gender schematic. We learn masculinity and femininity. We learn to take on gender-based majors and occupations. Hispanic cultures operate under the machismo system. This is a system of male honor. Males are socialized to be the head of the family.

On the other hand Sweden is a feminine culture. In Sweden, social policies that care for the family are politically popular. Women are less likely to be under the poverty line in Sweden than in any other country. This is even in times of a changing family system.

Our society is changing. Most youth behave differently than their grandparents. Changes such as women working, divorce, having fewer children, and the decline of fatherhood are changing the roles of all in society. In the U.S. these changes have left many women in poverty where addressing their plight is not politically popular. Issues faced by our country and its families are social problems such as daycare, elderly care, health care, and time poverty. Is women's powerlessness the reason? Are we spending our money on things more important than the family?

Gender Polarization is the organizing of life around male and female distinctions. We learn to behave is certain ways based on expectations. We dress, talk, and act based the roles we play. Role playing is gendered in many ways. Gender roles are the attitudes and activities that a society expects from men and women.

The agents of socialization: family, religion, education, and work all play a role in gender polarization. We learn to act like boys and girls from birth. The pinks and the blues prescribe separate behaviors.

Feminine and masculine ways are learned with toys and through interaction with adults. Socialization experiences are important for children. Little boys are treated as if stronger and tougher than girls. In actually baby girls are more likely to survive than boys. We pick up a boy and toss him around. Girls are treated as delicate. These experiences are the basis for learned behavior.

Take a minute and answer these gendered questions:

Boys - Will you change a diaper? Wash dishes? Make a bed? Cook? Grocery shop?

Girls - Will you change a tire? Can you fix an appliance? Mow the yard? Fix the toilet?

Why or why not? If you cross over gender duties why do you? Who taught you? What is the role of necessity?

Below are patterns that continue to be relevant:

Boys at home learn to be aggressive, competitive, and learn to win. They engage in rough and tumble play. At school, they are called on more often by teachers. Boys between 9 and 13 take on math and science where girls start to get behind at this age. In their personal lives men drink alcohol and take drugs more often than girls. They are taught to pursue girls. They go to war and engage in dangerous jobs. They are measured by their behavior over their appearance. Men are more likely to go to prison, to war, be violent, or head corporations. We live in a patriarchy or male dominated society. Men control the social institutions in our society. Men control higher education and universities, the police and military, industry, science, political offices, and global finances.

Girls at home learn to cooperate. They are taught to share and not to speak out. As they take on support roles they learn certain functions in society. The beauty myth is the idea that there is a set of standards for appearance for females. Often unrealistic, the beauty myth means that girls are more often measured by appearance instead of behavior. For many young girls this can lead to low self-esteem and dietary problems.

Women live longer than men because they behave better and seek medical care. Women are more likely to be depressed, among other things, because of the beauty myth and the impacts of the devaluation of their social roles.

Finally, we can ask the question: Are women a minority? Review the section on sexual harassment in your text. The first is usually by a person in a position of power. It relates to soliciting sexual favors in return for advancement or special treatment. This is called quid pro quo. It is based on the idea of one thing for another.

The most common type of harassment, however, is the creation of a hostile environment based on comments or other actions of a sexual nature. A hostile environment occurs is a number circumstances. As women have entered the job market the opportunities for sexual harassment has increased.

III. Gender Stratification

Sociologists point to a number of positions in society where women and men are separated. The dual labor market is the theory that the labor market is marked by separate job markets for men and women. Women typically work in pink collar jobs. Even in the same job and with the same skills as men, women make about 74 cents for every dollar that a man makes in the U.S. Historically, the devaluation of women's work has meant they also are devalued. Could society survive without the work women do? What if suddenly domestic labor was rewarded?

Other social positions reveal the same type of situation. Women make up about 10 percent of political positions in the world today. Globally male dominance impacts the world's poorest people. Women have the high levels of illiteracy and absolute poverty. 70 percent of world's poorest people are women. Globally, by the age of 18 girls receive four years less education than boys. Anywhere is the world women make 30 to 40 percent less than men for the same job. On page 271 your text overviews comparable worth. Is this accurate in your experience?

The same population faces 3 to 4 million violent assaults every year. More than 10 percent of women will be battered every year within a marriage. Patriarchy is a system of oppression when looked at from this perspective. Male dominance is not just control of institutions. It can lead to the control of lives.

Questions:

1) How do your gender experiences differ from the above experiences for many in society?

2) How are the above situations changing?

3) Do you live in a egalitarian (equal) relationship as far as doing work around the house? Or do you live in a situation when there is a gender division of labor?

For more on Sweden's social policies see the following book located in the WSCC library.

Mikko Kautto, 1999. Nordic Social Policy: Changing Welfare States. (New York: Routledge).

Sites

http://www.georgetown.edu/crossroads/asw/ Gender Search

http://www.asanet.org/sections/sglinks.html Gender Organizations Links

http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~cawp/ Center for American Women in Politics

http://newmedia.colorado.edu/~socwomen/ Sociologists for Women in Society

http://pages.towson.edu/itrow/ Research on Women

http://www.cddc.vt.edu/feminism/ Feminists Theory

http://vos.ucsb.edu/browse.asp?id=2711 Gender Studies

http://csf.colorado.edu/isa/ftgs/ Gender Studies

http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/GlobalGender/ International Gender Studies