Chapter 10 Gender Stratification. Gender and Inequality Gender –Personal traits & social positions...

Chapter 10

Gender Stratification

Gender and Inequality

• Gender– Personal traits & social positions members of

a society attach to being female and male

• Gender stratification– Unequal distribution of wealth, power, and

privilege between men and women

• Male-female biological differences

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Men’s and Women’s Athletic Performance

Gender in a Global Perspective

• Israeli kibbutzim– Gender equality is a stated goal

• George Murdock’s research– Some global agreement about feminine and

masculine tasks


Gender in a Global Perspective

• Margaret Mead’s research– Culture is key to gender differences

• Gender and culture– What it means to be male or female is mostly

a creation of society


Patriarchy and Sexism

• Matriarchy–A form of social organization in which females dominate males

• Sexism–Belief that one sex or the other is innately inferior or superior

• Institutional sexism–Found throughout the economy


Patriarchy and Sexism

• The costs of sexism–Sexism has a high price for both women and men

• Inevitability of patriarchy–Most sociologists believe gender is socially constructed and can be changed



Women’s Power in Global Perspective

Gender and Socialization

• Gender roles (sex roles)–Attitudes and activities that a society links to each sex

• Gender affects how we think of ourselves and teaches us how to behave.

• Research suggests that most young people develop personalities that are – A mix of feminine and masculine traits


Gender and the Family

• Is it a boy or girl?– Color-coding gender

• Traditional notions of gender identity

• Handling of children– Female: passivity and emotion– Male: independence and action


Gender and Peer Groups

• Janet Lever (1978)– Boys favor team sports with complex rules

and clear objectives.– Girls’ sports teach interpersonal skills and the

value of sharing and cooperation.


Gender and Peer Groups

• Gilligan (1982)– Boys reason according to abstract principles. – Girls consider morality a matter of

responsibility to others.

• Schooling– Gender shapes interests and beliefs, guides

areas of study, and career choices


Gender and Schooling

• Women became well represented in many fields of study that once excluded them– Mathematics, chemistry, and biology

• Men still predominate in many fields– Engineering, computer science, and the

physical sciences


Gender and the Mass Media

• White males have center stage

• Minorities locked out until the early 1970s

• Women receive roles based on sex appeal

• The “beauty myth”


Social Stratification

• 60% of all women work and 72% of working women work full-time

• Women hold primary responsibility for housework & parenting – “second shift”

• Some work defined as “men’s work”


Social Stratification

• On average, women earn 78 cents for every dollar earned by men

• “Pink-collar” are at the lower end of the pay scale



Housework: Who Does How Much?

Education, Politics, and Military

• Gender and education• In 2007 women earned 59% of all associate & bachelor degrees, 61% of master’s degrees

• And 50% of doctorates

• Politics–Nineteenth Amendment (1920)


Education, Politics, and Military

–Women active in local, state politics

• Military–14% of US military personnel are women,

including deployed troops–Culture influences our views of women in the

military



Women in State Government across the United States

Are Women a Minority?

• At every class level, women have less – Income, wealth, education, & power than men

• Intersection theory– Interplay of race, class, & gender, resulting in

multiple dimensions of disadvantage


Are Women a Minority?

– Disadvantages linked to gender & race often combine to produce low social standing

• Multilayered system of disadvantage for some and privilege for others


Violence Against Women

• In the 19th century, men claimed the right to physically discipline their wives

• Sexual assaults, rapes, attempted rapes, and physical assaults

• Campus and university gender violence

• Gender-linked violence often in the home

• Female genital mutilation


Violence Against Men

• Men are more likely to be both the perpetrators and victims of violence.

• Our culture tends to define masculinity in terms of aggression and violence.

• Men’s lives involve more stress and isolation than women’s lives.


Sexual Harassment

• Rules for workplace interaction

• Causes of sexual harassment– Culture encourages men to be sexually

assertive & perceive women in sexual terms– Men occupy most positions of power.– “Effect standard”: hostile environment

involves different perceptions of the same behavior



Female Genital Mutilation in Global Perspective

Pornography

• People take different views of what is and isn’t pornographic

• Pornography as a moral issue

• The gender-stratification point of view considers pornography a power issue

• Promotes violence against women portray-ing them as weak/undeserving of respect


Theoretical Analysis of Gender

• Symbolic-interaction analysis– Gender involves differences in behavior– Women are expected to be more deferential

• Structural-functional analysis– Parsons: Gender forms a complementary set

of roles; links men & women to family units


Theoretical Analysis of Gender

• Social-conflict analysis– Gender involves differences in power– Engels: Capitalism strengthens male

domination

• Intersection Theory– Multiple systems of stratification based on

race, class, and gender


Feminism

• Working to increase equality

• Expansion of human choice

• Eliminate gender stratification

• Ending sexual violence

• Promotes sexual freedom


Types of Feminism

• Opposition to feminism– Threat to male status and privilege– Resistance to feminism is strongest among

women with lower levels of education

• Liberal feminism– Free to develop own talents and interests


Types of Feminism

• Socialist feminism– Family form must change with some collective

means of carrying out housework & childcare

• Radical feminism– Seek an egalitarian, gender-free society



Use of Contraception by Married Womenof Childbearing Age

Chapter 10 Gender Stratification. Gender and Inequality Gender –Personal traits & social positions...

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