Chapter 10, Gender

1. Chapter 10, Gender • Distinguishing Sex and Gender • Mechanisms of Perpetuating gender Ideals • Gender, Ethnicity, Race and the State

2. Sex As a Biological Characteristic • Sex is determined by anatomical traits necessary for reproduction. • Biological sex is not a clear cut category, some babies are born intersexed. • On the basis of variations in external genitalia, there could be as many as 98 subcategories of “true hermaphrodite”.

3. Gender As a Social Construct • Gender is based on culturally conceived and learned ideas about appropriate appearance, behavior, and mental or emotional characteristics for males and females. • Differences between males and females are often socially created.

4. Penalties Associated With Being Male: Student Voices • Lower life expectancy. • Breadwinner responsibility. • Most dangerous occupations. • Higher insurance rates. • More likely to pay for dates. • Constraints on emotions. • Expected to be successful and athletic.

5. Penalties Associated With Being Male: Student Voices • Expected to have high tolerance for discomfort. • Less likely to get help when in trouble. • Pressured to ask women out and to ask for their hand in marriage. • Expected and pressured to take on a role as protector. • More difficult for men to get custody of children.

6. Penalties Associated With Being Female: Student Voices • Childbearing experience (if unplanned and unwanted). • Lower pay. • Fewer career choices. • Career choices likely to conflict with family responsibilities. • More time and attention paid to physical appearance.

7. Penalties Associated With Being Female: Student Voices • Strength and athletic ability less likely to be developed to full potential. • Have to work harder to be taken seriously. • Child more likely to carry father's name. • More likely to be responsible for housework and child care. • More likely to have to wait for men to ask them out and ask them to marry.

8. Privileges Associated With Being Male: Student Voices • Better pay. • Career not as likely to interfere with family. • Greater career opportunities. • Greater opportunities and respect in world of sports. • Fewer constraints on physical appearance.

9. Privileges Associated With Being Male: Student Voices • Less expensive to dress for success. • More likely to be taken seriously. • Less likely to have multiple sexual experiences evaluated harshly. • More likely to be labeled as role models and heroes. • More likely to experience independence at an earlier age.

10. Privileges Associated With Being Female: Student Voices • Childbearing experience (when planned and wanted). • Less likely to be considered a crime suspect. • Fewer social costs for choosing not to work and being supported by husband.

11. Privileges Associated With Being Female: Student Voices • Can use physical appearance to “get results” from a man. • More likely to receive help if in trouble. • Easier for women to behave and dress in ways considered masculine. • Easier for women to freely express a wide range of emotions.

12. Factors in Perpetuating Gender Ideals • Socialization - parents, schools, other kids • Situational constraints - occupations segregated by sex, gender appropriate assignments at work • Ideologies-ideas that support sexism, but are not supported by scientific investigation

13. Labor Market Practices that Disadvantage Women • Positions that are considered sex-appropriate (teacher, secretary). • Specializing in fields that require working with children and young adults, supervising other women. • Part-time jobs that offer flexible hours to meet care-giving responsibilities.

14. Sexism: Three Notions • People can be classified into two categories: male and female. • Primary sex characteristics explain emotional activity, body language, personality, intelligence, sexual desire and athletic ability. • Primary sex characterizes explain social economic and political inequalities between the sexes.

15. Areas of Women’s Lives Over Which the State May Exert Control • Sociologists Anthias and Yuval-Davis argue that women’s link to the state is complex because of their role in human production. • Women as biological reproducers of babies of a particular ethnicity or race. • Women as reproducer of the boundaries of ethnic or national groups.

16. Areas of Women’s Lives Over Which the State May Exert Control • Women as transmitters of social value and culture. • Women as symbols of urgent issues. • Women as participants in national, economic and military struggles.