what are the relationships between gender and other inequalities?

1. what are the relationships between gender and other inequalities? lecture 7

2. introductory comments • tended to focus on gender – isolated from other forms of social inequalities • Bryson (1999:45) – begs the following questions: • differences among women more important than their common identity? • which form of inequality should be given primacy? If at all? • are Black/white working class men – allies or oppressors?

3. ‘Other’ inequalities and gender 1. ‘theorizing representing the Other’ 2. feminist critique of class analysis 3. rethinking class – qualitative analysis 4. inequalities between men? 5. critique of mainstream feminism - Black feminists and women of color 6. stereotyped sexual representations of Black masculinity and femininity 7. Orientalism – and exoticisation

4. ‘theorizing representing the other’see Kitzinger & Wilkinson in Wilkinson & Kitzinger 1996 • issue of ‘Othering’ • ‘woman as Other’ • do women have a monopoly on Otherness? • Othering of non-Western women?

5. debates within feminism • primacy of gender over class? • patriarchy (radical feminists) or capitalism (Marxist/socialist feminists) • patriarchy and capitalism • feminist critique of ‘malestream’ sociological research – on class

6. feminist critique of class analysisAcker 1998 [1973] in Myers et al; Abbott et al 2005 • poor at understanding women’s class positions - assumes: - the family - the analytical unit in stratification studies - the woman’s status is synonymous with male head of family i.e. based on the man’s occupation - but are households always headed by males? - independent women determine their own class status? - gender inequalities in stratification systems?

7. women as a class?Molyneux 1979; Delphy 1984; Bryson 1999 • two modes of production – industrial and patriarchal/domestic • marriage NOT occupation - the main class criteria for women • ‘marriage contract’ – basis women as a class • discrimination in labour market forces women to marry • men/husbands exploit women’s labour - oppressors

8. problems? • universal class of women? • do all women get married? • diverse marriage practices and arrangements • e.g. focus of study were French women – cross-culturally relevant? • focus on labour – what about motherhood?

9. rethink class – qualitative analysise.g.Reay 1998 • class is not just about an objective economic position • need to move beyond labour market (structuralist) focus • discourses are important too • discourse of ‘classlessness’ blames working class for not succeeding • class and class inequalities are lived in gendered ways e.g. the way mothers relate to education is shaped by class

10. inequalities between men?e.g. Espiritu in Kimmel & Messner 2001 ‘All men are not created equal: Asian men in U.S. history’ - the material lives of Asian American men do not fit white middle class patterns of masculinity - pre-second world war – forced into ‘feminised’ occupations – laundry - internment in war robbed Japanese American men of breadwinner role - currently some Asian men poorly educated and unskilled – unlike stereotype - gender power balance changes if women working

11. ‘Ain’t I AWoman’? Sojourner Truth

12. Black feminists – critical of feminism?hooks 1992; Mills/Kanneh in Jackson & Jones 1998; Mohanty 1997 • history of slavery/colonisation important in understanding women of colour • how to be ‘feminine’ and black - images of ‘proper femininity’ associated with white, middle class Western women - experiences of black women also invisible in ways of thinking about what is black – based on black men • black women/women of colour are not a homogenous group

13. appreciating differencehooks 1992 • feminism originally based largely around white middle class women – ‘race’ and class ignored • ‘decolonisation’ needed: - a process of re-presenting colonised identities and interests as independent - involves both colonised and coloniser - need to recognise diversity – of and within colonised groups • recognising difference makes generalisations about ‘women’ difficult?

14. ‘third world women’Mohanty cited in Kemp & Squires 1997; Mohanty in Trip 2000 • assumes that there is a group called women who are all oppressed • based on seeing Western women’s experiences as the norm and universal • this makes third world women’s specific oppression invisible or represents it as homogenous

15. intersecting oppressions?e.g. Collins 1991; Adib & Guerrier 2003; Zinn & Dill in Zinn et al 2005 • Black feminists – stimulated a re-think understanding oppression • critical of ‘additive approaches’ • ‘matrix of domination’ and ‘intersectionality’ – interlocking or interconnected systems of oppression • both oppressor and oppressed – maybe even both depending on the social context • dynamic nature of social categories shifting – sense of self/identity in relation to others?

16. representations of Black masculinitye.g. Hall 1997; Staples in Kimmel & Messner 2001; hooks 2004 sexualisation - super masculine e.g. Linford Christie’s ‘lunchbox’

17. representations of Black femininitye.g. Hall 1997 sexualisation e.g. Hottentot Venus • primitivism? • blackness reduced to a natural essence?

18. Orientalism Said 1978; Baldwin et al 1999 • ‘discourse of Orientalism’ - construction of Occident (West best) and Orient (East mysterious) • dichotomises • essentialises – generalisations • hierarchical – knowledge and power • East is the West’s ‘Other’

19. WEST sensible unexotic light strong rational fair treatment virtuous Occident - masculine? EAST mystical exotic dark weak irrational cruelty depraved Orient - feminine? characteristics of Orientalism

20. e.g. exoticismMills in Jackson & Jones 1998 • Orient – sexually coded • sexual fantasy – harems • dominated the representation of the East

21. summary • structuralist accounts of the intersection of inequalities focus more on inequality in distribution of material resources • hooks, Hall et al have focused on importance of discourses, ideas - confronting hegemonic systems of thought • need to challenge both symbolic and material inequalities?

22. summary • Black feminist critique of feminism • intersecting oppressions ‘account for the multiple ways that women [and men] experience themselves as gendered, raced, classed and sexualised’ (Zinn & Dill 2005: 22)

23. next lecture 19 April – Easter break! • Is there such a thing as a ‘woman’ or a ‘man’?