Chapter 11

1. Chapter 11 Sex and Gender

2. What We Will Learn • To what extent does biology influence maleness and femaleness? • Are males dominant over females in all societies? • How similar are gender roles throughout the world? • Do women and men in the same culture communicate differently? • How can extreme gender ideology lead to the exploitation of women?

3. Gender • Refers to the way the two sexes are perceived, evaluated, and expected to behave. • There is a wide range of ideas about what it means to be feminine or masculine. • U.S. culture recognizes only two genders, male and female, but other cultures recognize a combined male/female gender.

4. Cultural Patterns of Homosexuality- U.S. • Cultural definition of male homosexuality does not make a distinction between preference and activity. • It is assumed that a man who chooses to engage in homosexual activity does so due to a dominant homosexual preference. • 9.1% of males surveyed reported some homosexuality during their lifetime, only 2.8% claimed a homosexual preference and identity.

5. Cultural Patterns of Homosexuality: Azande • Due to a shortage of women, Azande men sought sexual satisfaction, for a limited time, through homosexual activity. • Unmarried men serving in military units often married boys between the ages of 12 and 20. • These “male wives” performed household chores and served as sexual partners. • When the husband was old enough to take a female wife, marriage to the “boy-wife” ended, and both were free to marry a woman.

6. Cultural Patterns of Homosexuality: Sambia • Defines male homosexuality as a requirement before men assume masculine roles and heterosexual relationships. • Sambian women are viewed as sexually dangerous because they can sap a man of his semen. • Before a boy can develop into a male adult, he must receive ingestions of semen from older men, for 6 to 8 years during adolescence.

7. Gender Roles • Men have greater body mass and strength and are better equipped for hunting, warfare, and land clearing. • Women do tasks that are compatible with pregnancy, breastfeeding, and child care.

8. Gender Inequality • 2/3 of all the illiterate people in the world today are women. • The world’s women are concentrated in the lowest-paid occupations and receive less pay and fewer benefits than men. • Women are more likely to work part-time, have less seniority, and occupy positions with little or no upward mobility.

9. Gender Ideology • Thoughts and values that legitimize gender roles, statuses, and customary behavior. • In some African societies, men’s physical well-being is thought to be jeopardized by contact with a woman’s menstrual discharge. • In Bangladesh, men are associated with the right side and women with the left side, a dichotomy that also denotes purity–pollution, good–bad, and authority– submission.

10. Women and Inequality • Women makeup 1/2 the world’s population but, • do approximately 2/3 of the work. • earn 1/10 of the world’s income. • own less than 1% of the world’s property.

11. Entrance of Women Into the Workforce: Key Factors • As industrialization became more complex, more clerical workers were needed, most were women. • Women bore fewer children, increasing the number of years they could work outside the home.

12. Entrance of Women Into the Workforce: Key Factors • Rising rate of divorce forced women to support themselves and their children. • The baby bottle enabled women to work outside the home without jeopardizing their infants. • Two salaries are often needed to make ends meet.

13. Occupational Segregation Along Gender Lines • Majority of women in the U.S. are in low-paying jobs. • Women make up: • 90% of nurses • 80% of librarians • 70% of teachers • 1% of corporate CEOs • 6% of partners in private law firms • 8% of state and federal judges

14. Earnings Gap in the U.S. • Wages for full-time female employees are only 74% of wages for full-time male employees. • This is up from 6% during the 1960s. • The median income for full-time female employees was $26,855 in 2000 as compared with $36,252 for men. • Even in professions that require high levels of training and education women earn less than their male counterparts.

15. Quick Quiz

16. 1. _______ refers to cultural ideas concerning the way members of two sexes are perceived, evaluated, and expected to behave. • Gender • Masculine and feminine • Sexual dimorphism • Sex

17. Answer: a • Gender refers to cultural ideas concerning the way members of two sexes are perceived, evaluated, and expected to behave.

18. 2. In some cultures, ________ are rigidly defined, while in others they overlap to a considerable degree. • gender definitions • gender roles • sexual roles • sexuality rules

19. Answer: b • In some cultures, gender roles are rigidly defined, while in others they overlap to a considerable degree.

20. 3. ______ is a system of thoughts and values that legitimize gender roles, statuses, and customary behavior. • Gender ideology • Gender asymmetry • Gender identity • Gender roles

21. Answer: a • Gender ideology is a system of thoughts and values that legitimize gender roles, statuses, and customary behavior.

22. 4. Gender and sex both refer to the same thing. • True • False

23. Answer: false • Gender and sex do not refer to the same thing.

24. 5. Differences in the status of men and women, or _________________ , exists in some form in all cultures.

25. Answer: gender stratification • Differences in the status of men and women, or gender stratification, exists in some form in all cultures.