Societal & Individual Level Approaches Commonality & Differences Among Women

1. WS 222 Lecture 2 Societal & Individual Level ApproachesCommonality & Differences Among Women

2. Plan for Today • Questions about syllabus or last time? • Questions about book assignments? • Questions about Reading? • Lecture on Sapiro Chapters 2 & 3 • Book Presentation on A Different Voice by Carol Gilligan • Lecture on Sapiro Chapter 4 • Debate on Taking Sides Issue 4 • Reading Assignment on Issue 3 • Writing Assignment

3. Sapiro Chapter 2

4. Societal-Level Approaches to Understanding Women’s Lives • Why is this important? • Placing women in a larger global context • Understanding how one country compares with another is useful for descriptive purposes and for explanation of the phenomena we are studying. • Helps us understand why gender has the effects it does on people’s lives • Helps us place an individual country into a comparative theoretical context.

5. Global Perspective • This chapter places the United States in a global perspective by looking at 4 areas: • Literacy and education • Marriage and reproduction • Women’s work and economic life • Women and the state

6. Literacy and Education • Why is level of education important for understanding the global status of women? • Provide more options and resources • Improve health • Occupational options • Confers credentials and status • Helps social change • Raise age of women bearing children • Indicate different social investments in women and men

7. Literacy (Table 2.1) • The countries with the highest rates of illiteracy tend to have relatively large gender differences, and the ones with lower rates of illiteracy tend to have relatively small gender differences • In the cases of Mali and Niger, the ability to read is so rare that the gender differences pale in comparison • Clearly the wealth and development of countries are related to the general illiteracy rate and gender differences in illiteracy • Activism • http://lds.org/pa/display/0,17884,7460-1,00.html

8. Education (Tables 2.2 and 2.3) • Secondary school enrollment is now fairly gender balanced in almost all of the developed world and many countries in the developing world. • One study shows that the chief ways to increase women’s education relative to men’s internationally are: • to hire more female teachers • Build schools closer to rural communities • Provide separate girls’ schools • Innovative: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgv0LeVKJiA

9. Post-secondary enrollments have taken longer to achieve gender equality in most countries • In some countries, the United States included, the balance is tipping toward women in terms of overall enrollments in higher education. • Overall enrollments do not tell us about the fields that men and women study, which tend to be different in many respects in most countries

10. Marriage and Reproduction • In 1990s, average age of first marriage was 25 for women, 26 for men. • For some countries, higher age of marriage is a problem (Canada, Japan) as the larger financial burden will be placed on a smaller group of adults • For more of the world, the problem is the large percentage of women who marry very young • Why is this an important indication of women’s global status?

11. Percentage of 15-19 Marriages (Table 2.4) • Living in an urban area or having more education raises age of marriage • In the countries with the highest rates of teenage marriages, the men are much older when they marry • In Mozambique, Chad, and Niger the percentage of teenage women to marry is 47, 49, 62% respectively. The percentage of teenage men is 4, 6, and 4% respectively. • Polygyny still common in sub-Saharan Africa • The distribution of power and resources within marriage varies greatly, as do the particular divisions of labor

12. Reproductive & Childrearing Practices (Table 2.5) • In many countries, women have had little power to determine the number or timing of children they have • United States is out of line with the advanced industrial nations in terms of teenagers having babies. Why? • Areas with high birth rates among teens also have poor health care and nutrition, which pushes maternal mortality rates high (Table 2.6) • Selective abortion

13. Work & Economic Life • Women do the majority of household labor in the US and everywhere else • Different access to household resources • Difficult to determine levels of work for pay because lots of women’s work is concentrated in the informal or black-market sector (in America, household services, undocumented workers) • In most countries men and women tend to do different work

14. Women & State (Table 2.8) • What role to women play as leaders in their own society? • First country to grant women the basic citizenship right of voting? New Zealand • Country with most female leaders? Sweden • United States stands with countries in which women are visible in national legislative politics but are nowhere close to a position that could be considered equitable • US about average for world

15. Policies Affecting Women (Table 2.9) • Maternity leave. . .UNPAID • Most industrialized countries require that women be able to take at least 12 weeks off without sacrificing their job or income • US and New Zealand are the only advanced industrial democracies without both protections • Violence against women • 25-40% of women physically assaulted by spouse in Canada, Belgium, US, etc.

16. Conclusions • The variation in the experiences of women is very wide. • Condition of women depends not just on attitudes towards women but also on many features of the countries’ situation, especially the degree of economic development, wealth or poverty, and religion. • It is not possible to construct some simple notion of which countries are better or worse for women. It depends on which aspect of women’s situation we are discussing • Placing the study of any one country in a comparative context provides important information

17. A Note on Sex Versus Gender • Sex refers to the biological distinction between males and females; by contrast, gender concerns the social differences between males and females. • Research in sociology focuses on gender rather than sex; sociologists distinguish between sex and gender to study differences between human males and females with greater precision. • Whereas sex is based on physical differences, gender is based on social factors such as values, perceptions, beliefs, and attitudes. For example, men and women have different genitalia; this is a difference of sex. Men and woman also face different social expectations, as when women are expected to be more nurturing than men; this is a difference of gender. • Gender varies across time and culture, as different groups have different beliefs about appropriate behavior for males and females.

18. Sapiro Chapter 3

19. Individual-Level Approaches to Understanding Women’s Lives • Why is this important? • Individual-level approaches rely on individual-level disciplinary methods—psychology—rather than on sociology, history, and economics, which attempt to explain group behavior • Some individual-level approaches overlap with system-level explanations (such as biological explanations for women’s subordination)

20. What Difference Does Gender Make? • Gender may be the first and most influential defining characteristic of an individual. • The first identity factor we notice about babies • Shapes our vulnerability to many forces, such as genetically based diseases • Shapes the life chances and opportunities we are likely to receive, as well as the way we work and relate to other people

21. However. . . • “the similarities between men’s and women’s lives in the US are much greater than the differences. This similarity occurs largely because the differences among women and among men are so large” (Sapiro 79).

22. Femininity and Masculinity • Femininity and masculinity are cultural stereotypes applying to individual personality characteristics. • “Beliefs or expectations we have about members of particular social groups” (Sapiro 81) • Androgyny is the quality of having an equal balance of characteristics, or flexibility about one’s gender-based characteristics • Femininity: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UBb087qHvI • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjWn-ueeeLw • Masculinity: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTqIsB98a1E

23. Bem Sex-Role Inventory • Most research in 70s and 80s • People do not fall along gender lines • No basis for increased happiness with conforming to stereotypes • 1st column Masculinity • 2nd column Femininity • 3rd column Androgyny

24. Intelligence • Verbal, math, and cognitive skills: there are some differences but they may be attributable to testing bias • Research shows that there is little difference in verbal skills, although studies more recent than this textbook suggest that women are more articulate • Differences in math ability (from high school onward, men test better than women at math problem-solving) seem largely a result of nurture

25. Personality • Apparent differences in aggressiveness/passivity • Men consistently more aggressive, tested from early age. However difficult to measure personality differences because reporting is so tainted by cultural expectations. • Overall there may be minor differences, but they are largely dependent on context, socialization ,and other factors.

26. The appearance in gender differences in personality depends on how they are measured; whether a researcher looks at attributions (how people describe themselves), personality scales, or behavioral measures can strongly influence the results a researcher obtains. • Example: if women report feeling more distressed than men, is it because they are more distressed or because they are more likely to report feeling distressed?

27. Sapiro emphasizes that context plays an enormous role in “fixed” gender differences. As we consider individual differences between men and women, it is important to always ask “under what circumstances?” and “in regard to what situation?”

28. Five Approaches to explaining women’s subordination at the individual level

29. Biological Theories • To what degree does biological sex shape human personality? • Biological sex gives us: • Primary and secondary sex characteristics • The ability to reproduce • Height/weight/muscle distribution, fat ratios, etc. • However, the influence of biological sex on individual development is probably much less than the influence of cultural conditioning. • “If biology were destiny we would see more evidence of persistent, cross-cultural differences than we see.” (Sapiro 87)

30. The problem • Biological theories fail to explain more than rudimentary behaviors for several reasons: • Biological features are affected by environmental conditions and mediated by social norms (example page 90 and Olympic speeds)

31. Psychoanalytical Theory • One of the most important social science developments of the 20th Century and focuses on “typical” human development and its affect on personality and behavior • Many psychoanalytic theorists have considered gender, but Freud’s work has been the most influential • Freud emphasized the importance of “drives”—psychic energies that cause people to act. The primary drives Freud is concerned with push an individual towards what he calls eros (the love or sex drive) or thanatos (the death or destructive drive).

32. Freud provides a functionalist explanation of Victorian sexual arrangements: • At birth, children are not sexually differentiated. During infancy and childhood, they define themselves in interaction with their environment. They go through four early stages of sexual development: • At birth, polymorphously perverse and bisexual • Infancy—oral phase—gratification through the mouth • Toddlerhood-anal phase—defer to mom by regulating excretion • 4-6 phallic or genital phase—discover their sex

33. At age 4-6, Oedipal/Electra compolex inaugurates child’s experience with adult sexuality and, if resolved through the child’s failure to achieve gratification, result is “appropriate” heterosexual devleopment • To become adults, both boys and girls must refocus their love for Mom onto more appropriate outside objects. Both genders, Freud argues, become aware that boys have penises and girls don’t, and that penises, because they are associated with powerful Dad, must signify power.

34. Boy at first tried to wrestle mom away from dad to “have her for himself” but is rebuffed by dad. In competing unsuccessfully with dad, he develops castration anxiety which will productively cause him to restrain himself and refocus his desire onto another woman. • Girl recognizes that mother is castrated and defective because she has no penis and no power. Girl stops adoring mom. Focuses on wrestling father away from mother (“daddy’s little princess”). However, mom stops this. Girl then focuses on getting a substitute penis—first a man, then a man-baby. • Then children enter their “latency” period, lasting until puberty, which gives them a rest from all this trauma.

35. What are the consequences of men’s path to “maturity”? • Heterosexuality • Monogomy (marry a woman like mom, give her mom’s name too) • Productive repression of inappropriate desires • Castration anxiety, making the boy into a good citizen who won’t violate cultural taboos

36. What are the consequences of women’s path to “maturity?” • Heterosexuality • Orientation towards marriage and childbirth as sexual definition • Lack of repression/superego because lack of castration anxiety • Hatred and fear of female sexuality which has been presented as shocking, deficient, and trauma-inducing • Passivity and masochism

37. Uh. . .okay. . . • Problems with Freudian explanations: • The female-development story was an afterthought for Freud. • Deeply bound up with Victorian sexual arrangements • Neglects influence of culture • The pattern is impossible to prove using clinical methodology • Mostly an argument that “civilization” results from repression of inappropriate desires.

38. Several thinkers have challenged Freud • Nancy Chodorow explains that patriarchy results from child-rearing arrangements • Women become nurturant because they fail to separate from mothers; this accounts for women’s being in charge of child-rearing and the persistent failure of men to become nurturers, and a vicious cycle results

39. Karen Horney used his theories to invert/explain others of his theories • Womb envy is an example of splitting/projection of penis envy

40. What is useful about Freud? • Focus on relationship between sexuality and social and cultural life • Development of the idea of the unconscious • Focus on early childhood as a formative time • Description of patriarchical and gender norms

41. Cognitive-Developmental Theories • These theories focus on the development of the conscious mind—skills and reasoning—in interaction with the environment. • Cognitive theorists tend to describe the development in terms of stages • Gender is discovered/negotiated through interaction with an environment—and in order to please the self. Children tend to hold to rigid patterns of gender stereotyping.

42. Kohlberg • Children emulate their same-sex parent, but for different reasons. Boys see men as powerful. Girls see women and “nice” and identify with them because they value this quality and they value conformity. But at some level, girls also recognize that “nice” is not powerful so are less rigid about gender stereotyping.

43. Bigler & Liben • Children have rigid stereotyping about gender because they haven’t yet figured out that objects can be classified in multiple ways. • Children with multiple-classification skills tend to be less stereotypical about gender

44. Learning Theorists • Focus on socialization—a process in which children imitate models they see. Learning theorists identify how cultural agents socialize children. • Parents: Children treated differently by their parents according to gender • Schools, mass media, arts, religion, other institutions all transmit gender ideas. • This Little Piggy Went to Hell. • http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-april-13-2011/toemageddon-2011---this-little-piggy-went-to-hell

45. Problems with this: • “I was socialized this way” denies personal responsibility • Socialization affects some individuals more strongly than others, leading some people to escape the effects of gender socialization

46. Commonality and Difference among Women Sapiro chapter 4

47. “Are the differences between the lives of rich and poor women or Unitarian or fundamentalist Muslims or lesbians and heterosexual women so great that they render our concepts of gender and women usefless?” (Sapiro 115)

48. Recognizing difference • Breaking down the “gender” category with other stratifying categories: race, ethnicity, age, social class, religious belief, etc. • Recognizing difference affects the accuracy of any gender-based analysis. How can we generalize about gender without considering these other factors? • Recognizing gender has a political significant: Is gender a binding category or are women’s other differences significant enough to divide them? • Overall: gender does not affect all women the same way.

49. What are some obstacles to recognizing difference? • Early feminists neglected reporting the interaction of other kinds of stratification with gender • Possibly because there have been many factors already to deal with • Possibly because early feminists have been white middle- and upper-class women • Women from different cultural backgrounds struggle over whether traditional female roles are negative—example, Black “matriarchical” households; muslim standards of modesty; MORMONS?

50. Are Women and Men More Similar Than Different Taking Sides Issue 4