...December 10, 2012 Gender Inequality: How Women get the Short Stick Gender equality and gender roles go hand in hand in today’s economy. These two concepts complement each other to the extent in which one must know about both to fully understand the capacity of either. Gender roles are roles each sex is given. These are stereotypical things. For example, things like women cook and males work. In todays economy men and women are not equal. Gender inequality and gender roles are one of our countries biggest issues. Gender is how people are seen by society. This is imprinted in the brain at a young age and is formed and molded through childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and late adulthood. Each stage comes with different ideas about gender and power. Childhood is the point in life where the environment most influences the formation of gender schemas and stereotypes. Gender schemas are an important part of understanding how a person sees the opposite sex. Gender Schemas are “the generalizations that children develop about the differences between boys and girls” (Stevenson 3). On the other hand there is stereotyping. Stereotyping is also process that begins during childhood. Young children know that male stereotypes are high in power whereas female stereotypes convey fear and helplessness. Children are influenced by information about gender from family, peers, and the media (Stevenson 3). This justifies the argument that men and women aren’t treated equal. Gender Roles are evident, but...
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...Constructing Gender And Sexuality Chapter Study Objectives What Is Sex? What Is Gender? • Compare and contrast the concepts of sex and gender. ==> Sex is a distinct category that someone belongs to male or female. Gender is not only the physical but also the behavioral personality traits that a group considers normal for its members. Essentialist and Constructionist Approaches to Gender Identity • Compare and contrast the essentialist and constructionist approaches to gender identity. ==> The essentialists believes that there can only be two categories, male or female, there is no exception. However constructionists believe that gender isn’t a dichotomy and that there can be more than two categories, and different ways for explaining them. Essentialists typically reside outside of sociology, usually in medicine, theology, and biology. Constructionists are typically mainstream sociologists. Gender Inequality • Explain the possible origins of gender inequality according to the text. ==> Back in the day when men had to go out and procure food, they needed to be bigger and stronger. They were needed for this vital role. Women were built to be nurturing so they could stay back with their offspring and keep them safe while the men hunted. The two rules were crucial for survival. • Compare and contrast functionalist theory and conflict theory in their approaches to explaining gender inequality. ==> Functionalists theory says that sex determines which roles men and women...
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...Social stratification- is systematic inequalities among groups of people 1. Wealth and income (social class) 2. Racial inequality 3. Gender inequality. Equality/inequality -Ontological equality -Equality of opportunity -Equality of condition -Equality of outcome Why inequality exists? Inequality in wealth and access to resources is generated by three processes: 1.) Unequal division of labor and/or low mobility across occupations. 2.) Surplus or abundance of resources 3.) The desire to accumulate wealth and assets Types of social mobility: mobility refers to movement between different position within a system of social stratification 1. Horizontal 2. Vertical 3. Structural 4. Exchange Why the class structure is changing -Massive growth in inequality between the rich and the poor. Called the “Great U-Turn” -Shrinking of the working class, with some growth in middle class and working poor. -Growth of poverty and the “underclass” -Rate of poverty is increasing twice as fast as population growth Why income inequality is increasing -Largely due to the increasing concentration of wealth at the very top of the income distribution. consequences of income inequality -High levels of income inequality reduces social cohesion, overall health, overall wealth, and education -Increases crime, debt, and political polarization Social construction of race -Instead, social scientists argue that “race” is socially constructed. Racial...
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...GENDER STRATIFICATION I. Sex and Gender Sex - the biological differences between men and women Sex Role - behaviors, attitudes and motivations a culture considers appropriate for men and women Sexual Orientation - attraction to members of the opposite, same or both sexes Gender is a set of social and cultural practices that both reflect and reinforce assumptions about differences between men and women Major sociological emphasis - 3 Points 1. Gender is a social institution. Like family and religion it affects the roles men and women play in society 2. Gender influences differences in “Power” – “Power to” (get jobs, earn, get education) – “Power over” (assert will against others) 3. Gender is a cultural construct, expectations for men and women vary widely II. Sex Role Expectations A. Men -Independent -Aggressive -Sex Initiators -Career Focus -Suppress Emotions -Success = Achievements B. Women -Nurturing/Friendly --Self-Conscious about Appearance -Social Poise -Passive -Submissive -Focus on Marriage and Children -Success = Relationships Athletic ability: • Men have greater upper body strength but, athletic ability, strength and endurance are largely of function of physical activity, training, genes and hormones Intelligence: • Recent studies contradict stereotypes. Differences in math, verbal and mechanical test scores are very small • Many studies show greater variation within sexes than between Stereotyping • Studies tend to emphasize...
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...Social Inequalities: Gender and Employment The debate about the relative significance of gender has been important to the understanding of the structural force in society. There is a need to make a distinction, between women and men concerning their perceptions and roles within the workforce in today’s society. The distinction between sex and gender is that sex relates to the biological difference whereas gender relates to the socially unequal division into femininity and masculinity. Theorists have stressed the importance of social rather than the biological determinants of a wide range of behaviors between men and women and created an oppositional stance that attempted to tie women to subordinate positions on account of their biology. This has created an immense contribution to feminist thinking and has placed a powerful argument in the field of sociology. Although women’s gains in education may have been central to narrowing the gender gap in income historically, gender differences in fields of study continue to disadvantage women (Bobbitt-Zeher, 2007). Gender and Employment Before World War II, women did not have a major role in the workplace. Some argue that women in pre-industrial societies had a considerable influence in the household, which in those times were not separate from the various productive activities. This changed after the Industrial Revolution, as many men moved away from home to mechanized factories, lessening the involvement of women in the economic...
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...consists of issues concerning gender, female identity, and other social and cultural factors. There are copious amounts of information to be learned about the psychology of women because in the past, along with many other issues, androcentric viewpoints were the focus. Historically, for instance, when the majority of psychologists would study an issue they would emphasize on the male or masculine interests and neglect women entirely. In the past this was the norm yet we have come to the realization that we are equals, albeit the conviction that some are being politically correct for the sake of being politically correct. The study of human behavior is now inclusive of all humans, unless specifically noted by gender, and is no longer male-dominated. When the majority of people hear the words sex and gender, they believe them to be closely related to each other, and some believe they are just synonymous. I was taught that this is a popular public misconception. Sex is considered a more scientific term that describes the physical attributes of an individual. On the contrary, gender has a more social impact. Gender is impacted by the cultural influences of women, societal structure, roles, attributes, etc. Psychology of women relates to both sex and gender because they each have profound influences on the cognition of behaviors and mental functions. To expand, there are different issues surrounding gender and psychology such as gender roles and the influence on psychological...
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...How Gender Inequality Is Explained Sociology How has gender inequality been explained? (Answer with reference to a range of theories and approaches) Critically assess the attempt of one of the feminist group to overcome gender inequality. Social stratification “A system by which a society ranks categories of people in a hierarchy’ (Macionis and Plummer: 2005: 190). Social stratification is common in different aspects throughout society and throughout history some of the most substantial categories affected are class, race, disabilities, sexuality and globally. However this essay shall be investigating the stratification by gender, referred to as gender inequality. There are many reasons for the disparity of gender “...circumscribed by its underlying social, legal, political, economic, and cultural characteristics” (Rives and Yousefi 1997:1). Gender stratification categories people in regard to their ‘sex’, this can be defined as anatomical differences and physiological differences between male and female for example the difference in chromosomes, sex organs and hormones. The word ‘gender’ has been socially constructed through the means of a stereotype and ideology of the social role, identity, position and behaviour of male and feminine through different institutions and aspects like the media, religion, culturally and historically. Up until the era of Suffragettes in the late 19th Century women were always deemed lower than men and inequality was highly significant...
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...towards equal rights and freedoms through gradual reforms * They feel that laws against sex discrimination will lead towards a rise in equal rights * Also they feel that changes in culture will help equality, e.g. stereotypes being abolished Sex and Gender * Like Ann Oakley liberal feminists find a difference between sex and gender; * Sex refers to biological differences * Gender refers to culturally constructed differences between masculine and feminine roles * While sex differences are fixed, gender is different for different cultures, this is the part Liberal feminists want to change * Want to promote equality in education and the media * Take political action to introduce anti-discriminatory laws * Liberal feminist criticise the Funtionalist views of Parsons, regarding the Instrumental and Expressive roles * They feel that men and women are equally capable of performing either role, however society is constructed to tell us which role to adhere to * Liberal feminists do have a consensus view on society – they accept that there are conflicts between men and women but argue that it’s a product of outdated attitudes Evaluation of liberal feminism * Experiments conducted by liberal feminists have produced evidence legitimising gender inequality in work (equal pay), the media etc. * They have also shown, through their work, that gender differences aren’t ingrained into young children, they’re as a result of socialisation patterns ...
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...due to their race, class, and gender certain groups of women, such as those of Indigenous backgrounds are treated unequally, and subject to marginalization and criminalization. Intersectionality explains how issues relating to race, class, and gender, such as capitalism, racism, colonialism, patriarchy, and gender inequality force women into the street sex trade in order to survive, and how social organizations provide useful resources despite the portrayal of these women as undeserving. Drawing on interviews conducted with Sage House and Transitional Educational Resources for Women (TERF) and several secondary sources, an intersectionality approach will be used to illustrate that the difficulties women in the street sex trade face are a result...
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...Radzikowski Gender Inequalities Our society is plagued with many inequalities, these inequalities range from education to wealth, yet I believe one of the most prominent forms of inequality today is aimed towards gender. Gender inequality refers to unequal treatment or negative perceptions of individuals based on their gender. As of 2012, the World Economic Forum ranks the United States 22nd in terms of gender equality out of 135 countries. America often employs Gender stratification causing the ranking of the sexes in such a way that women are unequal in power, resources, prestige, or presumed worth. For my essay I shall explain the three most prominent forms of gender inequality: Childhood, society and professionalism. Gender inequalities have large-scale consequences for society, as long as we continue to perpetuate gender inequalities men and women will never be considered equal. In the 1800’s during America’s farm economy, women enjoyed and lived equally with men on a family. Farm men and women typically did different jobs men did heavy field labor, woodwork, repairs and worked with large edge tools. In contrast women preformed food preservation and clothing preparation, a farm family could not survive without the skilled labor of both men and women, and in this sense men and women's contribution to the economy of the family farm was equal. Furthermore children were raised and nurtured by both men and women, there were no prescribed roles or expectations of the genders. In a...
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...out of this critique called Gender and Development [GAD] approach. This paper makes two arguments: that GAD is the best approach to address the inequalities women experience in developing countries, and that the WID approach must also play a supportive role in addressing these inequalities. A crucial difference between the GAD approach and the WID approach is that GAD focuses on gender whereas WID focuses on women[2]. Although many people may think this is the same thing, they are mistaken. Gender is a cultural construct. It is the set of dispositions, behaviours, and roles that a given culture considers appropriate for each sex. Sex, on the other hand, is different from gender. Sex is the physical and biological attributes that differentiate between males and females. The category of women, as focused on by the WID approach, is clearly a category of sex and not gender. This is a major flaw in the WID analysis, for it assumes that women will have common, homogeneous interests simply because of their sex. This ignores that women have varied and often conflicting interests depending on their class, race, ethnicity, religion, and sexual orientation.[3] However, there are obviously areas where women have common interests; yet rather than calling these ‘women’s interests’, a more appropriate term would be ‘gender interests’. These are the interests that women or men share due to the specific concerns surrounding their gender roles and expectations.[4]...
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...Vasconcellos Fabiana Vasconcellos ENG 201 – 526 Apr. 20, 2010 Prof. J. Wynter Societies can be stratified in various ways, such as religion, social class, language, race, ethnicity, gender and sex. These distinctions are either socially constructed or born within the individual. Sex; for example, is based on the ascribed status since it is “imposed by nature” (Renzetti and Curran 137) and biologically determined. In contrast, gender is socially constructed since it “refers to the constellation of traits and behaviors that compose the categories masculine and feminine” (Renzetti and Curran 252). These gender distinctions are reinforced by stereotypes that contribute to social inequality and discrimination in the western societies. Throughout history, our society has always complied with gender roles, however today we are walking through a path to reverse them. Having been conformed to mother’s role for 40 years, Sarah Pen the main character in Mary E. Wilkins Freeman’ “The Revolt of the Mother” gains self-confidence to challenge traditional gender roles and reverses them in order to live in a better home. Our society has always characterized men and women in different ways and expected different behaviors from them. “[M]en have generally been the dominant sex and women have been subordinate to them” (Robertson 217). Men are also “strong”, “rational” and “aggressive” while women are “weak”, “emotional”, and “submissive” (Basow 1). These masculine and feminine traits show...
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...GENDER AND LANGUAGE IGB 442 FINAL PROJECT GENDER BIAS IN SONG By ANIK DWI ULFIYAH NIM 110222415038 STATE UNIVERSITY OF MALANG FACULTY OF LETTERS ENGLISH DEPARTMENT 2013 Gender Bias in Song Gender and Language refer to the relationship between language and our ideas about men and women. Gender itself is a different term from sex. Sex is a biological creature, while gender is ideas which are constructed by the society as the users of the language. Let us think about the different answers to these two questions which might help us clarify the distinction between sex and gender: What does it mean to be male? What does it mean to be a man? ‘To be male’, as an expression of biological sex, is to have a chromosomal make up of XY. “To be a man,” however, expresses the socially constructed aspects of masculinity. As we know, language is the most important means in communication. We also know that the goal of the communication is to convey the message. One of the language uses is in song. Song, however, is an implementation of language and it also delivers message. Thus, song is also another form of using the language. Since we know that language can be gendered bias, so does in song. The content of the song –or song lyric— may be gendered bias in some extent. Love, life, and music are unseparatable things. People who really love music will absolutely agree with this quote. Almost all people in the world like music, even just one certain song...
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...between nations. While these measures have traditionally focused on social and economic data, recent trends have extended to address other features. One important aspect in this regard is the underlying societal gender discrimination and the diverse outcome for males and females. This is commonly referred to as gender inequality. According to Dorius and Firebaugh (2010), gender inequality is where one gender possesses an excessively large proportion of valued items, such as political influence, wages or good health. Although every region of the world has developed policies and laws to tackle gender inequality, Asia-Pacific has countries with varying social and economic circumstances. This essay will examine gender inequality in two Asia-Pacific states, namely China and Singapore. The essay will consider employment and family-based gender inequality in each nation and assess the similarities and differences between them. Gender inequality has major impacts on nations, in particular on the Asia-Pacific zone. Francisco (2007) delineates various forms of inequality, namely mortality, natality, basic facility, special opportunity, professional, ownership and household forms of inequality. In this field, Jutting, Morrison, Dayton- Johnson and Drechsler (2008) argue that gender equality is vital to promote economic growth, wealth creation and poverty reduction. As an illustration, the Asia-Pacific region foregoes approximately 2-4 percent of GDP per year due to low female workforce participation...
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...ATHROPOLOGY OF GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT [HANTH 107] INTRODUCTION Defining Key Concepts Gender is not about women as most people think. Gender is about both men and women. Gender is a set of characteristics distinguishing between male and female, and is a result socio – cultural construction, it describes the characteristics that a society or culture delineates as masculine or feminine. Thus the term gender has social, cultural and attitudinal connotations. Gender is a set of characteristics distinguishing between male and female, and is a result socio – cultural construction, it describes the characteristics that a society or culture delineates as masculine or feminine. Thus the term gender has social, cultural and attitudinal connotations. Sex on the other hand refers to the biological differences in chromosomes, hormonal profiles as well as internal and external sexual organs or genitalia.The term sex since classical times has been used to designate matters related to biological and anatomical makeup of a person. Thus while ones’ sex as male or female is a biological and universal fact that is however not the same with gender since sex is tends to be similar across all cultures while gender varies one society to another. Sex relates to the biological characteristics that categorise someone as either female or male; whereas gender refers to the socially determined ideas and practices of what it is to be female or male. Patriarchy - Systemic societal structures that institutionalise...
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