chapter 1 studying gender an overview. © 2012 pearson education, inc. all rights reserved....

Chapter 1

Studying Gender

An Overview

© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Sociological Perspectives on Gender

• StatusStatus is not what people think of a person, status is a position within a group or society.

A status carries with it a set of culturally defined rights and duties, which sociologists call a role

© Copyright 2009 The McGraw Hill Company

3

Sociological Concept- Roles

• A status carries with it a set of culturally defined rights and duties, which sociologists call a role. – Role performance is the actual behavior of the person who occupies a

status.

– A single status may have multiple roles attached to it, constituting a role set.

– Role conflict results when individuals are confronted with conflicting expectations stemming from their simultaneous occupancy of two or more statuses.

– Role strain occurs when individuals find the expectations of a single role incompatible, so that they have difficulty performing the role.

– Duties and rights are complementary



• Sex and gender– Sex is a biological trait– Male or female (usually)

• Gender is society’s expectations of how males and female “Should”– Dress– Behave– Act– Express feelings



• Gender stereotypes,

• Gender structures

• Patriarchy

• Paradigm

• Structural Functionalism– Structural functionalist paradigm– Other theoretical Paradigms


6

Social Roles• Social role: set of expectations for people who

occupy a given social position or status

• Role conflict: occurs when incompatible expectations arise from two or more social positions held by the same person; or when individuals move into occupations not common among people with their ascribed status

Key Concepts, cont.

• Stereotypes – oversimplified conceptions– Discussion: Why do we use stereotypes?

• Negative aspects of stereotypes– Sexism– Racism– Classism

Portions © Copyright 2012 Alan S. Berger and other portions © Copyright 2011 Pearson Education, inc

7

Gender Stereotypes

• Stereotypes are social assumptions about groups of people

• Masculine behavior for males

• Feminine behavior for females

• Men shouldn’t have feminine traits

• Women shouldn’t have masculine traits

© 2011 Alan S. Berger


9

Social Roles

• Role strain: difficulty that arises when the same social position imposes conflicting demands and expectations

• Role exit: process of disengagement from a role central to one’s self-identity in order to establish a new role and identity

Gender Stereotypes

• These stereotypes are socially created and – Apply structurally to the society– And individually to people

• The stereotypes are embedded in institutions such as– Religion– Government– And many more


Gender Stereotypes

• These stereotypes are NOT universal. They Vary– From society to society– From Culture to culture– Over time

• The pattern of gender differences society expects is the Sex/Gender system


Sex/Gender System components

• Social Construction of categories based on biology

• Division of labor based on sex

• Social regulation of forms of sexual expression with differential sanctions

• Result => a sex/gender based system of stratification


Sex/Gender Stratification

• Some consequences of this stratification– Labor Force participation– Patriarchy/Matriarchy

• Found in– Occupational settings– Religion– Family structures

• Relationship to power & dominance



• Structural Functionalism– Biological differences lead to social differences– Roles

• Dictated by biology?• Causes and effects of biology on social structures

– Justifications for inequality– Paradigm revolution

• Kuhn: newer explanations better able to explain structures



• Structural Functionalism – Envisions a stable set of roles– Attempts to maintain stability

• Conflict theory– Envisions continuing changes and revisions in social

structures• Symbolic Interaction

– Envisions symbols to display roles and status – Display signs of change




– Gender roles– Evaluating Structural Functionalism– Power

• A Paradigm Revolution– The popularity of structural functionalism

during the years following World War II



– Sociologists questioned the accuracy of depicting society as:

• An orderly, harmonious social system

– There are more sociologists researching and teaching about gender than:

• Any other specialized area of the discipline


A Feminist Sociology of Gender

• Feminist perspective– Begins with the assumption that gender is

essentially socially created

• Feminist paradigm– Feminists take issue with the inherent sex

bias in traditional sociological research


A Feminist Sociology of Gender

• Sexism

• Intersecting inequalities

• Feminists recognize that sociological research is dualistic

• Social movement

• Feminist movement


Table 1.1 Sociological Perspectives on Gender

Early History of Gender Roles

• Patriarchal origins in the old testament– Continued through middle ages– Evident in American colonies– Women and slaves not fully counted in early American History

• Some stirrings of rebellion against Male domination– A legendary figure of the American Revolutionary War, most likely Mary Ludwig

Hays McCauley, helped American troops in battle, first by bringing water to the revolutionaries during the battle (earning her the nickname "Molly Pitcher"), then by manning a cannon after her soldier husband succumbed to either the heat or a battle wound. (http://www.answers.com/topic/molly-pitcher#ixzz1MWpxlWij)

• Originally women of middle and upper classes began protesting discrimination against women

– Mary Wollstonecraft and others– Pointed out that if all humans are equal by nature discrimination is unnatural


22

Early History of Gender Roles

• Increased education of women in the 1800’s– Continued discrimination– Poor women had to work

• Over crowded factories/ sweatshops

• Development of anti-slavery movement provided a model for women

• Suffragette movement post Civil war– Some movement at the state level– Right of women to vote approved August 1920

• Did not provide the hoped for cure

• Led to the 2nd wave of feminist movement in the mid 20th Century


23

1950’s and 1960’s Social Characteristics

– Politics of the time• Eisenhower President

– Warned against the Military-Industrial Complex

• Ran against Stevenson – Divorce hurt his chances

– Good Economic time• Development of Suburbs• Baby boomers growing up• The “Gray Flannel Suit” • Growing domination of the Corporation


24

1950’s and 1960’s Social Characteristics

– Popular Television Shows• Leave it to Beaver• Ozzie and Harriet• The Brady Bunch

– Sociology of the times• Mostly male

– Most College faculty were males– Research focused on men’s behavior


25


Feminism in Historical Perspective

• The First Wave of Feminism

• Early Feminists– Elizabeth Blackwell

• The first female physician in the United States

– Charlotte Perkins Gilman• A professional writer, social critic, journalist, and

public speaker



– Margaret Sanger• Arrested and prosecuted several times for her

activities

– Maria W. Stewart• Became the first woman born in the United States

to deliver a public lecture



– Sojourner Truth• Advocated abolition, protection and assistance for

the poor, and equal rights for women

– Ida B. Wells-Barnett• Active in politics and helped educate women about

elections• Led the campaign to end lynching



– Frances Willard• Campaigning for strict laws regulating the sale and

consumption of alcohol

– Victoria Claflin Woodhull• Advocacy of free love and her illicit relationships

with wealthy men• The first woman to operate a Wall Street brokerage

firm• The first American woman to address Congress,

and the first American woman to run for president



• The Second Wave of Feminism– The Feminine Mystique– Sexual politics

Development of the Feminist Perspective

• World War II put women to work in “Male” occupations– Shattered the structural functional equilibrium– Enhanced the impact of the Suffragette movement – Can the genie be forced back into the bottle?

• After WW II Society as a whole changed– Suburban lifestyles– Changing perspectives of work

• Images of the 1950’s and 1960’s life styles– Senator Joe McCarthy– The Good Wife's Guide– The Vietnam War


Women’s Roles in the 1960’s

• “On December 22nd 1962… the Saturday Evening Post published a cover article purporting to offer a portrait of the typical American woman.

– The opening page featured a photo of "Mrs. Charles Johnson," surrounded by her husband and children. "I just want to take care of Charlie and the children," the caption explained, summing up what the reader soon learned was the collective attitude of "American women, in toto."

• The Post's story was based on more than 1,800 interviews and extensive polling by the Gallup organization. According to the author, George Gallup, it was not intended to examine "the extremes" among American women. "Old maids," divorced women, childless women, and working mothers certainly existed in America, he acknowledged, but they were of concern mainly to sociologists, "because they are unusual" and exist "in a society that is not geared for them." The article's aim was to portray how "most" American women lived and thought.

• As depicted in the Post article, the typical American woman—the one for whom American society was "geared"—was thirty-five years old, had two children (but was hoping for a third), and was a full-time homemaker. She had completed slightly more than three years of high school and had been happily married for fourteen years. And unstated though this was, she was white.

• (continues)


• A careful reader of the Post article might have noted a few signs that not all women the pollsters interviewed were feeling as serene as Gallup suggested. Even though 60 percent of the wives said their marriages were happier than those of their parents, and almost all felt their housework was easier, two-thirds of them did not believe they were doing a better job of child rearing than their mothers had. And 90 percent of them did not want their daughters to follow in their own footsteps, expressing the hope their daughters would get more education and marry later than they had. Furthermore, about half the "single girls," as the Post referred to all unmarried women no matter their age, and a third of the married ones complained about inferior female status.“

• In many states, according to the President's Commission on the Status of Women, which issued its report on October 11, 1963, a wife had "no legal rights to any part of her husband's earnings or property during the existence of the marriage, aside from a right to be properly supported." The bar for what constituted proper support was set quite low. In one case that made it to the Kansas Supreme Court, a wife whose comfortably well-off husband refused to install running water in her kitchen was rebuffed when she tried to make the case that this constituted less than adequate support. In community property states, a wife did have a legally recognized interest in the commonly owned property, above and beyond the right to receive basic support from it, but the husband generally had exclusive rights to manage and control that property.

• (continues)


• American housewives are content, asserted Gallup, because they "know precisely why they're here on earth." Unlike men, women do not need to "search for a meaning in life. . . . Practically every one of the 1813 married women in this survey said that the chief purpose of her life was to be either a good mother or a good wife.“

• As a young child, she would have experienced the Great Depression and almost certainly been aware of the tensions in the household as her parents struggled to get by. She had lived through World War II in her teen years, married a few years after the war's end, and was now taking care of her husband and raising children. But of course the Post survey included many slightly older women who had married before or during World War H as well as some who had started their families more recently.

• (continues)


• Only four states allowed a wife the full right to a separate legal residence. When a woman married, most courts ruled, she "loses her domicile and acquires that of her husband, no matter where she resides, or what she believes or intends." If a female student in California married a fellow student from out of state, for example, she would lose her in-state tuition. The husband had the right to determine the couple's joint residence, so if he moved and she refused to follow, she could be said to have deserted him if he sought a divorce. Even when a wife lived apart from her husband, she could seldom rent or buy a home on her own. In 1972, the New York Times carried a story about a woman who could not rent an apartment until her husband, a patient in a mental hospital, signed the lease.

• A woman who did not change the name on her driver's license or voter registration upon marriage could have it revoked until she did. In 1971, an Illinois bill to allow married women to use a different surname for legal purposes was defeated, partly on grounds that motel owners could not safeguard "public morals" if married couples could register as Miss Jane Doe and Mr. John Smith.

• (continues)


• A woman who did not change the name on her driver's license or voter registration upon marriage could have it revoked until she did. In 1971, an Illinois bill to allow married women to use a different surname for legal purposes was defeated, partly on grounds that motel owners could not safeguard "public morals" if married couples could register as Miss Jane Doe and Mr. John Smith.

• At least five states required women to receive court approval before opening a business in their own name. In Florida, a married woman who wished to operate a business independently of her husband had to present a petition that attested to "her character, habits, education and mental capacity for business" and explain why her "disability" to conduct a business should be removed

• (continues)


• Other publications and commentators, the Post editors wrote in the teaser for the article, had variously described American housewives "as lonely, bored, lazy, sexually inept, frigid, superficial, harried, militant, [and] overworked," but the truth was that they were doing fine. While 40 percent of housewives admitted they sometimes wondered whether they would have been better off as a single career woman, only 7 percent said they were "sorry they chose marriage over career." As one put it, "I'm my own boss. . . . My only deadline is when my husband comes home. I'm much more free than when I was single and working. A married woman has it made.“– (Coontz, Stephanie A Strange Stirring, New York, Basic

Books, 2011 P 1.)

• One month later Betty Friedan Published “The Feminine Mystique”


“The Problem lay buried, unspoken, for many years in the minds of American women. It was a strange stirring, a sense of dissatisfaction , a yearning… Each Suburban wife struggled with it alone, As She made the beds, shopped for groceries , matched slipcover material, ate peanut butter sandwiches with her children, chauffeured Cub Scouts and Brownies, lay beside her husband at night- she was afraid to as even of herself the silent question- “Is this All?”

Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique, Page 1 , Norton, 2001 edition. Originally published in 1963.



Contemporary Feminisms

• Gender-reform feminisms– Emphasize the similarities rather than the

differences between women and men

• Gender-resistance feminisms

• Gender-rebellion feminisms

• Men, Masculinity, and Feminism


• Friedan’s first paragraph was to Femininism what “I Have A Dream” was to the Civil Rights movement.– It touched the hearts and minds of millions.

• The Feminine Mystique is probably one of the most important documents in the history of study of Gender Roles– Without it, would society have changed?



• By the 1980’s Feminism had begun to develop as a movement– And as all movements that want to survive have

to do, it developed social institutions and structures

– One of the first was NOW• National Organization of Women• Still a potent political and social change organization.

• And like many revolutionary movements as it grew it changed



• NOW became mainstream

• And like many revolutionary movements as it became mainstream more militant/radical groups developed.– Most notably in this case, based on sexual

orientation.– Militant Lesbian groups challenged NOW for

the leadership of the feminist movement



• Feminist groups are now characterized as– Gender-reform

• Emphasis on male-female similarities

– Gender-resistant• Break away from male dominated society

– Gender-rebellion• Multi racial, focus on multiple types of inequality

– Post modernism and queer theory• Conceptualize multiple types of scripts. Gender is

fluid.



Contemporary Feminisms

• Feminism in Developing and Undeveloped Countries

• The Future of Feminism: Young Women and Women of Color– The media and others sounded the death

knell for feminism– Inclusion

chapter 1 studying gender an overview. © 2012 pearson education, inc. all rights reserved....

Documents

pearson education

defined rights

role set

social rolessocial role

role central

new role

role performance

single role incompatible