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Lecture Notes
Gender and Sociology
Sociological Concepts
- Status-a category or position a person occupies that is a significant determinant of how he/she will be defined and treated, Status set-number of statuses possessing simultaneously, Achieved status- that achieves by one’s efforts, Ascribed Status-status that one is born into.
- Social Stratification-categorizes members based on their status
- Roles (expected behaviour associated with status) and norms (shared rules that guide people's behaviour in particular situations)
- Stereotypes (oversimplified conceptions that expect people who belong to a particular status to behave in a particular fashion)
- Sexism (as a result of negative stereotypes, the belief that the status of the female is inferior to that of the male )
- (^) Patriarchy (male dominated social structures)
- Social, cultural, psychological traits related to male and female Gender socialization - helps to convey expected attitudes and behaviours to the individuals. It is the process of learning social expectations and attitudes associated with one’s sex.
- Gender Expectation-instrumental roles and expressive roles
- Sexual Orientation-describes how one identifies one’s own sexuality
Anticipatory socialization - social interactions that expect individuals to behave in a particular fashion and with this expectation they pass some cues to the individuals and expect them to perform in that manner.
Sociological perspectives
Functionalism
▲ Values-gender roles ▲ Functions –gender roles ▲ Instrumental and expressive roles ♦ Critique ▲ Male dominance ▲ Strain in the division of labour ▲ Dysfunctional
Superwoman syndrome—Marjorie Hansen Shaevitz When a woman tries to perform all the roles of a wage earner, home maker, perfect partner, and perfect mother, superwoman syndrome occurs. Such women try to juggle several full time roles.
Conflict Theory
- Emancipation of women through active participation in production
- Not domestic labour only
- Social placement
- Critique
Second shift-Arlie Russell Hochschild
Arlie Russell Hochschild in her 1989 book, The Second Shift describes about the household responsibilities that woman (a wife and a mother) takes care of, apart from her paid job at office or work place add up to at least 40-hours each week.
Sex refers to the biological characteristics distinguishing male and female. This definition
emphasizes male and female differences in chromosomes, anatomy, hormones, reproductive systems, and other physiological components. Gender refers to those social, cultural, and psychological traits linked to males and females through particular social contexts. Sex makes us male or female; gender makes us masculine or feminine. Sex is an ascribed status because a person is born with it, but gender is an achieved status because it must be learned.
Feminist philosophers such as Judith Butler and Simone de Beauvoir contend that femininity and masculinity are created through repeated performances of gender; these performances reproduce and define the traditional categories of sex and/or gender.
Women and men experience different types of mobility within the workplace. Women tend to experience a glass ceiling, an invisible barrier that prevents them from moving up the corporate ladder. Men in jobs traditionally held by women, such as nursing, elementary school teaching, and social work, experience a “glass escalator” effect in which they are able to quickly ascend
the job hierarchy to become managers and principals.
Some theoretical observations and critical texts regarding Gender
“One is not born a woman but one becomes a woman” –Simone de Beauvoir
“It's my view that gender is culturally formed, but it's also a domain of agency or
freedom and that it is most important to resist the violence that is imposed by ideal
gender norms, especially against those who are gender different, who are
nonconforming in their gender presentation”. Judith Butler
Texts
The Second Sex - Simone de Beauvoir Gender Trouble -Judith Butler The Feminine Mystique -Betty Friedan
Gender identity is learned and created; it refers to a society’s notion of masculinity and femininity, socially constructed meanings associated with male and female, and how the individuals, construct their identity within these constraints. Social stratification system and individuals are expected to act appropriately for their sex category.
Masculinities/femininities
between biology and culture; by embodying societally determined gender roles we reinforce
cultural ideals and simultaneously shape, both temporarily and permanently, our bodies, which then perpetuates the cultural ideal. While there is actually more variation in body type within the male and female sexes than there is between the two sexes, embodiment exaggerates the perceived bodily differences between gender categories. Social embodiment, for both men and women, is variable across cultures and over time. Examples of women embodying across cultures include foot binding practices in Chinese culture, neck rings in African and Asian cultures, and corsets in Western cultures. Another interesting phenomenon has been the practice of wearing high heels, which shifted from a masculine fashion to a feminine fashion over time. In the United States, the ideal body image and dimensions have changed for both women and men, with the body ideal female body shape becoming progressively slimmer and the body ideal for men becoming progressively larger. These differences are epitomized in the example of children’s toys; G.I. Joe dolls depict the physical ideals for boys and Barbie dolls embody the ideals for girls.
Gender Identity is a person's own sense of identification as female, male, both, neither, or
somewhere in between. Sexual behavior and intimate relationships are strongly influenced by a
person’s sexual orientation. Sexual orientation refers to your degree of emotional and physical
attraction to members of the opposite sex, same sex, or both sexes.
Gender Discrimination
Prejudice or discrimination based on a person’s gender
Some people are unable to merge the biological, psychological, and social sides of their gender.
They suffer gender dysphoria, or emotional confusion and pain over their gender identity.
Specifically, some believe they were born into the wrong‐gender body, that their internal
sense of gender is inconsistent with their external sexual biology. This
condition is termed transsexualism. Transsexuals may desire to be rid of their primary and
secondary sexual structures and acquire those of the other sex by undergoing sex‐
reassignment surgery. Transsexuals should not be confused with transvestites, who enjoy
wearing the clothing of the other gender.
LGBTQ -stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgenders and queers
Gender equality , also known as sex equality , gender egalitarianism , sexual
equality or equality of the genders , is the view that men and women should receive
equal treatment, and should not be discriminated against based on gender.
Gender Equity is the process of allocating resources, programs, and decision making
fairly to both males and females without any discrimination on the basis of sex and
addressing any imbalances in the benefits available to males and females.
"Gender equality requires equal enjoyment by women and men of socially-valued goods, opportunities, resources and rewards." (http://web.unfpa.org/gender/ resources3.htm#2 )
"Gender equity is the process of being fair to women and men." (UNFPA)
International Women’s Day – 8th^ March
International Men’s Day-19th^ November
German socialist & feminist – Clara Zetkin worked for the cause of Women workers in textile factories in New York, USA and had protested against poor working conditions and low wages. First International Women’s Day was celebrated in 1911.
First woman teacher in India – Savitribai Phule
Power
The degree of control exercised by certain people/ institutions/ organizations over material, human, intellectual and financial resources can be defined as power. It is dynamic and relational.
Empowerment:- redistribution of power
- Empowerment entails the transformation of the structure or institutions that reinforce and perpetuate gender discrimination.
- Process that enables women to gain access to and control of material as well as information resources.
- Empowerment should begin in the household with equality, autonomy and respect
- Gained impetus from the women’s movement
- Implies struggle, deal with forces of oppression.
Gender equity is the process of being fair to women and men.
Constitution
- Article 14 – Equality to all Indian Women
- Article 15 (1) - No discrimination by the state
- Article (16) – equality of Opportunity
- Article (39) – Equal pay for equal work
