Gender Inequality: A Sociological Perspective
Gender & Inequality
Male/Female Differences
– We must be careful not to think of social differences in biological terms.
– Differences in physical abilities exist, but in athletics, the gap is smaller today.
– Differences in abilities reflect both biology and socialization.
– There is no difference in overall intelligence between males and females.
Gender in Global Perspective
The Israeli Kibbutz
– Gender equality is one of its stated goals.
– Men and women share in both work and decision-making.
– Girls and boys are raised in the same way.
Margaret Mead’s Research
– If gender is based on biological differences, people everywhere should define “feminine” and “masculine” in the same way.
– She found that definitions varied.
George Murdock’s Research
– In pre-industrial societies, hunting and warfare belong to men, and domestic duties to women.
– However, beyond this pattern, he found much variety.
– Gender is too variable across cultures to be a simple expression of biology.
– With industrialization, the importance of muscle power declines, further reducing gender differences.
Patriarchy & Sexism
– Patriarchy: a form of social organization in which males dominate females.
– Matriarchy: a form of social organization in which females dominate males (has never been documented).
– Sexism: the belief that one sex is innately superior to the other.
The Costs of Sexism
- Stunting the talents and limiting the ambitions of women.
Privileges given to men come at a high price:
- Men engage in high-risk behaviors.
- Masculinity is linked to suicide, violence, and stress-related diseases.
- Competition and aggression separate men from everyone else.
- Control-seeking masculinity results in a loss of intimacy and trust.
– In modern societies, biological differences offer little justification for patriarchy.
– Gender is socially constructed and can be changed; patriarchy can be left behind.
Gender & Socialization
– Patriarchy exists through the learning of gender roles: attitudes and activities that a society links to each sex.
Gender and the Family
- Pink and blue worlds for girls and boys.
- Girls are treated tenderly, boys more roughly.
- Society treats men as independent and women as cooperative.
Gender and the Peer Group
– Young children have single-sex playgroups.
Gender and Schooling
- Textbooks now portray people in balanced ways.
- In university, women are prominent in humanities and social sciences, and men in mathematics and natural sciences.
Gender and the Mass Media
- Men play more interesting characters than women.
- Ads traditionally show women in domestic roles and men in occupational roles.
- Men are photographed to appear taller than women, and women are most often lying down in beds or sofas or on the floor.
Gender & Social Stratification
Working Women and Men
- In 1901, women made up 13% of the workforce.
- In 2006, 57.5% of women were in the labor force.
- Women still dominate sales work and service occupations; men dominate most senior positions and trades.
Are Women a Minority?
– Minority: People distinguished by physical or cultural differences that a society sets apart and subordinates.
- At every class level, women typically have less income, wealth, education, and power than men.
- Patriarchy makes women dependent on men for their social standing.
Minority Women: Intersection Theory
- The interplay of race, class, and gender results in multiple dimensions of disadvantage.
- This is especially true for disadvantages linked to race and gender.
- Aboriginal women earn less than other Canadians.
- African-American women earn 62% of the income of white men.
Structural-Functional Analysis
- Gender is a means to organize social life.
- Modern societies relax gender roles to release talent.
Talcott Parsons (1940s-50s): men and women have complementary traits by socialization:
- Instrumental: rational, competitive (for boys).
- Expressive: emotional responsiveness (for girls).
Symbolic Interaction Analysis
- Focuses on face-to-face interaction in everyday life.
- Sex roles define the way a society expects women and men to think and behave.
- With less power, women are expected to be more deferential.
- Gender plays a part in shaping almost all of our everyday experiences.
Social Conflict Analysis
Friedrich Engels: Gender and Class
- Men gained power over women as productive technology advanced.
- Private property contributed to male domination.
- Men controlled the sexuality of women to identify male heirs.
- Capitalism makes male domination even stronger.
Feminism
– Advocacy of social equality for men and women in opposition to patriarchy and sexism.
Basic Feminist Ideas
- Working to increase equality.
- Expanding human choice.
- Eliminating gender stratification.
- Ending sexual violence.
- Promoting sexual freedom.
Types of Feminism
- Liberal feminism: Freedom to develop one’s own talents and interests.
- Socialist feminism: Pursue collective (male and female) social revolution with a state-centered economy.
- Radical feminism: Revolution for an egalitarian, gender-free society.
- Cultural feminism: Rejects privileged white middle-class feminism that ignores others.
- Postmodern feminism: Rejects general theories as dominant and oppressive.