Generally Corresponds with Chapter Three and Assigned Readings

1
Generally Corresponds with Chapter Three and
Assigned Readings

• Class 8 Doing Gender
• Gender and Families

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Doing Gender West and Zimmerman

• What is the difference between Sex, Gender and
  sex category?

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The Difference Between Gender, Sex Sex Category

• Gender social and cultural characteristics that
  distinguish women and men in a society
• (achieved status)
• Different clothing
• Expectations about who should cry
• Sex biological characteristics that distinguish
  women and men
• Sex chromosomes, reproductive organs, physical
  characteristics
• Sex Category achieved through application of
  sex category
• In everyday life established sustained by
  socially required identificatory displays

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Gender

• How many genders are there?
• Modification of gender identity (berdache)
• Intersexuals people born with ambiguous sex
  organs
• Activists want doctors to wait until individuals
  are older to reassign their sex

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• Left off 6-2-03

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The Berdache

• Men or women in Native American societies who
  dressed like, performed the duties of, and
  behaved like a member of the opposite sex
• Berdaches were found in more than 100 Native
  American tribes
• Berdache found in indigenous societies where men
  had less control over women
• Number declined rapidly with the arrival of
  European culture

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Anne Fausto-Sterling

• The 5 sexes
• Females
• Males
• Herms
• Both testis and ovary -hermaphrodite
• Merms
• Testis and some aspect of female genitalia
• Ferms
• Ovary and some aspect of male genitalia

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Doing GenderWest Zimmermans Approach

• 1. Ethnomethodolgically informed understanding of
  gender as a routine, methodological, and
  recurring accomplishment.
• 2. The Doing of Gender undertaken by wmn and men
  whose competence as members of society is held
  hostage to its production.
• 3. Doing gender involves a complex of socially
  guided perceptual, interactional, and
  micropollitical activities that cast particular
  pursuits as expressions of masculine feminine
  natures.

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Tootsie

• What aspects of West and Zimmermans approach do
  you notice in the following film clip?

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• How is Doing Gender different from other
  approaches to Gender?
• Handout from Text Table 3.1

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The Gestational Construction of Gender

• Genetic transmission of sex
• XX female
• XY male
• Gestation Period
• Genitals develop in either male or female form
• Males produce androgens which cause genitals to
  develop into male form

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Hormonal Influences

• Some scientists believe that not only are sexual
  organs different, but the brain also develops
  differently in the male and the female
• Studies of levels of male sex hormones while
  females were in womb
• Led to differences in gendered behavior
• Parental socialization had weaker effect on
  behavior if hormone level was higher
• Doing Gender P.137

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Parental Socialization

• Parents teach us the ways of our society and how
  to behave in it
• Socialization approach
• Rewarding children for a set of behaviors
  appropriate to their sex
• Social role pattern of behaviors (parent,
  teacher, child) that society expects

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The Media

• Children learn from books, television,
  advertisements, music
• Characters in books
• Males outnumbered females in 1972
• More evenly distributed by 1990
• Television and Computer Games
• Exhibit gender imbalance in favor of males
• Doing Gender P.135

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Studying Children Early Peer Groups

• Peer group a group of people at roughly the
  same age and social status
• Boy peer groups reinforce competition and
  dominance
• Girl peer groups reinforce more open
  conversational interaction and agreement
• Doing Gender P.141

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Childrens Preferences

• Boys engage in more aggressive behaviors
• Also more likely to play with blocks
• Girls engage in more nurturing behaviors and are
  less aggressive
• Differences may reflect biological influences

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Later Peer Groups

• Games and sports
• Boys more likely to play organized games with
  rules and a goal
• Girls play reinforces the relational and
  emotional skills exhibited by women
• Most play groups are either all-male or
  all-female
• How do these contribute to socialization?
• Doing Gender P.126

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The Sex-Gender System

• Capitalist economies
• Men have access to more resources
• Social economies
• Sexes equal in theory, but not in practice

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Biosocial Influences

• Biosocial approach
• Biology and society influence gender differences
• Biological differences in gendered behavior exist
  only on average
• Individuals show a wide range of behavior
• Social influences can counteract biological
  dispositions
• Doing Gender P.138

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Evolutionary Influences

• Evolutionary biology women and men evolved
  different strategies for reproductive success
• Gender roles different sets of behaviors that
  are commonly exhibited by women and men
• Gendered division of labor
• Reflects mens interests more than womens
• Doing Gender P.128

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Unconscious Influences

• Psychoanalytic Approach
• Stresses unconscious mental processes
• Importance of internalization
• Attachment to mother remains the same for females
• Attachment changes for males at age 3-4
  break/distancing
• Doing Gender P.142

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The Continual Construction of Gender

• Interactionist approach
• Gender identification and behavior based on the
  day-to-day behavior that reinforces gender
  distinctions
• Patriarchy and Male Domination
• Sex-gender system Transformation of biological
  differences between men and women into a social
  order that supports male domination
• Doing Gender P.140

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A Boy Named Sue

• 1. What does this song have to do with West and
  Zimmermans concept of Doing Gender?
• What other concepts are visible?
• 2. What does doing gender have to do with
  families?

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Gender, Class, and Race

• Gender theorists believe gender is a primary
  basis of social stratification, like class or
  race

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Gender

• Why is the study of gender and sex important to
  the understanding of family?
• How are decisions made in your family?
• Doing Gender P.143
• Gender as reflection of power relationships in
  society
• How do gender roles reflect mens attempts to
  retain power over women?
• Doing Gender P.146

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Contribution of Gender Studies

• Socialization approach best explains differences
  between men and women
• Biosocial and Psychoanalytic approaches both
  suggest girls and boys have predispositions for
  behavior
• Gender studies demonstrate that mens and womens
  family roles are socially and culturally
  constructed

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Contribution of Gender Studies

• Gender distinctions reflect
• differences in power
• Biological differences exist without dismissing
  cultural and social influences
• Doing Gender P.147

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• Extra info if you are interested

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Gender Cherlins The Male Point of View

• Gender studies mostly done from feminist point of
  view
• Sociologists are now studying masculinity and the
  personal characteristics typical to men