Inequality, Stratification and Gender

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Inequality, Stratification and Gender

• www.educationforum.co.uk

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Gender and Stratification

• Traditionally gender and stratification was a
  neglected area of sociology. Feminist
  sociologists however have identified it as an
  important area which should be studied in its own
  right

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Sociologists say that sex and gender are
different things

• Sex refers to the physical and biological
  differences between men and women whereas gender
  refers to the socially constructed roles of what
  is considered masculine and what is considered
  feminine in society.
• Gender roles are not seen as either fixed or
  inevitable. Instead they are created by society
  (socially constructed) and the reasons for their
  construction can be understood. Gender roles can
  therefore change through time and can be very
  different in different cultures.

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Evidence of Gender Inequality

• Women earn less and are less likely to be in top
  jobs
• The glass ceiling
• The Job Market is vertically segregated men
  at high level women at low level e.g. NHS
• The Jobs market is horizontally segregated
  some jobs seen as female e.g. Nurse/primary
  teacher, service sector clerical other male
  some male. Female jobs relatively lower paid,
  worse conditions, less unionised, less secure
  (part time/temporary)

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Feminists suggest that women as a group
experience inequality in the stratification
system

• There are three types or schools or feminism
  offering explanations for gender stratification
• Liberal
• Radical
• Marxist

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Liberal Feminism

• The first liberal feminists e.g. JS Mill and
  Harriet Taylor were heavily influenced by the
  ideas of political liberalism, specifically equal
  rights, individualism and liberty. Liberal
  feminists suggest that once genuine equal rights
  have been established accidents of birth like
  sex will become irrelevant in society. Liberal
  feminism has therefore been concerned with
  changing laws and reforms from votes for women to
  the more modern anti discrimination legislation
  such as the Sex Discrimination Act.
• Liberal Feminism has successfully resulted in
  measures which have raised expectations, narrowed
  (but not closed) the pay gap, and enshrined
  womens rights in law

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Radical Feminism

• Patriarchy Theory is favoured by radical
  feminists. Radical feminists suggest that that
  power in every society resides in men. Men are
  the Ruling Class and women are oppressed.
• Sexual oppression is seen as the most fundamental
  form of inequality with all others such as class
  and ethnicity being seen as secondary.
• Radical feminists call on women to unite globally
  against male power.

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Radical feminists say the cause of gender
inequality can be culture and/or biology

• Sherry B Ortner in Is female to male as nature
  is to culture (1974) says that because women
  give birth they are seen as closer to nature and
  further from culture than men and are therefore
  seen as inferior and treated thus in society.
• Shulamith Firestone in The Dialectic of Sex
  (1970) asserts that gender inequalities are the
  direct result of biology. A womans biology
  (pregnancy, childbirth etc.) leads to physical,
  psychological and social disadvantages and is the
  source of gender inequality. Firestone claims
  that gender inequality can only be righted when
  women break free from the biology which oppresses
  them by seizing control of the reproduction
  process. She advocates therefore the extension of
  abortion and contraception and ultimately calls
  for engineered human reproduction in
  laboratories.
• Shulamith Firestone famously described pregnancy
  as barbaric and likened childbirth to shitting
  a pumpkin a lady not happy with her biology!

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Dual Systems theory favoured by Marxist feminists
says there are two sources of gender inequality
capitalism and patriarchy

• Marxist Feminism says that patriarchy and gender
  inequality can only be understood in a social and
  economic context. It suits capitalism that women
  are exploited by men on many levels. Engels even
  went as far to suggest that the emergence of
  capitalism had resulted in the world historical
  defeat of the female sex. (The Origins of the
  Family, private property and the State).
• The bourgeois family (the product of capitalism)
  is patriachical and unequal because with the
  emergence of private property men wished to
  ensure that their property was passed onto to
  their sons. Men therefore restricted womens
  sexuality in monogamous unequal marriages. The
  logic of this argument suggests that without
  private property there would be no need to do
  this. Capitalism is therefore seen as the main
  source of womens oppression.
• Oppressed women also carry out a number of other
  important functions for capitalism. They provide
  unpaid domestic labour, nurture and socialise
  future generations of workers and provide a
  reserve army of cheap labour should the need
  arise.
• For Marxist feminists the solution to gender
  inequalities is therefore the ending of
  capitalism through socialist revolution
• Three systems theory (Black feminism) say
  ethnicity should be ended to dual systems theory
  to recognize the inequality of black women in a
  racist society

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Rally Coach

• 1.What is the difference between sex and gender?
• 2.What evidence is there of gender inequality in
  society today?
• 3.Outline the similarities and differences
  between Liberal, Marxist and Radical feminism
• 4. Using page 452 of your textbook outline a
  functionalist view of gender stratification