Gender

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Gender
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• Two Primary Issues
• The Cultural construction of Gender
• Gender Relations

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Sex Versus Gender

• Sex refers to biological differences,
• Gender refers to the cultural construction of
  male and female characteristics.
• The ways members of the two sexes are
  perceived, evaluated and expected to behave.

(what different cultures make of sex.)
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• Gender Boundaries
• We demand that the categories of male and female
  be discrete
• since gender is culturally constructed the
  boundaries are conceptual rather than physical
• the boundaries are dynamic, eg. now it is
  acceptable for men to wear earrings.
• Boundaries require markers to indicate gender
  such as

• Voice
• Physique
• Dress
• Behaviour

• Hair style
• Kinetics
• Language use

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Gender identity
Why is it important
How do we react when someone seems to have traits
of each category?
social intercourse requires that the interacting
parties know to which gender category the other'
belongs
Felicita Vestvali1824 - 1880
New York opera star who specialized in singing
contralto "trouser roles."
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Is he a he? Or is he a she? Or is she a he? How
does your reaction to this image compare to the
earlier one of a woman dressed as a man? Is
there a double standard?
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Women cross dress all the time. The difference
is perception. Acceptance or Rejection by society
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The Relativity of Gender
If the categories man' and woman' are
culturally constructed what are the implications?

• There can be no universal meaning to the category
  woman or man.
• What it means to be a man or a woman in a
  particular society is relative to that society.
• we do not have to be restricted to two genders

Cross-dressing often retains clues to the
underlying gender base and the resulting image
appears to exist somewhere between the polarities
of male and female containing elements of both
as if a third gender had been created.
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Third Genders

• transsexual gender/ sex incongruent, trapped
  in wrong body but with the gender identity of
  their organs/sex change operation
• transvestite dressing as other gender,
  biological sex (cross-dresser)
• homosexual
• bisexual
• eunuch castrated male
• hermaphrodite both sets of biological organs
• Virgin?
• Boy/Girl?

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The Hijras of India and Pakistan

• Hijra means impotent ones in Urdu
• Some are born hermaphrodite, most are born with a
  male body but with a feminine gender identity and
  undergo voluntary castration
• Hijras wear colourful womens clothes and prefer
  men or other hijras as sexual partners

• Perceived neither as men nor women but as a third
  gender
• estimates range from 50,000 to 5,000,000 in India.

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• A third gender has existed in the Indian
  subcontinent from the earliest Vedic period (2000
  BCE), and throughout the history of Hinduism
• They are also viewed as the cultural descendants
  of the court eunuchs of the Islamic Mughal Empire
  (1526-1858)
• typically live together in a traditional commune
  arrangement of five or more "chelas" (disciples),
  supervised by a "guru." (teacher)
• Unrecognized in law as either male or female they
  face extreme discrimination in health, housing,
  education, employment.

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• Hijras now earn their living as beggars,
  prostitutes and by dancing at carnivals, weddings
  and births that require their blessing

getting dressed for a job entertaining at a
wedding

• Hijras are both feared for their supposed ability
  to place curses, and pitied for being outcast
  children of Allah.
• Believed to hold great power because of their
  worship of the Hindu Mother Goddess - Mata
  Bahuchara

Blessing a newborn
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• have recently modelled designer clothes at upbeat
  fashion shows
• And begun training as beauticians

• faced with health concerns and discrimination,
  many have become politically active
• A few hijras have been elected to high political
  positions (1st Hijra MP elected 1999)

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Berdache
George Catlin (1796-1872)Dance to the
BerdacheDrawn while on the Great Plains, among
the Sac and Fox Indians, the sketch depicts a
ceremonial dance to celebrate the two-spirit
person. The men tease him but vie for his
recognition, which is deemed an honor.

• Common among many native N. American groups
• In everyday life the two-spirit male typically
  would wear womens clothes and do womens work.
• He would be accepted as one of the girls. He
  might take a husband, or might have affairs with
  several men.
• Generally two-spirit males were not expected to
  have sexual relations with women.

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• Multigendered people were/are usually presumed to
  be people of power.
• Because they have both maleness and femaleness in
  one body, they are thought to be able to see
  with the eyes of both men and women.
• They are often called upon to be healers, or
  mediators, or interpreters of dreams.
• Besides their spiritual abilities, their capacity
  for work also figured into the high status of
  two-spirit people.
• Even though a two-spirit male would have taken on
  the gender identity of a woman, he would still
  have the endurance and strength of a man

We'wha (1849-96), a Zuni berdache, lived in New
Mexico. He is shown holding a ritual vessel,
dressed in women's clothing.
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• Western societies label third sexes and genders a
  problem and therefore feel compelled to fix
  them
• Deification, ostracization, and medicalization
  are common coping strategies for societies with
  strong gender dichotomies, and are often based on
  reproductive potential

• These systems do not always have to be harmful to
  the third gendered/sexed individual, but often
  are
• As we move out of an age where reproduction was
  our main purpose in life maybe we need to revise
  and expand our ideas about how gender and sex
  roles work with each other

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Is it possible to have a genderless society?
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Gender roles

• tasks and activities a culture assigns to the
  sexes expected ways of behaving based on
  societys definition of masculine and feminine
• Gender stereotypes
• oversimplified but strongly held ideas of the
  characteristics of men and women.
• Gender stratification
• an unequal distribution of rewards (socially
  valued resources, power, prestige, and personal
  freedom) between men and women, reflecting their
  different positions in social hierarchy a
  division in society where all members are
  hierarchically ranked according to gender
• Gender ideology
• A system of thoughts and values that legitimizes
  sex roles, statuses and customary behaviour

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Gender roles
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ROSIE THE RIVETER All the day long,Whether rain
or shine,She's a part of the assembly
line.She's making history,Working for
victory,Rosie the Riveter.Keeps a sharp lookout
for sabatoge,Sitting up there on the
fuselage.That little girl will do more than a
male will do.Rosie's got a boyfriend,
Charlie.Charlie, he's a Marine.Rosie is
protecting Charlie,Working overtime on the
riveting machine.When they gave her a production
"E,"She was as proud as she could be.There's
something true about,Red, white, and blue
about,Rosie the Riveter.
Gender Roles
Redd Evans and John Jacob Loeb,"Rosie the
Riveter," (New York Paramount Music Corp., 1942
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In the 1940s, women were encouraged to help the
war effort by getting a job outside the home. But
it was family and country rather than money,
status, or power that they were encouraged to
toil for .
Coke 1942
For whether she rears a family or mans a
rangefinder, a woman needs the physical support
of a good foundation." and "Amongst other
munitions of war, Berlei are still making
foundations.". 
November 1942
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1950s - mass consumption in high gear, TV ads
idealized the woman as the wife and homemaker,
and the man as the bread winner.
But also the sex kitten
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Cascade Dishwashing Detergent 1958 issue of
Lady's Home Journal.  The man in this
advertisement is envious of his hostess' spotless
drinking glasses.  Rather than giving him advice
on how to get his glasses just as clear, she
advises him to tell his wife to use
Cascade.   The designers of this ad assume that
washing dishes is a woman's chore.  The roles are
strictly defined it never crosses the woman's
mind that Jean's husband might have something to
do with dishwashing in his household. 
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1960s Educated women started exhibiting their
discontent with the status quo. Armed with
diplomas and new sophisticated birth control
methods, they demanded for the right to have both
career and family. The great social change in the
sixties allowed a variety of depictions of women
sex kitten, nurturing mother and independent
working girl.
1970s Issues like woman's lib, ethnic heritage,
and critiques of capitalism. Women are shown as
independent only when inexpensive items or simple
decisions were involved Advertisers realized that
not just white people were buying products.
Ethnic people were placed in advertisements.
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1980s independent woman freedom
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1990s 2000s She is a "multifaceted success
machine. She is a nurturer and a seducer. She
is the twenty-four hour a day woman, and she
never sleeps. Men are domesticated. Sex objects
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Images of women improving?

• From June 1999 issue of Glamour
• Part of an ad campaign that accompanied the
  Womens World Cup
• You pass on more to your children
• and your grandchildren than your eye color, . . .
  You provide the living example that they can
  become more than they ever thought they could.
  Because you did.
• Just do it.

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This ad is striking because it shows a man in
what is typically thought of as a womans
role. What does the fact that he can open the
pail without passing out say about men?
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What Men and Women Really Think

• What do the models thoughts suggest?
• What does this say about the roles of women? And
  of Men?

Crutchfield Catalog for audio and video
equipment.
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Gender Stereotypes
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A woman walked into the kitchen to find her
husband stalking around with a fly swatter.she
"What are you doing?" he "Hunting Flies" she
"Oh. Killing any? he "Yep, 3 males, 2 Females,"

she Intrigued, "How can you tell them
apart?"he "3 were on a beer can, 2 were on the
phone."
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Why are these cartoons humorous?
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Be a Man
What does this statement mean? What comes to mind

• Men never cry
• Should not show emotion
• Not quitters
• Physically brave
• Independent
• Heroic and patriotic ideals
• Adventurous
• Shaving
• First day at work - earning a wage
• Initiations
• tough
• Courageous
• Drinking
• Physical strength
• Sex

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Masculine Traits
Personality Cognitive Physical
Competitive Rational Rugged
Daring Analytical Muscular
Adventurous Problem Solving Phys. Strong
Aggressive Quant. Skilled Handsome
Courageous Good Reasoning Phys. Vigorous
Dominant Mathematical Brawny
self promotion achievement
Do you Agree?
How has this Changed during the past few years?
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Men are Supposed to be Strong

• What message does this ad send to men? Women?
• Do we usually see more scantily clad men or
  women?
• Is this what a man looks like? Should men look
  like this? Why or why not?
• Where do our ideals of beauty come from?

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Act like a Lady
What does this phrase mean? What comes to mind?
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Feminine Traits
Personality Cognitive Physical
Affectionate Imaginative Cute
Sympathetic Intuitive Gorgeous
Gentle Artistic Beautiful
Sensitive Creative Pretty
Supportive Expressive Petite
Kind Tasteful Sexy
focus on others, community
How has this changed in the past few years?
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Victorias Secret is Revealed

• What does this ad suggest women should look like?
• Are these women, Acting like Ladies? How / Why
  or why not?
• The current ideal of female beauty is difficult
  to achieve. The ideal being a young Caucasian
  female, height 5'8"- 5'10", weighing 110-120
  pounds or less. Make-up, lighting and
  air-brushing are used to slim down the images
  even more. Less than 10 of the female population
  are genetically destined to fit this ideal.

Victorias Secret, Angels Collection
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Healthy Women

• What does this ad suggest about women? About men?
• Why arent the men drinking the orange juice?

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Dove Evolution Slob Evolution
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Changing beauty standards

• In 1957, Miss America was 5'7" and weighed 150
  pounds.
• In 2002 Miss America was 5'9 " and weighed 117
  pounds

Marian McKnight Manning, S.Carolina
Katie Harman Gresham, Oregon
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• Recent advertising trends are just as harmful to
  men
• Unforgiving unrealistic images
• Mens magazines encourage obsession with body
  image, aging sexual prowess

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Gender Relations
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• Gender is an important dimension of social
  inequality
• Gender stratification frequently takes the form
  of patriarchy whereby men dominate women

• Do women in our society have a second class
  status relative to men?
• If so How?
• How do we measure gender stratification?

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How do we measure gender stratification? .

• Economics
• Politics
• Religion
• Legal rights
• prestige
• Autonomy
• Education
• Employment
• Health
• ideology
• How deferential they are expected to be towards
  men.
• Freedom to choose marriage partner, profession,
  and conception. Etc.

• We can also look at the roles played by women and
  the value society places on them roles
• Generally Differential access to Wealth, Power,
  and Prestige

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Labor Force Participation for U.S. Women and Men,
aged 25-55 1950-2000

• Womens increased participation in paid work is a
  central change in gender relations over the last
  50 years.
• Labor force participation is often seen as the
  prime indicator (and cause) of changes in womens
  status.
• Social theory often focuses on womens employment
  because employment determines access to resources
  and ability to make independent decisions.

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Gender Stratification

• unequal distribution of wealth, power and
  prestige between men and women
• In the 1970s it was argued that women are
  universally subordinate to men in political,
  economic, and public life
• i.e cultures everywhere give man, as a category
  opposed to women, higher social value and moral
  worth.

• Is the secondary status of women a cultural
  universal?

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Womens Power in Global Perspective
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Are women universally or always subordinate to
men?
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Explanations for the Universal subordination of
Women

• 1. The biological argument
• women's status relative to men is natural and due
  to biological differences
• Mens testosterone naturally leads them to be
  more aggressive Womens oestrogen makes them more
  compliant
• Women are biologically programmed to bear and
  raise children which affects their economic roles
• Can these differences explain male aggression
• juvenile delinquency, for violent crime in
  general
• the biological basis of warfare
• the political and economic dominance of men

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1. Biologically men are physically stronger than
   women
2. therefore this results in a sexual division of
   labour with men doing the harder work
3. In other words biology influences behaviour
4. implies that the relationship between biology and
   social life is one of cause and effect.

If biology explains the political and economic
dominance of men must we not simply accept that
fact?
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So much for that theory --- in many societies
women are the real labourers
biological differences cannot provide a universal
basis for social definitions of man' and woman'
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• 2. Envy theory
• men may have political control but women have
  the power of life - giving birth
• Men may arrange or exchange legal rights over
  women's offspring, but the power of creating life
  and sustaining it by breast milk remains beyond
  their grasp.
• i.e. men are envious
• again linked to biology

• 3. Psychological
• boys try to dominate others
• girls comply with parents
• again linked with biology

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But so what

• it is true, generally men are physically stronger
  than women
• this may account for some of the division of
  labour
• But nothing in the biological differences between
  the sexes can account for the secondary status of
  women
• what is important is the different values placed
  on being a man or a woman or on the work that is
  done

• An alternative explanation is that there must be
  some cultural or sociological regularities that
  account for male dominance.
• the inequalities are due to the fact that
  societies place different values on biological
  sex
• and apparently universally value female sex lower
  than male sex

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Children's socialization or Gender Typing

• both sexes must learn behavior that is deemed
  appropriate to their gender
• girls from their mother's model
• a boy with his father

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Female is to domestic as male is to public
The domestic/public opposition is ultimately
derived from woman's role as mother and rearer of
children.

• i.e. identification with the domestic domain is
  seen as a consequence of their role as mothers
• has tended to limit them to certain social
  functions
• i.e. with the rearing of children

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• Since women are confined to the domestic context,
  their main sphere of activity becomes familial
  relations
• i.e. women's roles centres around the hearth and
  home.
• domestic are those institutions and activities
  organized around mother-child groups

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• men, however, operate in the political and
  public domain of social life.
• they are free to form those broader associations
  that we call society'
• Men thus become identified with society and the
  public interest

• The domestic sphere is considered less important
  than the public domain
• Since women are associated with the domestic
  sphere and men the public, women are of lower and
  men of higher value.

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Is the domestic sphere devalued in our society?

• in Western society the family and the domestic
  are conceived in opposition to the public sphere
  of life, business, work and politics

• but this cannot be considered universal
• this domestic/public association it appears is a
  Western construct.

• These ideas derived from Western thought has
  been imposed on other cultural situations where
  it does is not always apply

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• The Hagen of New Guinea
• do associate women with the domestic realm and
  men with the public sphere
• pursuing socially valued goals is acting like a
  man
• pursuing individual family interests is acting
  like a woman
• but these types of behaviour are open to both
  men and women
• the association of the domestic with something
  demeaning or less than social is not a feature of
  Hagen thought.

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Margaret Mead

• Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies
  (1935)
• Male and Female (1949).
• sought to discover extent temperamental
  differences between the sexes were culturally
  determined rather than innate biological
• Mead found a different pattern of male and
  female behavior in each of the cultures she
  studied, all different from gender role
  expectations in the United States at that time.

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The gentle mountain-dwelling Arapesh

• Arapesh child-rearing responsibilities evenly
  divided among men and women - both nurturing

The fierce cannibalistic Mundugumor

• a natural hostility exists between all members of
  the same sex. Mundugumor fathers and sons, and
  mothers and daughters were adversaries - both
  aggressive

The graceful headhunters of Tchambuli,

• While men were preoccupied with arts, gossiping,
  hair, the women had the real power, controlling
  fishing and manufacturing,

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• Relativist Position
• in the non-western world we find cultural
  ideologies that
• subordinate and exclude women,
• extract their labour and child-bearing and
  rearing and
• place them under the legal control of their
  fathers, brothers and husbands
• ideologies which are supported as vehemently by
  women as by men.

Their religion may consign women to domestic
roles and labour to enhance male prestige But
women portray themselves in terms of virtue and
duty.
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• men and women, may be equally committed to a
  system of rules and meanings
• even though it gives power and advantage to some
  of them and subordinates others.
• Can we legitimately step outside this system and
  view it as an ideology without simply imposing
  our ideology on them.

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• In other words even though we can see the
  injustice of the system which polarize the sexes
  and demean women
• It does not mean that women live in these
  societies with the strain, conflict, or negative
  self-images one would expect them to entail
• Women are actors
• women may themselves become important political
  actors who
• influence the public political affairs of men
  from behind the scenes
• pursue strategies of controlling labour and
  prestige within the constraints of the system.

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