3.5A- Gender and society Flashcards
What are some factors that have changed the family social landscape in Britain?
-Ease of divorce
-Decline in marriage
-Wedding ceremonies
-Single parents
-Births outside marriage and civil partnerships
-Gay and lesbian relationships
-Cohabitation
-Blended families/step children
Patriarchal structres
-Most societies in the world are patriarchal, which means that men tend to dominate social structures and domestic relationships.
-Men hold most of the positions of power in government and in the workplace, men create the laws, and men are seen as the ‘head of the household’ at home.
-In a patriarchal society, men have more power than women, and more wealth.
-Patriarchal societies tend to be organised in ways that are primarily for men’s benefit, and in ways that enable men to hold on to power.
-They also tend to offer ways of looking at the world that are largely from a male perspective, expressed through male voices.
-For example, in a patriarchal society, the historical events that are considered worth remembering are generally men’s stories and achievements rather than women’s.
-It is an ‘accepted truth’, in patriarchal societies, that men are stronger than women and that men and women have different aptitudes which make them better suited to different roles in public and private life.
-For example, men are seen as more rational whereas women are thought of as more emotional.
-This has been used as an argument for allowing men to make the important decisions involved in governing, voting and running companies, while women are seen as more suited for caring roles such as looking after young children and the elderly.
-Such roles are seen as better suited to women because they make the best use of woman’s allegedly softer and more compassionate nature.
The need for feminism
-The ‘feminist movement’ is a term used to encompass a range of different beliefs and ideologies that share the aim of improving rights and opportunities for women.
-Feminism became a significant movement in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, but it can trace its roots back much further.
-There have always been women who have resisted being cast into traditionally subordinate roles and who have refused to express themselves in ways that society has considered appropriate for women.
The different waves and timestamps of feminism: Feminism
-First Wave: 1848-1920
-Second Wave: 1963-1980’s
-Third Wave: 1990’s-
-Fourth Wave: Present Day
First wave feminism: Feminism
-The aim here was to get equality for women written into legal processes (such as the right to vote).
-Philosopher Harriet Taylor forcefully set out the arguments in Enfranchisement of Women (1851) for the right to vote.
-Women were not allowed to vote on an equal footing with men until 1928 (by 1918 some women over the age of 30 were given the right to vote, but not everyone was allowed to vote.)
Second wave feminism: Feminism
-The second wave focused on ensuring that what was in law was put into practice- fighting for the economic, political and social equality of women.
-Women of the second wave realised that true equality was only possible once men and women’s mindset changed. It took on wider issues, including issues surrounding women’s sexual health and reproduction, such as contraception and abortion, as well as the issues of domestic violence and rape, and equality in the workplace.
-One of the key figures of second wave feminism was Betty Friedan and her ground breaking The Feminine Mystique (1963).
-Reliable birth control was not readily available until the early 1960s. When the contraceptive pill was introduced, it was originally prescribed for older married women.
-It was not until 1974 that family planning clinics were allowed to prescribe the pill as a contraceptive for single women. This was controversial at the time because it was thought that it would encourage sex outside marriage.
-Abortion was illegal until 1967.
-It was only in 1970 that women were legally entitled to be paid the same as men for the same work (before that, it was legal to pay men more than women even when they were doing exactly the same job).
Third wave feminism: Feminism
-The third wave saw a greater emphasis on individuality and intersectionality, recognising, for example, that black women could be subject to both racism and sexism in a way that white women could not.
Fourth wave feminism: Feminism
-Some would say there is also a fourth wave, beginning in the 2010s.
-Many feminists see the traditional pattern of marriage and family as an instrument for the oppression of women over time.
-They might point to the fact that it was only in 1991 that marital rape became a crime, or it was only in 1996 that the role of ‘homemaker’ (often the wife) contributed the the household and therefore assets should be split more fairly.
Biblical ideas: Christian teachings on men, women and the family
-The biblical view of gender and society is ambiguous and not entirely consistent.
-For more traditional Christians what matters are the explicit commands such as that men should love their wives and wives should be obedient to their husbands.
-But for other Christians the fundamentally important idea is the development of the covenant ideal in which there would be no gender division and relationships would move beyond traditional conventions.
-The issues facing Christians today such as marriage, cohabitation, single parent families, same-sex families, gender roles and motherhood, depend to some extent on how the New Testament is interpreted.
The Mulieris Dignitatem: Christian teachings on men, women and the family
- Pope Paul John II wrote an open letter in 1988 on the subject of the dignity and rights of women, called Mulieris Dignitatem. This letter was intended to clarify the Catholic position on issues raised by feminism, in response to accusations that the Church was sexist and that it promoted injustice by denying women the same rights as men.
-In the letter, the Pope wrote about particular skills and qualities of women, and drew attention to the examples of Christian devotion set by female European saints. - His position on gender roles was that men and women have different, complementary characteristics given to them by God, and he wanted to emphasise that a woman’s role as a Christian is a role that is to be respected.
- Humans find themselves fully through giving themselves to others. Humans are created deliberately by God to give of themselves back to him. This helps us to understand the notion of motherhood, which is the fruit of the union of man and woman in marriage when two become one flesh. This is achieved through the full giving of one person in the marriage to the other, fighting against the effects of the Fall where men are said to rule over women and women are said to have desire for their husbands. True giving in marriage is therefore a glimpse of the perfection before the Fall.
- A husband and wife giving themselves to each other leads to children and so motherhood is a gift a woman gives by giving new life: “It expresses the woman’s joy and awareness that she is sharing in the great mystery of eternal generation.” Therefore, parenthood is a way to share in the creative power of God.
- Motherhood begins at conception. A woman is not only biologically made for motherhood but psychologically the link is established while the baby is in the womb. So motherhood is described as psycho-physical. Parenthood is shared by the man and the woman but the woman is affected more her her gift of herself and the complete link with the baby. The father, therefore, owes a great debt to the mother.
- A mother’s intuition is unique and connects her with gift of life that develops a woman’s ability to be more in tune with other people. The father naturally sits outside the process and needs to learn his fatherhood from the mother. Both parents are equally important in the upbringing of a child but the mother’s role is described as ‘decisive’.
- The gift of a mother is seen in the acceptance of the gift of new life made by Mary which begins the process of the reversal of the effects of the Fall by establishing a new agreement between God and humanity. Each new birth now links to Mary’s motherhood, spiritually as well as physically- describing motherhood as an immense privilege.
- The joy of motherhood replaces any suffering in the same way that a woman forget her painful childbirth ( a punishment for the Fall), in the same way that Mary’s sorrow in seeing Jesus suffering was replaced by the joy of Easter.
- The text therefore emphasises motherhood as sign of the reversal of the effects of the Fall. It emphasises the dignity of women and their priority over the father in parenthood. There is an assumption that the parents will be one man and one woman and elsewhere in the text, it is emphasised that this is within marriage and so the Catholic teaching of the traditional nature of family life is emphasised. It could also be argued that, with the centrality of mot9herhood, a woman’s primary role is not to be in the workplace, although Catholic teaching celebrates the role that women play in wider society. Through the text, it is clear that motherhood is far beyond a simply biological connection!
Sex and gender: Changing secular views
- Many people use the words ‘gender’ and ‘sex’ as if they mean the same thing when talking about the distinction between male and female. However, there is a difference between biological sex and gender. Someone’s biological sex is determined by physical attributes such as chromosomes, sex organs and hormone levels. The word ‘gender’, however, refers to a more sophisticated relationship between someone’s physical characteristics (their biological sex or ‘gender biology’), the way people perceive themselves ( their ‘gender identification’) and the ways in which they choose to behave (their ‘gender expression’).
-Gender identification and gender expression are often heavily influenced by the ways society expects it’s members to behave and feel. Gender can be related to sexuality but it does not determine sexuality. For example, a biological man who identifies as male and expresses himself in traditionally masculine ways is not necessarily going to be heterosexual, and a biological man who expresses himself in ways that are traditionally seem as feminine is not necessarily homosexual.
-Lots of people find that their gender aligns comfortably with their biological sex. For example, they have female physical characteristics, they feel feminine and identify as female, and they adopt the kinds of behaviours that their society sees as appropriate for females. Other do not have the same experience. They might, for example, have biologically female physical characteristics but feel masculine and identify as male, and they might want to behave in ways that their society sees as masculine. Alternatively, they might have biologically masculine physical features but not identify as exclusively male or female, and they might choose to express their gender however they like, regardless of the labels society chooses to give to behaviours such as the wearing of make-up. - Most people are born with a distinctive biological sex, which is obvious form the moment they are born and often also obvious before birth (i.e. during pregnancy). A small number of babies are born with some ambiguous biological sex, where bodies have some male and some female physical characteristics, and then the parents have to decide whether to rise the child in the gender of boy or girl, or whether to aim for a gender-neutral upbringing.
- In the view of many people, but not all, gender is something that is acquired. From a young age, people learn about the expectations associated with being a boy or a girl, and they develop their gender identification and expression through socialisation.
Socialisation: Changing secular views
-‘socialisation’ is a term used by sociologists, anthropologists and others to refer to the lifelong process by which we learn the norms of our society.
-Our parents, siblings, peer group and other members of our society all contribute to our socialisation.
-This is how we learn all of the spoken and unspoken rules of the culture in which we live, such as what to eat and how to behave when eating it, which words can be used in which kind of company, how children should behave towards adults and how to co-operate with others.
-In Western society, socialisation traditionally puts a lot of emphasis on learning to make a distinction between male and female.
-As soon as a baby is born, the parents announce ‘it’s a boy’ or ‘it’s a girl’, and this is understood to be much more important than any of the baby’s other characteristics.
The results of socialisation: Changing secular views
-By the time we have grown into adult life, we have a strong sense of what is expected of us as male or female.
-Although, increasingly, some people challenge traditional gender roles, it is nevertheless the case that when young people reach an age when they can choose their school subjects, significantly more boys than girls pick sciences and more girls than boys pick languages and arts.
-The gender gap widens in further education and is even more distinct in the world of employment.
Essentialist vs. existentialist view: Changing secular views
-The relationship between sex and gender can be explained through the nature/nurture debate:
-The essentialist view is that there are distinctive feminine and masculine characteristics which are not the product of society but intrinsic to biology or nature. Women’s bodies, for example, are ‘designed’ to bear children and so their gender identity is naturally to be more nurturing and domestic. Men’s bodies tend to be more competitive in the workplace.
-The existentialist view is that biological sex is of little significance and that gender characteristics are the product of nurture through culture and upbringing. Male-dominated societies throughout history have tended to objectify and sexualise women’s bodies, but existentialists would argue that tis objectivity is socially constructed. For example, in certain cultures and periods of history women who have curvy bodies are considered to be more attractive than slim bodies; in some cultures, women’s breasts are considered sexually attractive whereas in other cultures it id the shape of the face/eyes/lips which are more sexually erotic. The existentialist position doesn’t deny the importance of the body as a source of a person’s identity.
Gender differences- Plato: Changing secular views
-Plato didn’t believe that there were male ands female souls, but superior and inferior.
-Ultimately, Plato believed that souls were reborn as women if they had failed as men, because men are the superior sex and women are the lesser, passive sex.
Gender differences- Aristotle: Changing secular views
-Aristotle agreed with Plato. He believed that women were more inclined towards weak behaviour and were naturally inferior to men.
-Aristotle viewed women as being ‘defective’ males who had lesser strength and intelligence.
An alternative viewpoint on gender: Changing secular views
-The second view of gender roles is that men and women are of equal value. This is the idea that, although men and women are different, they are equal in the eyes of God and therefore should be viewed in the same way.
-For some, this difference leads to the belief that men and women should have different roles, both in the home and within the Church, but that these roles should be equally valued.
-However, this may then lead to issues regarding how to define what are mainly ‘male’ and ‘female’ roles (such as the idea that women should not become priests as Jesus inly chose men to be his disciples, or that women cannot offer the eucharist as they should not represent Christ at the Last Supper).
-Again, this is a challenge to society and the rise in feminism and changing views of gender roles.
Mary Daly: Changing secular views
-The feminist theologian offers a third option, arguing that women are ethnically superior to men because they are inherently cooperative and caring, rather than aggressive and competitive, like men.
-She was inspired by Friedrich Nietzsche who wrote “Whenever man has thought it necessary to create a memory of himself, his effort has been attended with torture, blood and sacrifice.”
-Daly argues that, throughout history, men have sought to oppress women, using their brute power.
-Female oppression is as a result of rape, genocide and war- and Christianity is used as a tool to enforce this oppression.
A fourth viewpoint on gender: Changing secular views
-The last view to consider is that gender is not as straightforward as once believed. Just because a person is born as male or female does not mean that they have to ascribe to the role that is assigned to them by that gender.
-Thirty years ago, if a child has been asked to describe the role of a woman, they would have said ‘cook, cleaner, nurse,’ etc. Now, however, children might say ‘mum, worker, writer, fixer’.
-Children are now growing up in an era where men cook and clean, and women go to work and do DIY.
-Society is changing at a fast pace that the Church cannot keep up with. This may be as a result of church leaders wanting to do the right thing ‘theologically’.
Gender and power: Changing secular views
-One influential secular approach to the issue of sex and gender is to abandon the essentialist/existentialist distinction and to focus on the problem of sexuality from the perspective of power.
-Scholars who have pursued this line of thought have preferred to use the term ‘sexuality’ rather than ‘gender’ as it includes sexual practices as well as gender identity.
-Their argument is indebted to Marx’s notion that human interactions are usually about power and which group dominates the other and controls them.
-This analysis of sexuality was developed by the influential French philosopher Michel Foucault.
-Foucault’s analysis of human sexual history from the ancient Greeks to the present day demonstrated that human sexuality cannot be defined in simple binary terms.
-Foucault’s point is that sexuality in this case can’t be easily be defined as heterosexual or homosexual or bisexual. The purpose of sex is for pleasure, companionship and education. Foucault call this the ars erotica.
- Controlling sexual practices (Foucault call this the scientia sexualis) is a useful means of maintaining power (The Church’s place in Western society for controlling and regulating men and women’s sexual practices). As the Church’s influence has weakened, its role has been replaced by doctor, psychoanalysts and sociologists, each of whom has imposed their particular ideas of ‘correct’ sexual behaviour.
What is motherhood?: Christian responses to motherhood/parenthood
-The experience of being a mother is clearly not the same for any two women.
-On one level, motherhood can be defined in it’s biological sense- it is something that only women can do because of their physical nature.
-Motherhood is also to do with the emotional and psychological bond with children.
-Some people would argue that motherhood is a vocation as much as any career might be and many people would say that women who choose motherhood as their only careers should be respected as much as those who choose a career in the workplace.
-Being a parent is not easy and there is no break from it but the privilege of passing on wisdom, understanding and faith to the future generation cannot be underestimated.
Motherhood vs. parenthood: Christian responses to motherhood/parenthood
-Some would argue that the biological aspects are given too much emphasis. With modern advances in science, parenthood no longer requires a man and a woman in the same way as before.
-A man can fulfil many of the non-biological aspects of motherhood and can do so as effectively as a woman.
-Some would therefore argue that it is more helpful to speak of parenthood in general. For some, the idea of motherhood is a result of social conditioning.
-Society perhaps expects mothers to give their all to their children and perhaps to their households and so it should be possible to move away form these assumptions.
-Women often report that they feel bored or unfilled when they spend their days at home bringing up children and that they feel cut off from society at large.
-Women often feel that they become reduced simply to being mothers and lose a sense of individuality.
Catholic ideas: Christian responses to motherhood/parenthood
-Motherhood and the unique role of women in society is at the heart if Mulieris Dignitatem.
-This letter acknowledges the significant and positive social shift in attitudes to women in recent times but very firmly rejects the kind of feminist criticisms made by writers such as de Beauvoir that motherhood (especially the form of motherhood that is taught by the Church) can be seen as demeaning to women.
-Mary’s role as mother of Christ illustrates her unique place in God’s salvation of the world.
-The annunciation (Mary getting pregnant with baby Jesus) is a sign of Mary’s readiness to be a mother and accept new life. Mary’s example illustrates the special value God places on motherhood for all women.
-The mystery of generation is the idea that men and women are both equally and uniquely created by God.
-By desiring to be parents (as a mother and as father), men and women reflect the mystery of generation inherent in the Holy Trinity.
-Having a child is a special and ‘sincere gift of self’ of a mother in marriage and also a visible sign (in their child) that husband and wife have become ‘one flesh’. (Mark 10:8).
-A mother’s role as parent is demanding and special but it is not hers alone but an example to the man of what is required of him: “in their shared parenthood he owes a special debt to the woman.”
-Motherhood changes and challenges the man so he can learn from her how to be a good father because his nature is “not so psychologically predisposed to parenthood”.
-Being a mother is therefore far from passive. In it’s struggles and joys it is also actively part of God’s covenant (the call of Abram, Genesis 12).
-Despite it’s attempts to address contemporary feminist criticisms, the Catholic Church is nevertheless at loggerheads with feminists such as de Beauvoir and Friedan who argue that motherhood is a false-consciousness of the ‘eternal feminine’ or ‘feminine mystique’.
-While it is true that compared to earlier Church teaching female and male roles are far more equal, and the role of mother as a ‘special gift; is shared by many non-Christians feminists, even so many Catholic theologians fell that it has omitted some fundamental Christian teaching which would engage the Church fully with contemporary society.
Catholic feminist ideas: Christian responses to motherhood/fatherhood
-In general, Catholic feminists consider that the Church’s teaching on motherhood is over-romanticised and while they may not go as far as de Beauvoir in her condemnation of the motherhood, they agree that motherhood should be an option, not a burden.
-The problem with statements such as Mululieris Dignitatem is although it is trying to accommodate current more liberated views of women, it defines women almost entirely in terms of motherhood.
-There is, therefore, an underlying patriarchal bias, which can guilt a woman into thinking that if she takes on work outside the family she is being a bad mother and wife.
