Chapter 8

Question 1

feminism

Answer 1

a consciousness-raising movement to get people to understand that gender is an organizing principle of life. The underlying belief is that women and men should be accorded equal opportunities and respect

Question 2

sex

Answer 2

the biological differences that distinguish males from females

Question 3

sexuality

Answer 3

desire, sexual preference, and sexual identity and behavior

Question 4

gender

Answer 4

a social position; the set of social arrangements that are built around normative sex categories

Question 5

essentialism

Answer 5

a line of thought that explains social phenomena in terms of natural ones

Question 6

biological determinism

Answer 6

a line of thought that explains social behavior in terms of who you are in the natural world

Question 7

hegemonic masculinity

Answer 7

the condition in which men are dominant and privileged, and this dominance and privilege is invisivble

Question 8

gender roles

Answer 8

ets of behavioral norms assumed to accompany one’s status as a male or female

Question 9

patriarchy

Answer 9

a nearly universal system involving the subordination of femininity to masculinity

Question 10

structural functionalism

Answer 10

theoretical tradition claiming that every society has certain structures (the family, the division of labor, or gender) that exist to fulfill some set of necessary functions (reproduction of the species, production of goods, etc.)

Question 11

sex role theory

Answer 11

Talcott Parsons’s theory that men and women perform their sex roles as breadwinners and wives/mothers, respectively, because the nuclear family is the ideal arrangement in modern societies, fulfilling the function of reproducing workers

Question 12

homosexual

Answer 12

the social identity of a person who has sexual attraction to and/or relations with other persons of the same sex

Question 13

sexism

Answer 13

occurs when a person’s sex or gender is the basis for judgment, discrimination, and hatred against him or her

Question 14

sexual harassment

Answer 14

an illegal form of discrimination, involving everything from inappropriate jokes on the job to outright sexual assault to sexual “barter”—all intended to make women feel uncomfortable and unwelcome, particularly on the job

Question 15

glass ceiling

Answer 15

an invisible limit on women’s climb up the occupational ladder

Question 16

glass escalator

Answer 16

the accelerated promotion of men to the top of a work organization, especially in feminized jobs