Chapter 8: Gender Flashcards
removal of a woman’s sexually sensitive clitoris
Female Circumcision or Genital Cutting
an intellectual, 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
Feminism
the BIOLOGICAL differences that distinguish male from female
Sex
refers to desire, sexual preference, sexual identity, and behavior
Sexuality
denotes a SOCIAL position, the set of social arrangements that are built around sex categories
Gender
Difference between Sex, Sexuality, and Gender
- Sex - biological differences that distinguish male from female
- Sexuality - desire, sexual preference, sexual identity, and behavior
- Gender - denotes a SOCIAL position, the set of social arrangements that are built around sex categories
line of thought that explains social phenomena in terms of natural ones
Essentialism
a line of thought that explains social behavior in terms of biological givens
Biological Determinism
dominant and privileged, if invisible, category of men
Hegemonic Masculinity
the complete dominance of a group of people over another, a type of power that is so complete that it goes UNNOTICED by the people who are dominated
Hegemony
sets of behavioral norms assumed to accompany one’s status as a male or female
Gender Roles
a nearly universal system involving the subordination of feminity to masculinity
Patriarchy
Rubin’s Sex/Gender System
- structural perspective that women’s subordination was not natural or a given but created by society to fulfill a function
- in the sex/gender system, biological sex is transformed into asymmetrical gender status
theoretical tradition claiming that every society has certain structures (ex. the family, the division of labor, gender) which exist in order to fulfill some set of functions (reproduction of the human race, production of goods, etc)
Structural Functionalism Theory
Talcott Parson’s theory that men and women perform their sex roles (as breadwinners, wives/mothers) because the nuclear family is the ideal arrangement in modern societies, fulfilling the function of reproducing workers
Sex Role Theory
What explains the nearly universal dominance of men over women?
- Rubin’s Sex/Gender System
- Talcott Parson’s Sex Role Theory
- Psychoanalytic Theories
- Conflict Theories
- Microinteractionist Theories
- Black Feminism
- Postmodern Theories
- Middle-Range Approaches
Psychoanalytic Theories (of Gender/Sex)
- relies on biological determinism (i.e. biological differences determines behavior and causes gender differences)
- theorists include Sigmund Freud, Nancy Chodorow, Carol Gilligan, Melanie Klein, and Jacqueline Stevens
Conflict Theories (of Gender/Sex)
- claim that gender, not class, was the driving force of history
- believed that the root of all social relations stemmed from unequal gender relations
- gender inequality is about POWER inequalities
Microinteractionist Theories (of Gender/Sex)
- gender as process
- gender is created in interaction
- gender is something you ‘do’
gender cannot be examined on its own but must be analyzed alongside the intersections of race and class
Black Feminist Theories (of Gender/Sex)
challenges the idea of gender categories (men/women) stating that these categories are a result of Western cultural logic and not a universal construct
Postmodern Theories (of Gender/Sex)
middle-range theories (introduced by Robert Merton) are theories that connect our lived experience to larger social forces
Middle-Range Approaches (to Gender/Sex)
the social identity of a person who has sexual attraction to and/or relations with other persons of the same sex
Homosexual
sexuality is a social construction meaning that it is shaped by social factors and not biological or natural but created through society
Social Construction of Sexuality
occurs when a person’s sex or gender is the basis for judgment, discrimination, and hatred against him or her
Sexism
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
Sexual Harassment
an invisible limit on women’s climb up the occupational ladder
Glass Ceilings
the promotional ride men take to the top of a work organization, especially in female dominated professions
Glass Escalator
refers to married women opting out of the labor force and returning to full-time motherhood
Opting Out
