Chapter 9

Question 1

Sex and Gender Are Socially Constructed

Facts about gender

Answer 1

• Gender is a highly contested area within sociology
• Gender is not binary but represents a sliding scale of roles and identities
• Much of the critical work on gender has been conducted by women, particularly black women and women of colour

Question 2

Sex and Gender: What’s the Difference?

“Sex”

Answer 2

• Sex: refers to the biological traits that societies use to categorize people, often (particularly in the West) as either male or female

Question 3

Sex and Gender: What’s the Difference?

“Gender”

Answer 3

• Gender refers to the cultural meaning that societies attach to sex categories. It consists of the behaviors that society considers “normal” for a person of a particular sex.

– British sociologist Ann Oakley (b. 1944) was among the first to formally distinguish sex from gender in a sociological way

Question 4

Sex Category and Gender Role: Gender role

Answer 4

set of attitudes and expectations concerning behavior that relates to the sex we are assigned at birth

• sex as well as gender is a social construct, a framework humans have devised to make sense of the world

Question 5

Sex Category and Gender Role: Inter sex

Answer 5

refers to anyone born with both “male” and “female” sexual characteristics

• may identify with either the male or the female sex category
• terms like nonconforming and non-binary are used to signify their resistance to pressure to conform

Question 6

Sex Category and the Gender Role: Transgender

Answer 6

a term that reflects Western society’s binary view of sex and gender

A person whose lived identity does not conform with the gender role associated with their assigned sex

Question 7

Sex Category and the Gender Role

Biological sex:

Answer 7

is a socially constructed binary, consisting of male and female sex categories assigned at birth

Question 8

Sex Category and the Gender Role

Transsexual:

Answer 8

is someone with the physical characteristics of one sex category and a persistent desire to belong to another

Question 9

Sex Category and the Gender Role

Gender:

Answer 9

Sociological term that refers to the roles and characteristics society assigns to women and men
– Carries with it notions of inequality between genders

Question 10

Sex Category and the Gender Role

Cisgender:

Answer 10

denoting or relating to a person whose gender identity corresponds with the sex registered for them at birth; not transgender.

Question 11

Two-Spirit People” and “Manly-Hearted Women”: Alternative Gender Roles among North American Aboriginal People

Answer 11

• Indigenous people in North America have traditionally had a more complex view of gender variability

• Two-spirit people is the umbrella term to describe those who identify with one of the many gender roles beyond male and female

– E.g.,The Navaho, recognize four genders, using the terms nadleehi for male-bodied Two-spirit people, dilbaa for female-bodied Two-spirit people and Ninauposkitzipxpe, or “manly-hearted women,”

Question 12

Case Studies in Sex and Gender
• David Reimer: Assigning Gender

Answer 12

– In May 2004, 38-year-old David Reimer of Winnipeg committed suicide

– David was the victim of a childhood medical accident that was compounded by an unsuccessful social experiment in assigning gender.

– David was castrated and given female hormones; their child, renamed “Brenda,” would be raised as a girl

– David was born with traits that we categorize as male. He was forced to undergo surgery and hormone treatment to change his biological sex to female.

Question 13

Case Studies in Sex and Gender
• Measuring Gender

-Caster Semenya, two-time Olympic medalist

Answer 13

-missed an entire year of competition while the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), track and field’s official governing body, investigated claims that Semenya’s body produced testosterone in levels 25 times greater than those found in most women

Question 14

Case Studies in Sex and Gender

Raising the Profile of Transgender People

Answer 14

– In 2015, Caitlyn Jenner brought the experience of transgender people into public consciousness
– Jenner may have become the world’s best-known transgender woman

– Jenna Talackova, a Vancouver-born transgender woman and model, fought and won the right to compete as miss universe Canada pageant

Question 15

Feminism and Gender Theory: Four Categories

Answer 15

• Feminist sociologists have carried out much of the critical work on gender theory

• Feminism evolved in a series of “waves,” each distinguished by a different set of objectives

Question 16

Beatrice Kachuck (2003) divides the diverse range of feminist theories into the four categories:

Answer 16

Liberal feminism
Essentialist feminism
Socialist feminism
Postmodernist feminism

Question 17

Liberal Feminism

Answer 17

• Seeks to secure equal rights for women in all phases of public life

– E.g., education, jobs and pay

– It is associated with the fight for pay equity (same salary) for women working in comparable professions as men

– Criticism: reflects mainly the concerns and interests of white, middle-class, heterosexual, cisgender Western women

– It is less successful in promoting the interests of women who differ in class, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and nationality

Question 18

Essentialist Feminism

Answer 18

Essentialist feminism differs by arguing that women and men are essentially different in the way they think

– Men and women have different world views: Men view the world as competition and opposition to others, while women view the world in terms of unity

– Patriarchal society devalues femininity

Question 19

Kachuck three main criticisms of Essentialist Feminism

Answer 19

• It universalizes women, assuming erroneously that all women experience gender alike;

• It confuses natural instincts with strategies that women have devised for coping with the demands of a patriarchal society

• It encourages us to see women “as social housekeepers in worlds that men build”

Question 20

Socialist Feminism

Answer 20

• Looks at intersections of oppression between class and gender
– Lower and middle/upper-class women have access to different resources and face different struggles

• Criticism: “race,” ethnicity, ableism, and sexual orientation get overlooked in the focus on class
– Black women in North America face some of the same difficulties of prejudice and stereotyping regardless of class

Question 21

Postmodernist Feminism

(Queer Theory)

Answer 21

• Argues there is no natural basis for identities based on gender, ethnicity, “race” and so on.
– Social-Constructionist perspective – Opposes essentialist feminism

• Queer theory
– Rejects the idea that male and female genders are natural binary opposites – Gender is a continuum not one of two categories (male and female)

• Criticism: problematizes, but leads to no conclusions

Question 22

Gendered Occupation
and Education

Answer 22

• Certain jobs and post-secondary programs are
gendered
– One gender will be prevalent
– The work itself is typically imbued with gendered meanings and defined in gendered terms

• Example: nursing is associated with words like “nurturing” and “caring,” which are feminine traits and offshoots of motherhood

Question 23

Applying the Gender Lens to Life

Answer 23

• Society continues to organize itself in ways that are gendered.

– Separate clothing stores, or departments within stores, for men and for women

– Different places for men and women to get their hair cut

– Pink is always an option in products for girls, from bicycles and hockey helmets to slippers and bedsheets

Question 24

The Feminization of Work

Answer 24

• The feminization of an occupational sphere occurs when a particular job, profession, or industry comes to be dominated by or predominantly associated with women

• Feminization of an industry is linked to lower earnings, less job protection, fewer benefits
– E.g., financial service advisers, administrative assistants

• Women’s Work During the Eighteenth-Century “Gin Craze” in London

• Women’s Clerical Work in Canada, 1891–1971

Question 25

Gendered Work Today and
the Pay Gap

In 2000, men outnumbered women by a ratio of at least 2 to 1 in the following occupations categorized by Statistics Canada:

Answer 25

• Forestry, fishing, mining, and oil and gas
  – Manufacturing
  – Construction
  – Agriculture

These industries are all part of the goods-producing sector, where men made up over 75 per cent of the total labour force

Question 26

Gendered Work Today and
the Pay Gap

• Women made up 53 per cent of the workforce and outnumbered men by at least 15 per cent in the following categories:

Answer 26

– Finance and insurance
– Educational services
– Accommodation and food services
– Healthcare and social assistance

• In the last of these categories, the dominance was more than 4 to 1

Question 27

Gendered Work Today and
the Pay Gap

2018 Labour Force Survey (LFS) show

Answer 27

that men now make up 78 per cent of the labour force in the goods- producing sector, while women occupy 78 per cent of jobs in the services-producing sector

• Recent data suggest that little has changed between 2000 and 2018

• Since 1991, top three jobs with a university degree have been 1) elementary school teacher 2) registered nurse 3) secondary teacher

Question 28

Gendered Work Today and
the Pay Gap

Earnings

Answer 28

• Women still earn just 87 cents for every dollar a man earns, primarily because of the kinds of work women and men do

Question 29

Sargent’s (2005) research on men in early childhood
education drew on Connell’s (1995) four performances of
masculinity (four ways of acting out male gender roles):

Answer 29

Hegemonic masculinity: practices that normalize and naturalize men’s dominance and women’s subordination

Subordinate masculinity: practices that could threaten the legitimacy of hegemonic masculinity

Marginalized masculinity: adaptation of masculinities to issues such as race and class

Complicit masculinity: practices that do not embody hegemonic processes, but benefit from them

Question 30

Being a Gender Minority in a Gendered Occupation

Answer 30

• Sargent’s (2005) research found that being a minority in a gendered job can have a profound impact on one’s gender performance at work

• Men in early childhood education have to juggle subordinate masculinity (e.g. being nurturing) and stereotypical masculinity performances (e.g. sexualization of the male touch)

Question 31

Gendered Pay Gap Among
Physicians

$$$$$

Answer 31

• In 2021, the Ontario Medical Association published a study of the pay gap between male and female doctors in the province (recorded in 2017–18, with 31,481 reporting)

• Two measures of the pay gap were made: daily and annual. The daily gap was a 13.5 per cent difference.

• Much of this figure could be explained through the greater percentage of specialists, particularly in fields such as neurosurgery, cardiology, and vascular surgery.

Question 32

Gendered Pay Gap Among
Physicians

Time component

Answer 32

According to the Ontario Medical Association, female physicians worked fewer days a year than the male physicians did.

Reasons given involved:
• female physicians taking maternity leave
• more likely to have family responsibilities of parenting and of being caregivers to older relatives that require their presence

Question 33

Gendered Pay Gap Among
Physicians

In another study, (Kennedy, 2021) a certain measure of blame was found:

Answer 33

• Referral bias: whereby male physicians are more likely to be the doctors to whom patients are referred

• Sexual discrimination: in hiring and promotion, particularly among specialists

• Lack of leading female physicians in committees negotiating with provincial and federal governments for payment policies

Question 34

Gender and Education:
What Keeps Women from Taking Math
and Engineering?

Answer 34

• STEM dominated by men

• Unemployment rate for graduates with STEM degrees is higher for women than men

• Employment mismatch: women with STEM degrees are more likely to be underemployed

Question 35

“Race” and Gender:
Intersecting Oppression

Answer 35

• “Race” and gender intersect to amplify oppression

•Two forms of institutionalized sexual violence involving the reproduction rights of women: sexual sterilization and
abortions without consent (informed or otherwise) -E.g. the experiences of Indigenous women

-Recent high-profile Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, published its final report in 2019

Question 36

Gender and Immigration

Answer 36

• At times in Canadian history, only the men or the women of a particular ethnic group were permitted or encouraged to immigrate
– Chinese Head Tax (exclusion of women)
– Foreign Domestic Movement Program & Live-In Caregiver Program (women as immigration pioneers)

• As temporary and poorly paid employees, the women were vulnerable to exploitation and physical, emotional, and sexual abuse

Question 37

Misogynoir & Transmisogynoir

Answer 37

• Misogynoir: a term introduced by Moya Bailey, a black gay feminist

• It refers to the combination of racism (“noir”) and sexism (“misogyny”) experienced
by Black women.

• First used in reference to the way Black women have been presented in hip hop, and generally in American visual and popular culture.

• Transmisogynoir: the negative treatment and attitude towards Black people who are born assigned the gender of male but identify with the female gender.

Question 38

Sexuality

Definition

Answer 38

• Refers to feelings of sexual desire and attraction and how these are expressed; like sex and gender, sexuality is fluid and often changes over time

Question 39

Sexuality

Types

Answer 39

Heterosexual: sexually attracted to people of the opposite sex

– Homosexual: (queer or gay is accepted): sexually attracted to same sex –

Lesbian: sexually attracted to other women

– Bisexual: sexually attracted (equally or unequally) to both sexes

• LGBTQI2S (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, intersex, Two-Spirit)

– An all-encompassing term for anyone who does not identify as heterosexual and/or cisgender