Chapter 9 - Gender

Question 1

Gender

Answer 1

the social construction of expected appearances, behaviors, roles, and traits that are built around sex categories.

Question 2

Sex

Answer 2

the biological characteristics of bodies used to distinguish males and females.

• Includes genitalia, chromosomes, and hormones.

Question 3

Binary/Dichotomy

Answer 3

• Binary refers to only two options, it’s like black or white, no gray.
• Sex and sex assignment are viewed in a binary way, either male or female.
• ex.) sex binary in bathroom signs, which have male and female figures.

Question 4

Sex assignment

Answer 4

the sex a child is assigned at birth based on the basis of their genitals.

Question 5

Gender role socialization

Answer 5

the learning of normative gender roles through primary and secondary agents of socialization including family, friends, and mass media.

• Dependent on whether sex is male or female, because of belief that both sexes are different.

Question 6

Gender role socialization - Example Children’s Rooms

Answer 6

• Parents association between colors and gender shows through the ways they dress their children, what toys they buy, and their child’s environment.
• Ex.) In North American rooms, blue is strongly associated with boys, while girls bedding and walls display more color variation.

Question 7

Gender role socialization - Example Preschool Children

Answer 7

• By age two or three, children began to show gender-stereotyped preferences.

Ex.) All preschool-aged children prefer blue, but girls have a preference for pink, while boys actively AVOID pink.
- Boys have learned that pink is associated with femininity and girls.

Question 8

Gender role socialization - Example Fairy Tales

Answer 8

• Children learn about culture through fairy tales and stories.
• Classic fairy tales emphasize the youthfulness, and beauty of female characters, five times more than the handsomeness of male characters.
• The emphasis on beauty in fairy tales reflects the importance of women’s appearance in society.

Question 9

Gender roles

Answer 9

Expectations for the behavior of men and women, based on societal norms and standards.

• Gender components often labeled as “masculine” and “feminine”.
• Ex.) Interest in playing sports (masculine)
• Ex.) Talents in writing and reading (feminine)
• Ex.) Parenting is a gendered role, with the assumption that women are more interested in becoming parents, and better suited to that role.

Question 10

Gender expression

Answer 10

The public presentation of a person’s gender, which may include clothing, hair, make-up, name, pronouns, voice, and behavior.

• Gender expression seen as feminine or masculine.

Ex.) Long hair, dresses, and makeup typically associated with women.

Question 11

Gender Expression - Clothing Examples

Answer 11

Clothing is an example of normative gender expression (commonly-held expectations about the clothing appropriate for men and females).

Ex.) Bathroom figures on sign: the woman figure has a dress

Ex.) Major clothing retailers: gendered clothing for young children.
- Girls clothing has glitter, frills, pink/purple colors
- Boys clothing has vehicles, greens, and blues.

Question 12

Gender identity

Answer 12

Gender identity: a person’s internal sense of their gender. Not outwardly visible.

• Examples of gender identity include a person’s sense of being a man, a woman, both, neither, or elsewhere along the gender spectrum.

Question 13

Genderqueer

Answer 13

a gender identity beyond the binary identity of man and woman. Also called non-binary.

Question 14

Two-Spirit

Answer 14

An Indigenous gender identity that blends the feminine and masculine spirit, and is also sometimes called a “third gender”.

• Indigenous nations may have their own terminology for two-spirit individuals.
• The term “two-spirit” was developed in 1990 to provide a unified word between languages, for a group historically discriminated against.
• European colonizers brought binary concepts of gender from Europe, positioning two-spirit individuals as abnormal and subjecting them to surveillance and violence.

Question 15

Transgender

Answer 15

Transgender: a gender identity that differs from the sex they were assigned at birth.

• Means “across”
• Transgender man: a person whose gender identity is a man, and they were assigned female at birth.
• Transgender individuals often align their gender expression (behaviors, clothing) with their gender identity.
• Alignment may involve changes in clothing, name, pronoun use, hormone therapy, and other body modifications.

Question 16

Cisgender

Answer 16

Cisgender: a gender identity that corresponds with the sex they were assigned at birth.

• Means “on the same side as”

Ex.) a woman who was assigned female at birth, and whose gender identity is woman.

Question 17

Intersex definition

Answer 17

Intersex: The possession of variations in or ambiguous sex characteristics, including ambiguous genitalia. Also known as disorders of sex development.

Question 18

Individuals who fall under intersex umbrella

Answer 18

• Some individuals may discover their intersex condition when attempting to conceive a child, finding that their internal reproductive organs are different than their external ones.

Ex.) external vulva, internal male reproductive organs.

Question 19

What does DSD challenge?

Answer 19

• DSD challenges the common understanding of sex as a binary concept (male or female).
• Infants born with DSD are considered atypical because they don’t fit into the sex binary.

Question 20

Pediatric hospitals and DSD

Answer 20

Pediatric hospital websites offer information about treatments for DSD:

• Required surgery: where sex organs need to be removed in order to ensure reproductive functioning
• Elective, reconstructive surgery: reduce clitorial size and make vaginal opening better defined.

Question 21

Sex role theory definition

Answer 21

• Sex role theory: made by Talcott Parsons, early structural functionalist attempt to theorize gender.
• Believed families should follow traditional gender roles.
• Men are expected to participate in the paid labor market outside the home, while women are expected to do domestic duties (private sphere).
• Sex role theory based on biological determinism

Question 22

Biological determinism definition

Answer 22

The belief that there are inherent, biological differences that determine the characteristics of a group of people, such as men and women.

Question 22

Sex Role Theory - Biological Determinism Traits

Answer 22

• Parsons said men are better suited to the workplace because of traits such as competitiveness and rational thinking.
• Parsons said women are expressive, so they’re naturally nurturing and emotional, which is suited for caregiving.

Question 23

Sex Role Theory - Complementary

Answer 23

• Parsons argues that men’s and women’s roles are complementary to one another.
• The father’s role as a primary income earner complements the mother’s role as a caregiver.
• Essential to the functioning of family and society.

Question 24

Parson’s Reproduction of Gender Roles

Answer 24

• Family important for social stability: gender roles:

Parents socialize children into appropriate gender roles —>

children perform gender role —>
transmit norms to their children.

Repeat.

Question 25

Sex Role Theory - Feminist Criticisms

Answer 25

Feminists criticized Parson’s for saying that men’s and women’s roles were complementary, arguing that it overlooked issues of power and privilege.

• Men had more power and value, so there’s unequal power dynamics.
• Critique challenged the idea that traditional gender roles were balanced and beneficial for both genders.

Question 25

Sex Role Theory - Men’s Studies Criticisms

Answer 25

• Men’s studies in the 1970s criticized Parson’s articulation of instrumental and expressive traits associated with men and women.
• Sex role theory relies on a binary set of roles, rooted in differences between men and women, which reflect gender stereotypes more than reality.
• Critics argue that not all men or women fit neatly into these categories, and those who deviate are seen as deviant or non-normative.

Question 26

Gender stereotype

Answer 26

a generalized and fixed idea about the characteristics and behavior women and men should possess based on their gender.

Question 27

Sex Role Theory - Changes in Spheres Criticisms

Answer 27

• Sex role theory cannot account for changes in men and womens role in the private and public spheres.

Ex.) trend towards fathers greater involvement in caregiving

Ex.) same-sex parents, single parents

Question 28

Sex Role Theory - Biological Basis of Sex Role Theory Criticisms

Answer 28

• Sociologists criticize the biological basis of the sex role theory.

Research indicates that infants as young as 37 hours old show visual preferences, with females preferring faces and males preferring mechanical motion (mobile).

• This finding suggests innate gender differences in preferences.
• However, there is significant overlap in these preferences; the difference in how frequently infants looked at either a face or mobile was less than 10%, indicating that most infants, regardless of gender, displayed similar levels of interest in both.
• An analysis of 432 research-based claims of sex differences found only one with good validity and replicability.
• Focusing on differences, as with Parsons’ work, overlooks the substantial similarities between boys and girls.

Question 29

Role of biology and environment in gender

Answer 29

Sociologists consider biology and environment together in understanding gender.

• Biological factors influenced by environmental contexts.

Example: Testosterone, a hormone influencing fat, muscle tissue, and bone mass development, is higher in men.

• Men have more testosterone, producing higher sex drive and aggression.
• Testosterone levels can change based on the social environment. Being in a committed relationship and having a baby lower testosterone levels in men.

Question 30

Social environment shapes gender identity - faces/mobiles –> dolls/trains

Answer 30

• Decades of sociological research emphasize the significance of the social environment in shaping gender identity, indicating that biology alone is insufficient.
• Gendered preferences observed in newborns, such as for faces or mobiles, may evolve into more pronounced preferences for dolls (girls) and trains (boys), influenced by societal labeling and marketing of toys.
• Efforts like Target’s elimination of gender-based toy marketing and campaigns like “Let Toys be Toys” advocate for de-gendering toys.
• Parents are increasingly labeling traditionally gendered toys as gender-neutral.

Question 31

Gender as a social construct

Answer 31

• Sociologists shifted from sex role theory to looking at gender as a social construction.

Question 32

Social construction

Answer 32

Social construction: the view that elements of our social world are products of particular cultural and historical contexts and upheld by people and institutions.

Question 33

Gender as a social construct - Example: Naming babies

Answer 33

Ex) Gender conventions around baby naming.
Parents often select names consistent with their baby’s sex assignment.

• Both American and Canadian data show a trend towards more gender-neutral names over time.
• This trend suggests that the associations between names and gender are more fluid and subject to change than previously thought.

Question 34

Genderness Score in United States Graph

Answer 34

• Nikhil Sonnad calculated a “genderness score” for U.S. baby names from 1910 to 2016, indicating the degree of gender association.
• The genderness score ranges from 0 (perfectly non-gendered) to 1 (exclusively used by one gender).
• Sonnad’s analysis shows that while baby names remain highly gendered, the genderness score has declined over the past century.

Question 35

Gender as a performance

Answer 35

• Gender as performance focuses on how gender is a feature of social situations and specifically social interaction.

Question 36

Goffman’s dramaturgical analysis

Answer 36

• Goffman’s dramaturgical analysis emphasized the performance of various roles on the “front stage” to control impressions others have of ourselves.
• Goffman observed that our place in a gender category is determined by our behavioral cues or “displays”, and that we tend to want definitive gender assignments.
• Goffman believed that how people behave reflects society’s ideals about masculinity and femininity, which helps others identify their gender.

Question 37

Doing gender

Answer 37

• West and Zimmerman further developed Goffman’s ideas into the concept of “doing gender”, which highlights how gender is actively performed and constructed in social interactions.
• West and Zimmerman proposed the concept of “doing gender”, which suggests that individuals are constantly engaged in performing masculinity or femininity in social interactions.
• Gender is not something that individuals can choose to perform or not; it permeates every aspect of our lives and interactions, as we are always under observation and held accountable to gender-related expectations.

Question 38

What compels us to “do” gender?:

Answer 38

• According to West and Zimmerman, our competence in society is linked to our ability to successfully perform gender according to societal expectations.
• Successfully “doing gender” means meeting the expectations of others based on our current social constructions of gender.
• Failure to conform to gender expectations often leads to admonishment or criticism from peers and society.

Question 39

Black feminism

Answer 39

• Black feminism emerged during the 1960s, due to the disillusionment with the Civil Rights Movement and the second-wave feminist movement.
• Black feminism advocates for feminist writing to be inclusive of
  and representative of the needs and lives of women of color.
• Black feminism rejects the idea that women are a homogenous group with similar life experiences.
• Black feminists challenge the assumption that the struggles of white, middle-class, cisgender women represent the experiences of all women. As white women don’t highlight the oppression faced by women of color, lower-class women, and disabled women.

Question 40

Intersectionality

Answer 40

Intersectionality: theorizes that the overlap of various social attributes such as race, gender, class, sexuality, age, and disability intersect to create unique systems of oppression for specific individuals or groups.

Question 41

Transnational feminism

Answer 41

Transnational feminism expands the focus beyond national boundaries, highlighting the global nature of gender inequality and its intersections with race, economic systems, and nationhood.

Transnational feminism aims to decolonize Western ideas of femininity and masculinity by recognizing how colonialism and capitalism have reshaped gender norms in colonized countries and the global south.