Exam 1

Question 1

What are some of the reasons for studying gender?

Answer 1

How we view and understand gender cuts

across all aspects of society & its institutions

– interpersonal relationships, work, school,

the media, and more

It provides an entranceway into studying human behavior,how society is organized, and possibilities for change.

Example:

careers = health care, education, business, publishing,

entertainment, law, social services, public government

service, and the arts (to name a few)

Question 2

What is feminist theory?

Answer 2

attempts to understand gender equality

and how it affects individuals and groups

in society.

Question 3

What is the difference between theory and activism?

Answer 3

Theory is based on academics and activism is based on

Question 4

What are the characteristics of the 3 waves of feminism?

Answer 4

1.

1830s – Issues= slavery and women’s right to vote

1865– 13th Amendment abolished slavery

1920 – 19th Amendment guaranteed women the

         right to vote

(Suffrage = the right to vote gained through a democratic process)

Question 5

Why are they referred to as waves?

Question 6

How might generational differences affect one’s perceptions of gender?

Question 7

What are the myths commonly associated with feminism?

Answer 7

1. Feminist hate man
2. Feminist are said to be lesbians

Question 8

3 offshoots of 3rd wave feminism are: postmodern feminism, queer theory, and transgender theory

Question 9

– what makes each distinct from each other?

Question 10

– what views do all 3 share in common?

Question 11

What is patriarchy?

Answer 11

Where males dominate because power and authority are in the hands of adult men.

Question 12

How does opposing patriarchy differ from being anti-male?

Question 13

What is privilege?

Question 14

What is intersectionality?

Answer 14

– to simply focus on one aspect of oppression means

missing the various other systems of oppression.

– demonstrates why this complex system is often invisible, yet always immobilizing

Question 15

What are some of the dimensions of intersectionality?

Question 16

What do adherents of understanding intersectionality work toward?

Question 17

How can intersectionality explain the roles of gender in class in math and science education?

Question 18

What is Jane O’Reilly arguing in The Housewife’s Moment of Truth?

Question 19

– what are some of the examples she uses to make this point?

Question 20

What are Baumgarderner and Richards arguing in A Day Without Feminism?

Question 21

– what are some of the examples they provide from life in the 1970s,

particularly in relation to dating, relationships families, and sexuality?

Question 22

Why were “pep” products marketed specifically to females?

Question 23

What are the main things that feminists typically agree on?

Answer 23

the importance of gender;

the importance of change;

the importance of personal choice;

the need to eliminate patriarchy;

the need to eliminate violence; and

the importance of sexual autonomy

Question 24

What is normality?

Answer 24

– assumes a standard by which things are measured

– tends to reflect the identities of those in

power

Question 25

– what are 2 characteristics of employing the concept of normality?

Answer 25

Sometimes a variation in kind or frequency

Other times, a subjective judgment

Question 26

What is hierarchy in society?

Answer 26

– in society, how differences are viewed, ranked, and institutionalized

Question 27

What are institutions and what does it mean for a practice or belief to be institutionalized?

Answer 27

Institutions – social organizations that involve patterns

of behavior organized around particular purposes.

Institutionalized

– officially placed into a structured system

or set of practices.

EX: Standardized tests as a predictor of

future achievement (gender, culture)

Question 28

What is ideology?

Answer 28

Beliefs

Question 29

What is the main point that Patricia Hill Collins is making in “Toward a New Vision?

Question 30

– what does she mean by the “symbolic dimension” of systems of domination?

Answer 30

EX: stereotypes, myths, attitudes

Question 31

In what ways can hierarchies of gender, culture, etc. be institutionalized?

– give an example

Question 32

What is prejudice?

Answer 32

– to pre-judge

– making premature judgments without adequate information

or with misinformation

Question 33

How can oppression be internalized?

Question 34

How can language shape our reality?

Question 35

What is horizontal hostility?

Answer 35

– after prejudice is internalized, individuals direct their anger and resentment about their situation onto those who have equal or lesser status

Question 36

Why is oppression, not diversity, the problematic issue to be addressed?

Answer 36

– it isn’t just that people differ from one another.

The trouble is produced by a world organized in ways that encourage people to use difference to include or exclude, reward or punish, credit or discredit, elevate or oppress, value or devalue, leave alone or harass

Question 37

What are unearned entitlements?

Answer 37

– things that all people should have like feeling safe in public, being accepted, valued for what they can contribute.

When unearned entitlement is restricted to certain groups, however, it becomes a form of privilege (what McIntosh calls “unearned advantage”)

Question 38

How does Marilyn Frye characterize oppression?

Answer 38

– The Flip Side of Privilege

– Social forces tend to “press” upon people and hold them down, mold them, and block their pursuit of a good life.

Belonging to a privileged category that has an oppressive relationship with another isn’t the same as being an oppressive person who behaves in oppressive ways.

Question 39

– why does she claim that the root word of oppression significant?

Question 40

– what is her birdcage analogy of oppression meant to illustrate?

Question 41

– How does this relate to intersectionality?

Question 42

What does Audre Lorde say is necessary to fight oppression and why does she state this?

Answer 42

Audre Lorde – calls for alliances across differences

Question 43

What is the difference between acute and chronic need?

Answer 43

A) Acute – characterized by severity and/or having a sudden onset

EX: famine & starvation

B) Chronic – persistent or long-lasting in effect;

– marked by long duration or frequent recurrence

EX: malnutrition, lack of medical care,

lack of educational opportunities,

Shortened lifespan

Question 44

How has poverty risen or fallen in relation to the Dow Jones Industrial average of the stock market?

Question 45

How has the pay ratio between Chief Executive Officers and their workers changed over the past 30 years?

Question 46

Is the income gap between rich and poor narrowing or widening?

Question 47

What are the statistics with regard to how much the wealthiest 1% of people globally? What about the bottom 40% of the world’s population?

Answer 47

Globally, the richest 1% of the population controls 40% of the wealth

– the bottom 40% of the world’s population combined control 1% of the wealth

Question 48

What is gender coding?

Answer 48

assign traits to males and females

Question 49

What is a binary system?

Answer 49

a system involving only 2 elements

Question 50

Describe the naturalist approach to gender

Answer 50

Gender is primarily man/woman

                                        masculine/feminine viewed as binary

Question 51

What is the nature vs nurture debate?

Question 52

Describe the Sex/Gender binary introduced in the 1960s and 1970s

– how do notions of “feminine” and “masculine” change from the naturalist view?

Question 53

Define human sexuality

Answer 53

– the capacity to have erotic experiences and responses

– being attracted to someone in a sexual manner

Question 54

Define intersexuality

Answer 54

being born with elements of

both male and female physical characteristics

such that a single sex is not distinct

(see Fausto-Sterling)

Question 55

– what controversial practices were previously administered by parents and physicians with regard to intersex children?

Question 56

Describe the social construction view of gender

Answer 56

– we start with a societal idea of gender and

then retrofit our definitions of “sexual difference” to fit it.

EX: Pressure on intersex children/parents to “pick one.”

EX: The sexual hierarchy – woman become gendered as that

which is not male (Simone de Beauvoir)

Question 57

How does intersexuality present a scientific exception to essentialist theories of gender, such as naturalism?

Question 58

What does it mean to say that gendered is performed?

Question 59

Define cisgender

Answer 59

– when one’s self-perception of their gender matches the sex they were assigned at birth

Question 60

Define transgender

Answer 60

– when one’s gender identity (self-identification as woman, man, neither or both) does not match one’s assigned sex

Question 61

In the U.S., what is required in order to obtain official documents when transitioning from one biological sex to another?

Answer 61

Birth Certificate