Lecture 17 Flashcards
What does Judith Butler say about term “performativity”?
A term to capture the idea that gender is created and sustained through interaction with others.
● Labelling individuals as male or female restricts their identity development.
● Pushes us to see gender and sexuality in terms of a continuum
What is Hegemonic masculinity?
● Ideal standard of masculinity that is used to justify all the ways our society is organized to reinforce the leading role of men.
● Hegemonic masculinity institutionalizes the common-sense idea that women and men are different and unequal
What are “Costs of masculinity”?
Refers to how ideas about normal masculinity are harmful to men.
● Men who step outside the norms face a variety of sanctions.
● Men who perform feminine jobs sometimes must deal with their masculinity being questioned.
● Gendered insults and insults about a man’s sexuality might be used to make men feel inferior.
What is the “Manosphere”?
men’s groups operating on the internet and offline
What do manosphere influencers say about gender?
assert the idea that men are naturally dominant
Biology and evolution are used to argue that restrictive gender norms are “natural.
Who does the manosphere target?
recruits vulnerable young men.
Male supremacists groom and recruit new followers online, including on bodybuilding forums and gaming livestreams
How are sports gendered?
On the micro level, the language used in sport is gendered. (Ex. Defensemen)
● On a macro level, sports are unequal in terms of everything from pay to
brand marketing.
What is the deal with cheerleaders?
Today:
- Generally feminine
- Not just with women, they must behave femininely
- Smile a certain way
Used to be:
- All men (emphasize strength)
Changed: Men went to war, came back and saw women feminized it (didn’t want it anymore)
- As it’s feminized: Move away from physical impressiveness and more to decorative
What organizes the division of labour?
Gender
How was / (arguably) is the public / private sphere split?
*Division between the:
masculine “public sphere” of politics economics and law
feminine “private sphere” of domestic
and family work
*Despite advances and gains in equality,
gender continues to structure division of
labor
How did women entering the labour force change the institution?
Changing norms about the role of
women in the labour market
● A greater need for two incomes in
families.
increased participation in work is coupled with inequality in terms of:
(3 things)
● What men and women earn
● The types of jobs they have
● The household tasks they do
Work is gendered in two main ways:
● Gender concentration in specific kinds of
work
● Gendered-meaning in the definition of work
Which jobs are women concentrated in?
Women concentrated in female-typed, lower-earning jobs
● Gender composition of an
occupation is associated with pay
differences
What is Horizontal segregation?
Women do less valued jobs (diff types)
caring or nurturing – so service and care jobs
What is Vertical segregation?
men hold higher, better- paid positions within the same occupation as women
Explain the blind audience experiment with instrument auditions?
Music industry used to favour men HEAVILY
So tried doing auditions without showing judges anything about them (to avoid nepotism)
Women spiked
What is “The feminization of work”?
When a particular job, profession, or industry becomes dominated by
or associated with women.
● A feminized occupation tends to lose prestige, wages, required skill levels, and opportunities for promotion.
● Referred to as “pink collar” jobs.
● E.g., nurses, teachers, secretaries, etc
What is “The double shift”?
Refers to women who work outside the home for money and inside the home on unpaid, domestic tasks.
● Arlie Hochschild (1990) referred to this situation as the second shift.
● This imbalance is due to our traditional understandings of gender roles.
How has average hours of work in Canada changed?
In general massive increase in hours work
- Women do much more unpaid labour
- Men are catching up (all gaps decreasing)
What is the International Division of Reproductive Work?
We haven’t made it equal yet
- Upper class women in richer countries transfer that labour to poorer women in poorer countries
How is disability is socially constructed?
Public and private spheres
What we consider “able bodied” is because what we expect people to preform
- Our norms are healthy, young adult males
The failure / unwillingness to provide help (and won’t make it accessable)
- If go on welfare = seen as a mooch
What is the “pace of life” with social construction of disability?
If people are used to moving 7 hours a week, to 12 (people can’t keep up)
- Then less people can meet expectations of “normal performance” (more ‘disabled’ people)
Where is disability regulated?
Private sphere
How is disability caused?
Wars -> direct injuries
● Destruction of water and food sources -> malnutrition and disease
● Low public safety standards
● Poverty
● The damage is unevenly spread along gendered, racialized and class based lines
How is disability perceived?
perceived as personal and family problem
● Not a social issue
● People should overcome the obstacles associated with disability on their own
How is the social institution of politics also impacted by gender?
Why are there so few women in Canadian politics?
● Political parties do not nominate enough women to run in elections.
● Women are unable to afford the expense of running for office.
● Time demands may conflict with family obligations
How does more women in government contributes to gender equality?
fairer policy is passed and improving perceptions of women.
● Women might not agree on solutions to gender inequality, but they are more likely to pass policies addressing it.
● When women are in positions of political power, it positively influences women’s involvement in politics
How is income different by gender and race?
Women make 89 cents of every dollar men make.
● Census 2016 data shows that:
● Indigenous women working full-time, full year earn an average of 35% less than non-
Indigenous men, or 65 cents to the dollar (Statistics Canada).
● Racialized women working full-time, full-year earn an average of 33% less than non-
racialized men, or 67 cents to the dollar (Statistics Canada).
● Newcomer women working full-time, full-year earn an average of 29% less than non-
newcomer men, or 71 cents to the dollar (Statistics Canada).
How does the income gap build over time?
Ex.
20-year-old woman just starting full-time, year-round work stands to lose $407,760 over a 40-year career compared to her male counterpart.
How much of the global labour income do women make?
35%
Men make other 65%
What is Feminism?
Feminism is concerned with equality between men and women.
● Focuses on attaining equality in the political and economic realm through social and cultural change.
● Feminist theory focuses on how gender inequality comes about in society and how men and women’s gender roles are created
and recreated in society
What is First-wave feminism?
Began in the 19th century and was mostly centred in Canada, the US, and the UK.
● Focused on inequalities in the
legal and political system in terms
of voting rights and rights to own
property.
What is the teachers note about first wave feminism?
Always much more diversity in the movements (not clean cut like textbook)
What is Second-wave feminism?
Began in the US and spread throughout
Europe and Canada.
● Broadened the focus of the movement
to include social change beyond political and economic rights.
● Sought change such as equality in the
workplace and reproductive rights, and
an end to gendered violence
What is Third-wave feminism?
Developed mostly in the 1990s in response to perceived gaps in a second-wave dominated by white, middle-class women.
● Challenged the essentialist nature of second- wave feminism.
● Seeks change in the cultural arena by challenging gender depictions in the media, for example.
- “Patriarchy” and more radical approach
● Still going today.
