module 7

Question 1

what does sex refer to?

Answer 1

• sexrefers to “biological characteristics that include sex chromosomes, primary sex characteristics, and secondary sex characteristics”

Question 2

differences in sex characteristics

Answer 2

There can exist some (usually nominal) chromosomal variation among women and men, but we will examine this in the following section. When it comes to primary sex characteristics, the differences here have to do with genitalia (i.e., breasts, ovaries, scrotum, vas deferens, etc.).
• The differences in secondary sex characteristics have to do with body shape and size. Men tend to be taller, wider shouldered, and smaller hipped, and women tend to be shorter, wider hipped, and smaller shouldered (but variations occur here as well).
• Secondary sex characteristics also refer to the sexed differences in body hair (men tend to have more) and voice (women’s tend to be higher), though here again, there are male soprano singers, and women with greater amounts of body and facial hair.

Question 3

what does gender refer to?

Answer 3

• Gender, in contrast, defines the socially constructed patterns of masculinity and femininity. Your text defines gender as “the expected and actual thoughts, feelings, and behaviours associated with a particular sex, within a certain culture, and at a given point in history”
  
  • While sex characteristics are relatively static (i.e., there is very little differentiation historically and cross-culturally), gender characteristics are fluid, rendering them highly contingent on social and cultural norms.
  • Victorian era, women were barred from participation in sport because of the fragility myth—the idea that vigorous activity would harm women’s reproductive organs (Hall, 2002). In fact, one of the reasons we see modified rules for women today in many sports (golf, basketball, running, swimming and so on) is because of this historical belief
  • all sports, including cheerleading were male-only when they were first introduced.

Question 4

what are sex and gendered dualisms?

Answer 4

• Dualisms (sometimes referred to as binaries) are a “contrast between two opposing categories” (Symbaluk & Bereska, 2016, p. 145). In reference to sex and gender, Western society is heavily based on sexed and gendered dualisms. Consider the ways men and women are often constructed as opposites of each other
  
  • women are commonly seen as “lesser males.”

Question 5

problems with dualisms

Answer 5

• Sexed and gendered dualisms create false, insular categories (i.e., the assumption that all women and all men fit into separate categories). Gendered dualisms presume that all men are strong, rational, tall, good at math, etc., and all women are weak, short, irrational, non-athletic, and so on, and makes these differences out to bebiological determinisms
• While it’s true that men are, on average, 10 percent taller than women, it is also true that not all men are taller than all women. The same argument can be made for any gender dualism—while some gendered differences exist, they do not exist unilaterally or universally.
Problem #2
• Sexed and gendered dualisms also obscure the vast number of similarities between men and women.
• Rather than seeing gendered abilities as somehow natural or innate, sociologists see these differences predominantly as the result of socialization. Young boys are often socialized into being stronger in math and sports, while young girls are often socialized into caregiving and nurturing roles. With the exception of some biological sexual reproduction differences, men and women share more similarities with each other than they do differences.
• Problem #3
• Sexed and gendered dualisms ignore the plurality of identity categories between masculinity and femininity and the sexual and gender variations that do exist

Question 6

what do gender binaries ignore?

Answer 6

• one of the problems with strict gender binaries (i.e. two category gender distinctions) is that it ignores the plurality of gender expressions and identities that exist.
In Western contexts, the “in-between” category at the level of gender is referred to asgenderqueerand/ortransgender. According to the University of Berkeley’s Gender Equity Resource Centre (2014),

Question 7

define genderqueer

Answer 7

genderqueer refers to a person “whose gender identity is neither man nor woman, is between or beyond genders, or is some combination of genders[…]
Some genderqueer people identify under the transgender umbrella while others do not

Question 8

define transgender

Answer 8

As defined by your textbook, the term transgender describes “individuals who identify themselves with another sex, and seek to live their lives on that basis”

Question 9

describe intersex

Answer 9

level of sex is the medical termintersex. Replacing the dated term hermaphroditism, an intersex person is “a person whose physical sex characteristics fall outside the boundaries of male/female dualisms”
• The problem is not with these individual athletes but with the dualistic system of sport, where one must either be fully male or fully female, without specified definitions of what exactly constitutes “male” and “female.” As Anne Fausto-Sterling (2012) and others have argued, intersex conditions typically affects 1 out of every 2,000 infants, ranging from being born with blurred or dual genitalia to chromosomal and hormones variations. The presence of intersex calls into question the veracity of a strict two-sex model and raises complicated questions about participation in two-sex systems, like sport as well as other aspects of contemporary society.

Question 10

what are hijras?

Answer 10

• in South Asian contexts, the hijras are a third gender or transgender minority. A group of about a million people, found predominantly in India’s north are men who dress as women. Some hijras are homosexual (dating other men) and some are heterosexual (dating women). In parts of India, hijras are officially recognized by their governments as a third gender, as neither man nor woman, and have existed in the culture for thousands of years. But in many parts, due to the British colonial influence, they are marginalized from the dominant society

Question 11

what is two spirited?

Answer 11

• in First Nations and Indigenous contexts, the term two-spirited is used for individuals who possess both male and female energies. The term itself was first coined by Navajo Indigenous groups but has come to be used by a range of First Nation, Inuit, and Métis populations. Unlike many Western notions of gender non-conformity, two-spirited individuals were typically highly valued by their community for their ability to transgress gender lines. And while gay and transgender legal rights are a relatively new phenomenon in North America, Indigenous groups have long acknowledged transgender rights and gay marriages (Cameron, 2005). While many traditional Indigenous cultures supported gender differences, the impacts of colonialism have affected these understandings, which is why some Indigenous groups have sought to revitalize the term two-spirited.

Question 12

inequalities faced by women

Answer 12

• Wage inequality (women on average still earn less than men)
  
  • Employment inequality (men still have greater access to paid employment)
  • Primary caregiving and child custody (women still have more access)
  • Health (women suffer more forms of chronic illness and disability, and men tend to suffer more life-threatening illnesses)
  • Safety (women are typically at greater risks)
  • Other?

Many of the inequalities we see today are the result of historical norms and policies. Below is a brief history of the some of the more major legal rights won by women over the last 125 years in Canada (The Nellie McClung

Question 13

woman achievements chart

Answer 13

1875

First woman to receive a University degree

NB

1916–18

Women win right to vote

Federal

1953

Fair Employment Practices Act

Federal

1954

Fair wages policy

Federal

1960

Aboriginal women win right to vote

Federal

1961–62

Human Rights Code

ON

1972

Sexual Sterilization Act repealed

AB

1982

Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

Federal

1986

Employment Equity Act

Federal

1989

The Supreme Court of Canada decides that sexual harassment is a form of sex discrimination

Federal

Question 14

what measures the gender pay gap? where does canada place? what were the top five countries?

Answer 14

• the World Economic Forum measures the Gender Gap Index in 142 countries worldwide. In 2014, Canada places 19 on this list (up slightly from its rank of 20th in 2013). Iceland, Finland, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark were the top five countries worldwide (and are consistently so, given their widespread welfare state policies)

Question 15

what measures a range of gender based indexes?

Answer 15

he World Economic Forum (2014) measures a range of gender-based indexes, including economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, political empowerment, and health and survival.

Question 16

what did canada score for economic participation? what percent do women make?

Answer 16

• Of these four categories, Canada scored 17th on the economic participation and opportunity, given there remains consistent wage gap and employment equity issues in this country. As detailed by your text, women typically earn about 75 percent of what men earn.

Question 17

what did canada place first on?

Answer 17

• Canada placed first overall in the educational attainment of women, and indeed, at the level of undergraduate studies, Canadian women outnumber men in most post-secondary institutions. With the trades still largely dominated by men, and pink-collar employment (such as sales and service) being a large section of the working poor, many Canadian women are entering undergraduate degrees in order to raise their earning potential.

Question 18

canadas worst scoring

Answer 18

• political participation of women. However, given the 2015 federal cabinet appointments (a caucus that is 50% female), we should see this number go up in upcoming years. Finally, Canada’s worst scoring was a 100th overall placement in the health and survival of women in Canada. Our high rates of cancer and cardiovascular disease alongside the issue of missing and murdered Aboriginal women were big factors in our poor ranking in this category.

Question 19

2 inequalities trans persons face

Answer 19

Transgender Inequality
• in Canada, trans persons have no legal recourse if they are unjustly fired from a job or evicted from their living quarters. Many trans persons are poorly and unfairly treated in schools and medical establishments because of a lack of awareness and necessary policy measures.
• Many trans persons have no access to sport or recreation facilities because many of these facilities are based on the dualistic model of gender. Many trans persons cannot even access public washrooms without risk of verbal or physical violence. Moreover, many trans persons cannot board a plane or cross the U.S. border because of the issues surrounding identification.

Question 20

are trans people protected under the bill of rights? what is bill c-279?

Answer 20

• while many other marginalized groups in Canada are protected under the Human Rights Act, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and the Criminal Code, currently transgendered Canadians are not. Bill C-279 is attempting to add gender expression to the Human Rights Act so that trans persons in Canada will enjoy the same rights as other Canadians and be granted access to valid identification and facilities where they can be safe, respected, and full members of Canadian society.

Question 21

arguments for bill c 279/bathrooms

Answer 21

trans people, like all people, need to be backed by legislation, including legislation that would allow them the right to pee.

Question 22

arguments against bill c 279

Answer 22

people worry that Bill C-279 will put women at risk for violence by transwomen who will “sneak into” women’s washrooms. This is not only a fear-mongering tactic (trans people use public washrooms for the same reasons everyone else does) but also ignores the safety and risk many trans people experience when using public washrooms.

Question 23

what have sociologists argued about gender norms?

Answer 23

ociologists have long argued that gender norms and roles come to be learned, maintained, and regulated through socialization.

Question 24

is gender socialization static?

Answer 24

• Many formative aspects of our socialization occur in childhood, but recall from Module 4 that socialization is lifelong. Therefore, gender socialization, by extension, is also a feature of our self that changes over time. Let’s examine in more depth the ways in which socialization affects gender.

Question 25

how are children gendered as infants?

Answer 25

• Children are often gendered before even being born. The vast majority of children come into the world with gender-specific names, clothes, nurseries, books, and toys. As infants, they are often treated differently based on their gender
  
  • Wharton (2004) has shown that parents tend to respond more quickly to baby girls when they cry than baby boys.
  • Infant girls, for instance, are often described as “beautiful” or “sweet” and infant boys as “strong” or “smart.”
  • As children age, gender socialization continues. The chores children are required to do are often based around gendered lines. Girls for instance are typically asked to do chores inside the house and in the kitchen. Boys are typically asked to do chores outside of the house and farther from parental supervision. The activities we are enrolled in may also be based around gender (for example, girls in dance and boys in hockey).

Question 26

examples of gendered parenting rules

Answer 26

• Rules of curfews
  
  • Attitudes towards food (e.g., “eat more, you’re a growing boy,” or “don’t eat too much, it’s unladylike”)
  • Attitudes towards roughhousing (e.g., “boys will be boys”)
  • How to sit or stand (legs closed or open)
  • Affection (amount of physical affection like hugs and kisses)

Question 27

what role do peers play in gender socialization?

Answer 27

• Peers typically reinforce gendered norms learned in the household. During both the school-aged and adolescent years, peers play a powerful role in learning gender appropriate and inappropriate behaviours.
  
  • Boys in particular are encouraged to conform to the norms of masculinity more so than girls are expected to conform to the norms of femininity (Murray et al., 2012). While some of these norms of masculinity come from mainstream media, boys and young men often hold each other to what Jackson Katz (2006) calls the “tough guise.”

Question 28

what is the tough guise?

Answer 28

• The front that many men put up to conform to constructed notions of masculinity.

Question 29

how else do children reinforce gender socialization?

Answer 29

• Children influence peer gender socialization in other ways as well. Think back to the language to describe or talk about the opposite sex. Young girls, for instance, will routinely refer to boys as “dumb” or “stinky,” and young boys will use threats as “fat” or “ugly” to denigrate girls (Murray et al., 2012). Peers will also reinforce a child’s interests in toys or movies. For example, a peer asking whether another peer saw the new Star Wars movie or got a Barbie for Christmas indicates that these are (at least to some degree) gender expectations.

Question 30

how do school enforce gender roles? 3 ways it occurs?

Answer 30

chools operate to both overtly and covertly socialize students into gender roles. This socialization can occur through the course content taught, through division of boys and girls into different classes, and through informal interactions.

Question 31

ways teachers enforce gender norms in class

Answer 31

• Studies of kindergarten classes show that teachers informally discipline young girls and young boys differently (Martin, 2011). Young girls typically receive more instructions on formal behaviours (e.g., “raise your hand,” “sit on your bottom,” “sit straight”), while young boys were allowed and encouraged to pursue relaxed behaviours (e.g., sitting on your knees, squatting, or laying down). Young girls were also more encouraged to control their voice (e.g., quieter, softer, and nicer), while young boys could get away with noisier play (Martin, 2011). While these lessons may be subtle, they do serve as important aspects of gender socialization.
  
  • In gym class we had to learn dance instead of football (or vice versa).
  • I wasn’t encouraged to sing in the choir because it was considered for girls.
  • My math teacher didn’t push me as hard the boys in the room.
  • I got in trouble for swearing, even though the boy sitting next to me didn’t.
  • The girls had to learn to sew, while the boys had to learn carpentry.

Question 32

what do sociologists argue about the media and gender norms?

Answer 32

• Sociologists have long argued for the pervasiveness of gender socialization across a range of media outlets, including television, newspapers, and magazines. Important here is that the media does not simply reflect already existing gender norms, but works to create and establish dominant gender norms in society.

Question 33

examples of the media creating gender norms

Answer 33

• Many childhood films, for example, construct female protagonists as princesses who are helpless, seductive, and in need of saving, often by a more capable male prince. And while some of these storylines are changing slowly, men still tend to play lead roles, while women still tend to play support roles. Think of the popular ABC series Grey’s Anatomy. While there are an equal number of male and female characters, the male characters are typically the high-level surgeons and the female characters are nurses, interns, and residents (Murray et al., 2012). In news television, while we see more female journalists, the anchorperson is still typically a man
  
  • It is not one or two images or stories that create gender norms, but rather, it is the consistency and repetition of these images over time that works to sediment cultural expectations of masculinity and femininity.

Question 34

what are the four codes of gender in media?

Answer 34

Sut Jhally applies Erving Goffman’s frame analysis and examines a range of media images for what they teach us about gender. As outlined in your text on page 163, he finds the following four codes of gender in contemporary media representations: (1) The feminine touch, (2) the ritualization of subordination, (3) licensed withdrawal, and (4) infantilization.

Question 35

describe the feminine touch

Answer 35

• women are often shown touching themselves (often their face or body) or external objects (like cars or perfume). Interestingly, when women are shown touching objects, it tends to be their finger tips that trace or caress the object in question (like Vanna White turning the letters on Wheel of Fortune). Rarely, do women hold objects with their whole hand.

Question 36

what is the ritualization of subordination?

Answer 36

• women are often portrayed in compromised positions (laying down, on their back, or otherwise imbalanced), while men are often portrayed standing squarely with two feet on the ground, commonly over top of women. Men are usually gazing at women, while women are usually being gazed upon. While this ad might seem somewhat the norm for a magazine, in real life, a man pinning a woman with three other men watching would certainly not being considered acceptable.

Question 37

describe licensed withdrawal

Answer 37

men in ads typically address the camera (i.e., the viewer) or are shown gazing upon women (as in this ad, as well as the previous one). While the woman in this ad is facing the camera, she is clearly “spaced out.” As Jhally (2009) argues this is all too common in many mainstream ads, where women are withdrawn from their reality and helpless to their surroundings.

Question 38

describe infantilization

Answer 38

Jhally (2009) points out that girls are often made to look like young women (think of the recent Bratz dolls) and that women are often made to look like young girls. Women are frequently shown with a finger or sucker in their mouths or wearing childlike hairstyles such as pigtails. A quintessential example of infantilization of adult women is Katy Perry in her 2010 hit song, “California Gurls.” In contrast, men must leave boyhood before they can be considered men (Symbaluk & Bereska, 2016, p. 163).

Question 39

functionalist view on gender roles

Answer 39

• Being one of the first formalized sociological theories, functionalists understanding of gender roles is quite traditional. Functionalist theorists, such as Talcott Parsons, viewed men and women as having distinct roles in society, and these roles were necessary for society to function smoothly.
  
  • Writing at the height of the post-World War II boom, and the height of the nuclear family model, it is not surprising that Parsons viewed women’s roles as caregiving and nurturing (i.e., expressive roles) and men’s roles as breadwinning (i.e., instrumental roles). Gendered roles, scripts, and norms became even more pronounced in post-World War 2 industrialized societies, and thus it was not surprising to see ideas such as the following magazine article circulating throughout society and informing men and women of their gendered roles within the family and within society

Question 40

conflict theory on gender roles

Answer 40

ccording to conflict theorists, the gendered divisions in the family and within society can be linked to men’s dominance and control over women in the public sphere.
• Men typically still hold greater amounts of economic, political, and interpersonal power, given their relationship to the means of production (Murray et al., 2012, p. 315). As analyzed earlier, men typically occupy the highest paid positions in society (like law or politics), while women typically occupy the lowest paid positions in society (seamstress and retail)
• Since the 1980s women have been entering the workforce in greater numbers and yet only 4.1% of Fortune 500 companies are run by women and only one of these companies is in the top 10
• Given the demands of the private sphere (i.e., caregiving responsibilities), women typically also take on part-time work more frequently than men, rendering their annual earning much lower than their male counterparts. When women do work full-time their wages are often a fraction of men’s, again rendering them more vulnerable to economic hardship. Feminist conflict theorists contend that until women’s economic advantages are equal to those of men, women will remain marginalized in contemporary capitalist societies.

Question 41

symbolic interactionist view on gender norms

Answer 41

• In contrast to the more macro theories of functionalism and conflict theory, symbolic interactionism looks at the more micro aspects of gender reproduction. In line with sociological theories of nurture, symbolic interactionsists argue that gender isn’t simply something we “have” but rather, importantly, it is also something we “do”
  
  • Moving gender from a noun to a verb renders gender an active and ongoing process (West & Zimmerman, 1987). “Doing gender” entails making decisions about the way we dress, wear our hair, the names or pronouns we choose to use, how we sit, shake hands, or even greet our friends (e.g., a hug or handshake). If we take the example of walking or spitting, we know that both men and women have the equal biological capacity to walk and spit. However, culturally we also know that men and women learn to walk differently (women learn to move their hips more and men firmly hold their shoulders).