Risman Flashcards
What is the assumption of “Gendered selves”?
maleness and femaleness are, or become, properties of individuals
Individualist approach
What does Sex-Role Socialization theory explain about behaviour?
early childhood socialization is an influential determinant of later behavior, and research has focused on how societies create feminine women and masculine men.
What is reinforcement theory?
girls develop nurturant personalities because they are given praise and attention for their interest in dolls and babies, and that boys develop competitive selves because they are positively reinforced for winning,
What do Ruddick (1989, 1992) and Aptheker (1989) say about mothering?
The way we mother creates a type of thinking (maternal thinking)
: through nurturing their children women develop psychological frameworks that value peace and justice. Therefore, if women (or men who mothered children) were powerful political actors, governments would use more peaceful conflict resolution strategies and value social justice more highly
What do individualist theories, (including sex role socialization and psychoanalytic thought) assume:
by adulthood most men and women have developed very different personalities.
Women have become nurturant, person oriented, and child centered.
Men have become competitive and work oriented
What is the most serious problem with sex role theory?
depoliticization of gender inequality
notion of comparing all men to all women without regard for diversity within groups
presumes that gender is primarily about individual differences between biological males and biological females, downplaying the role of interactional expectations and
the social structure
(Basically, by reducing everything to sex differences we ignore the political and social inequalities)
What was the result of Kanter’s classic work Men and Women of the Corporation (1977)?
structural perspective on gender in the workplace. Kanter showed that when women had access to powerful mentors, interactions with people like themselves, and the possibility for upward mobility, they behaved like others—regardless of sex—with similar advantages
Social Network may be why men succeed more
Risman once studied “Can Men Mother?” what was the result?
The answer is yes, but only if they do not have women to do it for them. The lack of sex role socialization for nurturance did not inhibit the development of male mothering when structural contingencies demanded it.
Gerson reports that half her sample of baby boom women changed their orientation between domesticity and commitment to work, what four variables does she point to?
- marital stability
2.the perceived
sufficiency of the husband’s wage
- women’s opportunities and experiences in the labor force
- the existence of support networks for domestic wives
What is sex role theory (broadly)?
Sex Role Theory explains gendered differences in offending in terms of the differences in gender socialization, gender roles and gendered identities.
EX. The norms and values associated with traditional femininity are not conducive to crime, while the norms and values associated with traditional masculinity are more likely to lead to crime.
What do West and Zimmerman say about how we become gendered?
Once a person is labeled a member of a sex category, she or he is morally accountable for behaving as persons in that category do. That is, the person is expected to “do gender”
What does the “doing gender” framework say about male dominance?
belief that biological males and females are essentially different (apart from their reproductive capabilities) exists to justify male dominance
What does Lorber (1994) argue about gender?
gender is an entity in and of itself that establishes patterns of expectations for individuals, orders social processes of everyday life, and is built into all other major social organizations of society.
- gender difference is primarily a means to justify sexual stratification.
What does Risman argue?
strength of our gender structure at the interactional and institutional levels
choice we make (that are assumed to be based on individual preference) can be better understood as social constructions
What does Handel suggest about gender relations?
suggests that normative requirements (e.g., cultural expectations) attached to various roles are inconsistent in modern societies.
According to Stokes and Hewitt, what trait is culture?
not an individualistic trait. Rather, culture is learned association of objects and expectations
Following Stokes and Hewitt’s culture definition, what should gender expectations be viewed as?
should be viewed not as internalized masculinity or femininity but as cognitive images that constrain action
What are cognitive images?
Cognitive images exist as abstractions, but we have learned them over time both from interaction with others and through cultural images from television, movies, and other media.
Every time we do gender we are reacting to cognitive images to which we are accountable,
What is Hochschild’s “The Second Shift”
YK this
How does the institution of work push gender expectations in marriage?
Women are not pushed by their family to go into competitive, highly successful careers
And Husbands are not free to work long hours in order to climb the career ladder or increase income unless they are superordinate partners in a system in which wives provide them the “leisure”
How can women reproduce a patriarchal lineage with marriage and children?
Marriage - taking husbands name
Children - Also take the fathers name
How can businesses oriented mothers and fathers get different treatment? (both work full time)
Fathers: Expected to provide, praised for helping with baby outside work hours
Mothers: Might be called selfish for putting her wants above her childs, If the child is clingy friends may suggest that the child doesn’t get to see the mother very much, If the child is independent they suggest that this trait comes from having to fend for herself or himself too often and too soon
How are women pushed to part-time employment? (both parents working full time)
Father starts falling behind other colleagues in promotions
Mother is rewarded less, in sex-segregated environment, colleagues also struggle to balance family and economic
responsibilities.
She decides that despite the financial hardship, part time employment will give her the best of both worlds. (Even if she loved her career)
What is an issue with mothers working part time?
Becoming dependent on a man
longer she remains outside the full time
labor force the less capable she will be of supporting herself and her children. The longer she works part time, the more financially dependent she becomes
Read read this text before an exam (I feel I didn’t get everything out of it)
