Science as a Gendered Institution

Question 1

What is an ideology?

Answer 1

• an ideology or a set of ideas is widely shared by members of a society and guides identities, behaviours and institutions

Question 2

What is Lorber’s argument?

Answer 2

Continuous cycle: we assume differences –> so we study differences –> we find differences –> we use this as evidence that there are differences –> and the cycle repeats itself

• we go into this process with preconceived notions which creates unconscious bias

Question 3

What are the steps in Lorber’s argument?

Answer 3

• she presents how assumed differences are used in the construction of institutions to maintain segregation of men and women and overall hierarchy if men and women in the institution and society in general
• shows how the assumption about differences and even subsequent findings are used to deny women access to resources
• argues that discussions of equality overlook the true nature of biological differences and how that should influence social spaces and institutions. biology is defined by a male standard with women being characterized as the deviant group as opposed to being considered a different group

Question 4

What is Lorber’s goal?

Answer 4

• Lorber is trying to show how we rely on biology to define and structure society, overlooking the cultural and social meaning we assign to biology and biological differences

Question 5

What are gendered institutions?

Answer 5

• to say that an organization or any other analytical unit is gendered means that advantage and disadvantage, exploration and control, action and emotion, meaning and identity, are patterned through and in terms of a distinction between male and female, masculine and feminine

Question 6

How is Barbie land different from reality?

Answer 6

• women do not run the show in the real world and certainly do not earn an equal wage
• women have broken into most occupations over the last six decades but they number in the minority in many of the high-paying roles we see in movies
• in the top CEO list of 2021, there were more men named mark then women on the list

Question 7

How does reality show inequality within jobs?

Answer 7

• women make up the majority of students in medicine, law and journalism yet continue to struggle to receive economic due
• women represented half of all general practitioners but only one third of surgeons and other high paid specialties
• in 2021, one if four STEM workers were women

Question 8

List the five ways institutions are gendered

Answer 8

1) construction of divisions along lines of gender- divisions of labour, allowed behaviours, institutionalized means of maintaining the divisions in structures of labour markets
2) construction of symbols and images that explain, express, reinforce and oppose divisions
3) set of processes that produce gendered social structures, the interactions between men and women, women and women, men and men, including patterns that enact dominance and submission
4) processes help produce gendered consciousness of the existence of the other three aspects of gender
5) gender is implicated in the fundamental, ongoing processes of creating and conceptualizing social structures

Question 9

Describe the importance of the video lab coats do not fit and are not functional

Answer 9

• shows the lack of inclusivity in the sciences
• shows there is an ideal stereotypical student/worker
• shows things of the past need to be redone and modified to fit the present and future models