Principles of Sociology
Darryl Hall
Department of Sociology
University of Nevada, Reno
Sex and Gender
Concepts in the Study of Gender and Inequality
• Sex refers to biological characteristics that distinguish females and males.
– Primary Sexual Characteristics are those biological distinctions between males and females related to reproduction.
– Secondary Sexual Characteristics refer to physical distinctions between males and females that are not directly connected with reproduction.
• Gender refers to the social and cultural characteristics that a society considers proper for its males and females (i.e., masculinity and femininity).
• Gender Roles refers to roles and other expected behaviors that a society links to sex.
• Gender Identity refers to traits that females and males – guided by their culture – incorporate into their personality
• Patriarchy – a form of social organization in which males dominate females through male control of cultural, political, and economic structures
• Sexism refers to the belief that one sex is innately superior to the other.
• Androgyny – the possession of both masculine and feminine characteristics
• Hermaphrodite – a person who possesses both male and female sexual organs
• Transsexual – a person who believes that he or she was born with the body of the wrong sex
• Transvestite – a male who lives as a woman or a female who lives as a man but does not alter the genitalia
Gender Socialization
• Gender is socially constructed and learned; we receive messages about the “appropriate” conduct for males and females from many sources:
1) The Family
2) Children’s Toys and Games
3) The School
4) The Mass Media
5) Language
a) Structural (e.g., “Generic” he/man; placement of men before women; linguistic derogation of women; invisibility of women; women as the exception)
b) Conversational (e.g., number of interruptions and topic changes; hedges; tag questions; hypercorrect grammar; extremely polite language; empty adjectives)
c) Nonverbal (e.g., tilting of head and body to indicate submissiveness, smiling; use of space)
Gender Stratification in the US
• Gender Stratification refers to males’ and females’ unequal access to scarce societal resources (power, wealth, and prestige) on the basis of sex; sociologists consider women to be a minority group because of they possess far less of these valued resources than men.
• Gender Inequality in the Workplace
- Gender Segregated Work
- Gender Differences in Promotion and Authority
- The Gender Wage Gap in Earnings
• Gender Inequality in Education
• Gender Inequality in Politics and Government
• Gender Inequality in Other Social Realms
• Gender Wage Gap – the discrepancy between average earning of men and women; today, full-time women earn, on average between 65 and 72 cents for every dollar earned by a man, even in the same job
• Glass Ceiling – the hidden barriers that block the way to the top for women and racial minorities
Explaining Gender Stratification
1) The functionalist perspective of gendered inequality emphasizes the sex-linked requirements for collective survival. Women and men are seen as performing necessary and complimentary roles.
• Traditional gender roles (men performing instrumental tasks and women performing expressive tasks) are viewed as important not only for the individual but also for the economic and social order of society. Failure to maintain the traditional division of labor is believed to lead to destruction of family life as well as higher rates of crime, violence, and drug abuse.
2) Human capital theorists claim that sex differences in promotion rates are due to sex differences in commitment, education, and experience; women are believed to have less to offer employers. Even if these differences exist, this position ignores the fact that women are in a system of inequality, where social expectations prevent them from having qualifications that are similar to men.
• Other neoclassical economic model attribute the wage gap to such factors as:
a) the different amounts of energy that men and women expend on their work
b) occupational choices made by men and women
c) the crowding of too many women into some occupations
3) The conflict perspective emphasizes men’s control over scarce resources. The gendered division of labor within families and in the workplace results from male control of and dominance over women and resources. Differentials between men and women may exist in terms of economic, political, physical, and/or interpersonal power.
•Men remain the head of household and control the property. Also, men gain power through their predominance in the most highly paid and prestigious occupations and the highest elected offices.
Feminist Perspectives
• Feminism is the philosophy that men and women should be politically, economically, and socially equal.
1) Liberal/Equal Rights Feminists – seek equal access for females within the current social system; focus is on equality of opportunity (e.g., civil rights and occupational equality)
2) Radical/Transformative Feminists – argue that the current social system must be fundamentally changed in order for women to truly have equal access; men’s oppression of women is seen as deliberate and justified by institutions such as religion and the mass media
3) Socialist Feminists – suggest that women’s oppression results from their dual roles as paid and unpaid workers in a capitalist economy
The Persistence of Gender Inequalities in Everyday Life
• General devaluation of things feminine
• Gender inequality in conversation
• Subtle and not-so-subtle sexual harassment
• Gender inequality of violence
