Issues of Sex and Gender

• Gender Stratification refers to males’ and females’ unequal access to power, prestige, and property
• Sex and Gender are distinct terms
• Sex is the biological characteristics that distinguish males from females
• Gender is the SOCIAL characteristics that a society considers proper for its males and females
• Sexes learn how to be masculine and feminine
• Gender is culturally learn; expectations are culturally relative
• Gender differences; social or biological?

Gender Differences: Social or Biological? (The answer is probably both)

• Cynthia Epstein (caused by social factors)
• Evidence suggesting greater equality in the past then we first thought
• Type of work is determined by social arrangements and not biology
• Human behavior “caused” by biology involves reproduction or body structure
• Female crime rates rising, which indicates aggression is related to social factors
• Stephen Goldberg (caused by biological)
• Virtually all societies are patriarchs (men dominating women)
• Virtually all societies; highest statuses and political statuses belong to males
• Men dominate because they are willing to sacrifice the desire for affection, health, family life, safety, relaxation, etc. to attain dominance statuses

Gender Equality and Global Stratification

• Historian Gerda Lerner-there is not a single society know where women-as-a-group have decision-making power over men
• George Murdock – surveyed 324 pre modern societies and found all of them sex type activities as male or female
• Sex appropriate activities vary from culture to culture – except metal working
• Murdock argued social arrangements determine what work is assigned to gender
• Typically, greater prestige is given to male activities
• Example midwives (little respect) ---- male doctors (great respect)
• Work does not provide prestige, its the sex with which the work is associated
• Discriminate against areas of education, politics, and paid employment
• 1 billion people can not read; 2/3 are women
• No national legislature has as many women as men (on average hold 11%)
• Women are paid 65% of men’s wages
• Violence against women continues to be a global human rights issue (foot binding in China, witch burning in Europe, and suttee (burning a living window over her dead husband in India) Current examples – rape, wife beating female infanticide, forced prostitution, and female circumcisions

How did females become a minority group? (slave of their body)

• Dominant theory
• Patriarchy as a social consequence of human reproduction
• Child bearing and child rearing limit women’s activity
• Early societies needs lots of children for survival
• Men were less tied down (hunted, traveled, traded, engaged in battle, and controlled weapons)
• Women receive little prestige, none in which involve risk
• Weapons, items of trade, and knowledge gained from contacts became a source of power, ultimately causing men to gain power
• Other theories
• Men superior strength or private property

Gender Equality in the U.S.

• Feminism is the belief that men and women should be politically, economically, and social equal and gender stratification me be met with organized resistance
• Rise of Feminism came in 2 waves
• 1^st Wave (2 branches) – early 1900s
• Conservative branch focused on the right to vote
• Liberal branch wanted to reform all institutions in societies
• Wave died out in 1920s when women got the right to vote
• 2^nd Wave (2 branches) – 1960s when women entered workforce (WWII)
• Much broader (working conditions, work roles, changes in violence against women, and changing the social relationships between men and women
• Liberal branch calling for hostility towards men
• Conservative branch favored a more traditional return to family values
• Both wanted equal pay
• Possible 3^rd wave??
• Challenge to male values (power, competition, toughness, and independence)
• Replaced by cooperation, gentleness, connection, and interdependence

Women: More Rights Today, Problems Persist

• Today women earn 56% bachelor and 58% masters; professional degrees rise too
• Women sports (grade school to collegiate level are under funded)
• Male dominated degrees (computers, math, engineering, and physical science)
• Proportion of women in various degrees decreases with each passing year of graduate school; women are less likely to finish doctoral programs
• Women are less likely to be rewarded the rank of full professor and paid less
• Patterns of equality still exists (pay differences, CEO, etc)
• The capacities, interests, attitudes and contributions are not taken seriously
• The use of terms by males to insult are often feminine related (“girl”)
• Men are more likely to interrupt and control conversations; men are more likely to interrupt the instructor especially if the instructor is a woman

Gender Equality in the Workplace

• Women make up 50% of the workforce today
• Male college graduate make on average $1,200,000 more than female graduate
• Pay gap; women make 70% of what men make
• Occupational segregation (teaching, social work, nursing)
• Women starting salary is 11% less than men if more education and internships and salary gap had grown 5 years later
• Nation’s top 500 corporations; only 5 head by women
• Women encounter the “glass ceiling”, an “invisible barrier that blocks women’s occupational advancements (ceiling is beginning to crack)
• Women are typically steered into human resources and public relations
• Most women lack mentors; many men are afraid of gossip or sexual harassment
• Men that enter women’s occupation clime abroad a glass escalator
• Should corporations offer two tracks (fast vs. mommy)
• Sexual harassment refers to unwelcome sexual advances or attention that adversely affects a person’s job performance or creates a hostile work environment (still an issue)

Gender and Violence

• Males are more likely to inflict violence on females
• 7 out of 10,000 women 12 or older are raped, 1/3 is reported
• Most women know the rapist or violent offender (domestic violence)
• Women are less likely to be murder, but when murder it is usually a male 90%
• Judges are usually more lenient on females

Changing Face of Politics and the Future

• Under represented in politics and under represented in careers that catapults into career positions
• Women typically don’t feel they need to organize to fight oppression
• Most women find the irregular hours associated with running for office has harmful to their roles as a mother; less likely to have supporting spouses
• Number of female politicians are rising
• Inequality barrier seem to be slowly fading away