Introduction to Gender

Social Science Perspectives

Jennifer Marchbank, Gayle Letherby

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781408244500
• eBook ISBN: 9781317752929
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Sociology
• Index: Social Sciences

Thoroughly updated in this second edition, Introduction to Gender offers an interdisciplinary approach to the main themes and debates in gender studies. This comprehensive and contemporary text explores the idea of gender from the perspectives of history, sociology, social policy, anthropology, psychology, politics, pedagogy and geography and considers issues such as health and illness, work, family, crime and violence, and culture and media. Throughout the text, studies on masculinity are highlighted alongside essential feminist work, producing an integrated investigation of the field.

Key features:

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• A thematic structure provides a clear exploration of each debate without losing sight of the interconnections between disciplines.

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• World in focus boxes and international case studies offer a broad global perspective on gender studies.

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• In-text features and student exercises, including Controversy, A critical look and Stop and think boxes, allow the reader to engage in the debates and revise the material covered.

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• Hotlinks throughout the text make connections between chapters, allowing the reader to follow the path of particular issues and debates between topics and disciplines.

New to the second edition:

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• A new chapter explores gender through the discipline of philosophy.

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• A new section on international relations brings this relevant topic into focus.

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• Current discussion on the language of gender across Europe is brought in to Chapter 1.

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• A focus on Europe and Scandinavia as well as the UK gives the text a broader scope.

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• Examples are updated throughout to ensure the text is cutting-edge and relevant.

Introduction to Gender, second edition is highly relevant to today's students across the social sciences and is an essential introduction for students of sociology, women's studies and men's studies.

Part One

Introduction

This textbook is divided into three parts. In this first part, we address some basic overarching issues. Chapter 1, Gendered perspectives – theoretical issues, provides the context of the concepts used in this text and explains the gendered approach we have developed. Fundamental issues, such as the social construction of gender and the binary nature of our, western, thoughts on gender are introduced, explained and discussed. By reading Chapter 1 you will come to understand in what ways social scientists agree and disagree about what gender is. You will then follow the journey social science has taken through feminist and Women’s Studies, celebratory and critical studies of masculinity and gender studies to the end point of our gendered approach. This is not a chapter offering new theory. Instead, it is a review of some of the most basic principles that students of gender need to understand. It is your starting point, your reminder and your revision tool.

The second chapter in Part One, Method, methodology and epistemology, also addresses fundamental issues in any study of gender: the issues of how knowledge is created and valued, and the gender implications and outcomes of this collection of knowledge. Social scientists are empiricists. We require information, we need data, on which to base our explanations of the social world, that is our theories. So, it is never too early in a social science education to learn how data can be and is collected. In the context of gender there is a rich vein of information on method, methodology and epistemology. Chapter 2 provides a comprehensive summary of gendered knowledge production, critiques of the traditional research process, the developments following critiques, such as standpoint theory, the subsequent problems with such stances and much more. Chapter 2 also provides real world examples of research projects to illustrate and explain the development of inclusive gendered research approaches. The issues and considerations outlined and explained in Chapter 2 serve as examples of ‘best practice’ in social science research. This does not mean that all social scientists incorporate all aspects and in some of the chapters in Part Two, Disciplines, you will see differences in research approaches.

Although it is perfectly possible to start reading this text by going directly to a specific chapter, we think you will find that you read the chapters in Parts Two and Three (Disciplines and Issues, respectively) with a different eye after reading Part One. We, therefore, recommend you start with Part One, then follow your specific interests.

Chapter 1

Gendered perspectives – theoretical issues

Key issues in this chapter:

Gender is a social construct.

The development of masculinity and femininity and arguments beyond such a binary divide.

The development of the use of gender as an analytical approach to social sciences.

The variation in conceptualising gender across language, particularly in Europe.

The role of Women’s Studies and Critical Studies of Masculinity in the development of gendered approaches to social sciences.

At the end of this chapter you should be able to:

Understand the difference between biological sex and gender.

Discuss the concepts of masculinity and femininity.

Understand the limits of binary determinations of sex and gender.

Recognise the fundamental contribution of feminism to the study of gender.

Recognise both women and men as gendered.

Introduction

What are little boys made of?

Frogs and snails and puppy dogs tails

That’s what little boys are made of.

What are little girls made of?

Sugar and spice and all that’s nice

That’s what little girls are made of.

Do you remember this from your childhood? Did you think it was fair? Not only does this rhyme allow little girls to poke fun at boys, it very clearly tells all children that there are two ways of existing, and only two. It also sends very specific messages about what is acceptable; boys can be a little distasteful but girls are always, and should always be, nice. These are messages about gender.

Understanding gender

In this textbook, we aim to introduce you to the debates on gender within various social science areas and issues. Sometimes ‘gender’ is taken to be synonymous with ‘women’ as if men have no gender! In this text, we argue that a true understanding of gender has to consider both masculinities and femininities, the range of ways in which these can be expressed and the interrelationship of these with other signifiers of social difference, such as ‘race’, age, social class, sexuality, and ability, amongst others. Prior to outlining the journey taken within social theory on gender issues, in this chapter, some key points are discussed, beginning with the difference between sex and gender, through surveys of explanations of gender differences, and why it matters to consider gender in the social sciences.

So what is gender? We all have it yet most of us do not think about it much – for most (but not all) people, being a woman or a man is not something consciously considered on a daily basis. Masculine and feminine behaviours are so routine, so usual, that they become considered normal and natural by the majority of society. So, does it matter? It matters both as members of society and to the study of our societies. The first time we meet someone, we ‘read’ their gender and our interaction with them is based on that reading, accurate or otherwise. In society and social science, gender matters greatly as the differences between the genders are the bases of inequalities: inequalities in power, inequalities in access to resources, inequalities in opportunities and, therefore, inequalities in life-experiences. As such, no study of society can be conducted without an understanding of the role of gender.

Studying society

The Women’s Liberation Movement of the 1960s and 1970s created a sea change in the way society is studied. That change became embodied in the form of feminist challenges to knowledge and methods of seeking out knowledge [Hotlink → Method, methodology and epistemology (Chapter 2)], and in the creation of an interdisciplinary approach to investigating society, known as Women’s Studies. Although women were involved in the creation of the social sciences and their methods (see McDonald, 1995), it became standard to study society from the position of only one dominant gender – that of the male. However, feminist work has challenged the ‘conceptual straitjacket of understanding’ (Stacey, 1981: 189) previously limiting our social science investigations, forcing social science to look beyond the male experience as the norm (and usually the heterosexual, white, western male experience at that). As Dale Spender explains:

Fundamental to feminism is the premise that women have been ‘left out’ of codified knowledge: where men have formulated explanations in relation to themselves, they have generally either rendered women invisible or classified them as deviant.

(Spender, 1981: 2)

The past 40 years have seen an explosion of feminist work exploring and analysing such concepts and areas as femininity, media, work, leisure, health, sexuality, violence, family and so on, redressing the absences in history and the biases of Political Science (see Part Two). Although this has not been even across the social science disciplines, nor across different national academic traditions (see Griffin and Braidotti, 2002), it has been suggested that ‘feminism was the single most powerful political discourse of the twentieth century’ (Whitehead and Barrett, 2001: 3). Whereas feminism challenged social science not to see men as the norm and looked critically at women’s experiences, a similar critical focus on men and masculinity has a much shorter history, or rather such studies by men have a shorter history. Feminism, in pursuit of its goal of equality and social justice, has always placed the study of masculine power at the centre of analysis. However, by the last decade of the twentieth century, there had been a proliferation of books, journals and other resources, authored by both men and women, providing feminist-informed work on men and masculinities.

No longer can gender be taken as synonymous with ‘woman’. Due to feminist insights and their application by both women and men, men’s gendered identity has been claimed within the social sciences. As such, it is time for the integration of feminist work on women and feminist-informed work on men to occur, for, until now, much of this has taken place in separate domains, leaving the reader to make comparisons and links. This chapter aims to introduce you to such an approach, with the approach then employed throughout this text.

We will return to this history of theoretical debates later in the chapter, but first it is necessary to address some basic questions.

World in focus 1.1

Anglo-American work appears to dominate the fields of Women and Gender Studies (WGS) partly due to the earlier acceptance into the academies of the UK and USA of WGS as an area of study compared to European nations, with their different academic traditions and structures. Prior to 1995 WGS was less developed in Western Europe (Italy, Spain, France, Germany) than in the UK, Ireland and the Scandinavian countries. However, a more recent report from the ATHENA group (a pan European project on WGS), (reported by Griffin and Braidotti, 2002) found WGS to be healthy in the Netherlands and growing in Spain, Germany and Portugal. Griffin and Braidotti (2002) also delineate aspects of WGS scholarship from Central Europe.

Questions have also been raised about the ability to apply the Anglo-American model across Europe with the vast differences of religion, culture and academic practices that exist alongside a variety of different European feminist cultures (Braidotti, 2002). In Scandinavia there is an emphasis on equality between men and women (suggesting gender is the focus); in other countries ‘feminist studies’ or ‘sex-role’ are preferred and it appears that ‘the term “Women’s Studies” was never more than...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Acknowledgements
• Part One: Introduction
• Part Two: Disciplines
• Part Three: Issues – interdisciplinary perspectives
• Glossary
• Bibliography
• Index