Gender Sociology

11 Key excerpts on "Gender Sociology"

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  Gender, Culture and Society

  Contemporary Femininities and Masculinities

  • Chris Haywood(Author)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • Red Globe Press

    (Publisher)

  Gender, Culture and Society provides an Introduction 9 Gender, Culture and Society authoritative profile and critique of recent developments in sociological and cultural theories of gender relations. As we demonstrate, this is a complex area, increasingly conscious of the complicated relationship between theoretical frameworks, methodological strategies and the phe-nomena subject to examination. It is important to hold these relationships in a critical synthesis which seeks to preserve a materialist core from earlier feminist accounts focusing upon patriarchal relations, while incorporating insights from more recent reflection on representation, identity and cultural difference with reference to women’s and men’s social experi-ences. In other words, notions of what are referred to as decentred forms of performing genders and hybrid (mixing of) sexualities are being consti-tuted within a wider arena of late modernity, which in turn they are helping to shape (Jameson, 1991). From the theoretical investigation emerges an evaluation of past understandings and analysis of implications for contemporary political practice. In social relations, people occupy cer-tain positions simultaneously. We need to think about not the ways social categories accumulate but the ways that they inflect. When we talk about the notion of power, we have to think about it relationally, thinking about powerful in relation to whom. In this way, we do not look at power as an either/or division but as being much more relational. We can say power is shaped relationally: one group is both powerful and powerless. Understanding Social and Cultural Change: The Collective Political Subject and Pluralized Identities The final aim of this book is to preface our discussion of social change and gender relations by highlighting the importance of the political context of gender and social change.

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  Sociology

  The Essentials

  • Margaret Andersen, Margaret Andersen, Howard Taylor(Authors)
  • 2019(Publication Date)
  • Cengage Learning EMEA

    (Publisher)

  CHAPTER 11 Gender 271 Defining Sex and Gender Sociologists use the terms sex and gender to distinguish biological sex identity from learned gender roles. Sex refers to biological identity, being male or female. For sociologists, the more significant concept is gender—the socially learned expectations, identities, and behaviors associated with members of each sex. This distinction emphasizes that behavior associated with gender is culturally learned. Gender is a “system of social practices” (Ridgeway 2011: 9) that creates categories of people— men and women—who are defined in relationship to each other on unequal terms. The definitions that surround these categories stem from culture—made apparent especially by looking at other cultures. Across different cultures, gender expectations associated with men and women vary considerably. In Western industrialized societies, people tend to think of men and women (and masculinity and femininity) in dichotomous terms, even defined as “opposite sexes.” The views from other cultures challenge this assumption. Historically, the berdaches (pronounced berdash) in Navajo society were anatomically normal men defined as a third gender between male and female. Berdaches, considered ordinary men, married other men who were not berdaches. Neither the berdaches nor the men they married were considered gay, as they would be considered in other places (Nanda 1998; Lorber 1994). There are also substantial differences in the construction of gender across social classes and within subcultures in a given culture. Within the United States, there is considerable variation in the experiences of gender among different racial and ethnic groups (Andersen and Collins 2016; Baca Zinn et al. 2015). Differences within a given gender can be greater than differences between men and women. That is, the variation on a given trait, such as aggression or competitiveness, can be as great within a given gender group as the difference across genders.

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  The SAGE Handbook of Sociology

  • Craig Calhoun, Chris Rojek, Bryan S Turner, Craig Calhoun, Chris Rojek, Bryan S Turner(Authors)
  • 2005(Publication Date)
  • SAGE Publications Ltd

    (Publisher)

  INTRODUCTION Sociology has contributed to the transformation of the traditional perception of the relations between men and women from one primarily rooted in biology to one that acknowledges their social constitution, and hence variability and malleability. The fundamental re-thinking of this aspect of life is a process in which soci-ology has played a significant role alongside popular movements. There is today a mountain of empirical research in sociology that thoroughly docu-ments the variations in patterns of gender dif-ference and gender inequality across a myriad of social domains, including employment, car-ing, politics, violence, culture, sexuality, devel-opment, globalization and many more. This work is rich, diverse, innovative and compre-hensive. A large part of this chapter will be devoted to an account of the themes and con-tributions of this research. Yet, despite this very broad development of the analysis of gender relations within sociology, gender is not often regarded as core to tradi-tional sociological theory. This is not to say that there is not theoretical work on gender. There is such work, but this has been largely, though not exclusively, within the realm of cultural theory rather than sociological theory. This has occurred partly because gender was neglected in much of the sociology that has been considered to be classical, and hence not been regarded as core to the central concerns of the traditional socio-logical canon; partly because the gender field matured at a time when cultural theory was in the ascendance, especially in the UK; and partly because of the interdisciplinary location of much gender analysis which draws on literary and cultural theory as well as social theory.

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  Gender in Focus

  Identities, Codes, Stereotypes and Politics

  • Andreea Zamfira, Christian de Montlibert, Daniela Radu, Andreea Zamfira, Christian de Montlibert, Daniela Radu(Authors)
  • 2018(Publication Date)
  • Verlag Barbara Budrich

    (Publisher)

  The cultural and social construction of masculinity and femininity is the result of an intellectual exercise of associating the biological and cultural/social dimensions, but also offers the possibility to reconsider the terms of this association. Researchers in gender studies find their objects of study all 15 around them: migration, the labor market, discrimination within professional or home milieus, lack of access to resources, public spaces, stereotypes in everyday life, traditional subordination relations, role conflicts and confusing identities, human rights and politically (in)correct discourses, for example. From an epistemological point of view, gender studies encounter two main obstacles. The first obstacle is that of clearly defining and integrating the demarche within a particular field of study. It comes down to the researcher to skillfully deal with the existing plurality of disciplinary perspectives and, thereby, to enrich and strengthen the originality of his/her work. The second obstacle or challenge for researchers in the field of gender studies is related to the operationalization of concepts and the selection of indicators. Measuring gender inequalities, for instance, could prove to be a difficult task, since they are historically rooted in the relations of cultural and social domination. 3. From Questioning Social Inequalities Related to Gender to Studying Symbolic Domination and Political Stances A significant part of research on gender addresses, both specifically and in general, the issue of social inequalities and symbolic domination – in other words, the effects of the interplay between identities, codes, stereotypes and politics. Living in gendered societies makes it necessary to take into account the influence of specific power stakes on individual values, beliefs, attitudes, in-group and out-group relations, and on social structure. The social effects of gendering processes are easily to recognize in our daily lives.

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  Sociology

  The Essentials

  • Margaret L. Andersen; Howard F. Taylor, Margaret Andersen, Howard Taylor(Authors)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • Cengage Learning EMEA

    (Publisher)

  2. Second, for twenty-four hours, try your best to change any of these things that you are willing to do. Record how others react to you during this period and how the change makes you feel. 3. When your experiment is over, write a report on what your brief experiment tells you about how gender identities are (or are not) supported through social interaction. Defining Sex and Gender Sociologists use the terms sex and gender to distin-guish biological sex identity from learned gender roles. Sex refers to biological identity, being male or female. For sociologists, the more significant concept is gender —the socially learned expectations, identi-ties, and behaviors associated with members of each sex. This distinction emphasizes that behavior asso-ciated with gender is culturally learned. Gender is a “system of social practices” (Ridgeway 2011: 9) that creates categories of people—men and women— who are defined in relationship to each other on unequal terms. streets than men. Women are, however, more satisfied than men with their role as parents and with their friendships outside of marriage. For both women and men, there are benefits, costs, and consequences stemming from the social definitions associated with gender. As you imagined this experiment, you may have had difficulty trying to picture the essential change in your biological identity: Is this the most significant part of being a man or woman? Nature determines whether you are male or female but society gives significance to this distinction. Sociologists see gender as a social fact, because who we become as men and women is largely shaped by cultural and social expectations.

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  French Feminist Theory

  An Introduction

  • Dani Cavallaro(Author)
  • 2004(Publication Date)
  • Continuum

    (Publisher)

  CHAPTER 2 Sexual and Gendered Identities . . . I scrawled a sentence. Woman without her man is nothing . . . . This here is the equation of the sexes, right in this line, the embodiment of gender-consciousness . . . . This is what a man reads in that sentence. Woman, without her man, is nothing. This is what a woman reads. Woman: without her, man is nothing. (Collins 2000: 249) SEX AND GENDER: SOME DEFINITIONS According to The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998), sex refers to ‘either of the two main categories (male and female) into which humans and most other living things are divided on the basis of their reproductive func-tions’, whereas gender indicates ‘the state of being male or female (typically used with reference to social and cultural differences rather than biological ones)’. The Cambridge Encyclopaedia, fourth edition (2000), likewise, defines gender as the ‘social expression of the basic physiological differences between men and women – social behaviour which is deemed to be appropriate to ‘‘masculine’’ or ‘‘feminine’’ roles and which is learned through primary and secondary socialization. Thus, while sex is biological, gender is socially deter-mined.’ These definitions suggest that while the term sex has traditionally referred to the difference between males and females with regard to biology and, by extension, to activity leading to reproduction, the term gender surpasses reductionist accounts of femininity and masculinity as coterminous with an individual’s biological sex, by stressing their sociopolitical determina-tion. Therefore, gender plays a pivotal role in multifarious processes of cultural classification and organization. Indeed, the categories masculinity and femininity are the primary societal formations around which relationships between men and women develop and practices of domination and subordi-nation unfold.

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  Gender and Other Identities: Complex conceptualizations in the new age

  • Margaret F. Bello(Author)
  • 2020(Publication Date)
  • Society Publishing

    (Publisher)

  The ideology of gender thus contains norms, beliefs, and rules in context of appropriate behavior and determines attributes; it also plays an important role in generating a range of beliefs and customs to support these beliefs, norms, and social rules. The Social Construction of Gender Identity 97 It is usually seen that the norms and rules have quantifiable consequences for issues of other identities’ relative access to and claims over different categories of resources. Sex differences are conducive to causing differences in a way of unequal distribution of resources, the way how responsibilities are allocated, and the rights are granted. Inequalities or symmetries or thus grow to signify “conflicts” of interest, so that causing obstruction in the formation of social rules to the entire organization of society. How these are negotiated by different gender vary significantly on the ability or capacity of a person to take risk of changes in their life. 4.3.1. Institutions and Inequality An understanding about the ideology of sex difference helps in gaining an insight into the social construction of differences between male, female, and other identities and the basis or criteria upon which the rules, responsibilities, resources, rights, and power are distributed or allocated among various gender identities, leading to discrimination. Hence discrimination is socially constructed and is dependent on various norms and social rules. It is important to get an answer to what basically are rules. Simply put, rules or social norms are “ways of doing things” or approaches that become a habit over a period of time. These approaches are so socially reinforced that they become reproduced with economy, because of the complexity in which identity, roles, and functions are intertwined. There are basically four main institution in society that are concerned with combining their practice and reinforce the ideology of the social construction of gender.

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  Contemporary Political Concepts

  A Critical Introduction

  • Georgina Blakeley, Valerie Bryson(Authors)
  • 2002(Publication Date)
  • Pluto Press

    (Publisher)

  Sex, from this perspective, is a category of meaning, rather than a naturally given ‘fact’, and a central task for many feminists has become to unravel the complex cultural and symbolic ways in which sex as well as gender is constructed. Postmodernism’s rejection of the idea that gender can be understood in terms of the dichotomous opposition of masculinity and femininity, or that these bear any fixed or necessary relation-ship to biology, means that any attributes of masculinity or femininity are essentially arbitrary, and that gender identity is always inherently precarious and liable to disruption. This has led Judith Butler to claim that because the maintenance of gender identity can never be taken for granted or internalised, it must constantly be reaffirmed by gender-appropriate behaviour. From this perspective, gender is not something that one is but something that one does (Butler 1990). This idea of ‘gender as performance’ also ties in with Gender 113 ‘queer theory’ and suggests that oppressive structures of gender and sexuality can be challenged by transgressive forms of behaviour, such as transvestism, which deliberately cross gender lines and flout expectations of gender-appropriate behaviour. This opens up the possibility of a society in which gender identities could be fluid, freely chosen and multiple rather than the stable core of our identity (for critical discussion, see Segal 1999, Chapter 2). Gender plurality and other dimensions of power Gender binaries never exist in pristine form. Women and men are always already inserted in contexts of race, class, age, sexual orien-tation and multiple other belongings: each with their deeply entrenched connections to power and authority, or the lack of it.

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  Culture and Identity

  • Warren Kidd, Alison Teagle(Authors)
  • 2012(Publication Date)
  • Bloomsbury Academic

    (Publisher)

  Chapter 12 Sex and Gender: Femininity and Masculinity After studying this chapter, you should: • understand the role played by gender in the construction of identity • understand how gender roles have changed in recent years • understand the process of gender-role socialization • understand a variety of feminist theories • be able to evaluate feminist ideas • be able to reflect on masculine identity in modern society • be able to relate feminist ideas and queer theory to the sociologies of gender, sexuality and the body INTRODUCTION There has been a shift since the 1980s away from seeing studies of ‘gender’ as meaning purely a ‘feminist’ critique. Recent theory and research includes an analysis of both fem-inine and masculine cultures and identities. Feminism has had a big impact on sociology and the study of gender relations, and has resulted in a broadening of focus to include sexuality and masculinity. This chapter will address the feminist critique and approach to researching culture and identity as well as research into masculinity and male identity and culture, which could be argued to have been neglected since the 1970s. It will consider recent criticisms of feminism and reflect on where recent research and theorizing will take us. Sociologists and cultural theorists have not just based their study on the masculine/ feminine divide. There has been a recognition of the fluidity of identity, to see gender as much more than the simple difference between men and women. Research includes 186 Sex and Gender: Femininity and Masculinity 187 consideration of transgender individuals, and the social and individual construction of these terms and diverse forms of sexuality. Feminist sociology is an example of ‘critical sociology’. What this means is that fem-inism seeks to re-evaluate the way we understand society. Unlike functionalist theory, it does not seek to protect the status quo – the way things are – but rather to challenge and change society.

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  Gender in Childhood

  • Christia Spears Brown, Sharla D. Biefeld, Michelle J. Tam(Authors)
  • 2020(Publication Date)
  • Cambridge University Press

    (Publisher)

  In contrast to sex, gender refers to the “meanings that societies and individ- uals ascribe to male and female categories” (Wood & Eagly, 2002, p. 699). An examination of gender development requires attention to the culturally ascribed meaning associated with gender and how individual children feel about that meaning. Gender roles are the behaviors, attitudes, and personality traits that are designated as either feminine or masculine in a given culture. Gender roles often reflect gender stereotypes, or the beliefs and expectations people hold about the typical characteristics, preferences, and behaviors of women/girls and men/boys. In terms of gender, “feminine” and “masculine” are recognized as independent and orthogonal continua, such that everyone has certain degrees of feminine and masculine traits and qualities. Gender is often marked by percep- tually salient and differentiated sociocultural cues, such as differences in hair length, makeup, jewelry, or clothing. How individuals choose to communicate their gender to others through clothing, hairstyles, and mannerisms is referred to as their gender expression. 2 Child Development The concept of gender identity is more complex as it has been applied to slightly different concepts over time. Early research in gender development focused on how children learn their own gender and the gender labels of others, a concept referred to as gender identity (e.g., Slaby & Frey, 1975). For example, young children might be asked, when shown a girl doll or a boy doll, “Is this a girl or a boy?” They can also be asked, “Are you a girl or a boy?” This ability to identify one’ s own gender (i.e., having an “accurate” gender identity) was seen as the first step toward developing gender constancy , or the recognition that one’ s gender (as a function of one’ s sex) is a stable, unchanging characteristic of an individual (Kohlberg, 1966).

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  What Women Want From Work

  Gender and Occupational Choice in the 21st Century

  • R. Woodfield(Author)
  • 2007(Publication Date)
  • Palgrave Macmillan

    (Publisher)

  To reprise and confirm points made in literature reviewed in Chapter 2, it is clear that gender remains one of the fundamental categories of social life, ‘a ubiquitous dimension of social organisation, its influence is apparent in every social encounter’ (Duveen & Lloyd 1986: 222), and is salient within core overarching discourses that shape social life. The overarching gender system is produced through binary and hierarchical discursive practices focused on biological sex difference, that are deter- mining only insofar as they are employed as signifiers in a semiotic sys- tem whereby representations of male and female are constructed and sustained (ibid.; also see Davies 1997a, 1997b). Davies states: The construction operates in a variety of intersecting ways, most of which are neither conscious nor intended. They are more like an effect of what we might call ‘speaking-as-usual’. They are inherent in the structures of the language and the storylines through which our culture is constructed and maintained. The structure of the language and the dominant storylines combine, with powerful effect, to operate on our conscious and unconscious minds and to shape our desire. (1997a: 9) It is also noted here that within these signifying practices, male is always the primary term, and associated traits, skills and behaviour, whatever their content, become the most culturally valued (Cucchiari 1981; Duveen & Lloyd 1986; Davies 1997a); this point is interesting in the context of some of the data explored in previous chapters and will be discussed further below. 200 What Women Want from Work Representing occupations and gender Although there are important differences between the firefighter and teacher roles, some significant similarities were also notable from avail- able statistics and literature associated with each occupation.

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