Gender Inequality

Introduction to Gender Inequality• There is no nation where women and men are equals.

• A History of global patriarchy

• Sex refers to the biological differences between males and females.

• Gender refers to the social and cultural patterns attached to women and men, or the way a society treats those biological differences

• Social factors make women unequal to men.

Is Gender Biological or Social?

• Biological Basis for Gender Roles:– Males and females are different from the moment

of conception.– Chromosomal and reproductive differences– Hormones

• If gender is completely biological, the suggestion is that these biological differences explain the domination of women by men.

Social Bases for Gender Roles

• Cross-cultural evidence shows a wide variation of behaviors for the sexes.

• Society transforms females and males into socially interacting women and men.

• Every known society makes gender a major category for organizing social life.

The Social Construction of Gender

• Gender role Socialization

• Femininity and masculinity

• When does gender role socialization begin? Through what agents do boys and girls/men and women learn gender behavior norms?

Gender Roles in the United States

• Gender-Role Socialization– Boys must be masculine• Active• Aggressive• Tough• Daring• Dominant

– Girls must be feminine• Soft• Emotional• Sweet• Submissive

• We tend to associate stereotypically female characteristics with weakness and typically male characteristics with strength.

• He’s firm, but she’s stubborn.• He’s careful about details, but she’s picky.• He’s honest, but she’s opinionated.• He’s raising good points, but she’s “bitchy.”We tend to see men as strong, not emotional and women as

emotional and not strong, although we have seen those stereotypes change through the years and we are seeing them change even more.

Gender Myths

The Problem of Sexism• Sexism is the assertion that one sex is innately

inferior to the other

– Sexism supports patriarchy by claiming that men are “better” than women and therefore should dominate them.

Women and Men are Differentiated and Ranked

• Gender Stratification: the ranking of the sexes in such a way that women are unequal in power, resources, and opportunities

– Gender inequality exists in most parts of the world.• Does it continue to exist in the Unites States?

Gender and Power• Institutions are structured around gender.• Institutional discrimination: denial of opportunities and

equal rights to individuals and groups that results from normal operations of a society• Patriarchy is the term used for forms of social

organization in which men are dominant over women.

• In what Social Institutions do we continue to see male domination?

Male Domination

• Politics and Government

• The Law

Male Domination

• Religion

• The Family

Male Domination

• The Economy-Women in the Workplace– The Gender wage gap- Women earn 81 cents on

the dollar that men earn even with equal occupation and level of education• For women of color, earning discrimination is even

greater– The Matrix of Domination- Social forces that contribute to

the subordinate status of many women

Male Domination

• Women in the Workplace– Explaining the Gender wage gap• Discrimination• Male corporate culture• Gender role Socialization• Occupational segregation• Carework

• What improvements have been made for the status of women in American society over the last half century?– Why?

Addressing Gender Discrimination

• Feminism: belief in social, economic, and political equality for women– Early 19th century feminists won many victories,

including 19th Amendment– 2nd feminism wave emerged in U.S. in 1960s– As women became aware of sexist

attitudes and practices, began to challenge male dominance

Addressing Gender Discrimination: Feminist Foundations

• There is no one version of feminism, but almost all feminists agree on:– the importance of gender– the importance of change– the importance of choice– the need to eliminate patriarchy– the need to eliminate violence against women– the importance of sexual autonomy

Addressing Gender Discrimination

• Construction of gender discrimination as a social problem– Areas to seek improvement• Gender roles and carework• Closing the gender wage gap

– “Family Friendly” policies– Board room quotas

– I.E. Lilly Ledbetter