Psychology soc assignment 10

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Chapter 10

Gender Inequality

Mooney/Knox/Schacht, Understanding Social Problems, 10th Edition. © 2017 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

Chapter 10: Gender Inequality

“There’s no excuse for sexual assault or domestic violence, there’s no reason that young girls should suffer genital mutilation, there’s no place in a civilized society for the early or forced marriage of children. These traditions may go back centuries; they have no place in the 21st century.”

—Barack Obama,

44th President of the United States, speaking in Nairobi, Kenya, 2015

Learning Objectives

Describe some of the ways gender inequality exists around the world.

Identify what leads to gender inequality according to each of the three sociological and feminist theories.

Analyze how the structure of society contributes to gender inequality.

Analyze how the culture of society contributes to gender inequality.

Describe how traditional gender roles lead to each of the social problems discussed in this chapter.

Evaluate the effectiveness of U.S. laws and policies directed toward reducing gender inequality.

Chapter Outline

The Global Context: The Status of Women and Men

Sociological Theories of Gender Inequality

Gender Stratification: Structural Sexism

The Social Construction of Gender Roles: Cultural Sexism

Social Problems and Traditional Gender Role Socialization

Strategies for Action: Toward Gender Equality

Understanding Gender Inequality

Introduction (1 of 2)

Sex refers to one’s biological classification, whereas gender refers to the social definitions and expectations associated with being female or male.

A transgender individual (sometimes called “trans” or “transgender”) is a person whose sense of gender identity—masculine or feminine—is inconsistent with their birth (sometimes called chromosomal) sex.

Introduction (2 of 2)

Sexism is the belief that there are innate psychological, behavioral, and/or intellectual differences between women and men and that these differences connote the superiority of one group and the inferiority of the other.

What Do You Think? 1

In varying social circumstances, determining gender has been based on biological criteria such as genitalia or hormonal levels, or on who an individual identifies with (Westbrook and Schilt 2014). Which do you think should be used to determine gender? Does your position change between sex-segregated situations (e.g., bathrooms, dormitories, sports) and non-sex-segregated situations (e.g., workplace, classrooms)?

The Global Context: The Status of Women and Men (1 of 4)

There is no country in the world in which women and men have equal status.

Although much progress has been made in closing the gender gap in areas such as education, health care, employment, and government, gender inequality is still prevalent throughout the world.

The Global Context: The Status of Women and Men (2 of 4)

The World Economic Forum assessed the gender gap in 142 countries by measuring the extent to which women have achieved equality with men in four areas: economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment.

The Global Context: The Status of Women and Men (3 of 4)

Gender inequality varies across cultures, not only in its extent or degree but also in its forms.

For example, in the United States, gender inequality in family roles commonly takes the form of an unequal division of household labor and child care.

A global perspective on gender inequality must also take into account the different ways in which such inequality is viewed.

For example, many non-Muslims view the practice of Muslim women wearing a headscarf in public as a symbol of female subordination and oppression.

The Global Context: The Status of Women and Men (4 of 4)

In 2011, in Manila, 1,500 boys were forced to take place in a mass circumcision as the organizers of the event tried to get into the Guinness World Records for the most circumcisions performed on boys 9 and older. Of late, the medical procedure has come under fire as questions arise about its safety, necessity and, similar to F G M/C, abuse of a child’s anatomical integrity.

Ask the Class…

If you could temporarily be the other gender, how long would you like to do so?

A. One day

B. One week

C. I have no desire to be the other gender

Sociological Theories of Gender Inequality

Structural-Functionalist Perspective

Pre-industrial society required a division of labor based on gender.

Women nursed and cared for children.

Men were responsible for material needs.

Industrialization made traditional division of labor less functional, belief system remains.

Conflict Perspective (1 of 2)

Continued domination by males requires a belief system that supports gender inequality.

Two beliefs:

Women are inferior outside the home.

Women are more valuable in the home.

Conflict Perspective (2 of 2)

In 2015, a clothing company in Indonesia manufactured a t-shirt with the words, “Give this jersey to your woman. It’s her job,” under the words, “washing instructions.” The company, which came under heavy criticism for the remarks, tweeted a series of apologies stating that, “The message is simple. Instead of doing it the wrong way, you might as well give it to a lady because they are more capable” (quoted in Dunn, 2015, p.1).

Symbolic Interactionist Perspective

Gender and gender roles are learned through the socialization process.

Women are socialized into expressive roles.

Roles into which women are traditionally socialized (i.e., nurturing and emotionally supportive roles).

Men are socialized into instrumental roles.

(i.e., task-oriented roles)

What Do You Think? 2

In Afghanistan, little girls in families with no male children often assume the persona of little boys—short hair, traditional male clothing, and an appropriate male name (Nordberg 2010). In addition to the social pressure to have a boy child, the decision to raise a female child as a “bacha posh” is pragmatic—such a child can help “his” father at work, get a better education, and does not have to be chaperoned. The problem is that when it’s time to return to being female, usually at puberty, some have difficulty transitioning. Said one young woman, “Nothing in me feels like a girl . . . for always I want to be a boy” (Nordberg 2010, p. 6). Do you think gender, not sex, is a consequence of nature or nurture?

Gender Stratification: Structural Sexism

Structural Sexism: The ways in which the organization of society, and specifically its institutions, subordinate individuals and groups based on their sex classification.

Gender Stratification: Structural Sexism

Education and Structural Sexism (1 of 3)

Figure 10.1 Percentage of Master’s Degrees awarded to Females in Selected Fields of Study, academic Year, 2011–2012

SOURCE: N C E S 2014.

Education and Structural Sexism (2 of 3)

Education Dividend: The additional benefit of universal education for women is that it reduces the death rate of children under 5 years of age.

Literacy rates worldwide indicate that women are less likely than men to be able to read and write, with millions of women being denied access to even the most basic education.

Education and Structural Sexism (3 of 3)

In 2013, few differences existed between men and women in their completion rates of high school and college degrees. In fact, in recent years, most U.S. colleges and universities have had a higher percentage of women than men enrolling directly from high school.

Further, women earn fewer advanced degrees than men because they are socialized to choose marriage and motherhood over long-term career preparation.

From an early age, women are exposed to images and models of femininity that stress the importance of domestic family life.

Work and Structural Sexism (1 of 4)

According to the International Labour Organization (I L O), in 2015, about half of women are in the labor force compared to nearly 80 percent of men.

Worldwide, women tend to work in jobs that have little prestige and low or no pay, where no product is produced, and where they are the facilitators for others.

Women are more likely to hold positions of little or no authority and to have more frequent and longer periods of unemployment.

Work and Structural Sexism (2 of 4)

The concentration of women in certain occupations and men in other occupations is referred to as occupational sex segregation.

For example, between 1983 and 2014, the percentage of female physicians more than doubled from 16% to 37%, female dentists increased from 7% to 29%, and female clergy increased from 6% to 18%.

Work and Structural Sexism (3 of 4)

Glass Elevator Effect: The tendency for men seeking or working in traditionally female occupations to benefit from their minority status.

Pink-Collar Jobs: Jobs that offer few benefits, often have low prestige, and are disproportionately held by women.

Glass Ceiling: An invisible barrier that prevents women and other minorities from moving into top corporate positions.

Work and Structural Sexism (4 of 4)

There is evidence that working mothers pay a price for motherhood.

Research indicates that when qualifications, background, and work experience were held constant, evaluators rated mothers as less competent and committed to paid work than non-mothers.

Other examples of the “motherhood penalty” include women who feel pressured to choose professions that permit flexible hours and career paths, sometimes known as mommy tracks. (i.e. Elementary Education)

Although the type of career pursued may be the woman’s choice, it is a structured choice—a choice among limited options as a result of the structure of society.

Income and Structural Sexism (1 of 5)

Women are twice as likely as men to earn at or below minimum wage.

In 2014, full-time working women in the United States earned, on the average, 82.5 percent of the weekly median earnings of full-time working men.

Racial differences also exist. Although women in general earn 82.5 percent as much as men, Black American and Hispanic American women earn just 56 percent of white men’s salaries.

Income and Structural Sexism (2 of 5)

Figure 10.2 Median Annual Earnings, by Race/Ethnicity and Gender, 2013

SOURCE: A A U W 2015.

Income and Structural Sexism (3 of 5)

Human Capital Hypothesis: The hypothesis that pay differences between females and males are a function of differences in women’s and men’s levels of education, skills, training, and work experience.

One variation of the human capital hypothesis is called the lifecycle human capital hypothesis. Here it is argued that women have less incentive to invest in education and marketable skills because they know that they will be working less than their male counterparts as wives and mothers.

What Do You Think? 3

In a survey by Pew Research Center (2015), a sample of Americans were asked whether “men will continue to hold more top business positions than women in the future” (53 percent) or it’s “only a matter of time before women hold as many top positions as men” (44 percent) (p. 1). What do you think?

Income and Structural Sexism (4 of 5)

Devaluation hypothesis

Argues women are paid less because the work they do is socially defined as less valuable than the work performed by men.

Emotion Work

Work that involves caring for, negotiating, and empathizing with people.

Income and Structural Sexism (5 of 5)

Comparable Worth:

The belief that individuals in occupations, even in different occupations, should be paid equally if the job requires “comparable” levels of education, training, and responsibility.

In a comparable worth lawsuit, nurses successfully sued the city of Denver for paying them less than other employees (e.g., tree trimmers, sign painters) who had less education.

Politics and Structural Sexism (1 of 2)

Women received the right to vote in the United States in 1920, with the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment.

Even though this amendment went into effect more than 90 years ago, women still play a rather minor role in the political arena.

Politics and Structural Sexism (2 of 2)

Figure 10.3 Proportion of Seats Held by Women in National legislatures, 2000 and 2014

SOURCE: United Nations 2014.

Civil Rights, the Law, and Structural Sexism (1 of 3)

Discrimination still occurs in the workplace as evidenced by the thousands of grievances filed each year with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

One technique employers use to justify differences in pay is the use of different job titles for the same type of work.

Civil Rights, the Law, and Structural Sexism (2 of 3)

Discrimination, although illegal, takes place at both the institutional and the individual levels

In the United States, women often have difficulty obtaining home mortgages or rental property because they have lower incomes, shorter work histories, and less collateral.

Until fairly recently, husbands who raped their wives were exempt from prosecution.

Women in the military have traditionally been restricted in the duties they can perform.

Civil Rights, the Law, and Structural Sexism (3 of 3)

Some child brides are as young as 5 years old and rarely know the ramifications of what’s happening to them. Here, a 16-year-old screams in protest as she is carried in a cart to her new husband’s village.

What Do You Think? 4

There are more than 70 million child brides in the world, and more than 15 million child brides—those who married under the age of 18—are added each year. At least 90 percent had no choice in who they married (Edmeades et al. 2014 ). Ironically, education is one of the best deterrents of early marriage, yet early marriage most often signals the end of educational opportunities as the “skills and knowledge for a healthy transition to adulthood give way to the responsibilities of being a wife, a mother, a daughter-in-law” (Warner et al. 2014, p. 3). What do you think would be the most effective way to end this cycle?

The Social Construction of Gender Roles: Cultural Sexism (1 of 2)

Cultural Sexism: The ways in which the culture of society (norms, values, beliefs, symbols) perpetuates subordination based on sex classification.

The Social Construction of Gender Roles: Cultural Sexism (2 of 2)

Societal definitions of the appropriateness of gender roles have traditionally restricted women and men in terms of educational, occupational, and leisure-time pursuits. Fifty years ago, little boys playing with dolls and displaying nurturing behaviors would have been unheard of.

The Social Construction of Gender Roles: Cultural Sexism

Family Relations and Cultural Sexism (1 of 2)

From birth, males and females are treated differently.

The toys that male and female children receive convey different messages about appropriate gender roles.

Gender roles are patterns of socially defined behaviors and expectations, associated with being female or male.

Family Relations and Cultural Sexism (2 of 2)

Household Division of Labor

The fact that women, even when working full-time, contribute significantly more hours to home care than men is known as the “second shift.”

The traditional division of labor in the household still exists

Time-availability approach

Relative resources approach

Gender role ideology

The School Experience and Cultural Sexism

In a study of 200 “top-selling” children’s picture books, women and girls were significantly underrepresented with twice as many male title and main characters.

Males were also more likely to be in the illustrations, to be pictured in the outdoors and, if an adult, to be visibly portrayed as employed outside of the home.

Both men and women were over nine times more likely to be pictured in traditional rather than in nontraditional occupations,

and “female main characters . . . were more than three times more likely than were male main characters . . . to perform nurturing or caring behaviors”

What Do You Think? 5

When parents were told by officials at an elementary school that a transgender child who identifies as a girl would be using the girls’ restroom, many parents objected, leading the local school board to overturn the school’s decision. Said the child’s father, “I . . . implore . . . all of us that as we move forward we don’t trade understanding for fear and that we don’t trade misconceptions for hate” (Portnoy 2015, p. 1). Only a dozen or so states have laws protecting transgender youth in schools. Do you think all states should have such protections?

Realty television shows such as Toddlers and Tiaras and the beauty pageants they are based on hypersexualize the contestants, some as young as 6 months old. These distorted images of beauty, and the Barbie dolls and airbrushed models that follow, set an impossibly high standard for female beauty.

Media, Language, and Cultural Sexism (1 of 3)

Another concern social scientists voice is the extent to which the media portray females and males in a limited and stereotypical fashion and the impact of such portrayals. For example, Levin and Kilbourne (2009), in So Sexy So Soon, document the sexualizing of young girls and boys. Advertising, books, cartoons, songs, toys, and television shows create:

[a] narrow definition of femininity and sexuality [that] encourages girls to focus heavily on appearance and sex appeal. They learn at a very young age that their value is determined by how beautiful, thin, “hot,” and sexy they are. And boys, who get a very narrow definition of masculinity that promotes insensitivity and macho behavior, are taught to judge girls based on how close they come to an artificial, impossible, and shallow ideal.

Media, Language, and Cultural Sexism (2 of 3)

Men are also victimized by media images:

A study of 1,000 adults found that two-thirds of the respondents thought that women in television advertisements were pictured as “intelligent, assertive, and caring,” whereas men were portrayed as “pathetic and silly.

Women are dramatically underrepresented as news subjects

Male journalists are more likely to work on the “hard” news (e.g., politics), whereas women are more often assigned “soft stories” (e.g., social issues).

Media, Language, and Cultural Sexism (3 of 3)

Figure 10.4 Percent of Male and Female Speaking Characters (N 5 5,799) in Popular Films (N 5 120) Across 11 Countries, by Work Sector, 2010–2013

Source: Smith et al. 2015.

What Do You Think? 6

Although media often portray men and women in traditional roles, at least one cartoon, My Little Pony, is “bucking the stereotypes” (Valiente and Rausmusson 2015). Nearly all of the episodes analyzed portrayed females in positions of authority, as central characters, and as the motivating force behind plot development. Given the popularity of My Little Pony, why do you think other media and, specifically, cartoons remain so stereotypical?

Religion and Cultural Sexism

Most Americans claim membership in a church, synagogue, or mosque.

Research indicates that women attend religious services more often, rate religion as more important to their lives, and are more likely to believe in an afterlife than are men.

In general, religious teachings have tended to promote traditional conceptions of gender.

Social Problems and Traditional Gender Role Socialization

The Feminization of Poverty (1 of 2)

Called the “feminization of poverty,” the tendency for women to be disproportionately poor is evidenced in developing nations where suitable housing, clean water, food, health care, and sanitary living conditions are scarce.

Women in the United States make up the majority of minimum wage workers and are significantly more likely to live in poverty than men.

The Feminization of Poverty (2 of 2)

Two groups of women are the most likely to be poor in the United States—heads of households with dependent children and women over the age of 65 who have outlived their spouses.

Women with children are far more likely to work part-time than their male counterparts or women that don’t have children.

Further, 16 percent of male-headed households are below the poverty level compared to 30 percent of female-headed households.

Hispanic (38.8 percent) and black female-headed (36.7 percent) households are the poorest of all families, headed by a single woman.

The Social-Psychological Costs of Gender Socialization (1 of 2)

Significant others, through the socialization process, expect certain behaviors and prohibit others based upon our birth sex.

Traditional male socialization also discourages males from expressing emotion and asking for help—part of what William Pollack (2000) calls the boy code.

Adolescent girls are more likely to be dissatisfied with their looks, including physical attractiveness, appearance, and body weight than adolescent boys.

“Cult of Thinness”: Research indicates that even before being exposed to advertisements for fashion and beauty products, girls as young as 3 years old prefer game pieces that portray people who are thin rather than heavy.

The Social-Psychological Costs of Gender Socialization (2 of 2)

Boys too, from an early age, are concerned about body image, and as adults, their self-esteem is also linked to body shape and weight.

Men are also affected by traditional gender socialization, which places enormous cultural pressure to be successful in their work and to earn high incomes.

What Do You Think? 7

Research indicates that obese women and very obese men have lower incomes than their nonobese peers; that is, “weight-based income penalties begin at [proportionately] lower weights for women than for men” (Mason 2012, p. 424). Furthermore, the impact of body mass on men’s income disadvantage disappears as years on the job increase, but does not do so for women. What do you think is responsible for these two gender differences?

Gender Role Socialization and Health Outcomes

Men are less likely to go to a doctor than women for a variety of structural and cultural reasons.

Men are also less likely to have a regular physician or to go to the hospital, even if time permits.

At every stage of life, “American males have poorer health and a higher risk of mortality than females.”

Gender-Based Violence (1 of 2)

Overall, men are more likely than women to be involved in violence.

Women and girls are also the victims of male violence. Worldwide, as many as 71 percent of women will be physically or sexually abused in their lifetime.

Over 5,000 women and girls are killed each year in honor killings – murders, often public, as a result of a female dishonoring, or being perceived to have dishonored, her family or community.

Gender-Based Violence (2 of 2)

Sonali Mukherjee, an acid attack victim, has had 27 surgeries. Three college classmates threw acid on her after she ignored their advances. The men were released from jail after serving two years.

What Do You Think? 8

Worldwide, much of the violence against women is steeped in “harmful traditional practices,” including honor killings, female genital mutilation, forced marriage, and dowry killings. Dowry killings involve “a woman being killed by her husband or in-laws because her family is unable to meet their demands for her dowry—a payment made to a woman’s in-laws upon her engagement or marriage as a gift to her new family” (United Nations Development Fund for Women 2007, p. 1). Although illegal in India since 1961, the number of women killed in India because of inadequate dowries has recently increased (Bedi 2013). How would you stop dowry killings?

Strategies for Action: Toward Gender Equality

Grassroots Movements (1 of 4)

Feminism and the Women’s Movement

Feminism is the belief that women and men should have equal rights and responsibilities.

The U.S. feminist movement began in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848, when a group of women wrote and adopted a women’s rights manifesto modeled after the Declaration of Independence.

Grassroots Movements (2 of 4)

Feminism and the Women’s Movement

The rebirth of feminism almost 50 years later was facilitated by a number of interacting forces:

an increase in the number of women in the labor force, the publication of Betty Friedan’s book The Feminine Mystique, an escalating divorce rate, the socially and politically liberal climate of the 1960s, student activism, and the establishment of the Commission on the Status of Women by John F. Kennedy.

Grassroots Movements (3 of 4)

The National Organization for Women (N O W) was established in 1966, and remains one of the largest feminist organizations in the United States.

One of N O W’s hardest fought battles is the struggle to win ratification of the equal rights amendment (E R A), which states that “equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States, or by any state, on account of sex.”

Grassroots Movements (4 of 4)

The Men’s Movement

One of the early branches of the men’s movement is known as the mythopoetic men’s movement. Participants met in men-only workshops and retreats to explore their internal masculine nature, male identity, and emotional experiences through the use of stories, drumming, dance, music, and discussion.

The men’s movement also includes men’s organizations that advocate gender equality and work to make men more accountable for sexism, violence, and homophobia.

What Do You Think? 9

Two college students, now the heroes of a campus rape documentary called The Hunting Ground (Glock 2015), filed a federal lawsuit alleging that the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill not only failed to handle their sexual assault cases properly but also systematically underreported sexual assault cases in violation of their own campus crime reporting law (Stancill 2013). If the students’ allegations are proved correct, what penalties, if any, should be imposed on the university?

U.S. State and National Policies (1 of 3)

Sexual Harassment

Sexual harassment is a form of sex discrimination that violates Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

The U.S. E E O C (2009) defines sexual harassment in the workplace as “unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature . . . when this conduct explicitly or implicitly affects an individual’s employment, unreasonably interferes with an individual’s work performance, or creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment.”

U.S. State and National Policies (2 of 3)

Sexual Harassment

There are two types of sexual harassment:

(1) quid pro quo, in which an employer requires sexual favors in exchange for a promotion, salary increase, or any other employee benefit

(2) the existence of a hostile environment that unreasonably interferes with job performance, as in the case of sexually explicit comments or insults being made to an employee

U.S. State and National Policies (3 of 3)

Affirmative Action:

As discussed in Chapter 9, affirmative action refers to a broad range of policies and practices to promote equal opportunity as well as diversity in the workplace and on campuses.

Affirmative action policies, developed in the 1960s from federal legislation, require that any employer (universities as well as businesses) that receives contracts from the federal government must make “good faith efforts” to increase the number of female and other minority applicants.

Understanding Gender Inequality

Gender roles and the social inequality they create are ingrained in our social and cultural ideologies and institutions and are therefore difficult to alter as indicated by the persistence of discriminatory attitudes.

Eliminating gender stereotypes and redefining gender in terms of equality does not simply mean liberating women but liberating men as well as society.

Increasingly, people are embracing androgyny - the blending of traditionally defined masculine and feminine characteristics.

An international strategy for achieving gender equality, gender mainstreaming is “the process of assessing the implications for women and men of any planned action, including legislation, policies or programmes, in all areas and at all levels.”

Quick Quiz 1

George is both gay and Hispanic. On the job he encounters discrimination because of his membership in two minority groups. This is known as:

A. intensive discrimination.

B. polysemia.

C. double jeopardy.

D. dual prejudice.

Answer for Quick Quiz 1: C

George is both gay and Hispanic. On the job he encounters discrimination because of his membership in two minority groups. This is known as double jeopardy.

Quick Quiz 2

Which is true about women regarding gender inequality in the U.S.?

A. Women have lower incomes.

B. Women earn fewer graduate degrees.

C. Women hold fewer prestigious jobs.

D. All of these choices.

Answer for Quick Quiz 2: D

All of the following statements are true about women regarding gender inequality in the U.S.:

Women have lower incomes.

Women earn fewer graduate degrees.

Women hold fewer prestigious jobs.

Quick Quiz 3

In hunting and gathering societies, men hunted and women gathered. This division of labor based on gender became defined as normal and natural over time. Which sociological perspective views this division as purposeful for the time?

A. conflict theory

B. structural functionalism

C. symbolic interactionism

D. exchange theory

Answer for Quick Quiz 3: B

In hunting and gathering societies, men hunted and women gathered. This division of labor based on gender became defined as normal and natural over time. The structural functionalism sociological perspective views this division as purposeful for the time.

Quick Quiz 4

Symbolic interactionists emphasize that through the socialization process both females and males are taught the meanings associated with being feminine and masculine.

A. True

B. False

Answer for Quick Quiz 4: A. True

Symbolic interactionists emphasize that through the socialization process both females and males are taught the meanings associated with being feminine and masculine.

Quick Quiz 5

Steve and Linda are married. Both work full time outside the home. Steve works as a lawyer, Linda as a schoolteacher. Linda does most of the household work. Using this example, which of these ideas explains the continued traditional division of labor?

A. “relative resources approach”

B. “time-availability approach”

C. all of these choices

D. “gender role ideology”

Answer for Quick Quiz 5: C

Steve and Linda are married. Both work full time outside the home. Steve works as a lawyer, Linda as a schoolteacher. Linda does most of the household work. Using this example, all three of these ideas explain the continued traditional division of labor: relative resources approach, time-availability approach, and gender role ideology.

Psychology soc assignment 10

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