Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2007 Chapter 12 Gender Inequality In Conflict and Order: Understanding Society, 11 th edition This multimedia product and its

Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2007

Chapter 12Gender Inequality

In Conflict and Order: Understanding Society, 11th edition

This multimedia product and its contents are protected under copyright law. The following are prohibited by law:any public performance or display, including transmission of any image over a network;preparation of any derivative work, including the extraction, in whole or in part, of any images;any rental, lease, or lending of the program.


Gender

Sex refers to Sex refers to the the biological biological differences differences between between females and females and malesmales

Gender Gender refers to the refers to the social and social and cultural cultural meaning meaning attached to attached to femininity femininity and and masculinity.masculinity.


Women and Men are Differentiated and Ranked

• Gender Stratification– Refers to the ranking of the sexes in such a

way that women are unequal in resources, power, and opportunities

• Scientists have competing explanations for gender differences.– Sociologists treat gender as a feature of

social structure.


Is Gender Biological or Social?

• Biological Bases for Gender Roles– Chromosomal and hormonal differences

make females and males physically different.– Biological differences that do exist between

women and men are only averages.• Social Bases for Gender Roles

– Every society transforms biological females and males into socially interacting women and men.

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


Gender and Power

• Male dominance refers to the beliefs and placement that value men over women and that institutionalize male control of socially valued resources.

• Gender inequality is tied to other inequalities such as race, class, and sexuality to sort women and men differently.


Gender Stratification from the Order and

Conflict Perspectives

• The Order Perspective– From the order perspective, biology,

history, and society’s needs combine to separate men and women into distinctive gender roles.


Gender Stratification from the Order and

Conflict Perspectives

• The Conflict Perspective– According to the conflict view, gender roles

are not neutral ways of meeting societies’ needs but are part of the larger system of power and domination.


Learning Gender

• Children at home– Girls and boys are

treated differently from the moment of birth.

– One of the strongest influences on gender role development in children occurs in the family setting.

• Children at play– Children teach

each other to behave according to cultural expectation.

– Toys play a major part in gender socialization.


Learning Gender• In 1972 Congress outlawed sex

discrimination in public schools, however, research indicates schools shortchange girls in every dimension of education.– Curriculum– Textbooks– Teacher-student interactions– Sports– Female Role Models– Counseling– Socialization as Blaming the Victim


Reinforcing Male Dominance

• Male dominance is both a force that socializes and a force that structures the social world.– Language– Interpersonal behavior– Mass communications media– Religion– The law– Politics


• Insert Table 12.2 Here


Structured Gender Inequality• Today, women make up nearly half the

workforce.– Gender segregation refers to the pattern whereby

women and men are situated in different jobs throughout the labor force.

• In 2004, women who worked full-time, year-round earned 77 cents for every dollar men earned.

• Women of color make up 14% of the private sector workforce in the U.S.– They are the most segregated group in the

workforce.


• Insert Table 12.3 Here


Structured Gender Inequality• Since 1980, twenty states have implemented

pay-equity programs that reduced the gender wage gap.

• Many organizational features block women’s advancement.– In the white-collar workforce, the well-documented

phenomenon of women going just so far is called the glass ceiling.

• Economic globalization is altering gender relations around the world by bringing women into the public sphere.


Fighting the System• Three stages of feminist social

movements– The first stage grew out of the abolition

movement of the 1830s.– The second stage gave priority to voting.– The third stage focused on equality in the

1960s and beyond.• The women’s movement is not over.

– It is one of the most influential sources of social change.

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Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2007 Chapter 12 Gender Inequality In Conflict and Order: Understanding Society, 11 th edition This multimedia product and its