Examining the Intersection of

Gender and Work

Powell ix-xx

In-class exercise 4

COLOR BLIND In this provocative program, five students

from a variety of cultural and ethnic backgrounds speak with candor about racial harassment at their high school in an effort to encourage teenagers to examine their own

attitudes and behaviors.

What causes the problems in society?• Prejudice

• Discrimination

• Segregation

Prejudice

• Attitude• Based on false generalizations of

properties attributed to racial-ethnic groups rather than one’s own

• May or may not be used to continue inequality

• May or may not lead to discrimination

Two types of Prejudice• Stereotypes

– Cognitive aspect • Come to know by judgment

– Exaggerations of behavioral traits– Examples??

• Social distance– Affective aspect

• Emotional aspect– Discomfort with social relations – Examples??

In-class activity 5

What did it mean to be prejudice?Are you???

Discrimination

• Acting on one’s prejudice• Verbal or nonverbal acts that bring about

negative consequences for the minority group

• Aimed at denying equal access to societal rewards

Four types of Discrimination• Individual

– Intentional attempts to harm (act on prejudice)• Direct Institutional

– Incorporation of limitations into the legal structure– Jim Crow Laws

• Statistical – Based on a belief that members of a certain group

are “more likely” to behave in a particular way• Structural

– Outcome of different groups not taking advantage of available opportunities

Two ways discrimination can take place

• Indirect (Covert)– equal treatment– equal circumstances– Unequal social conditions– Cafeteria not taking into consideration the needs of

Vegans• Direct (Overt)

– Unequal treatment– Equal circumstances– Unequal social conditions– No Asians are allowed in that restaurant

Segregation

• Physical separation due to negative feeling

• Complete elimination of the minority group or thing

The other here has had negative connotations…

“Other” doesn’t have to be negative

Men-Women Relationships Through

Time

Past to present(Blau p 12-29)

Men & Women’s Roles in Society are Changing

• Past– Man is hunter (breadwinner)– What characteristics would be seen here?

• Leader, decision maker– Female is housekeeper and mother– What characteristics would be seen here?

• Compliant, noncompetitive, nurturing, not instrumental

– Females position is to “help the man”

Who has the power?• Men and Women do have Physiological and

Psychological differences but why are women seen as inferior?

• Ernestine Fried (anthropologist)– Technology employed by society within the production

process tends to determine the division of labor– Man has the power because he leads the production

process• Other Scientists

– Disagree because slaves in the past were the main players in the production process…but did they have power?

Hunting and Gathering Societies

• Men were the hunters of the meat• Women were gatherers of fruits and

vegetables (some small animals)• Clear division of labor• Male and female were equal partners in

gathering the meal

Horticultural Societies

• Men hunted and protected land• Fruits and vegetables grown on plots of

land near home (thus no real “gathering” for female just pick it)

• Female tended the home and cooked• All other chores split equally

Pastoral Societies

• Men herded large animals (usually farther away from home)

• Women tended to the home

• Women seen as secondary

Agriculture Societies

• Women “helped” in the field• Men “worked” the land• Men received a dowry for the woman

when they were married• Woman seen as secondary in the family• Responsibilities depended on gender (for

children too)

Industrialization• Shift from working the land to working in a

factory• Women only worked to subsidize family income

or save money for dowry• Woman’s position is caretaker of family• Labor force participation rates at the end of the

19th century– Male = 84%– Female = 18%– Married Female = 5%

Early “Traditional Family”

• Male as primary income earner• Female as primary household caretaker• Shift from production unit to consumption

unit• Each now had Economic Roles

– Male’s role was to earn high enough wage for family

– Female’s role was to tend to the household

Early “Traditional Family” Cont.

• Woman working was seen by society as:

– Inadequacy of her husband

– Selfishness of the woman

Circular NatureMen and Women as equal partners

Men and Women as unequal partners

Hunting and GatheringHorticulture

Pastoral

Agriculture, Industrialization, Early Traditional