Lecture 9 - Gender Inequaliity

Verstehen

Empathetic understanding of human behavior

Standpoint Theory (Sandra Harding)

• Discusses how “knowledge stems from social position”

• Rejects that science is objective because of the exclusion of different perspectives like women, racial minorities, the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, those from lower socio-economic statuses, and other

• Argument is focused on epistemology (the branch of philosophy that examines the nature and origins of knowledge) and argues that knowledge is always socially situated

Feminism

The four tenets of feminism, as a theoretical ideal type, are as follows:

• (1) Focuses on various aspects of patriarchy (system of male domination in society) which feminists contend, is at least as important as class inequality in determining a person’s opportunities in life

• (2) Holds that male domination and female subordination are determined not by biological necessity, but by structures of power and social convention. from this point of view, women are subordinate to men only because men enjoy more legal, economic, political, and cultural rights

• (3) Examines the operation of patriarchy in both micro and macro settings

• (4) Contends that existing patterns of gender inequality can and should be changed for the benefit of all members of society.

  • Main sources of gender inequality include:

    • Differences in the way boys and girls are raised

    • Barriers to equal opportunity in education, paid work, and politics

    • Unequal division of domestic responsibilities between women and men

Studying gender; how far Have we Gone Into it?

• Gender studies is still a relatively new discipline (last 150 years) and sometimes invalidated by those arguing that it is not a worthy or important subject

  • e.g. Hungary seeing its populist government banning gender studies from college

Sex

A person’s biological classification as amle, female, or intersex

Sexuality

A person’s sexual orientation, which comprises that person’s secual attraction, behavior and identity

Gender

A socially constructed identity that traditionally corresponded to the binary sexes, male and female, but also includes non-binary identities

Non-binary

Any gender identity that is not strictly male or female all the time, and so does not fit within the gender binary

Cisgender

A person for whom their gender identity matches the sex they were assigned at birth

Gender Identity

Each person’s internal and individual experience of gender. It is a person’s sense of being a woman, a man, both, neither, or anywhere along the gender spectrum

Gender Expression

The way in which a person presents themselves in terms of gender. Includes behaviors and outward appearance.

Gender Roles

The parts of gender that are prescribed by society, outside of one’s self… the rules associated with a gender role are made by the society, not by the individual. This in contrast with how the individual is the only one who can recognize their own gender identity, which may have little to do so with society’s rules

Reasons for Issue with Gender Studies

• Associated with a backlash against the 2SLGBTQIA+ community and traditional binary understandings of sex and gender

  • Derived from gender studies acknowledging and challenging the notion that are two binary genders (man and woman) and sexes (male and female)

• Gender studies looks at how gender identity, gender expression, sex and sexuality exists on a spectrum, but also sometimes outside of the traditional binary continuum instead of looking at humans as binary

Gender Expression as a Spectrum

• Here not many would argue against gender expression existing on a spectrum and acknowledge that some men can displays characteristics traditionally considered feminine and some woman can take on trait typically moire associated with masculinity

Biology as a Spectrum

• The problem many have concerning biological sex spectrum

• The idea is that you either have a penis or vagina and that’s all there is to it

  • But it’s more complicated than this!

    • 1.7% of people are born intersex (born with an anatomy that doesn’t fit the conventional biological definitions of female or male)

Example of Biology as a Spectrum: Caster Semenya

• Professional runner from South Africa who won an Olympic gold medal in 2016 for the 800-meter race

• In 2009 when she was 18, the IAAF ordered her to undergo sex verification to ensure she was female withdrawing her from competition for months until multiple doctors confirmed that she is biologically female

• However did report Semenya has naturally occurring higher than normal testosterone for a female

• As a result of winning old in 2016, in 2018 the IAAF changed the rules regarding testosterone levels in female athlete forcing those with unusually higher testosterone (over 500 ng/dL) to take medication to lower it only changing the rule for race Semenya competed in (400m, 800m, 1500m)

How is Biological sex commonly defined?

Traits being:

1. Chromosomes (binary and non-binary)

2. Reproductive organs primarily responsible for hormone production

3. Reproductive hormones like testosterone and estrogen as well as the effects they have on the body

4. Based on external reproductive genitals

5. Based on the ability to bear children

Problems with using the aforementioned traits arise when determinants of biological sex differ greatly within each category of sex and differ over the course of life

Social Construct

An idea created and accepted by the people in a society through interactions and social processes

Evolutionary Theory and Biology as Non-Binary

• Theory rejects the notion that humans are above or separate from nature, and instead embraces the extent to which humanity extends from and is the product of nature and natural processes like evolution

• Highlights how diversity is the characteristic through which nature ensures survival

  • In other words, diversity on all traits is natural and expected. To suggest less common characteristics or traits are unnatural is to reject the fundamental truth of nature and the principle of diversity

  • e.g. being 7 feet tall is very rare, yet not considered unnatural or a biological defect since it’s not something we associate with sex

Heteronormativity

• The belief that sexual activity between people of the ‘opposite’ sex is the natural expression of sex (a social construct)

Gender Identity as a Spectrum

• Debate centers on Trans rights centers on things like bathroom use

• Suggestion point towards still a great deal of work and progress to be made on issues of gender identity pointing towards much stigmatization on the basis of gender identity, sexuality, and/or sex in Canada

  • It it just to acknowledge where the majority of Canadians stand on the issue being a more divisive issue in other nations

So Why The Heck are Gender Studies Important?

• Major part of our lives being one of the most basic and primary distinctions we make between each other

• How we are treated by society differs greatly by sex, sexuality, and gender and has important consequences for things like mental health

• Important to acknowledge the full spectrum of human diversity and to reject binary definitions of sex, gender, and sexuality because the true nature of these characteristics is that they are not binary

Culture and Gender Equality

Much of gender inequality extends from our culture

• A culture heavily influenced by history and path dependency (when the outcome

  of a process depends on its past history, on a sequence of decisions made by agents and resulting outcomes, and not only on contemporary conditions)

• A culture that reflects a ‘liquid modernity’ or a constant state of flux and change with no ability to impose order or stability on it

• Something that is completely constructed by people, but that significantly structures peoples live in a way that they have little to no control over - refer to socialization (the lifelong process of an individual or group learning the expected norms and customs of a group or society through social interaction)

Male Privilege

The social, economic, and political advantages or rights that are available to men solely on the basis of their sex

e.g. less likely to be sexually assaulted, be murdered by an intimate partner, be victims of stalking, getting their drink spiked, more likely to have political power, be billionaires, to travel around the world without having to worry about countries with more outdated gender laws or views, etc. (there’s like 4 slides of this lol)

Why is Male Privilege More Discussed and Focused on?

Males have much more privilege and their privileges are much more significant (e.g. assault, safety, etc). Thus, overall men are the more privileged gender in society today which is why male privilege is something we hear more about

How can men Resists our own Male Privilege?

It is easy to recognize privilege when we are the one benefiting, so we how we resist this privilege?

• Sharing household and child rearing duties if we start a family

• Call out the guy who sleeps around, but then engages in “shaming” women for their sexuality

• Challenge it when we see sexual objectification of women

• Think about how the history of the world is one long story of male privilege and try to recognize how you personally experience that privilege and how it is not fair (I’m 6 ft, a feminist, hate Andrew Tate and prefer to clean the house)

Sexism

The belief that innate psychological, behavioral, and/or intellectual difference confirm the superiority of men over women

Innate

Refers to something being natural, inherent, instinctive, or something one is born with versus something learned or taught

Sexist Beliefs

More common in society that we might thinks. Examples are:

• Neb are seen as less emotional

• Women are seen as having greater parental or motherly instincts than men

• Women are seen as being more compassionate naturally vs. again being a product of socialization

Sexist Beliefs

Broken into different categories we consider how they are integrated into society

• (1) Structural Sexism

• (2) Cultural Sexism

Structural Sexism

Refers to the ways in which organizations or society, and specifically its institutions, subordinate individuals based on their sex

e.g. men are better than women at certain things and vice-versa

Cultural Sexism

Refers to the ways in which the culture of society perpetuates the subordination of individuals based on their sex

e.g. men and women are treated differently from birth with different socially defined roles and expectations such as dividing the labor for women typically responsible being cooking, cleaning and childcare

Biggest Disadvantages Women face Today

• (1) Toxic Masculinity and Sexual Violence

• (2) The Gender Wage Gap

How do Men and Women Learn to be Gendered?

• Transmission of expectations through first-hand observation of those immediately around us such as role models or family (primary sources)

• Transmission of expectations through observation of role models on TV, movies, social media, sport, in books and through other secondary sources

• Learning femininity as oppositional to masculinity, and masculinity as oppositional to femininity

• Norms and rules differing between contexts or settings

• The role and associated norms around being a man are referred to as masculinity, and for women, femininity

Traditional Masculinity

Normal societal expectations for men. Not necessarily problematic on their own, but they are also not always positive

Hegemonic Masculinity

Describes the aspects of masculinity that promote the dominant social positions of hetersexual men, and the subordinate social position of women and non-heterosexual men (Promotes male dominance)

Toxic Masculinity

Essentially the way that hegemonic masculinity is referred to outside of academia/sociology

• Slight difference is that hegemonic masculinity is the traits that promote

  heterosexual men’s dominance over others, whereas toxic masculinity is used

  more to refer to any part of traditional masculinity that is negative or toxic for any reason

• Toxic masculinity refers to the norms that lead to negative behaviors (Effect on all people in society)