Inequality: Gender

Gender & Symbolic Interactionism

• “Doing Gender” - gender is not an innate quality but a social construct, actively performed through everyday interactions and behaviors. e.g. men holding doors

• During interaction, we learn about gender roles. To be a man/woman is to perform masculinity/femininity constantly.

Reading: Doing, Undoing, or Redoing Gender

• Transgender vs. cisgender

• 19 interviews, trans people, mainly white, mainly middle class

• Findings:

  • Trans in workplace: STEALTH bc fear of discrimination/”no point”

  • Out Trans: undoing/redoing gender. intentionally undermine gendered expectations; adopt hybrid gender style

    • keep some qualities from original sex(talking with hands F, gender-neutral names)

Gender & Functionalism

• Sex Role Theory(1950s) - nuclear family fulfills function of reproducing workers

• work-oriented father; domestic-oriented mother = all roles full

• gender roles enforced by social sanctions to ensure actors do not forget their lines 

Gender & Conflict Theory

• Power Imbalance

• Gender inequality in the workplace, family, economy, politics, sports, music, etc.

• Inequality transfers from one social institution (e.g., home) to another (workplace)

The Pay Gap

• Since beginning of wage labor, men have earned more than women

Why did pay gap shrink

• Women work longer hours

  • changes in family ideology, social roles

• Women’s educational attainment increased

• Women moved int o new occupations

• Laws and state policies

  • Equal pay Act of 1963, Affirmative Action

Why Didn’t Pay Gap Disappear

• Sex segregation in occupations/jobs

• Men & Women Different occupations bc

  • Gender “queueing” - employers create a "queue" of preferred candidates, gender may be determinant in candidate’s spot in queue

  • Devaluation of Women's Work

Queueing Theory

women (and minorities) earn less because they are low in the labor queues; obtain less desirable jobs

Devaluation Theory

women (and minorities) are paid less because the positions and skills associated with them are considered as less valuable.

Pay Gap with same job, education, experience, location

• Women still earn less

• “Glass Ceilings” - invisible barrier that prevents women and other underrepresented groups from advancing to the highest positions in a company or organization. This barrier is created by discriminatory practices and unconscious biases

Men in Women’s Jobs

• The Glass Escalator

• Men are pushed upward and outward into the higher-status, higher-paying, more "masculine" positions within these fields

• Cons:

  • Considered as “Failure” or not a real job

  • Homophobic charges against male child-care workers