Gender, Sexuality, Race, and Social Inequality: Key Concepts and Theories

Sex

The biological differences that distinguish males from females, including chromosomes, hormones, and genitalia.

Gender

A social position; the set of social arrangements built around normative sex categories, including masculinity and femininity.

Sexuality

Desire, sexual preference, sexual identity, and behavior.

Essentialist

A line of thought that explains social phenomena in terms of natural, biological, or genetic inevitabilities. Example: saying men are naturally aggressive because of testosterone.

Androgynous

Neither strongly gender-typed nor completely gender-neutral; possessing a combination of masculine and feminine traits.

Transgender

An umbrella term for people whose gender identity and/or expression differs from the sex they were assigned at birth.

Cisgender

A person whose gender identity matches the sex they were assigned at birth.

How do sociologists study gender?

They generally view gender as a socially constructed institution that organizes social life and distributes power and resources, rather than simply as an innate characteristic.

Hegemonic masculinity

A condition in which men are dominant and privileged and that dominance becomes normalized or invisible. The cultural ideal may emphasize physical strength, emotional stoicism, financial dominance, and heterosexuality.

Sexism

Judgment, discrimination, or hatred against a person based on sex or gender.

Patriarchy

A system involving the subordination of femininity to masculinity.

Feminism

The belief that women and men should receive equal opportunities and respect.

First Wave feminism

Focused primarily on legal and political rights, especially women's suffrage, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Second Wave feminism

Emerged in the 1960s and 1970s and focused on systemic inequalities beyond formal law, including employment, reproductive rights, domestic violence, and sexuality. Associated phrase: 'the personal is political.'

Sexual harassment

An illegal form of discrimination ranging from inappropriate jokes to sexual assault that makes a person uncomfortable or unsafe based on sex.

Emotional labor

Managing feelings and expressions to fulfill the emotional requirements of a job. Examples include flight attendants maintaining a smile and nurses managing patient anxiety.

Occupational segregation

The concentration of women and men in different types of occupations, such as women in nursing/teaching and men in engineering/construction.

Glass ceiling

An invisible limit or barrier restricting women's advancement up the occupational ladder, especially into top positions.

Glass escalator

The accelerated promotion of men to top positions in female-dominated fields, such as male nurses being fast-tracked into management.

Motherhood penalty

Systemic disadvantages in pay, perceived competence, and benefits experienced by working mothers relative to childless women and men.

Parsons' sex-role theory

A structural-functionalist theory arguing that the nuclear family works through a functional division of labor: men perform instrumental roles and women perform expressive roles.

Instrumental role

In Parsons' framework, the role traditionally assigned to men: providing financially and handling tasks associated with the outside world.

Expressive role

In Parsons' framework, the role traditionally assigned to women: nurturing the family and maintaining the home.

Criticism of Parsons' sex-role theory

It assumes stable/binary gender roles and can ignore conflict and coercion.

Conflict theory of gender

Focuses on power imbalances and argues that capitalist systems benefit from gender inequality because women's unpaid domestic labor helps reproduce the workforce.

Doing Gender — West & Zimmerman

Gender is not simply an internal state; it is a routine, ongoing accomplishment embedded in everyday interaction. People continually display and perform gender for an audience.

Intersectionality — Patricia Hill Collins

Gender cannot be understood in isolation. Power axes such as race, class, gender, and sexuality intersect; a person can be oppressed in one dimension while privileged in another.

Matrix of Domination

Patricia Hill Collins' framework for understanding interconnected systems of power and oppression across race, class, gender, sexuality, and other social categories.

Social construction of sexuality

Sexuality is not purely biological. Although biological drives exist, the meanings, labels, and acceptable boundaries of sexuality are shaped by time, place, and culture.

Contemporary sexualities

The guide identifies heterosexuality, homosexuality, bisexuality, asexuality, and pansexuality and treats sexuality as a fluid spectrum rather than a rigid binary.

Race

A social construct based on real or perceived biological differences between groups of people.

Racism

The belief that separate races possess different and unequal traits, combined with the power to restrict privileges or opportunities based on those traits.

Race vs. ethnicity

Race is described in the guide as externally imposed around perceived physical differences and often hierarchical/exclusive; ethnicity is more internally chosen, cultural, fluid, and nonhierarchical.

Examples of race

Black, White, and Asian are examples given in the guide.

Examples of ethnicity

Irish American, Han Chinese, and Latino/Hispanic are examples given in the guide.

Symbolic ethnicity

A nostalgic allegiance to, love for, and consumption of a cultural tradition that can be experienced without incorporating it into everyday behavior.

Why is symbolic ethnicity described as different for white ethnics?

The guide describes it as voluntary and relatively costless for white ethnics; racial minorities generally cannot turn off racial categorization at will.

Ethnocentrism

Judging another culture by the standards of one's own culture.

Scientific racism

19th-century pseudo-scientific attempts to justify racial inequality through supposed biological differences, such as phrenology and skull measurements.

Social Darwinism

Applying Darwinian evolution to society and arguing that some races were naturally 'fitter' to survive and dominate others.

One-Drop Rule

The legal and cultural U.S. belief that one drop of Black ancestry made a person Black.

Miscegenation

Interracial marriage or sexual relations; historically criminalized under anti-miscegenation laws.

Racialization

The formation of a new racial identity by drawing ideological boundaries of difference around a formerly unnoticed group.

Prejudice

Negative, rigid thoughts and feelings about an ethnic or racial group.

Individual discrimination

Harmful or negative actions against people based on their race or perceived racial inferiority.

All-Weather Liberal

Neither prejudiced nor discriminatory.

Fair-Weather Liberal

Not prejudiced, but willing to discriminate if doing so benefits the person socially or financially.

Timid Bigot

Prejudiced but does not discriminate because of fear of social backlash or legal consequences.

Active Bigot

Both prejudiced and discriminatory; openly acts on racial prejudice.

Merton's prejudice/discrimination distinction

Prejudice refers to negative thoughts and feelings; discrimination refers to harmful actions.

Institutional racism

Institutions and social dynamics that can appear race-neutral on the surface but disadvantage minority groups in practice, including in systems such as justice, housing, or hiring.

Pluralism

Coexistence of distinct groups in one society with equal rights and no single group dominating; the guide uses the 'salad bowl' image.

Assimilation

The process by which immigrant/minority groups fully adopt the culture and practices of the host or dominant society.

Segregation

Legal or social separation of people based on racial or ethnic grounds, such as Jim Crow or apartheid.

Genocide

Mass, systematic killing of an entire population based on race, ethnicity, or religion.

Withdrawal

Responding to domination by leaving an oppressive environment; the guide gives the Great Migration as an example.

Passing

Blending into a dominant group by changing names, altering appearance, or hiding heritage.

Acceptance

Feigning compliance with a dominant group while hiding true resentment; the guide contrasts front-stage compliance with back-stage resistance.

Collective action as a response to domination

Organizing politically or through social movements to resist and alter a power structure, such as the Civil Rights Movement.

Historical status of doctors

Doctors historically had low social status; in Rome medicine was often practiced by slaves, and in the 19th century doctors were often viewed as unscientific tradesmen or 'quacks.'

Why did doctors' status rise in the 20th century?

The rise of the American Medical Association, institutional licensing, and medical advances such as penicillin made medicine more exclusive and scientifically rigorous.

Why has physician autonomy recently declined?

Commercial health insurance corporations, bureaucratic hospital systems, and patients obtaining information on the internet have reduced physicians' relative autonomy.

WWII wage freezes and employer health insurance

During WWII, wage controls limited employers' ability to compete by raising wages, so employers increasingly offered health insurance as a non-wage benefit.

Affordable Care Act (ACA)

The guide says the ACA decreased the number of uninsured Americans by expanding Medicaid, allowing young adults to remain on parental plans until age 26, and banning denial of coverage for pre-existing conditions.

Medicare

A federally funded health insurance program for people age 65 and older.

Whitehall Study

A study of British civil servants that found a strong social gradient in health: men in lower administrative ranks had higher mortality despite equal access to healthcare.

Social gradient in health

The pattern in which health outcomes improve as social position rises; the Whitehall Study found higher mortality among lower-ranked civil servants.

Whitehall Study proposed mechanism

Chronic stress from low control over one's work and low social status can repeatedly trigger the fight-or-flight response, producing biological wear-and-tear.

Whitehall Study criticism

It focused primarily on men and British civil servants, so its findings may not map perfectly onto more unequal societies such as the United States.

Morbidity

The presence of illness or disease.

Mortality

Death; mortality rates measure patterns of death in a population.

Infant mortality racial disparity

The guide states that Black infants in the U.S. are more than twice as likely as white infants to die before their first birthday, attributing the disparity heavily to systemic racism, chronic stress, and systemic medical neglect.

Selection theory of health disparities

The relationship between lower class and poor health is spurious: genetic factors or early traits may cause both lower socioeconomic status and poor health.

Drift explanation of health disparities

Health causes social position: illness can lead to job loss and movement downward into a lower class.

Social determinants explanation

Social position causes health: lower class can directly contribute to worse health through lower access to healthy food, greater exposure to environmental toxins, and greater psychosocial stress.

Memory trick for health disparity theories

Selection = a third factor causes both; Drift = health causes class position; Social determinants = class/social position causes health.

Gender and longevity

The guide says women live longer than men, partly because of biological advantages and because men engage in riskier behaviors or are less likely to seek medical help.

Marital status and longevity

The guide says married people live longer than unmarried people; marriage can act as a protective buffer, particularly for men who may gain a built-in health monitor.

Sick role — Talcott Parsons

A functionalist concept describing societal expectations associated with being ill.

Sick role rights

(1) Exemption from normal social roles and (2) not being held accountable for the illness/condition.

Sick role obligations

(1) Try to get well and (2) seek competent medical help and cooperate with doctors.

Social construction of illness

What counts as a disease can change over time based on social norms. The guide uses alcoholism as an example: once viewed as a moral failing, it is now medicalized as a chronic brain disease.

Equity financing

A proposed way to finance education in which investors pay for college in exchange for a percentage of a student's future income.

Debt financing

Traditional student-loan financing in which students borrow money and repay the debt.

Potential advantage of equity financing

Students would face less risk of bankruptcy because repayment would be tied to future income rather than a fixed debt obligation.

Potential problem with equity financing

Investors might preferentially fund high-paying majors such as STEM while underfunding lower-paying fields such as teaching or the arts.

School voucher

Public tax funds given to parents to pay tuition at a school of their choice, public or private.

Coleman Report — main finding

The Coleman Report and later research suggested that differences in school funding and facilities matter far less to achievement than family background, peer group, and socioeconomic status.

Educational meritocracy — supporting evidence

Standardized tests and grades can allow high-achieving students from low-income backgrounds to enter elite universities, suggesting that effort and achievement can enable upward mobility.

Educational meritocracy — challenging evidence

SAT scores correlate strongly with parental income; wealthy families can purchase expensive test preparation, and legacy/athletic admissions can disproportionately favor affluent students.

Hidden curriculum

The nonacademic and less overt socialization functions of schooling, such as teaching obedience to authority, punctuality, hierarchy, and following bells/rules.

Bowles & Gintis Marxist interpretation of education

Schools function like factories that prepare compliant workers for capitalism by teaching working-class students to accept hierarchy, repetitive tasks, and subordination.

Coleman Report — 1966 surprise

Researchers expected school funding and physical facilities to explain achievement gaps, but found that school characteristics mattered relatively little.

Coleman Report — major predictors

Achievement differences were heavily associated with family background and the socioeconomic composition of the peer group at school.

Tracking

Dividing students into different instructional groups/classes based on perceived ability, such as remedial versus AP/Honors.

Mainstreaming

Placing special education students into regular classrooms.

Tracking criticism

Tracking can create self-fulfilling prophecies by labeling lower-track students and restricting their access to rigorous material.

Credentialism

An overemphasis on educational credentials, such as college degrees, as signals of social status or job qualification.

Credential inflation example

As bachelor's degrees become more common, employers may raise requirements to master's degrees even when job duties have not substantially changed.

SAT debate — proponents

Supporters argue the SAT provides a standardized baseline for comparing applicants.