Sociology of Gender Study Notes

SOCIOLOGY OF GENDER STUDY NOTES

READINGS

  • Bickis, Heidi (2025) "A Long Weekend of Rest and Labour: Thanksgiving, Holiday Body Work, and the Holiday Body" In T. Davidson and O. Park (Eds.), Seasonal Sociology. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

TODAY’S CLASS OUTLINE

  • Dominant gender thinking

  • Some definitions

  • Dichotomous thinking

  • The predominant gender story

  • Gender Stratification & Patriarchy

  • Hegemonic masculinity & emphasized femininity

  • Intersectionality

  • Misogynoir

  • Indigenous women

  • Gender stratification at work

  • Gender Socialization

  • The embodiment paradigm

  • Doing gender

  • Gendered talk

DOMINANT GENDER THINKING

SEX

  • Definition: "physical or physiological differences between males and females" (Little et al, p. 368).

    • Rooted in biology.

    • Physical selves categorized as male, female, or intersexed.

GENDER

  • Definition: "social or cultural distinctions associated with being male or female" (Little et al., p. 368).

    • Bodies are socially produced to embody masculine or feminine characteristics.

DICHOTOMOUS THINKING

  • Concept: Based on binaries such as black/white, male/female, heterosexual/homosexual.

    • Highlighted characteristics:

    • Binaries are not equal in power.

    • Binaries are unstable, requiring borderwork (social sanctions to maintain gender ideals as natural, universal, and timeless).

THE PREDOMINANT GENDER STORY (ROSENBERG, 2006)

  • Concept: Gender socialization is a continuous, lifelong process.

  • Bodies are categorized into two types: male and female.

  • Sociocultural processes gender bodies into masculine and feminine.

  • Attraction is often defined as opposite-type attraction.

  • Reproduction of bodies and gender happens:

    • Everywhere gendering takes place.

    • Through borderwork.

TRANSGENDER AND TRANSPHOBIA

  • Transgender: "describes a person whose gender identity does not line up with normative assumptions of gender binaries" (Davidson and Park, p. 440).

  • Transphobia: A fear and hatred of trans people, functioning as borderwork to reinforce rigid gender binaries.

  • Forms of transphobia include:

    • Violence (notably against Black Trans Women).

    • Identified as a significant public health issue, termed "One of the US’ Deadliest Epidemics."

    • Trans Day of Remembrance: Observed on November 20th.

    • Misgendering or misidentification by family, friends, service providers.

    • Lack of access to appropriate health care.

    • Loss of employment opportunities.

    • Hostile representations in media.

    • Deprivation of legal rights such as bathroom rights and pronoun rights in educational settings.

THE RESULT OF THE PREDOMINANT GENDER STORY: DOMINANT GENDER SCHEMAS

MEN

  • Characteristics:

    • Rationality.

    • Physical strength.

    • Gaining wisdom with age.

    • Independence.

    • Encouraged to pursue power.

  • Hegemonic Masculinity: (Connell, 1995; Siltenen, Doucet and Albanese, 2014, p. 141).

    • Extreme forms may manifest as toxic masculinity (as discussed by Neverson, Ch 10).

WOMEN

  • Characteristics:

    • Emotionality.

    • Physical weakness.

    • Loss of sexual appeal (and therefore worth) with aging.

    • Dependence on men for power and validation.

    • Discouraged from seeking power.

  • Emphasized Femininity: (Connell, 1995).

GENDER STRATIFICATION & PATRIARCHY

  • Stratification Definition: "a system wherein groups experience unequal access to essential and highly valued social resources" (Little et al, p. 378).

  • Patriarchy Definition: "a form of social organization where men hold dominant control over resources across cultural, economic, social, and political realms. This disadvantages women, transgender people, many men (working-class, racialized man, gay men), and other marginalized groups" (Davidson and Park, 2025, p. 429).

    • Features:

    • Structural inequality reinforcing male authority.

    • Historical and culturally specific forms.

MASCULINITIES

  • Concept: There are "qualitatively different types [of masculinity] produced within the same social setting" (Connell, 1995, p. 356).

    • Types of masculinity are organized into a HIERARCHY.

    • Differences are not simply matters of free choice but influenced by:

    • Race.

    • Ethnicity.

    • Class.

    • Age.

    • Sexual orientation.

  • Masculinity Mystique: (Kimbrell, 1995)

  • Examples of resistance by men against oppressive gender norms:

    • Huggies “Dad test.”

    • Men protesting against figures like Kavanaugh.

THE PATRIARCHAL DIVIDEND

  • Definition: "the advantage enjoyed by men as a group from maintaining an unequal gender order" (Connell, 2002, p.142).

    • Notable characteristics associated with valued masculinity are also the traits associated with power across economic, political, and social spheres.

    • Example: The highest-paid CEOs in the world as of 2016.

EMPHASIZED FEMININITY & INFANTILIZING WOMEN

EMPHASIZED FEMININITY

  • Definition: The socially preferred and celebrated version of femininity aligned with other power systems (race, class, sexuality).

  • Characterized by a lack of power in relation to men.

  • Infantilizing Women: Refers to the tendency not to take women seriously, failing to believe them, or preventing them from attaining positions of power.

    • Areas of infantilization:

    • Workplace.

    • Legal system.

    • Media representation.

    • Family dynamics.

    • Language use.

INTERSECTIONALITY & MISOGYNOIR

  • Intersectionality Definition by Kimberlé Crenshaw (1989); discussed in Crenshaw’s TED Talk.

  • Misogynoir Definition: Coined by Moya Bailey (2010) as "the virulent and often unseen hatred directed at Black women due to the intersection of anti-Blackness, misogyny, and racism in society" (Maynard, 2017, p. 130).

    • Consequences of misogynoir include:

    • Black women not regarded as innocent, but seen as suspicious.

    • Stereotypes stemming from "Mammy" and "Jezebel" figures (Maynard, 2017).

    • Experienced oppression manifests as:

    • Over-surveillance via child welfare systems.

    • Over-policing by law enforcement.

    • Overall violence.

    • Neglect in healthcare and other support systems.

    • Adultification Bias: The tendency to perceive Black girls as less innocent than their peers.

VIOLENCE AGAINST INDIGENOUS WOMEN

  • Statistics: Indigenous women aged 25-44 in Canada are 5 times more likely to be victims of murder due to racial and sexist stereotypes that portray them as less valuable.

  • Various systemic influences:

    • Government policies like residential schools and child welfare systems that erode community structures, leaving girls and women vulnerable.

    • Police rendering inadequately in cases of violence against Indigenous women.

TRC CALL TO ACTION 41

  • Recommendation by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) for a public inquiry into the disproportionate victimization of Aboriginal women and girls.

  • The inquiry should focus on:

    • Investigating cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.

    • Addressing the intergenerational legacy of residential schools.

GENDER STRATIFICATION & WORK

  • Friedrich Engels (1880s): Proposed that women suffer dual exploitation within capitalist systems.

  • Women's unpaid labor is crucial for reproducing not just familial roles but also the labor force that sustains capitalism.

GENDER SOCIALIZATION

  • Understanding Gender Norms: A brainstorming exercise to map out how different agents of socialization contribute to forming dominant gender norms.

    • Agents of Socialization:

    • Family.

    • School.

    • Work.

    • Government.

    • Media.

THE EMBODIMENT PARADIGM (IN BICKIS 2025)

  • Biological Determinism: The perspective that biological factors exclusively shape human experiences (biologism).

  • Social Determinism: The viewpoint that social conditions completely dictate bodily experiences.

  • Embodiment Paradigm: Bodies are regarded as neither purely biological nor purely social constructs. Instead, the biological and the social aspects are intricately intertwined, impacting one another (Bickis, p. 87).

BODY WORK

  • Appearance Work: Defined as “the maintenance of a particular bodily appearance” (Bickis, p. 99).

  • Emotional Labour: First introduced by Arlie Hochschild (1983) as “the management of one’s feelings by suppressing how one feels or altering one’s feelings” (Bickis, p. 99).

INTER-CORPOREAL BODY WORK

  • Defined as the labor performed by professionals such as nurses, dentists, hairdressers, and funeral directors, whose work involves attending to other human bodies (Bickis, p. 100).

  • Notably, 90% of personal support workers in Canada are women, underscoring their role in care work within the context of the pandemic.

  • Example: Martima, a personal support worker, illustrates the practicalities of such work during COVID-19 while assisting a senior resident.

THE HOLIDAY BODY

  • Bickis argues that cultural notions surrounding holidays require labor. For instance, analyzing Thanksgiving reveals insights into how holidays are ideologically framed.

CONCLUSION

  • Review Questions:

    • How would you explain:

    • Dominant gender thinking.

    • Binary thinking.

    • Hegemonic masculinity and emphasized femininity.

    • Gender stratification.

    • Patriarchal dividend.

    • Gender at work including glass ceilings and gender segregation.

    • Gender socialization.

    • The embodiment paradigm and types of body work.

    • The practice of doing gender and gendered talk.

  • Consider analysis of these concepts and their interrelations.

REFERENCES

  • Albanese, Patrizia (2009). “Sexuality and Gender” In Principles of Sociology: Canadian Perspectives. Edited by Lorne Tepperman and James Curtis. Oxford University Press.

  • Connell, R. W. (1995) Masculinities. Berkeley: University of California Press.

  • Connell, R. (2002). Gender. Wiley: Hoboken.

  • Karp, David, William Yoels, and Barbara Vann (2004). Sociology in Everyday Life, 3rd Edition. Waveland Press: Long Grove, ILL.

  • Kimbrell, Andrew. The Masculine Mystique: The Politics of Masculinity. 1st ed. New York: Ballantine Books, 1995. Print.

  • Kimmel, Michael (2004). The Gendered Society, 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press.

  • Martin, Lynn (1991). The Glass Ceiling Initiative: A Report. Department of Labor, Washington, D.C.

  • Maynard, Robyn (2017). Policing Black Lives: State Violence in Canada from Slavery to the Present. Toronto: Between the Lines Press.

  • Parsons, Talcott and Robert Freed Bales (1955). Family, Socialization and Interaction Process. Glencoe: Free Press.

  • Rosenberg, Sharon (2006). Personal communications: Edmonton.