Gender and Stratification

Lecture Seven: Gender and Stratification

Introduction

• Sociology is the systematic and critical study of our shared and social lives.
• Sociological imagination helps understand how private troubles can be public issues.
• Societies are stratified, and this lecture explores gender as a concept to explain stratification.
• Next week, the lecture will cover race and ethnicity.

Key Questions

• What is the difference between sex and gender?
• How are gendered inequalities created and reproduced?
• What can be done to address these inequalities?

Gender as Stratification

• Divisions between men and women are among the most enduring in human history.
• Many inequalities are being challenged, but some remain embedded in societies.
• Understanding the difference between men and women is essential for understanding gendered stratification and how to respond to these inequalities.

Sex vs. Gender

• Sex: Biological differences (male vs. female).
  • Chromosomes (XX vs. XY).
  • Hormones (testosterone vs. oestrogen).
  • Reproductive organs and genitalia.
  • Secondary sexual characteristics (body hair, weight, bone structure, etc.).
• Gender: Cultural differences (masculinity vs. femininity).

Biological Assumptions

• Innate and natural distinctions exist between those born male or female.
• These biological distinctions are reflected in cultural, economic, and political gender roles.
• Societal inequalities between men and women reflect natural distinctions between males and females.

Classical Sex Perspective

• Humans are seen as just another animal species.
• The animal kingdom is marked by significant distinctions in ‘gender roles.’
• These biological distinctions are reflected in social gender roles.
• Men and women are ‘separate but equal.’
• This concept naturalizes divisions between genders and stigmatizes ‘unnatural’ sexual practices.

Fluidity of Gender

• Biological sex is considered binary and innate.
• Sociologists argue that gender is fluid and performed.
• Gender refers to behaviours, roles, and expressions appropriate for men and women.
• People can perform a gendered identity (or elements of it) not necessarily attached to their biological sex.
• Biological sex is something we have; gender is something we do.

Performing Gender

• Gender is the activity of managing situated conduct in light of normative conceptions of attitudes and activities appropriate for one’s sex category.
• Sex category: Categorisation of humans through expression of associated biologically agreed criteria.
• Gender is performed through socially defined roles and displays – it is a “routine accomplishment embedded in everyday interaction.”
• Gender Identity: Subjective identification with particular aspects of femininity or masculinity – ‘I am a wo/man.’
• Gender Role: The gendered roles that we take on, e.g., the mothering role.
• Gender Expression: How we display and express our gender.

Understanding the Links

• How society understands the links between sex and gender significantly affects social and political responses to differences and divisions.
• Biology: Natural differences and divisions.
• Social Constructions: Gender discrimination.

Gender Inequalities In New Zealand

• There are evident inequalities in New Zealand between men and women in relation to pay, power, and status.
• Some suggest this is related to biological differences between males and females.
• Others argue it is about cultural norms and institutional biases against women.

Patriarchy and Sexism

• Patriarchy is the ‘rule (or law) of the father.’
• Originally understood as the dominant role of the father in family relations through which we are socialised.
• Sociologists have repurposed patriarchy to explain social systems that create sexist outcomes.

Evolutionary Patriarchy

• Much of the ‘natural’ approach to gender and sexism evokes the role of evolution in determining human nature.
• It assumes that males and females are ‘hard-wired’ differently, resulting in different approaches to ‘mating’ and parenting.
• The implicit understanding is that males are naturally more suited to power and the public sphere, whereas females are better suited to nurture and the private sphere.

The Case of Babies

• Biological women are uniquely positioned to give birth to children.
• For many, this biological event leads to natural social consequences, from career breaks to gendered dispositions.
• Alternatively, the social inequalities resulting from the ‘mothering role’ can be attributed to the social norms through which we respond to biology.

Gender Pay Gap Figures

• Earning Power:
  • Median earnings one year after study (Bachelor's degree): Men $38,109$, Women $38,049$
  • Median earnings one year after study (Doctorate): Men $59,612$, Women $60,996$
  • Median earnings five years after study (Bachelor's degree): Men $49,456$, Women $53,487$
  • Median earnings five years after study (Doctorate): Men $65,173$, Women $76,605$
• At the University of Auckland, the gender pay gap is 10% and 16% for academic staff.
  Gender pay gap by age (June 2022):
  The graph shows that the gender pay gap varies across age groups. The pay gap is the difference between what men and women earn, with the gap representing the percentage by which men's earnings exceed women's earnings. The gap shows as a percentage, from the age 15-19 with no percentage, and increases along all ages, reaching 16% and starts decreasing on the age of 65+.

Board Representation Figures

• Percentage of board members who are female:
  • 2020: Chairs 20.0%, Directors 35.0%
  • 2011: Chairs 10.4%, Directors 16.8%

Feminine Occupations

• 'Feminine' occupations reflect wife/mother nurturing roles.
• Examples: Nurse, Teacher.
  Distribution of domestic students/learners in narrow fields of study by gender in 2015-bachelors or higher
  The graph shows a distribution of domestic students/learners in narrow fields of study by gender. Some examples of the fields of study:
  *Nursing (13,080)
  *Teacher Education (12,235)
  *Radiography (540)
  *Librarianship, Info Mgt & Curatorial Studies (490)
  *Human Welfare Studies and Services (5,000)
  *Curriculum and Education Studies (6,100)
  *Veterinary Studies (705)
  *Complementary Therapies (470)
  *Public Health (3,200)
  *Behavioural Science (11 265)
  *Rehabilitation Therapies (2.935)
  *Other Education (1.250)
  *Visual Arts and Crafts (2.850)
  *Other Society and Culture (2.635)
  *Tourism (860)
  *Studies in Human Society (16.600)

Portion of women are over-represented in certain roles and professions. This can influence the gender pay gap due to factors like occupational segregation and undervaluing of traditionally feminine roles.

Double Shift

• Women are often expected to take on domestic ‘responsibilities’ as well as paid employment.
• Ann Oakely (1974): Women work a ‘double shift’ in the home.
• An AUT study showed that men in NZ did 10 hours of care work per week, compared to 17 hours for women.
• 71% of men were happy with this split, compared to 50% of women.

Institutional Discrimination

• It is argued that there exists a cultural bias towards masculine characteristics in regard to power.
• Women leaders experience far more gendered and personalized critical media coverage than their male counterparts.
• Work environments discriminate against feminine characteristics.

Masculine Femininity

• Against these systematic limitations, it is argued that women have been reduced to a shadow of masculinity.
• In order to compete, women have to ‘act’ like men: to play a ‘man’s game.’

Summary

• Significant progress has been made in New Zealand, but persistent gender power divisions remain.
• These divisions are often reproduced through biological assumptions.
• These assumptions and subsequent discriminations continue to have resonant strongly.

Coming Up

• Tomorrow: Understanding the gender pay gap.
• Friday: Addressing the pay gap and Critical Reflection VI.
• Next week: Race and ethnicity.