Week Three SS-1065D

Last week..
Theory: Marx, Weber, Durkheim/Parsons, Bourdieu Life-chances how well people get on in life across

various domains including e.g. income, housing, health, education Class identification: to what extent do people identify as belonging to a particular class? Social mobility the extent to which a person can move out of one class and into another Think about: how class divisions intersect with ethnicity and gender divisions. Feedback from last weeks discussion

This week
What is the difference between sex

and gender? Gender and power Gender as a social division Feminist theories of why and how gender operates as a social division

Definitions
Sex biological differences anatomical, hormonal
Gender the social identity that has become

historically and culturally attached to being male or female. Masculinity and femininity used to describe the social roles, expectations and behaviours linked to each gender. (e.g.see Ann Oakley Sex, Gender and Society [1974]) Simone de Beauvoir (1949)The Second Sex one is not born, but rather becomes, a woman. Performing gender (Judith Butler).

Social construction of gender

Social construction social

identities attached to maleness and femaleness are not natural. They are produced and interpreted by human beings in society. Primary socialisation or sex role socialisation (birth young childhood) (e.g. Bem 1989, Durkin 1995, Oakley1972) Education (Murphy & Elwood 1998) Advertising (Goffman 1976 Gender Advertisements) Everyday gender relations

Gender and power

Knowledge is a human product not an objective truth out

there waiting to be found (see Foucault). Knowledge produced by men privileging masculine standpoint which has been thought of as neutral. Women as Other, not men. He is the Absolute. She is the Other.(Simone de Beauvoir 1949) Patriarchy a system of social structures and practices in which men dominate, oppress and exploit women (Walby: 1990:20). Operates through paid work, domestic labour, sexuality, the state, violence and culture. Hegemonic masculinity an idealised form of masculinity based on assumptions of mens greater physical and mental prowess. Oppresses women AND men.

Masculine and feminine attributes and roles

Masculinities imposed on men and femininities imposed on

women. Social control Natural qualities of men and women (Gove and Wat 2000):
Men active, commanding, unemotional, decisive, assertive
Women anxious, gentle, perceptive, vulnerable, co-operative

Implications: What occupations are men thought to be suited to and what occupations are women thought to be suited to? How should men and women act in personal relations with one another? Who performs which roles in families/households?

Gender and social divisions

Not just that men and women have different roles in

society but that these are structural, social in origin and that men hold more power than women (Abbott 2006). Gender forms universal categorisation in all societies. Hierarchy in which men and mens activities and attributes are more highly valued. However, what constitutes masculinity + femininity differs between cultures because SOCIALLY CONSTRUCTED. Women as second sex - but men can also be constrained by ideas of masculinity BUT social construction of these values and practices means can change! Agency.

Gender and education

Changing trends: girls doing better academically at all

levels of education up to degree level Subject choices: young women social sciences, medicine, creative arts. Young men maths, engineering, technology. Concerns about working-class boys More boys at the extremes doing very well or very badly. Overall although girls improving at a faster rate, boys performance at school has improved too over past 20 years. The culture of school who does it work out for? Intersections with ethnicity and class (see Week 10 Education)

Gender and labour-force: Sex and Power report 2011 (EHRC)

Middle management/professionals 45% of solicitors are women, majority of full time teachers are women (but only a third of heads) Top jobs If women had equal representation among UKs 26,000 top positions of power, estimates that around 5,400 more women would rise to these levels Very small increase since 2008 in number of women in top jobs Only 12.5% of FTSE 100 directors are women, secondary school heads 35.5%, chief execs of voluntary orgs. 48%

Gender and the labour-force

Gender and economic activity http://www.poverty.org.uk/48/b.pdf (data from Labour Force Survey May 2011 data is 2010) Types of jobs: Occupations still heavily gendered (Abbott 2006)(although see Sex and Power report) from control by men in the home to control in the workforce or the state (wife/secretary, mother/primary school teacher)? (Abbott 2006) More women than men in part-time work: In 2003 21 % or women and 5.3% of men in p/t (Abbott 2006)

Gender and labour-force cont.

Gender and pay: Young men and women start out on similar earnings but men then outstrip womens earning s in mid-life (Social Trends 2000, ONS) (not totally explained by p/t work) in all occupations, women earn less than men. Inequality is greatest in the higher paid jobs (Janes 2006) Gender and orientation to work (Catherine Hakim

1991, 1995) preference theory - home-centred, adapters, work-centred women. Says women chose + often satisfied with low-status, p/t, low-paid jobs to fit with domestic roles. Critiqued by feminist sociologists! Gender and poverty

Unpaid domestic labour

Domestic labour although women are more likely

to be in paid employment outside the home, they still do most of the domestic labour as well Women still take primary responsibility for childcare even when in paid work (Family and Working Lives Survey
Department for Education and Employment 1998)

Emotional labour

Division of household tasks is more equal among

younger couples and those with higher educational qualifications (British Social Attitudes Survey 1998)

Violence
Domestic violence against women of reproductive age causes

as many deaths as cancer, and more deaths than road traffic accidents and malaria combined. (World Bank, 1993)
Statistics on domestic violence in the UK (Womens Aid)
1 in 4 women will experience domestic violence in their life-

time 2 women a week are murdered by their current or former partner 1 incident of domestic violence is reported to the police every minute.

Feminism
First recorded use of the word in English in

1894 Feminism is focussed on social transformation with womens emancipation at its core (Lynne Segal 2000) But also free men from social control and constraints exerted by hegemonic masculinities

Feminist approaches
Abbots (2006) categorisation:
Realist gender divisions have an

existence in society beyond the lives of individuals who make them up Socially constructed - gender divisions are bound up in our personal beliefs and how these are acted out in our day-to-day interactions with other people

Liberal feminism
Mary Wollstonecraft Vindication of the Rights of

Woman (1792). Women associated with nature (bodies) and passion. Men with reason (Rousseau) and culture Women oppressed because confined to reproduction and private sphere (body and passion) Solution: Desexualise reason, passion, nature and culture. Men AND women capable of reason so women should have rights to education, entry into public sphere. Equal opportunities. Problem: Ignores social value of what is done in the private sphere. Also if women socially and economically dependent on men, cant take advantage of formal equality.

Socialist feminism
Public/private spheres are interdependent Problem with liberal feminism: to be equal women must

accept male standards, but no reciprocal role reversal expected of men in home The personal is political Second wave feminism (1960s/70s) focuses on domestic sphere as site of womens oppression Economic inequalities, unpaid domestic labour (Ann Oakley 1974 Housewife) Womens inequality because of systematic operation of capitalism and patriarchy working together.

Radical feminism
Patriarchy is primary source of oppression - explaining

oppression as women rather than workers Sexuality, marriage, motherhood, domestic violence aspects of womens intimate experiences in private domain Links between sexuality and social control of women through violence Womens commonality, celebrating womens difference from men - sisterhood, women centred culture Private experience into politics not previously seen in scope of politics before Rape crisis and womens aid centres

Intersectionality
As a forty nine-year-old Black

Lesbian socialist mother of two, including one boy, and member of an inter-racial couple, I usually find myself a part of some group defined as other, deviant, inferior or just plain wrong (Audre Lorde 1984) Sojourner Truth (1852) Aint I a woman? Anna Julia Cooper intersectionality (A Voice from the South 1892)

Anna Julia Cooper

Black feminists
1980s black feminist criticise ethnocentric basis of

mainstream feminist bell hooks (1987) if men are not equals in white supremacist, capitalist, patriarchal class structure, which men do women want to be equal to? Home as a site of oppression or as a positive site of refuge against racism? (bell hooks) Sari Squad, Southall Black Sisters

Feminism and post-modernism

Post-modernism - turn to culture move away from material

structures. No absolute truth. The power of language to construct our understanding of the world Foucault and discourse a group of statements which provide a language for talking about a topic (Stuart Hall 1992: 291) Dominant discourse of femininity cluster of generally accepted ideas of what constitutes appropriate femininity (Janes 2009). Control and surveillance. From patriarchy (top-down power) to gendered power in everyday practices and relationships at every level of society

Discussion

What is gender? How is it socially constructed?

Young women now earn more than men article To what extent do you think women have broken the glass-ceiling? Give evidence for your answers Things to think about:
What

kinds of jobs do women get? Are women in positions of power? How does womens pay compare to mens?

Essays
Read marking criteria
HOW DO DIFFERENT SOCIAL DIVISIONS INTERACT? Learning Strategies class, Learner Development Unit Questions? Come to see me with essay plans (V. IMPORTANT) What will your arguments be? What will you focus on? How will you structure it? What references will you use?

References
Beauvoir, S. de (1953)The Second Sex, London: Jonathan Cape.

First published 1949. Bem, S. L (1989) Genital knowledge and gender constancy in preschool children, Child Development, 60: 649-62. Durkin, K. (1995) Developmental Social Psychology, from Infancy to Old Age, Oxford: Blackwell. Gove, J. & Watt, S. (2000) Identity and Gender. In K. Woodward (ed.) Questioning Identity: gender, class, ethnicity, London: Routledge. Hakim, C. (1991) Grateful slaves and self-made women: fact and fantasy in womens work orientations, European Sociological Review, 7: 101-21.

References continued
hooks, b. (1987)Feminism: a movement to end sexist

oppression in Philips, A. (ed.) Feminism and Equality, Oxford: Blackwells Janes, L. (2002) Understanding gender divisions: feminist perspectives. In P. Braham and L. Janes Social Differences and Divisions, Blackwell: Oxford. Lorde, A. (1984) Sister Outsider, Trumansburg, NY: The Crossing Press Murphy, P. & Elwood, J. (1998) Gendered experiences, choices and achievements exploring the links, Journal of Inclusive Education, 2(2): 95-118. Oakley, A. (1972) Sex, Gender and Society, Aldershot: Gower Publishing