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Chapter 4
Gender Inequality
What is Gender?
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Gender: the personal traits and life
chances that a society links to being
female or male
Sex: the biological distinction between
females and males
Gender Stratification
and Patriarchy
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Gender is an important dimension of social
inequality.
 Gender stratification frequently takes the form
of patriarchy (social patterns by which males
dominate females)
 Patriarchy is widely evident in the U.S. and
around the world
 Sociologists see patriarchy - and the entire
range of gender - as the creation of society
itself
 Matriarchy is a social pattern in which females
dominate males
Gender Stratification and
Patriarchy

Explanations of Patriarchy
 Men’s
greater body size and strength
 Brain power
 Greater aggressiveness (testosterone)
 Most sociologists reject the idea that any
behavior is “hard-wired” into human
biology
The Problem of Sexism
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Sexism is the assertion that one sex is
innately inferior to the other
Sexism supports patriarchy by claiming
that men are “better” than women and
therefore should dominate them.
Gender and the Family
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The importance of gender to family life begins
with the fact that most expectant parents prefer a
son to a daughter.
The influence continues in the childhood
socialization process.
After reaching adulthood, gender makes marriage
two distinctive relationships
 Jessie Bernard’s “his” marriage and “her”
marriage (Life gets better, but for whom?)
Gender and Education

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Even before starting school, children are
exposed to gender bias in children’s books.
56% of college students are women
 social pressures still steer women toward
majors in English, dance, drama, or
sociology
 men still are directed toward physics,
economics, biology, mathematics and
computer science
Gender and Education
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Title IX- banned sex discrimination in any
educational program receiving federal
funding.
Despite the passage of Title IX in 1972,
equality in athletic programs is more the
exception than the rule
Gender and the Mass Media
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There are more than 250 million
televisions in the US.
TV directs its advertising toward women
but ignores them in TV programming.
Women often have supporting roles that
reinforce traditional gender roles.
Gender and Religion
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Religion has traditionally been patriarchal
In recent decades, more liberal denominations
have moved toward greater gender equality
 This liberal trend includes revising prayers,
hymnals, and even the Bible to reduce
sexist language, as well as ordaining both
men and women as priests
Orthodox Judaism, Islam, and Roman
Catholicism have retained traditional male
leadership
Gender and Politics

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Women have played only a marginal role
in this nation’s political history
Thousands of women now serve at the
local levels as mayors and council
members
In 2006, 23 percent of the state legislators
were women and 8 of the 50 state
governors were women.
Gender and the Military
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Women have been part of the military
since the Revolutionary War
During World War II, when the
government officially opened the military
to both sexes, women made up just 2
percent of the armed forces
Women are 15 percent of the U.S.
military fighting force in Iraq
Gender and Work

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By 2005, three in five women are in the
work force
Sixty two percent of married women with
children under the age of six work
Eighty percent of women with children
ages six to seventeen work
Gender and Work

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Even though more women work for pay,
their range of jobs is still limited
Gender discrimination was outlawed by the
Federal Equal Pay Act of 1963 and Title VII
of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, but even
today it continues to be an issue
The glass ceiling addresses subtle
discrimination in the top positions
Gender Stratification


Inequality between men and women is
reflected in differences in income and in
responsibility for housework, as well as in
patterns of violence and even reproductive
issues
Gender income inequality is the result of
men holding different kinds of jobs, family
life, and gender discrimination
Violence Against Women
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Perhaps the most serious problem linked to
patriarchy is men’s physical violence
against women
 Assault, rape, and murder are common
Why is violence a gender issue?
 Physical aggressiveness is a key element
of the cultural definition of masculinity.
 Gender violence is not so much sexual
as an expressions of power
When it comes to serious violence, the
most dangerous setting for women is the
home
Sexual Harassment

Sexual Harassment: unwanted comments,
gestures or physical contact of a sexual
nature
 Quid Pro Quo- sexual harassment that is
blatant and direct is a violation of civil
rights
 Hostile Environment- more subtle
behavior
Sexuality, Beauty and
Reproduction
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Beauty is about power and inequality
Social norms encourage females to wear
attractive clothes and to be attentive to
men
Women’s reproduction has been regulated
 regulation of birth control
 restricted access to abortion clinics
Women: A Majority-Minority
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Numerically, women are a slight majority
of the U.S. population
Women meet the test of being both a
physically distinctive and disadvantaged
category
 Women have less income, wealth, and
power than men
Minority Women:
Intersection Theory
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Minority women are doubly disadvantaged
 They earn less than white women
 Minority women earn less than minority
men
 In 2002, African American women
earned 63 percent as much as white
men and Hispanic women earned 51
percent as much as white men.
Structural-Functional Analysis:
Gender and Complimentarity
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Functionalists contend that differences
between men and women help build families
and integrate society as a whole
(instrumental and expressive roles)
The structural-functional analysis of gender
was quite influential fifty years ago but is far
less today
Structural-Functional Analysis:
Gender and Complementarity

Critics contend that:
 functionalism ignores how men and
women can and do relate to one
another in a variety of ways that do not
fit any norm
 functionalism fails to take into account
the personal strains and social conflicts
produced by rigid gender patterns
Symbolic-Interaction Analysis:
Gender in Everyday Life
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The symbolic-interaction paradigm
provides a micro-level analysis of gender
at work in the everyday lives of individual
people
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Personal behavior
Use of space
Language
Gender directly affects personal behavior,
the use of space, and the language we use
Symbolic-Interaction Analysis:
Gender in Everyday Life

Critics point out that symbolic-interaction
overlooks the fact that gender is a basic
part of social organization
Social-Conflict Analysis:
Gender and Inequality
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Friedrich Engels expanded Marx’s theory to
include gender, arguing that the same
process that allows a ruling class to
dominate a worker places men in a
dominant position over women
 Patriarchy is a system by which wealthy
men transmit their wealth to their sons.
 The double problem of capitalism lies in
exploiting men in the factories and
exploiting women in the home
Social-Conflict Analysis:
Gender and Inequality

Critics of this perspective point out:
 Families perform vital task of raising
children
 Not everyone defines the differences as
unjust
 Patriarchy also occurs in socialist nations
such as Cuba and The People’s Republic
of China
Feminism

Feminism:
 the study of gender with the goal of
changing society to make women and
men equal
 involves both theory and action
Feminist Foundations

There is no one version of feminism, but almost
all feminists agree on:
 the importance of gender;
 the importance of change;
 the importance of choice;
 the need to eliminate patriarchy;
 the need to eliminate violence against women;
and
 the importance of sexual autonomy
Types of Feminism
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Types of feminists:
 Liberal feminists - want women and
men to be treated as individuals but want
change to occur within existing social
institutions
 Socialist feminists -claim that a Marxiststyle class revolution is needed to secure
equality for all people
 Radical feminists -argue that patriarchy
is built into the concept of gender itself
and nothing short of erasing gender will
bring about equality
Politics and Gender: Constructing
Problems and Defining Solutions
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Conservatives focus on the value of
families
 While most conservatives are willing to
support women in the workplace and
even in positions of national leadership,
most also support policies to strengthen
families
 Believe that gender equality may
weaken the family
Politics and Gender: Constructing
Problems and Defining Solutions
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Liberals focus on the pursuit of equality and
speak out in favor of the slow but steady
progress that has been made to expand the
rights and opportunities for
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Families have changed because families need
two working adults to make ends meet
Men must take greater responsibility for the
home and children
The earning power of women must be raised
Politics and Gender: Constructing
Problems and Defining Solutions
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Radicals argue that, at a minimum, basic
change must come to the economic and
political system
 The target of basic change is the family
 Some radical feminists promote the
elimination of gender itself