Gender and Society

RA 9710 Play Stage

- Happened in children when they see
Gender and Development (GAD) the people around them owning a
- refers to the development specific gender
perspective and process that are
participatory and empowering,
Game Stage
equitable, sustainable, free from - Not based on gender but on
violence, respectful of human rights, function of individual in a group
supportive of self-determination and
actualization of human potentials Sex Gender
- achieve gender equality as a Biological (penis, SOCIALLY
fundamental value that should be vagina, ovaries, CONSTRUCTED
reflected in development choices testes, uterus); ROLES,
born with RESPONSIBILITIES,
Sex BEHAVIORS
UNIVERSAL CULTURAL
- biologically defined and genetically (factors related (Elements related
acquired differences between males to sex are the to gender vary
and females; chromosomal, same around the within and
hormonal and anatomical world, men have between cultures:
components penises and Ex. The roles of
Ex. Male and female genitalia, both women have men and women in
internal and external are different vaginas in every Kenya may be
country) different from the
- Women have 46 chromosomes
roles of men and
including two X and men have a Y
women in India);
Gender Learned behavior

- characteristics and roles of women GENERALLY CHANGES OVER

and men that are socially UNCHANGING TIME
constructed; expectation on what to (change is now (in the past, few
do possible with women became
- refers to the economic, social, surgical lawyers or
intervention): physician; today it
political, and cultural attributes and
does not vary is very common to
opportunities associated with being
fine women in
women and men; power is used and these professions);
shared varies within and
- Affects every structures of the between cultures
society; changes overtime
WHY IS GENDER A SOCIAL FACT
George Mead – the proponent of Symbolic
Interactionism Theory Social Fact – aspects of social life
that shape the behavior of individuals.
 Gender is a social concept – social and norms, rules, and laws; regulate
cultural differences as society assigns to conflict and discourage deviant
people based on their sex. behavior

Social construction of gender stipulates “All Crimes are Deviance, but not all
that GENDER ROLES are an “achieved Deviance are Crimes”
status” in a social environment, which
implicitly and explicitly categorize GENDER IS A CULTURE – SPECIFIC
people and therefore motivate social
behaviors.
CONSTRUCT
Gender has been defined as “the commonly
Examples of Social Facts
shared expectation and norms within a
1. Laws society about appropriate male and female
2. Mores behavior, characteristics and roles can be
3. Customs considered a social and cultural construct
4. Beliefs that differentiates females from males

roles and expectations are learned and they

DEVIANCE, CRIME, AND SOCIAL can change over time as well as vary within
CONTROL and between cultures

Social construction THE IDEOLOGY OF GENDER

- How we think and behave as
females and males is not etched in
stone by biology but rather is a
result of how society expects us to
think and behave based on what sex
we are
Deviance
- Defined as a behavior that elicits a
strong negative reaction from group
members and involves actions that
violate commonly held social norms;
varies widely across cultures, time,
and situations
Crime
Amounts to a violation of the
-
criminal law enacted by the society
Social Control
- Defined as any systematic means
and practices used to maintain
DETERMINES:
1. What is expected of us
2. What is allowed of us
3. What is valued in us
4. The nature and extent of:
Disadvantage, Disparity, and
Discrimination
5. Contains norms and rules regarding
appropriate behavior
6. Determines attributes
7. Reproduces range of beliefs and
customs to support these norms and
social rules
8. Determines the material reality of
relative access of men and women
and claims over different resources.
GENDER CONCEPTS
Gender Equality
➢ Is the state or condition that affords
women and men equal enjoyment of
 human rights, socially valued goods,
opportunities, and resources.
➢ All human beings are free to develop
their personal abilities and make
choices without the limitations set
by stereotypes, rigid gender roles
and prejudices.
➢ Different behaviors, aspirations and
needs are considered, valued and
favored equally
➢ Their rights, responsibilities and
opportunities will not depend on
whether they are born male or
female
➢ The end goal
Gender Equity
➢ Is the process of being fair to
women and men.
➢ Treatments that is different but
considered equivalent in terms of
rights, benefits, obligations and
opportunities
➢ The means to go there
Gender Identity
➢ Inherent sense of being a boy or
male, a girl or female
➢ An alternative gender (genderqueer,
gender non-conforming, boygirl,
ladyboy) which may or may not
correspond to a person’s sex
assigned at birth or to a person’s
primary or secondary sex
characteristics
➢ a person’s gender identity is not
necessarily visible to others
Gender Roles
➢ continuation of the gender status,
consisting of other achieved
statuses that are associated with a
particular gender status
Gender Diversity
➢ Extent to which a person’s gender
identity, role, or expression differs
from the cultural norms prescribed
for people of a particular sex
Gender Dysphoria
➢ Conflict between a person’s physical
or assigned gender and the gender
with which he/she/they identify.
- Very comfortable with the gender
they were assigned, sometimes
described as being uncomfortable
with their body or being
uncomfortable with the expected
roles of their assigned gender.
- To discomfort or distress that is
associated with a discrepancy
between a person’s gender identity
and that person’s sex assigned at
birth
BIOLOGY AND GENDER
Hormones
➢ Chemical substances secreted by
glands throughout the body and
carried by the bloodstream. The
same sex hormones occur in both
men and women, but differ in
amounts and in the effect that they
have upon different parts of the
body (Testosterone and Estrogen)
Chromosomes
➢ The normal human body contains 23
pairs of chromosomes. A
chromosome is a long thin structure
containing thousands of genes,
which are biochemical units of
heredity and govern the
 development of every human being
(Males: XY; Females: XX)
EVOLUTIONARY EXPLANATIONS OF
GENDER
Biological Approach
➢ Human behavior have been coded
by our genes because they are
adaptive
Sociological Approach
➢ Thousand years ago there was a
division of labor between men and
women, Men were the hunter-
gatherers, breadwinners, while
women were at home acting as the
angel of the house and looking after
the children
25 BIOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES
1. Most babies born with birth defects
are male. If a female has a defect,
she still has another copy of X
chromosome
2. Veins males tend to be larger.
3. Males are 4 times to be larger.
4. Females tend to have more vertical
foreheads, while male’s foreheads
tend to be sloped.
5. In males, fat gets deposited between
organs. In females, it forms a ring
around the abdomen. This is why
you can typically tell someone’s sex
from an MRI, and why liposuction is
easier in females.
6. Perhaps unexpectedly, males have
longer eyelashes on average.
7. The first finger of a female’s hand is
usually longer than the third. With
males, it’s usually the other way.
8. Only females can pass mitochondrial
diseases on to their offspring.
9. Males are 3 to 10 times more likely
to stutter.
10. Although both sexes lose hearing on
either end of the spectrum, males
tend to lose more hearing of high
pitched sounds, while females tend
to lose more hearing of low pitched
sounds. People have noted that as
time goes on, males and females
literally lose the ability to hear each
other.
11. Females are significantly better at
distinguishing between shade of
various colors than males.
12. Blood flow is more evenly
distributed in the male body. In
females it is concentrated around
core organs and the pelvic region.
13. There are about 1,000 genes that
vary between males and females
with regards to the liver. This is why
the sexes process everything from
alcohol to Tylenol at different rates.
14. Females tend to have a broader face
than males.
15. The external occipital protuberance
is bigger in males than in females
16. The male jaw bone is heavier that
the female jaw bone.
17. Some studies have found men to
have more standard deviation in IQ.
This has been spun by the media to
partially account for why both more
mentally handicapped individuals as
well as geniuses tend to be male.
18. Women tend to gather a greater
proportion of their energy from
aerobic respiration; men tend to
spend more time in anaerobic
respiration, relatively speaking.
19. The top edge of the eye socket is
much sharper in females than in
males.
20. Females have better peripheral
vision than males, while males are
 typically better at scanning. This is
thought to have evolutionary origins
(hunter vs gatherer)
21. During heart attacks, males
experience the “classic” symptoms
like chest and jaw pain, while for
females the symptoms can be quite
diverse. In fact, it can often be
confused for heart burn.
22. Females’ blood contains more water
and about 20% less red cells.
23. Although female brains are better at
many other tasks, male brains are
geared towards giving them better
special cognition.
24. Females tend to get motion sickness
more easily, especially if they are
pregnant.
25. Males die more from almost every
disease except breast cancer, female
reproductive disorders, and benign
tumors
 Gender and Socialization
Socialization
➢ lifelong process of forging identity
through social interaction
➢ It is the process of inheriting and
disseminating norms, customs and
ideologies. (Clausen, 1968)
Albert Bandura (Social Learning
Theory)
➢ “most human behavior is learned
observationally through modelling;
from observing others, one forms an
idea of how new behaviors are
performed, and on later occasions
this coded information serve as a
guide for action
John Locke (Tabula Rasa)
➢ Human mind at birth is nothing but a
blank slate. It is the notion that the
human mind receives knowledge
and forms itself based on experience
alone, without any pre-existing
innate ideas that would serve as a
starting point
➢ Implies that individual human beings
are born “blank” and that their
identity is defined entirely by their
experiences and sensory perception
of the outside world
AGENTS OF SOCIALIZATION
Family
➢ It is widely acknowledge as the most
influential factors of a child.
➢ Mothers, fathers, siblings,
grandparents, plus members of an
extended family teach the child
what he or she needs to know
Peer Groups
➢ made up of people who are similar in
age and social status and have
common interest.
➢ Peer groups are important to
adolescents in a new way, as they
begin to develop an identity
separate from their parents and
exert independence
School
➢ serve as latent function in society by
socializing children into behaviors
like teamwork, following a schedule,
and using textbooks.
➢ Basically established for the purpose
of socialization
Religion/Church
➢ avenue of socialization for many
people. It is highly regarded as a
major force in the formation and
development of individual’s moral
and spiritual life.
➢ Many of these institutions uphold
gender norms and contribute to
their enforcement through
socialization
Government
➢ many of the rites of passage people
go through today are based on age
norms established by the
government. Each time we embark
on one of these new categories –
senior, adult, taxpayer – we must be
socialized into this new role
Mass Media
➢ refers collectively to all media
technologies, including the internet,
Social Connections
cellphones, television, newspapers,
film and radio which are used for
mass communications, and to the
organizations which control these
technologies.
➢ It influences our attitudes and
behavior through the images and
messages it convey
GENDER SOCIALIZATION
➢ Is the process through which
children learn about the social
expectation, attitudes, and
behaviors associated with one’s
gender.
➢ As children, attain a sense of their
own gender identity (i.e., knowing
whether they are a girl or a boy),
they pay heightened attention to
information related to gender, and
especially to same-gender models
➢ Children learn at a young age that
there are distinct expectations for
boys and girls. Cross-cultural studies
reveal that children are aware of
gender roles by age two or three. At
four or five, most children are firmly
entrenched in culturally appropriate
gender roles (Kane 1996).
➢ acquire these roles through
socialization, a process in which
people learn to behave in a
particular way as dictated by
societal values, beliefs, and attitudes
Ex. society often views riding a
motorcycle as a masculine activity
and therefore, considers it to be part
of the male gender role
GENDER DIFFERENCES
➢ Play
- compared to boys, girls talk more
intimately and play less aggressively,
noted by Eleanor Maccoby (2002)
from her decades of research on
gender development
- play in smaller groups, often talking
with one friend. Boys more often do
larger group activities, play with
boys and girls play with girls, sex
differences grow larger
➢ Friendship
- women – at least in individualistic
cultures are more likely than men to
describe themselves in relational
term, welcome help, experience
relationship linked emotions, and be
attuned to other’s relationships
- In conversation, men are more focus
on tasks and on connections with
large group, whereas women focus
on personal relationships (Tannen,
1990).
➢ Vocations
- In general, women are more
interested in jobs dealing with
people. Men are interested in jobs
with things like, driver, engineer.
Diekman et al., 2010
➢ Family Relations
- Women’s connections as mothers,
daughters, sisters, and grandmothers
bind families (Rossi and Rossi, 1990)
➢ Empathy
- When surveyed, women are far
more likely to describe themselves
as having empathy or being able to
feel what another feels to rejoice
with those who rejoice and weep
 with those who weep (O’Brien et al.,
2013)
Dominance
- From Asia to Africa and Europe to
Australia, people rate men as more
dominant, driven, and aggressive.
Moreover, studies of nearly 80, 000
people across 70 countries show
that men more than women rate
power and achievement as
important (Schwartz & Rubel, 2005).
- These perceptions and expectations
correlate with reality. In essentially
every society, men are socially
dominant (Pratto, 1996). Men’s
names have come first; “King and
Queen”, “his and hers”, “husband
and wife”.
Aggression
- Psychologists mean behavior
intended to hurt. In surveys, men
admit to more aggression than
women do.
- In laboratory experiments, men
indeed exhibit more psychological
aggression.
- In Canada and the U.S., 8 times as
many men as women are arrested
for murder (Statistics Canada, 2010;
FBI, 2014)
Culture and Gender
Culture - is shared ideas, attitudes,
behaviors, and traditions by a large group
and transmitted across generations.
- the shaping power of culture in
ideas about how men and women
should behave.
- the disapproval they endure when
they violate those expectations
(Kite, 2001)
Gender Roles Vary with Culture
Despite gender role inequalities, the
majority of the world’s people would ideally
like to see more parallel male and female
roles. A 2010 Pew Global Attitudes survey
asked 25, 000 people whether life was more
satisfying when both spouses work and
share child care, or when women stay home
and care for the children while the husband
provides. In 21 of 22 countries, most chose
both spouses working
Gender Roles Vary Over Times
- In the past half century a thin slice
of our long history, gender roles
have changed dramatically.
- In 1938, just 1 in 5 American
approved “of a married woman
earning money in business or
industry if she has a husband
capable of supporting her”.
- Behavioral changes have
accompanied this attitude shift. In
1965 the Harvard Business School
had never granted a degree to a
woman, In its 2016 class 41% of
students were women.
- Things have changed at home too. In
the mid 1960s American married
women devoted seven times as
many hours to housework as did
their husbands (Bianchi et al., 2000).
SOCIAL STRATIFICATION AND
INEQUALITY
Stratification
- refers to a system in which groups of
people experience unequal access to
basic, yet highly valuable, social
resources
• Before 1859, married women were
not allowed to own or control
property
• Before 1909, abducting a woman
who was not an heiress was not a
crime
• Before 1918, women were not
permitted to vote
• Before 1953, employers could
legally pay a woman less than a man
for the same work
• Before 1969, women did not have
the right to a safe and legal abortion
(Nellie McClung Foundation N.d.)
Gender and Sexuality
SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES OF
MEN AND WOMEN
- Physical differences in size and
anatomy are obvious, the question
of psychological differences
between the genders is a LOT
MORE COMPLICATED AND
CONTROVERSIAL
- Neuroscientist explained that men
and women are equally smart, but
each sex uses different pats of the
brain to solve problems or achieve
goals
Women
- Better at packing carefully of a
family holiday because they have
more brain cells in the prefontal
cortex, the area which control
judgment, planning, and
conscientiousness
Men
- More volatile and swift to anger in a
crisis because the part of their brain,
the amygdala, which processes fear
and anger, is much larger than a
women’s
Science has also proved that women have
far more cells in the part of the brain that
controls empathy
Something unique about the structure and
functioning of the female brain which gives
women a distinct advantage when it comes
to intuition
THE SUBSTANTIAL VARIATION
WITHIN EACH SEX IS A RESULT OF
DIVERSITY IN:
1. Experience
2. Heredity
3. Sexual orientation
4. Race
5. Culture
6. Class
CULTURE VS BIOLOGY
- Sex, gender and sexual orientation
has noted that culture influences
how each of these is defined and
embodied
Culture
- Regulates our lives and influence the
development of personality at every
turn, primarily by prescribing and
limiting what he will be require to
acquire for the development of our
personality
Gender
- Central to culture life, society’s
views of gender are reflected in and
promoted by a range of social
structures and practices
Examples of social practices
- Communication that announces
social views of gender and seeks to
persuade us that these are natural,
correct ways for men and women to
be and to behave
- Customs whereby a woman takers
her husband’s name if she marries
- Within families, parents routinely
allow sons greater freedom that
daughters
Example of social structure
- Judicial system, if parents are
separated it is often difficult for a
father to gain child custody
 - Some countries are patriarchal,
means ruled by men
BEHAVIORAL DIFFERENCES BETWEEN
MALES AND FEMALES ACC. TO
MCCRAE AND COSTA
Neuroticism
- The tendency to experience
negative emotion and related
processes in response to perceive
threat and punishment
- Anxiety, depression, anger, self
consciousness, and emotional
liability
- Women have been found to score
higher than men on neuroticism
- One facet of neuroticism in which
women do now always exhibit
higher scores than men is Anger or
Angry hostility
Agreeableness
- Comprises traits relating to altruism
- Involves the tendency toward
cooperation, maintenance of social
harmony and consideration of the
concerns of others
- Women scores higher than men
Conscientiousness
- Traits related to self discipline,
organization, and the control of
impulses, and appears to reflect the
ability to exert self control in order
to follow rules or maintain goal
pursuit
- Women score higher than men on
some facets of conscientiousness
such as order, dutifulness, and self
discipline
Extraversion
- Reflects sociability, assertiveness,
and positive emotionality, all of
which have been linked to
sensitivity to rewards
- Women tend to score higher than
men on warmth, gregariousness, and
positive emotions
- Whereas men score higher than
women on assertiveness and
excitement seek seeking
Dominance
- Contain traits such as bossy,
domineering, and assertive
- Men tend to be more dominant and
agentic than women, and exhibit
higher levels of these traits
Openness/intellect
- Imagination, creativity, intellectual
curiosity, and appreciation of
aesthetic experiences
- Women score higher than men on
facets of aesthetics and feelings;
men score higher on the ideas facet
MEN ARE FROM MARS, WOMEN ARE FROM
VENUS (Haddock and McGeorge, 2001)
Stereotypical Stereotypical male
female behavior behavior
Emotional Logical
Sensitive Insensitive
Passive Aggressive
Responsible Autonomous
10 INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT
GENDER PSYCHOLOGY
1. Men change their minds two to
three times more often than women
2. Based on the total number of people
tested since IQ tests were devised,
 women have a slightly higher
average IQ than men
3. Women are better than men at
remembering faces
4. Men are more pessimistic when
predicting their work results
5. Men are more likely to help than
women
6. Most women tend to believe that
they are only good at certain tasks,
but not capable of being good at
everything
7. Women are more fearful and
anxious
8. Women are twice more talkative
9. Men think about sex every 7
seconds
10. The female brain is much more
adept at reading subtle facial and
verbal emotional expressions
According to Janet Shibley Hyde, male and
females from childhood are more alike than
different on most psychological variables,
resulting in what she calls
GENDER SIMILARITIES HYPOTHESIS
- Gender difference had either no or a
very small effect on most of the
psychological variables examined
Few main differences
- Men could throw farther, they were
physically aggressive; Masturbated
more; held more positive attitude
about sex in uncommitted
relationships
Gender Stereotypes
- Defined as widely shared and
simplified evaluative image of social
group and its members and has both
descriptive and prescriptive aspects
(Vaugh and Hogg, 2011)
- Tell us what women and men are
like, but also what should be like
(Heilman, 2001)
- Beliefs and attitudes about
masculinity and femininity. When
people associate a pattern of
behavior with either women or men,
they may overlook the individual
variations and exceptions and come
to believe that the behavior is
inevitably associated with one and
not the gender (Linda Brannon,
1996)
SOCIAL ROLE THEORY
- Gender stereotypes are determined
by roles
- Argues that gender stereotypes
stem from the distribution of men
and women into distinct roles within
a given society (Eagly et al, 2000)
Two Core Dimensions
- Agency, including traits such as
independence, aggression, and
assertiveness
- Communion, including traits such as
caring, altruism, and politeness
- Men are generally seen to be high in
agency and low in communion;
Women are generally perceived to
be high communion but low in
agency
UNDERSTANDING SEXUALITY
- Sexuality covers a broad spectrum,
and is also deeply personal. It is
about understanding the sexual
feelings and attractions we feel
towards others
- Everyone’s sexuality is different
 - Some people are attracted to only
on sex, and others are attracted to a
diversity of people regardless of sex
and gender
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO
CONSIDER ATTRACTION WHEN
TALKING ABOUT SEXUALITY
- Emotional attraction may not
develop until you start to get to
know someone after a period of
time
- While some people experience
physical and sexual at first sight,
some do not
DIFFERENT TYPES OF SEXUALITY
1. Heterosexual
- People are attracted to the opposite
sex
2. Homosexual
- Attracted to the same sex; 10% of
young Australians experience same-
sex attraction, most during puberty
➢ Lesbian – common term for female
homosexuals
➢ Gay – for male homosexuals
DIFFERENT TYPES OF SEXUALITY
Bisexual
- Attracted to men and women still
consider themselves to be mainly
straight or gay
- Sexual feelings towards both
genders but only have sex
intercourse with one
- Identify as queer or pansexual to
show they are attracted to different
kinds of people
Asexual
- Someone who does not experience
sexual attraction
- Not the same as celibacy
- Not a gender identity or a hormone
imbalance, not also a disorder or a
fear of sex or relationship
- Demisexual people feel sexual
attraction only after they develop a
strong emotional bond with
someone
Transgender
- Acc to Youth Central, person
identifies with the opposite gender
- Can be male to female or female to
male. After their change, they may
be think themselves as heterosexual,
gay, lesbian, bisexual or another
sexual identity
Transexual
- A person who started changing to
their desired gender by using
surgery, hormones or both
Intersex
- Condition where a person is born
with reproductive organs, genitalia
or sex chromosomes that are not
just male or female. Also known as
HERMAPHRODITE
- Some intersex people identify as
both male and female and others as
neither
- Some undergo surgery to make
them either male or female