GENDER & SOCIETY

BILLY JOEL B. RAMOS, MA-IO, PhD in PSYCHOLOGY

THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES ON GENDER
Learning Objectives
At the end of this chapter, students are able to:
1. Explain the concept of gender in contrast to sex;
2. Differentiate the three major theoretical perspectives on view of
gender lens: functionalist, conflict, and symbolic interactionist, and;
3. Evaluate the importance of gender roles in the society.
The terms sex and gender are often used interchangeably in the vernacular.

However, in a medical and technically scientific sense, these words are not
synonymous. Increasingly, the term gender is being accepted to define psycho-
physiologic processes involved in identity and social role. It is common to hear
references to "gender" by professionals from numerous disciplines, including medicine,
psychology, anthropology, and social science.
Gender comes from the Latin word genus, meaning kind or race. Experts define
by one's own identification as male, female, or intersex; gender may also be based on
legal status, social interactions, public persona, personal experiences, and
psychologic setting. On the other hand, sex, from the Latin word sexus, is defined by the
gonads (organs), or potential gonads, either phenotypically or genotypically. It is
generally assigned at birth by external genital appearance, due to the common
assumption that this represents chromosomal or internal anatomic status. A
person's sex is a primary state of anatomic or physiologic parameters.
SEX
INHERENT - BY BIRTH
BIOLOGICAL
COMPOSITION
CHROMOSOMES
HORMONES
SEX ORGAN
MALE AND FEMALE

GENDER
BEHAVIORAL
CULTURAL
PSYCHOLOGICAL
EMOTIONAL
INFLUENCE BY EXTERNAL
FACTOR

SEXUALITY
SEXUAL ATTRACTION, PRACTICES AND IDENTITY THAT
MAY OR MAY NOT ALIGN WITH SEX AND GENDER
MAIN FOCUS
Gender refers to the socially constructed roles ascribed to
males and females. These learned roles, which are learned, change
over time and vary widely within and between cultures. Unlike sex
(the biological distinction between males and females), gender
refers to socially learned behavior and expectations that distinguish
between masculinity and femininity. The concept of gender also
includes the expectations held about the characteristics, aptitudes,
and likely behaviors of both men and women.
Men and women view the social world in various ways

● Our views are based on our experiences and

perspectives in life.
● A perspective is simply a way of looking at the
world.
SOCIOLOGICAL THEORIES
● help us to explain and predict the social world
in which we live.
● Sociology -
○ the functionalist , the conflict, and the
symbolic interactionist perspective
● Each perspective offers a variety of
explanations about the social world, human
behavior, and gender.
FUNCTIONAL PERSPECTIVE
Functionalist perspective highlights the interconnectedness of society by focusing
on how each part influences and is influenced by other parts.

CONFLICT PERSPECTIVE
Conflict theory suggests that society is a struggle for dominance among social groups
(like women versus men) that compete for scarce resources. From this perspective, we
can view men as the dominant group and women as the subordinate group.

SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM
Symbolic interactionism aims to understand human behavior by analyzing the critical role
of symbols in human interaction. Gender is something we do or perform, not something
we are.
FUNCTIONAL PERSPECTIVE

Society is a system of interconnected parts that work

together in harmony to maintain a state of balance and social
equilibrium for the whole. For example, each of the social
institutions contributes important functions for society: family
provides a context for reproducing, nurturing, and socializing
children; education offers a way to transmit a society’s skills,
knowledge, and culture to its youth; politics provides a means of
governing members of society; economics provides for the
production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services;
and religion provides moral guidance and an outlet for worship of
a higher power.
FUNCTIONAL PERSPECTIVE
Functionalists use the terms functional and
dysfunctional to describe the effects of social elements on
society. Elements of society are functional if they
contribute to social stability and dysfunctional if they
disrupt social stability.
Some aspects of society can be both functional and
dysfunctional. For example, crime is dysfunctional in that it
is associated with physical violence, loss of property, and
fear. But according to Durkheim and other functionalists,
crime is also functional for society because it leads to
heightened awareness of shared moral bonds and increased
social cohesion.
CONFLICT PERSPECTIVE
Society is a struggle for dominance among social groups (like women
versus men) that compete for scarce resources. When sociologists examine
gender from this perspective, we can view men as the dominant group and
women as the subordinate group. According to conflict theory, social problems
are created when dominant groups exploit or oppress subordinate groups.
Consider the Women’s Suffrage Movement or the debate over women’s “right
to choose” their reproductive futures. It is difficult for women to rise above
men, as dominant group members create the rules for success and opportunity
in society (Farrington and Chertok 1993). Contemporary conflict theorists
suggest that when women become wage earners, they can gain power in the
family structure and create more democratic arrangements in the home,
although they may still carry the majority of the domestic burden, as noted
earlier (Rismanand and Johnson-Sumerford 1998).
SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM
Symbolic interactionism aims to understand human behavior by
analyzing the critical role of symbols in human interaction. This is certainly
relevant to the discussion of masculinity and femininity. Imagine that you
walk into a bank hoping to get a small loan for school, a home, or a small
business venture. If you meet with a male loan officer, you may state your
case logically by listing all the hard numbers that make you a qualified
applicant as a means of appealing to the analytical characteristics
associated with masculinity. If you meet with a female loan officer, you
may make an emotional appeal by stating your good intentions as a means
of appealing to the caring characteristics associated with femininity.
Symbolic interactionism also suggests that our identity or sense of
self is shaped by social interaction. We develop our self-concept by observing
how others interact with us and label us. By observing how others view us, we
see a reflection of ourselves that Cooley calls the “looking glass self.”