GENDER, SEX,

AND
SEXUALITY
Presented By : Catral, Sevillena, Moraga
INTENDED LEARNING OUTCOMES
Learn the definition of Gender, Sex, and Sexuality
Understand The feminist movements
Learn the Theoretical Perspectives on gender
Learn Theoretical perspectives on sex
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SEX GENDER SEXUALITY

Sex denotes biological Gender denotes social and Sexuality is viewed as a
characteristics cultural characteristics person’s capacity for
differentiating males differentiating masculine sexual feelings
and females and feminine behavior
 Gender identity
is the way that one thinks about
gender and self-identities
Cisgender 4
is an umbrella term used to
describe people whose sense of
personal identity and gender
corresponds with their birth sex

Transgender Gender expression

describes people whose sense

is how one demonstrates gender,
of personal identity does not
behavior, and interactions
correspond with their birth sex
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GENDER ROLES
Gender role refers to society’s concept of
how people are expected to look and how
they should behave based on societally
created norms for masculinity and
femininity
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SEXISM
Sexism refers to prejudiced beliefs that value
one sex over another

For example:
Women were not permitted to vote before 1920, women did
not serve on the U.S. Supreme court until 1981, no Latina
served as a U.S. Senator until 2016, and no openly
transgender person was elected in a state legislature until
2017
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SEX EDUCATION

Sex education is high quality

teaching and learning about a
broad variety of topics related
to sex and sexuality.
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SEXUAL ORIENTATION
Heterosexuality Bisexuality
-attraction to individuals -attraction to
of the other sex individuals of either sex

Homosexuality Asexuality
-attraction to individuals -no attraction to
of the same sex either sex
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SEXUAL ORIENTATION
Alfred Kinsey was among the first
to conceptualize sexuality as a
continuum rather than a strict
dichotomy of gay or straight

Kinsey created a six-point scale

ranging from exclusively
heterosexual to exclusively
homosexual

.
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THE FEMINIST MOVEMENTS
refers to a series of political campaigns for reforms on a variety of issues that affect women’s quality of life

1848 1851
The first women’s rights convention was Lucy Gage led a state women’s
held in New York and was the location for convention in Ohio where Sojourner
the Declaration of Sentiments, principally Truth was born
authored by Elizabeth Cady Stanton,
connecting the slavery abolition
movement and the women’s rights
movement

1869 1920
The 15th amended was proposed and was The 19th amendment was ratified and
unpopular with suffragists because it the biggest success of the first wave of
left women out feminism (which was limited by its lack
of inclusion of women of color and poor
women)
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SECOND WAVE FEMINISM (1960S-1980S)
•The second phase of feminism drew in women of color and
developing nations seeking sisterhood and solidarity and
demonstrate that race, class, and gender oppression are all
related.
•Second wave feminists were influenced by other social
movements of the 1960s (civil rights, anti-war, environmental,
student, gay rights, and the farm workers movements).
•The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was ratified by Congress in
1972 but failed to become the 23rd Amendment.
•Betty Friedan (1963) wrote The Feminine Mystique in which she
explicitly objected to the mainstream media image of women
and is widely credited with having begun second-wave
feminism.
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THIRD WAVE FEMINISM (1990S – 2008)

•Third-wave feminism refers to several diverse strains of feminist
activity and study, arising partially as a response to the perceived
failures of and backlash against second-wave feminism

•Popular television shows such as Sex in the City (1998-2004)

elevated a type of third wave feminism that merged feminine
imagery with high powered careers and robust sex lives

•Third wave feminism effectively used mass media to create a

global, multicultural, and boundary-crossing feminism
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FOURTH WAVE FEMINISM (2008 – PRESENT)
•Fourth wave feminism is defined by technology and
characterized by the #metoo and the #timesup movements

•Waves of accusations against men in powerful positions have

catalyzed feminists in a way that appears to be fundamentally
different than in previous iterations

•Successes of fourth wave feminists include the proliferation

of social media tags that promote inclusion and effectively
dismantle the gender and sex binaries that have fragmented
the movement
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FEMINIST THEORY
is a type of conflict theory that examines inequalities in gender-related issues

•Patriarchy refers to a set of institutional structures that are based

on the belief that men and women are dichotomous and unequal
categories.

•Dominant gender ideology is key: the assumption that physiological

sex differences between males and females are related to
differences in their character, behavior, and ability.
 (Dorothy Smith) 15
STANDPOINT THEORY
was a key innovation in sociology that enabled these issues to be seen and addressed in a
systematic way by examining one’s position in life

•Smith argued that women’s lives were more effectively examined from the
“actualities” of their lived experience in “everyday/everynight” life

•Smith observed that women’s position in modern society is acutely divided by the
experience of dual conscience of household and institutional

•Interactional theory combines critical race theory, gender conflict theory and
Marx’s class theory, a “prism for understanding certain kinds of problems”
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THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES ON GENDER
•Not only do we need to examine at woman’s experience in the
workforce, we should understand how each person’s experience is also
influenced by race/ethnicity, social class, age, etc .(intersectionality)

•Structural theorists: look at how values and norms shape societal

notional of success in the workforce and how these reinforce the
division of labor and gender inequality

•Conflict theorists: might look at how the bourgeoisie use the wage gap
to perpetuate an unequal system and how that gap is successful in
keeping the working classes separated with false consciousness

•Interactionists: examine how meaning is produced in social interactions

and how it is translated into wage inequality
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STRUCTURAL FUNCTIONALISM
•Structural functionalism views the family as the most integral
component of society, and assumptions about gender roles within
marriage assume a prominent place
•Functionalists argue that gender roles were established well before
the pre-industrial era when men typically took care of responsibilities
outside of the home and women typically took care of the domestic
responsibilities
•Once established, these roles were passed on to subsequent
generations since they served to keep the family system functioning
properly
•Social and economic changes in the United States during WWII
resulted in changes in the family structure with women assuming the
role of breadwinner and the resulting imbalance when men returned
and wanted to reclaim jobs
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CONFLICT THEORY
•When sociologists examine gender through conflict theory, men
are seen as the dominant group and women are the subordinate
group
•Social problems, then, are created when dominant groups exploit
or oppress subordinate groups
•Friedrich Engels, a German sociologist, suggested that the same
owner-worker relationship seen in the labor force is also seen in the
household with women assuming the role of the proletariat and is
due to women’s dependence on men for wage attainment
•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
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SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM
•Symbolic interactionism aims to understand human behavior by
analyzing the critical role of symbols in human interaction, which is
relevant to the discussion of masculinity and femininity
•Because the meanings attached to symbols are socially created and
fluid versus natural and static, we act and react to symbols based on
the current assigned meaning
•When people perform tasks or possess characteristics based on the
gender role assigned to them, they are doing gender
•The social construction of sexuality refers to the way in which
socially created definitions shape the way people see and
experience sexuality
•In contrast, biological determinism is the belief that men and
women behave differently due to biological differences
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THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES ON SEX
Structural Functionalism: Functionalists stress the importance of regulating sexual
behavior to ensure marital cohesion and family stability and argue in favor of social
arrangements that promote and ensure family preservation
The purpose of encouraging sexual activity in the confines of marriage is to intensify
the bond between spouses and to ensure procreation occurs in a stable, legally
recognized relationship
Homosexuality cannot, then, be promoted on a large-scale as an acceptable
substitute for heterosexuality because procreation would eventually cease and be
dysfunctional to society
•For conflict theorists, sexuality is another area in which power differentials are
present and where dominant groups actively work to promote their worldview and
economic interests
•There are two key dimensions to the debate over same-sex marriage for conflict
theorists: ideological and economic
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THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES ON SEX
•From an ideological view, dominant groups wish for their worldview to win out over
what they see as the intrusion of a secular, individually driven worldview but activists
argue that legal marriage is a fundamental right
•From an economic perspective, activists in favor of same-sex marriage point out that
legal marriage brings with it entitlements, many of which are financial in nature and
denial of these benefits to gay couple is wrong
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THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES ON SEX
•Interactionists focus on the meanings associated with sexuality
and with sexual orientation (heterosexuality has come to signify
normalcy)
•Interactionists are also interested in how discussions of
homosexuals often focus almost exclusively on the sex lives of gays
and lesbians and that the slurs used to describe homosexuals affect
how they perceive themselves
•Queer Theory is an interdisciplinary approach to sexuality studies
that focuses on the mismatches between anatomical sex, gender
identity, and sexuality and highlights the need for a more flexible
and fluid conceptualization of sexuality
•Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick argued against U.S. society’s monolithic
definition of sexuality and its reduction to a single factor of the sex
of someone’s partner, identifying dozens of ways in which people’s
sexualities were different
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