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GENDER
SOCIETY
( GE 11)
AND
 1. What is gender and society all about?

Answer:

Gender refers to the characteristics of women, men, girls and boys that are socially
constructed. This includes norms, behaviours and roles associated with being a woman, man, girl
or boy, as well as relationships with each other. As a social construct, gender varies from society
to society and can change over time.

2. What is feminism?

Answer:

Feminism is an interdisciplinary approach to issues of equality and equity based on

gender, gender expression, gender identity, sex, and sexuality as understood through social
theories and political activism.

ESSAY: Answer the following questions below. Expand your thoughts. Write your answer in a whole
sheet of pad paper and submit it in school. For online, write your answer in a word document.

1. How would a functionalist, conflict theorist, symbolic interactionist, and feminist answer the
following question:

1.1 Why do men hold the most powerful economic and political positions across the globe?

Answer:

Conflict theorists think that these roles are forced upon people due to the influence that one
social class may have over another. It explains that males enjoy the more powerful social class and have
that authority and influence over societal roles, which gives them more powerful political and economic
positions.

1.2 What social policies would theorists from each of these groups offer as mechanisms to make
this situation more gender equitable?

Answer:
2. Considering the intersection of gender, race, and class and the distinctions between the various
branches of feminism, provide realistic alternatives for ways women can “celebrate” their diversity and
their unity at the same time.

Answer:

It would be interesting to consider who is calling for the need for all women of all races, religions
and class distinctions to put aside their differences and make their shared gender the most important
aspect about them. We frequently here about how insensitive and demeaning it is to stereotype people.

Define the following words base in your own understanding:

Androcentrism – male-centered norms operating throughout all social institutions that become the
standard to which all persons adhere.

Agency – It refers to the capacity of women and girls to take purposeful action and pursue goals, free
from the threat of violence or retribution.

Doing gender – a complex of socially guided perceptual, interactional, and micro political activities that
cast particular pursuits as expressions of masculine and feminine ‘natures.

Dramaturgy – a sociological perspective on identity that employs a theatrical metaphor to explore issues
of identity formation and reformation.

Empowerment – the aspect of it is mentioned for empowerment of women, the concept stresses the
distinction between biological sex and gender as a role, also referring to other marginalized genders in a
particular political or social context.

End point fallacy –

Expressive role – is a functionalist understanding of the female's function in the family. The role of the
female is to provide personality stabilization, emotional support and child rearing.
Feminism – is an interdisciplinary approach to issues of equality and equity based on gender, gender
expression, gender identity, sex, and sexuality as understood through social theories and political
activism.

Gender – refers to those social, cultural, and psychological traits linked to males and females through
particular social contexts.

Gender roles – Gender roles in society means how we’re expected to act, speak, dress, groom, and
conduct ourselves based upon our assigned sex.

Intersectionality – is a term used to describe how different factors of discrimination can meet at an
intersection and can affect someone’s life.

Instrumental role – is a functionalist understanding of the male's function in the family. This role's main
purpose is to discipline and provide economic support for the family.

Misogyny – is hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against women. It is a form of sexism that is used to
keep women at a lower social status than men, thus maintaining the societal roles of patriarchy.

Norms – are social principles that govern the behavior of girls, boys, women, and men in society and
restrict their gender identity into what is considered to be appropriate.

Patriarchy – male-dominated social structures leading to the oppression of women.

Role – is a social role encompassing a range of behaviors and attitudes that are generally considered
acceptable, appropriate, or desirable for a person based on that person’s sex.

Sex – refers to the biological characteristics distinguishing male and female.

Sexism – is prejudice or discrimination based on one's sex or gender. Sexism can affect anyone, but it
primarily affects women and girls.

Sexual orientation – is a component of identity that includes sexual and emotional attraction to another
person. Gender identity is one's self-identification as male, female, or an alternative gender.

Social Construction of Reality – the shaping of perception of reality by the subjective meanings brought
to any experience or social interaction.

Social Stratification – refers to the social ranking, where men typically inhabit higher statuses than
women. Often the terms gender inequality and gender stratification are used interchangeably.

Status – a category or position a person occupies that is a significant determinant of how she or he will
be defined and treated.

Status Set – is the set of social statuses held by an individual at a given time. Someone is a wife, mother,
daughter, nurse, charge goer etc. at the same time and these would be her status set. Race, sex, gender,
religion, profession etc.

Stereotypes – which are oversimplified notions that people in the same social class category share
similar characteristics.
Theory – is the study of what is understood as masculine and/or feminine and/or queer behavior in any
given context, community, society, or field of study including, but not limited to, literature, history,
sociology, education, applied linguistics, religion, health sciences, philosophy, cultural studies.

ESSSAY WRITING: answer the following questions given below. Expand your answer.

1. Based on your understanding of the research on the biological and cultural ingredients of gender,
provide an empirical rationale countering the claim that gender roles are destined to be unequal.

Answer:

The ability to formulate a response to this question hinges on the definition of unequal. There
has been much discussion on whether fair always means equal. Does equal mean identical? It has been
determined that in education fair is not always equal. In other word’s a student must be given the best
education available which does not mean that every student receives the same identical education. The
education for students with special needs and gifted students, for example, are frequently different
from the general education received by the majority of students yet there is no demand for
equal/identical educational services.

2. Why is Freud’s theory of psychosexual development considered sexist and used in reinforcing gender
stereotypes? How has psychoanalytic feminism reconciled these issues to the benefit rather than the
detriment of women?

Answer:

Freud’s psychoanalytic theory of gender development suggests that gender development takes
place during the third stage of his psychosexual theory of personality development. He called this the
phallic stage, which occurs between three and six years old. During this stage, the child’s libido is
focused on his or her genitals. Development of gender in psychoanalytic theory is different for boys and
for girls: boys experience the Oedipus complex and identify with their father and take on a male gender
role; girls experience the Electra complex (see Jung) and identify with their mother and take on a female
gender role.

3. Using research examples, demonstrate how patterns of mortality and morbidity are highly gendered
and are the consequences of this fact. How can a combination of conflict theory and social
constructionism explain these patterns?

Answer:
 If you take a look at life expectancies, you will immediately see how mortality and morbidity are
highly gendered. Average life expectancy at birth, worldwide, is 75.6 years for females, but only 70.8
years for males - women live almost 5 years longer! It’s hard to get more gendered than that.

Base on your own idea define the following words given below:

Body Studies – body studies include the cultural meanings attached to bodies, as well as the ways in
which bodies form and are formed by society. Bodies are distorted, supervised, and managed in
gendered ways, with major health implications for both women and men.

Double Standard – implies that two things which are the same are measured by different standards.
Thus a gender double standard suggests that we evaluate the same behavior of men and women
differently; what is acceptable or appropriate for one may not be equally so for the other.

Essentialism – is a theory that is used to examine the attribution of distinct, fixed, intrinsic qualities to
women and men.

Feminization of Aging – is the phenomenon whereby a greater proportion of women than men is found
among the elderly population, especially at older ages.

Hermaphrodite – referred to individuals with ambiguous external genitalia, a blurring between

masculine and feminine features, and the presence of either testes or ovaries.

Intersex – is a general term used for a variety of situations in which a person is born with reproductive
or sexual anatomy that doesn't fit the boxes of female or male.

LGBT – Abbreviation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender. An umbrella term used to refer to the
community as a whole. Terms used to describe people who have romantic, sexual or affectional desire
for people of all genders and sexes.

Morbidity Rate – refers to the rate at which a disease or illness occurs in a population and can be used
to determine the health of a population and its healthcare needs.

Mortality Rate – is the ratio of the adult male mortality rate to the adult female mortality rate. It attains
parity when women and men exhibit equal probabilities of dying during adulthood.

Queer Theory – is a way of thinking that dismantles traditional assumptions about gender and sexual
identities. The field emerged from sexuality studies and women's studies.
Sex Ratio at Birth (SRB) – is the number of resident male live births for a specific geography such as
country, state or county for a specified time period, usually a calendar year divided by the number of
resident female live births for the same geography and time period and multiplied by 100 or 1,000.

Sexual Dimorphism – is the condition where the sexes of the same animal and/or plant species exhibit
different morphological characteristics, particularly characteristics not directly involved in reproduction.

Sexual Scripts – are the approved norms regarding sexuality that individuals embrace, internalize, and
endorse through a process of socialization.

Sociobiology – is based on the premise that some behaviors social and individual are at least partly
inherited and can be affected by natural selection.

Transgender – is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their
sex assigned at birth.

Transsexual – refers to people whose gender identity is different from their assigned sex. Often,
transsexual people alter or wish to alter their bodies through hormones, surgery, and other means to
make their bodies as congruent as possible with their gender identities.