GEE-GSPS Chapter 3

THEORIZING GENDER

I. Gender Lenses
- By Sandra Lipsitz Bem
- Discusses how hidden assumptions embedded in our cultural discourses,
social institutions, and individual psyches perpetuate male power and oppress
women and sexual minorities.
- Bem argues that these assumptions, (lenses of gender) shape not only
perceptions of social reality but also the more material thing – like unequal pay
and inadequate daycare- that constitute social reality itself.
- These cultural lenses enable us to look at them rather than through them and
to better understand recent debates on gender and sexuality.

3 Lenses
a. Androcentrism (male centeredness)
- Defines males and male experience as a standard or norm and females and
female experience as a deviation from that norm.
b. Gender Polarization
- Superimposes male-female differences on virtually every aspect of human
experience, from modes of dress and social roles to ways of expressing
emotion and sexual desire.
c. Biological Essentialism
- Rationalizes and legitimizes the other two lenses by treating them as the
inevitable consequences of the intrinsic biological natures of women and men.

II. Individual Level Theories

a. Evolutionary theory (Buss 1995; Shields 1975)

- It is grounded in the genetic basis for differences between men and women
Functionalism (Shields 1975)
▪ Propose that men and women have evolved differently to fulfill
their different and complementary functions, which are necessary
for survival.
Buss in 1995
▪ Suggest that behavioral differences between men and women
stem from different sexual and reproductive strategies that have
evolved to ensure that men and women are able to efficiently
reproduce and effectively pass on their genes.

b. Object-relations theory (Chodorow 1989)

- Nancy Chodorow (1989) emphasizes the role of women as primary caregivers
in the development of sex differences.
- Chodorow asserts that the early bond between mother and child affects boys
and girls differently.
- Whereas boys must separate from their mothers to form their identities as
males, girls do not have to endure this separation to define their identities as
females.
- Chodorow (1989) explains that the devalued role of women is a product of the
painful process men undergo to separate themselves from the female role.

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 c. Gender schema theory (Bem 1981, 1993)
- It focuses on the role of the cognitive organization in addition to socialization.
- This theory postulates that children learn how their cultures and/or societies
define the roles of men and women and then internalize this knowledge as a
gender schema, or unchallenged core belief.
- The gender schema is then used to organize subsequent experiences (Bem
1993).
- Children's perceptions of men and women are thus an interaction between
their gender schemas and their experiences.
- Eventually, children will incorporate their own self-concepts into their gender
schema and will assume the traits and behaviors that they deem suitable for
their gender.

d. Social role theory (Eagly 1987)

- Alice Eagly offers another explanation of gender development based on
socialization.
- The social role theory suggests that the sexual division of labor and societal
expectations based on stereotypes produce gender roles.
- Eagly (1987) distinguishes between the communal and agentic dimensions of
gender-stereotyped characteristics.
- The communal role is characterized by attributes, such as nurturance and
emotional expressiveness, commonly associated with domestic activities, and
thus, with women.
- The agentic role is characterized by attributes such as assertiveness and
independence, commonly associated with public activities, and thus, with men.
- Behavior is strongly influenced by gender roles when cultures endorse gender
stereotypes and form firm expectations based on those stereotypes (Eagly
1987).
- As Eagly suggests, gender roles are closely linked with gender stereotypes.
Stereotypes are "overgeneralized beliefs about people based on their
membership in one of many social categories" (Anselmi and Law 1998, p. 195).
- Gender stereotypes vary on four dimensions: traits, role behaviors, physical
characteristics, and occupations (Deaux and Lewis 1983). Example men are
more likely to be perceived as aggressive and competitive, women are more
likely to be viewed as passive and cooperative. Traditionally, men have been
viewed as financial providers, whereas women have been viewed as
caretakers. Physical characteristics and occupations have also been
considered consistent or inconsistent with masculine or feminine roles.

III. Interactionist Perspective on Gender

Symbolic Interaction – Gender is produced and reinforced through daily interactions

and the use of symbols

- According to scholars, meaning is produced through interactions.

“Looking Glass Self” by Charles Cooley

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 - Describes how one’s self or social identity is dependent on one’s appearance
to others. This initial theory was based on Cooley’s observations of childhood
social development.
- The reactions of others to ourselves provide us with feedback about ourselves
most directly.
- A child could not develop a sense of self in the absence of others to reflect that
self-back.

According to Cooley, interactions with others serve to form self-identity in three steps:

1. People imagine how they appear to other people;

2. People imagine how others are thus judging them based on appearance and how they
present themselves;
3. People imagine how others feel about them based on the judgments they make.

In the context of symbolic interactionism, humans define themselves in the context of

their social interactions from the time that they are born.

Erving Goffman

- Emphasized the importance of control in social interactions.

- According to Goffman, during an interaction, individuals will attempt to control the
behavior of the other participants, in order to attain needed information, and in
order to control the perception of one’s own image.
- If the interaction is in danger of ending before an individual wants it to, it can be
conserved through several steps. One conversational partner can conform to the
expectations of the other, he or she can ignore certain incidents, or he or she can
solve apparent problems.

Symbolic Interaction in Gender

The meanings attached to symbols are socially created and fluid, instead of natural and
static. Because of this, we act and react to symbols based on their current assigned
meanings. Both masculinity and feminity are performed gender identities, in the sense
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 that gender is something we do or perform, not something we are. In response to this
phenomenon, the sociologist Charles H. Cooley’s developed the theory of the
“looking-glass self” (1902). In this theory, he argued that an individual’s perception of
himself or herself is based primarily on how society views him or her. In the context of
gender, if society perceives a man as masculine, that man will consider himself as
masculine. Thus, when people perform tasks or possess characteristics based on the
gender role assigned to them, they are said to be doing gender (rather than “being”
gender), a notion first coined by West and Zimmerman (1987). West & Zimmerman
emphasized that gender is maintained through accountability. Men and women are
expected to perform their gender to the point that it is naturalized, and thus, their status
depends on their performance.

IV. Structural Perspective of Gender

● The functionalist perspective of gender roles suggests that gender roles exist to
maximize social efficiency.
● The functionalist perspective sees society as a complex system whose parts work
together to promote solidarity and stability. This approach looks at society through
a macro-level orientation and broadly focuses on the social structures that shape
society as a whole.
● This theory suggests that gender inequalities exist as an efficient way to create
a division of labor, or as a social system in which a particular segment of
the population is clearly responsible for certain acts of labor and another segment
is clearly responsible for other labor acts.
● The feminist movement takes the position that functionalism neglects the
suppression of women within the family structure.
● Division of labor. A division of labour is the dividing and specializing of cooperative
labour into specifically circumscribed tasks and roles.
● The Functionalist Perspective A broad social theory that sees society as a
complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability.
● functionalist perspective of gender inequality A theory that suggests that gender
inequalities exist as an efficient way to create a division of labor, or a social system
in which a particular segment of the population is clearly responsible for certain
acts of labor and another segment is clearly responsible for other labor acts.

A structural functionalist view of gender inequality applies the division of labor to view
predefined gender roles as complementary: women take care of the home while men
provide for the family. Thus gender, like other social institutions, contributes to the
stability of society as a whole.

V. Critical Gender Theory

● There is no necessary connection between biological sex and a gender’s
presentation.

● The ways in which men and women present themselves as gendered

individuals are social constructs, learned performance, and "a social
accomplishment.
● According to this theory while one may be born a sexed being,' one is not
born gendered. One must learn gender presentation.
● According to critical gender theory, the transsexual phenomenon results
from a society that first equates sex with genitals and then conflates sex
(genitals) with gender. Transsexuals are unwittingly led to believe that, in

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 order to express their gender identity as a woman, they must undergo
genital transformation.

References:
Aulete, J.R. & Wittner, J. (2012). Gendered Wolrds, 2nd ed. Oxford University Press.
https://family.jrank.org/pages/686/Gender-Gender-Roles-Stereotypes.html
https://www.amazon.com/Lenses-Gender-Transforming-Debate
Inequality/dp/0300061633
https://www.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-binaries/38628_7.pdf

Adapted from:
Elvin Rey Flores (2023) GEE-GSPS: Gender & Society with Peace Studies CLASS NOTES

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