Doing Gender

Candace West and Don Zimmerman

Gender as a social construct in the
moment
 “DOING” GENDER
• We now know sex is biological and
gender is socially constructed
• Gender an achievement
• By age 5, entrenched.
• But we “do gender”
• Which is a situated doing in the
“ethno-methodological sense”
• See H. Garfinkel (1967)
 Ethnomethodology
• A radical form of symbolic interactionism

• It is the view that the context itself is

constantly being redefined through action
•
 Garfinkal and Breaches
• Breaching experiments are experiments
where "social reality is violated in order to
shed light on the methods by which people
construct social reality”.

• i.e The elevator experiment

 Gender is an accomplishment
• Gender is carried out in the presence of
others
• Gender is an emergent feature of social
situations
• An outcome of and a rationale for various
social arrangements
• A means of legitimating one of the most
fundamental divisions of society
 Gender is a process
• Gender activities emerge from and bolster
claims to membership in a sex category.

• Western societies view women and men as

naturally defined categories
 The issue
• One’s distinctive psychological
and behavioural propensities can
be predicted from reproductive
functions? (can they, should
they?)
 Sex, sex category and gender
• Sex is a determination made through the
application of socially agreed upon biological
criteria.
• Sex is a means of classifying persons and male
and female.
 Sex “category:

• One’s sex category is established and

sustained by socially required
displays that proclaim one’s
membership in one or the other
category.
 The division of labour
• Sex categories are embedded in our
assumptions about the division of labour
• Men and women are categorized into a
division of labour
• A division, perceived as Natural and rooted in
biology
• With profound social consequences.
 The social structure
• Social Structures is said to be responsive to
these natural differences

• Role Theory has attended to “sex roles” and

more recently “gender roles”
• Role theory emphasises the social and
dynamic aspects of role construction
•
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHEP2O
ZGt7c
•
 Limits of Role Theory
• But role theory does not recognize the fact
that unlike roles such as student, professor,
doctor or nurse, gender has no specific site or
organizational context.

• Gender is only created through interaction.

The Structure of Social Interaction
• Social interaction: Involves people
communicating face to face or via computer and
acting and reacting in relation to other people

 Is structured around statuses, roles, and norms

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The Structure of Social Interaction
• Status: Refers to a recognized social position an
individual can occupy (each person occupies
many statuses)
 There are two types of status:

Achieved status: Is a voluntary status

Ascribed status: Is an involuntary status

Copyright © 2010 by Nelson Education Limited 16

The Structure of Social Interaction
• Status set: Entire ensemble of statuses
occupied by an individual
Master status: A person’s overriding
public identity, and the status that is most
influential in shaping that person’s life at a
given time
 For Social Interaction to occur: Humans
must be Socialized
• Socialization is a central process in
social life.
• Its importance has been noted by
sociologists for a long time, but their
image of it has shifted over the last
hundred years.
 Agnes Case
• A male who became female
• Had to navigate what was to be female
• She had to figure out how to “accomplish
femininity”
• While other cultures (i.e native) accept a third
gender category, modern cultures do not
 Agnes finding
• It is difficult to maintain femininity when he
was at one time a man.

• Problems include sunbathing and expressing

strong opinions

• Activities must be “performed” as man or

women to be understood.
 Sex categories
• Gendered sex categories are “taken for
granted”

• i.e Child –person has a suit and tie –must have

pee pee-must be a man.

• Garfinkel “we live in a culture that has two-only

two-sexes-”essentially two”-always have been,
always will be.
 Case 2
• Androgynous character in a sales position
• Sales person -male or female???
• Gender category: Could not be overtly
understood
• -What did he look for?
• Facial hair? Breasts? Shoulders? Hands?
Voice? Ambiguous.
• =unanswered question.
 Finding
• We assume that individuals want to display
their sex category

• After all, we are members of our culture

• Androgyny is a difficult gender category/non

category, to accept
 We Do Gender
• Finding:
• Gender is both interactional and institutional
in form.
• Doing Gender=creating differences between
boys and girls, men and women.
 Washrooms: Ladies and Gentlemen
• For example, Goffman noted that men’s and
women’s washrooms are created, even
though both “are similar in the question of
waste products and their elimination”

• Despite the same elimination process, our

culture demands that men and women have
separate washrooms!
 Interactional Work
• Focus on casual conversations:
• Women:
• Ask more questions,
• Fill in more silences
• Use more attention getting
• But this is not seen as what women “do”
rather it is seen as “who they are”.
• Children
• Born into a world of identities
• During the exploratory stage of socialization
• Quickly learn that a big boy is able to display
strength and competence
• A good girl learns to value appearance to be
an “ornament”
 Division of labour
• Despite decade of sociological studies and
surveys about household tasks, women and
men ASSUME:
• Household tasks are “women’s work”-dishes,
laundry, floor cleaning, other messes.
• They appeal to the “essential” nature of this
work.
 Work activities
• Flight Attendant is a women’s job

• It is assumed that women are naturally more

able to deal with difficult passengers
• They are naturally better at “emotional labour
and management”.
 We must `do’ heterosexuality
• Heterosexuality is not a given, it is a construct

• This is particularly understood by gay and

lesbian individuals.
• To appeal to their gender, they must know the
rules for “doing” the opposite gender.
 But can we avoid Doing Gender?
• West and Zimmerman maintain the we cannot
avoid “doing” gender

• For them, it is too deeply entrenched in

normal, natural, legitimate culture
 Summary
• In sum, gender is a powerful, ideological
device which produces, reproduces and
legitimates the choices and limits that are
predicate by sex categories.
The Symbolic Interactionist’s View of Gender

• In “Girls and Boys Together but Mostly Apart” by

Barry Thorne (1977)

• Throughout elementary school-separated by sex..

(girls line, boys line)
• Same sex clusters-sit together, eat together
• Playground-gendered turf..
• Two worlds-two identities
•
 Ageist and Gendered Society
• Gender should be conceptualized as a system
of relationships rather than an immutable and
dichotomous given.
• Girls Social Relations-private sphere, smaller
groups friendship pairs..
 Girls communities
• Girls communities, sub-cluster-contextual
understanding of gender relations…
• We function in boundaried collectivities

• While gender is less central to the

organization and meaning of some situations,
in others it is crucial.
• In “Girls and Boys Together but Mostly Apart”
by Barry Thorner

• Girls Language (girls talk) more intense

exclusive friendships, keeping and telling
secrets, shifting alliances,
 Some Interactionist Questions:

a. How and when does gender enter into group

formation?
b. In a given situation, how is gender more or less
salient or infused with particular meaning?
c. How are these processes affected by the
organization of institutions (schools,
neighbourhoods, or summer camps)
d. How are the processes affected by varied
settings-playgrounds, classrooms, waterfountain?
 Method and Sources
Barry Thorne
•
1976/77 –classrooms working class elementary school in
Calif. 8% Black, 12% Chicano..3 months of participant
observation-naturalistic..
Sex Segregation: Daily Processes

Deliberate activity, dramatically visible…What are the

situations? What are the processes?

-
 Gender happens/Age Happens
• Gender happens with no mention of gender
-Implicit in the contours of friendship
-Full of Processes Including:
a. planning of activities
b. invitations
c. seeking access
d. saving of places
e. denials of entry
 Gender Segregation
• When gender is explicitly provoked by teachers and by
students it is usually for the purpose of
separation..Gender was a physical marker in the adult
organized school day Such as:

a. addressing clusters of children-girls don’t do that

b. sorting and organizing activities
c. marking off territories-girls close to the school,
boys further away

Notice Thornes : Symbolic Interactionist Approach

 Summary
• Gender categories should be “taken for
granted”

• They are a construct in society

• We are more than encouraged to “do gender”