Gender Stratification: Structural Sexism - Nassau Community College

Introduction• Sexism is the belief that there are innatepsychological, behavioral, and/orintellectual differences between womenand men and that these differencesconnote the superiority of one group andthe inferiority of the other.

IntroductionAdvertising and Sexism• This billboard is a good example of the cultural emphasisplaced on women’s physical appearance.

What Do You Think?

IntroductionIn India’s 2011 nationalcensus, the census form hathree option under theheading of “sex”—male,female, and other. Similarly,Nepal, after a ruling by theirhighest court which heldthat lesbian, gay, bisexual,and transgendered (LGBT)persons needed greaterprotection, also used thethree gender option in theircensus. Pictured here is ahijra, the Indian word for“third sex,” institutionalizedin India for thousands ofyears.

The Global Context: The Status of Women and Men• There is no country in the world in whichwomen and men have equal status.• Although much progress has been madein closing the gender gap in areas such aseducation, health care, employment, andgovernment, gender inequality is stillprevalent throughout the world.

The Global Context: The Status of Women and Men• The World Economic Forum assessed thegender gap in 134 countries by measuringthe extent to which women have achievedequality with men in four areas: economicparticipation and opportunity, educationalattainment, health and survival, andpolitical empowerment.

The Global Context: The Status of Women and Men

The Global Context: The Status of Women and Men

The Global Context: The Status of Women and Men• Gender inequality varies across cultures, not only in itsextent or degree but also in its forms.– For example, in the United States, gender inequalityin family roles commonly takes the form of an unequaldivision of household labor and child care.• A global perspective on gender inequality must also takeinto account the different ways in which such inequalityis viewed.– For example, many non-Muslims view the practice ofMuslim women wearing a headscarf in public as asymbol of female subordination and oppression.

The Global Context: The Status of Women and Men• In traditional Muslimsocieties, womenare forbidden toshow their faces orother parts of theirbodies.• Some womenadhere to this out offear, others believeveiling was firstimposed out ofrespect for womenand the desire toprotect them.

The Global Context: The Status of Women and Men

Ask the Class…• If you could temporarily be the othergender, how long would you like to doso?A. One dayB. One weekC. I have no desire to be the other gender

Sociological Theories of Gender InequalityStructural Functionalist Perspective• Pre-industrial society required a division oflabor based on gender.– Women nursed and cared for children.– Men were responsible for material needs.• Industrialization made traditional divisionof labor less functional, belief systemremains.

Sociological Theories of Gender InequalityConflict Perspective• Continued domination by males requires abelief system that supports genderinequality.• Two beliefs:– Women are inferior outside the home.– Women are more valuable in the home.

Sociological Theories of Gender InequalityConflict Perspective

Sociological Theories of Gender InequalitySymbolic Interactionist Perspective• Gender and gender roles are learned throughsocialization process.– Women are socialized into expressive roles.• Roles into which women are traditionallysocialized (i.e., nurturing and emotionallysupportive roles).– Men are socialized into instrumental roles.• (i.e., task-oriented roles)

What Do You Think?

Gender Stratification: Structural Sexism• Structural Sexism: The ways in which theorganization of society, and specifically itsinstitutions, subordinate individuals andgroups based on their sex classification.

Gender Stratification: Structural SexismEducation and Structural Sexism• Education Dividend: The additionalbenefit of universal education for women isthat it reduces the death rate of childrenunder 5 years of age.• Literacy rates worldwide indicate thatwomen are less likely than men to be ableto read and write, with millions of womenbeing denied access to even the mostbasic education.

Gender Stratification: Structural SexismEducation and Structural Sexism• In 2009, few differences existed between men andwomen in their completion rates of high school andcollege degrees. In fact, in recent years, most U.S.colleges and universities have had a higherpercentage of women than men enrolling directly fromhigh school.• Further, women earn fewer advanced degrees thanmen because they are socialized to choose marriageand motherhood over long-term career preparation.• From an early age, women are exposed to images andmodels of femininity that stress the importance ofdomestic family life.

Gender Stratification: Structural SexismEducation and Structural Sexism

Gender Stratification: Structural SexismWork and Structural Sexism• According to the International LabourOrganization (ILO), in 2008, women made up40.4% of the world’s total labor force.• Worldwide, women tend to work in jobs thathave little prestige and low or no pay, where noproduct is produced, and where they are thefacilitators for others.• Women are more likely to hold positions of littleor no authority and to have more frequent andlonger periods of unemployment.

Gender Stratification: Structural SexismWork and Structural Sexism• The concentration of women in certainoccupations and men in other occupations isreferred to as occupational sex segregation.• For example, between 1983 and 2009, thepercentage of female physicians nearly doubledfrom 16% to 32%, female dentists increasedfrom 7% to 30%, and female clergy increasedfrom 6% to 17%.

Gender Stratification: Structural SexismWork and Structural Sexism

Gender Stratification: Structural SexismWork and Structural Sexism

Gender Stratification: Structural SexismWork and Structural Sexism• Glass Elevator Effect: The tendency for menseeking or working in traditionally femaleoccupations to benefit from their minority status.• Pink-Collar Jobs: Jobs that offer few benefits,often have low prestige, and aredisproportionately held by women.• Glass Ceiling: An invisible barrier that preventswomen and other minorities from moving intotop corporate positions.

Gender Stratification: Structural SexismWork and Structural Sexism• There is evidence that working mothers pay a price formotherhood.• Research indicates that when qualifications, background, andwork experience were held constant, evaluators ratedmothers as less competent and committed to paid work thannon-mothers.• Other examples of the “motherhood penalty” include womenwho feel pressured to choose professions that permit flexiblehours and career paths, sometimes known as mommy tracks.(i.e. Elementary Education)• Although the type of career pursued may be the woman’schoice, it is a structured choice—a choice among limitedoptions as a result of the structure of society.

Gender Stratification: Structural SexismIncome and Structural Sexism• Women are twice as likely as men to earn at or belowminimum wage.• In 2010, full-time working women in the United Statesearned, on the average, 81 percent of the weeklymedian earnings of full-time working men, a 1.0percent increase from the previous year.• Racial differences also exist. Although women ingeneral earn 81 percent as much as men, BlackAmerican and Hispanic American women earn just69.9 percent and 59.8 percent, respectively, of whitemen’s salaries.

Gender Stratification: Structural SexismIncome and Structural Sexism• Human Capital Hypothesis: The hypothesis that paydifferences between females and males are a functionof differences in women’s and men’s levels ofeducation, skills, training, and work experience.• One variation of the human capital hypothesis is calledthe lifecycle human capital hypothesis. Here it isargued that women have less incentive to invest ineducation and marketable skills because they knowthat they will be working less than their malecounterparts as wives and mothers.

Gender Stratification: Structural SexismIncome and Structural Sexism

Gender Stratification: Structural SexismIncome and Structural Sexism

Gender Stratification: Structural SexismIncome and Structural Sexism• Devaluation hypothesis– Argues women are paid less becausethe work they do is socially defined asless valuable than the work performedby men.• Emotion Work– Work that involves caring for,negotiating, and empathizing withpeople.

Gender Stratification: Structural SexismIncome and Structural Sexism• Comparable Worth:– The belief that individuals in occupations,even in different occupations, should be paidequally if the job requires “comparable” levelsof education, training, and responsibility.– In a comparable worth lawsuit, nursessuccessfully sued the city of Denver forpaying them less than other employees (e.g.,tree trimmers, sign painters) who had lesseducation.

What Do You Think?

Gender Stratification: Structural SexismPolitics and Structural Sexism• Women received the right to vote in theUnited States in 1920, with the passage ofthe Nineteenth Amendment.• Even though this amendment went intoeffect more than 90 years ago, women stillplay a rather minor role in the politicalarena.

Gender Stratification: Structural SexismPolitics and Structural SexismIn general, the moreimportant the politicaloffice is, the lower theprobability that woman willhold it. Although womenconstitute 52% of thepopulation, the UnitedStates has never had awoman president or vicepresident and, until 2010,when Justice Elena Kaganwas appointed had onlythree female SupremeCourt Justices in thehistory of the Court.U.S. Secretary of State:Hillary ClintonU.S. Governors:12%U.S. Congress:16.6%Average State Legislatures:23.6%Colorado’s State Legislature:41%

Gender Stratification: Structural SexismPolitics and Structural Sexism

Gender Stratification: Structural SexismCivil Rights, the Law, and Structural Sexism• Discrimination still occurs in the workplaceas evidenced by the thousands ofgrievances filed each year with the EqualEmployment Opportunity Commission.• One technique employers use to justifydifferences in pay is the use of different jobtitles for the same type of work.

Gender Stratification: Structural SexismCivil Rights, the Law, and Structural Sexism• Discrimination, although illegal, takes place atboth the institutional and the individual levels• In the United States, women often have difficultyobtaining home mortgages or rental propertybecause they have lower incomes, shorter workhistories, and less collateral.• Until fairly recently, husbands who raped theirwives were exempt from prosecution.• Women in the military have traditionally beenrestricted in the duties they can perform.

Gender Stratification: Structural SexismCivil Rights, the Law, and Structural Sexism

What Do You Think?

The Social Construction of GenderRoles: Cultural Sexism• Cultural Sexism: The ways in which theculture of society (norms, values, beliefs,symbols) perpetuates subordination basedon sex classification.

The Social Construction of Gender Roles: Cultural SexismFamily Relations and Cultural Sexism• From birth, males and females are treateddifferently.• The toys that male and female childrenreceive convey different messages aboutappropriate gender roles.• Gender roles are patterns of sociallydefined behaviors and expectations,associated with being female or male.

The Social Construction of Gender Roles: Cultural SexismFamily Relations and Cultural Sexism• Household Division of Labor– The fact that women, even when working fulltime,contribute significantly more hours tohome care than men is known as the “secondshift.”– The traditional division of labor in thehousehold still exists1. Time-availability approach2. Relative resources approach3. Gender role ideology

The Social Construction of Gender Roles: Cultural SexismFamily Relations and Cultural SexismThe Second Shift:According toHochschild, womenare expected to work“second shifts” byhaving gainful outsideemployment as well asperforming householdchores and child careonce they arrive homeafter a day’s work.

The Social Construction of Gender Roles: Cultural SexismThe School Experience and Cultural Sexism• 1990 study of storybooks used in schoolsfound:– Males were depicted as clever, brave,adventurous, and income-producing.– Females were depicted as passive and asvictims in need of rescue.

What Do You Think?

The Social Construction of Gender Roles: Cultural SexismThe School Experience and Cultural Sexism• Gender-based interactions are not the only things that affect studentoutcomes. Dee (2006) tested the effect of teachers’ gender onschool performance by using the National Education LongitudinalSurvey.• Analyzing data from a nationally representative sample of eighthgrade boys and girls and their teachers, he found that;– (1) when the teacher is a female, boys are more likely to be seenas disruptive;– (2) when the teacher is a female, girls are less likely to be seenas either disruptive or inattentive;– (3) when the teacher is male, female students are less likely toperceive a class as useful, to ask questions in class, or to lookforward to the class; and– (4) when the teacher is female, regardless of the subject, boysare less likely to report looking forward to the class.

The Social Construction of Gender Roles: Cultural SexismMedia, Language, and Cultural Sexism• Another concern social scientists voice is the extent to which themedia portray females and males in a limited and stereotypicalfashion and the impact of such portrayals. For example, Levinand Kilbourne (2009), in So Sexy So Soon, document thesexualizing of young girls and boys. Advertising, books, cartoons,songs, toys, and television shows create:– [a] narrow definition of femininity and sexuality [that]encourages girls to focus heavily on appearance and sexappeal. They learn at a very young age that their value isdetermined by how beautiful, thin, “hot,” and sexy they are.And boys, who get a very narrow definition of masculinity thatpromotes insensitivity and macho behavior, are taught tojudge girls based on how close they come to an artificial,impossible, and shallow ideal.

The Social Construction of Gender Roles: Cultural SexismMedia, Language, and Cultural Sexism• Men are also victimized by media images:– A study of 1,000 adults found that two-thirds of therespondents thought that women in televisionadvertisements were pictured as “intelligent,assertive, and caring,” whereas men were portrayedas “pathetic and silly.• Women are dramatically underrepresented as newssubjects• Male journalists are more likely to work on the “hard”news (e.g., politics), whereas women are more oftenassigned “soft stories” (e.g., social issues).

The Social Construction of Gender Roles: Cultural SexismReligion and Cultural Sexism• Most Americans claim membership in achurch, synagogue, or mosque.• Research indicates that women attendreligious services more often, rate religion asmore important to their lives, and are morelikely to believe in an afterlife than are men.• In general, religious teachings have tended topromote traditional conceptions of gender.

The Social Construction of Gender Roles: Cultural SexismReligion and Cultural Sexism• Roman Catholic women with the sacraments of communion as part oftheir ordination as “women priests” in conflict with Roman Catholic Churchdoctrine.• Faced with excommunication, women participated in five such ordinationsaround the world since 2002.

Social Problems and Traditional Gender Role SocializationThe Feminization of Poverty• Called the “feminization of poverty,” thetendency for women to be disproportionatelypoor is evidenced in developing nationswhere suitable housing, clean water, food,health care, and sanitary living conditions arescarce.• Women in the United States make up themajority of minimum wage workers and aresignificantly more likely to live in poverty thanmen.

Social Problems and Traditional Gender Role SocializationThe Feminization of Poverty• Two groups of women are the most likely to be poor inthe United States—heads of households with dependentchildren and women over the age of 65 who haveoutlived their spouses.• Women with children are far more likely to work part-timethan their male counterparts or women that don’t havechildren (ITUC 2011).• Further, 13.8 percent of male-headed households arebelow the poverty level compared to 28.7 percent offemale-headed households.• Hispanic (39.2 percent) and black female-headed (37.2percent) households are the poorest of all families,headed by a single woman.

Social Problems and Traditional Gender Role SocializationThe Social Psychological Costs of Gender Socialization• Significant others, through the socialization process,expect certain behaviors and prohibit others based uponour birth sex.• Both girls and boys, often as a consequence of theseexpectations, feel varying degrees of self-esteem,autonomy, depression, and life dissatisfaction.• Adolescent girls are more likely to be dissatisfied withtheir looks, including physical attractiveness,appearance, and body weight than adolescent boys.– “Cult of Thinness”: Research indicates that 25percent of college-aged women have tried to loseweight using unhealthy means.

Social Problems and Traditional Gender Role SocializationThe Social Psychological Costs of Gender Socialization

Social Problems and Traditional Gender Role SocializationThe Social Psychological Costs of Gender Socialization• Boys too, from an early age, are concernedabout body image, and as adults, their selfesteemis also linked to body shape and weight.• Men are also affected by traditional gendersocialization, which places enormous culturalpressure to be successful in their work and toearn high incomes.• Traditional male socialization also discouragesmales from expressing emotion and asking forhelp; this concept is called the “boy code.”

Social Problems and Traditional Gender Role SocializationThe Social Psychological Costs of Gender Socialization

What Do You Think?

Social Problems and Traditional Gender Role SocializationThe Impact of Gender Socialization on Death and Illness• Men are less likely to go to a doctor than womenfor a variety of structural and cultural reasons.• Men are also less likely to have a regularphysician or to go to the hospital, even if timepermits.• At every stage of life, “American males havepoorer health and a higher risk of mortality thanfemales.”

Social Problems and Traditional Gender Role SocializationGendered Violence• Overall, men are more likely than women to beinvolved in violence.• Women and girls are also the victims of maleviolence. Worldwide, as many as 71 percent ofwomen will be physically or sexually abused intheir lifetime.– Over 5,000 women and girls are killed eachyear in honor killings – murders, oftenpublic, as a result of a female dishonoring, orbeing perceived to have dishonored, herfamily or community.

What Do You Think?

Strategies for Action: Toward Gender EqualityGrassroots Movements• Feminism and the Women’s Movement– Feminism is the belief that women andmen should have equal rights andresponsibilities.– The U.S. feminist movement began inSeneca Falls, New York, in 1848, whena group of women wrote and adopted awomen’s rights manifesto modeled afterthe Declaration of Independence.

Strategies for Action: Toward Gender EqualityGrassroots Movements• Feminism and the Women’s Movement– The rebirth of feminism almost 50 years later wasfacilitated by a number of interacting forces:• an increase in the number of women in thelabor force, the publication of Betty Friedan’sbook The Feminine Mystique, an escalatingdivorce rate, the socially and politically liberalclimate of the 1960s, student activism, and theestablishment of the Commission on theStatus of Women by John F. Kennedy.

Strategies for Action: Toward Gender EqualityGrassroots Movements• The National Organization for Women (NOW) wasestablished in 1966, and remains one of the largestfeminist organizations in the United States.• One of NOW’s hardest fought battles is the struggleto win ratification of the equal rights amendment(ERA), which states that “equality of rights under thelaw shall not be denied or abridged by the UnitedStates, or by any state, on account of sex.”

Strategies for Action: Toward Gender EqualityGrassroots Movements• The Men’s Movement– One of the early branches of the men’s movement isknown as the mythopoetic men’s movement.Participants met in men-only workshops and retreatsto explore their internal masculine nature, maleidentity, and emotional experiences through the use ofstories, drumming, dance, music, and discussion.– The men’s movement also includes men’sorganizations that advocate gender equality and workto make men more accountable for sexism, violence,and homophobia.

Strategies for Action: Toward Gender EqualityU.S. National Policy• Sexual Harassment– Sexual harassment is a form of sex discriminationthat violates Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.– The U.S. EEOC (2009) defines sexual harassmentin the workplace as “unwelcome sexual advances,requests for sexual favors, and other verbal orphysical conduct of a sexual nature . . . when thisconduct explicitly or implicitly affects an individual’semployment, unreasonably interferes with anindividual’s work performance, or creates anintimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment.”

Strategies for Action: Toward Gender EqualityU.S. National Policy• Sexual Harassment– There are two types of sexual harassment:• (1) quid pro quo, in which an employerrequires sexual favors in exchange for apromotion, salary increase, or any otheremployee benefit, and• (2) the existence of a hostile environment thatunreasonably interferes with job performance,as in the case of sexually explicit comments orinsults being made to an employee.

What Do You Think?

Strategies for Action: Toward Gender EqualityU.S. National Policy• Sexual Harassment– There are two types of sexual harassment:• (1) quid pro quo, in which an employerrequires sexual favors in exchange for apromotion, salary increase, or any otheremployee benefit, and• (2) the existence of a hostile environment thatunreasonably interferes with job performance,as in the case of sexually explicit comments orinsults being made to an employee.

Strategies for Action: Toward Gender EqualityU.S. National Policy• Affirmative Action:– As discussed in Chapter 9, affirmative actionrefers to a broad range of policies and practices topromote equal opportunity as well as diversity in theworkplace and on campuses.– Affirmative action policies, developed in the 1960sfrom federal legislation, require that any employer(universities as well as businesses) that receivescontracts from the federal government must make“good faith efforts” to increase the number offemale and other minority applicants.

Understanding Gender Inequality• Gender roles and the social inequality they create areingrained in our social and cultural ideologies and institutionsand are therefore difficult to alter as indicated by thepersistence of discriminatory attitudes.• Eliminating gender stereotypes and redefining gender interms of equality does not simply mean liberating women butliberating men as well as society.• Increasingly, people are embracing androgyny - the blendingof traditionally defined masculine and feminine characteristics.• An international strategy for achieving gender equality,gender mainstreaming is “the process of assessing theimplications for women and men of any planned action,including legislation, policies or programmes, in all areas andat all levels.”

Quick Quiz1. George is both gay and Hispanic. On thejob he encounters discrimination becauseof his membership in two minority groups.This is known as:A. intensive discrimination.B. polysemia.C. double jeopardy.D. dual prejudice.

Answer: C• George is both gay and Hispanic. On thejob he encounters discrimination becauseof his membership in two minority groups.This is known as double jeopardy.

Quick Quiz2. Which is true about women regardinggender inequality in the U.S.?A. Women have lower incomes.B. Women earn fewer graduate degrees.C. Women hold fewer prestigious jobs.D. All of these choices.

Answer: D• All of the following statements are trueabout women regarding gender inequalityin the U.S.:– Women have lower incomes.– Women earn fewer graduate degrees.– Women hold fewer prestigious jobs.

Quick Quiz3. In hunting and gathering societies, men huntedand women gathered. This division of laborbased on gender became defined as normaland natural over time. Which sociologicalperspective views this division as purposeful forthe time?A. conflict theoryB. structural functionalismC. symbolic interactionismD. exchange theory

Answer: B• In hunting and gathering societies, menhunted and women gathered. Thisdivision of labor based on genderbecame defined as normal and naturalover time. The structural functionalismsociological perspective views thisdivision as purposeful for the time.

Quick Quiz4. Symbolic interactionists emphasize thatthrough the socialization process bothfemales and males are taught themeanings associated with being feminineand masculine.A. TrueB. False

Answer: A. True• Symbolic interactionists emphasize thatthrough the socialization process bothfemales and males are taught themeanings associated with being feminineand masculine.

Quick Quiz5. Steve and Linda are married. Both work fulltime outside the home. Steve works as alawyer, Linda as a schoolteacher. Linda doesmost of the household work. Using thisexample, which of these ideas explains thecontinued traditional division of labor?A. "relative resources approach"B. "time-availability approach"C. all of these choicesD. "gender role ideology"

Answer: C• Steve and Linda are married. Both workfull time outside the home. Steve works asa lawyer, Linda as a schoolteacher. Lindadoes most of the household work. Usingthis example, all three of these ideasexplain the continued traditional division oflabor: relative resources approach,time-availability approach, and genderrole ideology.