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Stratification Sociology > Gender (40) > Flashcards

Gender (40) Flashcards

1
Q

Gender Inequality

A

The imbalance of life chances between men and women, women have lesser rights and lower chances than men.

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2
Q

Introduction

A
  • Women experience inequality in family life, work and living situations
  • Men experience inequality in wealth and education
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3
Q

Introduction Stat (Women)

A

26% of women aged 15-59 experienced Domestic Abuse compared to 15% of men. (Crime Statistics for England and Wales)

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4
Q

Introduction Stat (Men)

A

Males had a higher custody rate for indictable offences (34%) than females (20%).
Females were 43% less likely to be sentenced to custody for indictable offences, relative to males. (Ministry of Justice)

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5
Q

Functionalism (Parsons)

A
  • Bio diff between men and women is innate
  • ‘Expressive Role’ for women
  • ‘Instrumental Role’ for men
  • Different roles contribute to the smooth running of society so they have diff experiences in the labour market and elsewhere in the public sphere
  • Socialisation reinforces the naturalness
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6
Q

Functionalism (Murdock)

A
  • Women are there are to gratify the male sex drive
  • Gender roles in over 200 societies and found that women were at home because of their biological function of bearing children and they were less able than men to perform strenuous tasks.
  • Gender division of labour was evident in all of the societies so universal because they were functional.
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7
Q

Functionalism and Employment Stats

A
  • Slater/Gordon: Survey of 500 managers revealed 40% admit to avoiding highering women of childbearing age
  • 98% of households with a stay at home parent. W
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8
Q

Functionalism Cristsism

A
  • But ONS 2018 71% of women aged 16 to 64 are employed
  • Gender roles are not natural but learnt,not natural/Oakley and Gender Canalisation
  • Anthropological Studies have shown gender roles diff/ Mead (1935) studied the Mundugumor society in New Guinea where women are as assertive as men and completely lack any maternal desire to bear or rear children. Such examples show that gender roles are learnt and challenge Parsons’ idea that they are innate.
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9
Q

New Right

A
  • Gender roles are biological and should play different roles in society
  • Men take the roles in the public sphere of work and women are located within the private domestic sphere
  • NF and the gender division of roles are desirable and based on human nature
  • The focus for the New Right is on achieving a return to traditional family values and the traditional gender roles that accompany this.
  • Changes in gender roles have led to social problems such as an increase in lone-parent families who do not socialise their children appropriately.
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10
Q

NR and Feminism (Faludi)

A
  • Society had gone ‘too far’
  • Masculinity became threatened; male underachievement and ‘feminisation’ of society
  • Crisis of self-doubt as their self-worth and usefulness becomes ever smaller.
  • The workplace is threatening to men through rising unemployment, shrinking pay, longer hours and perpetual fear of redundancy.
  • Undermine the secure ‘breadwinner’ role.
  • Marriage and relationships, which are no longer as stable.
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11
Q

NR and Education

A
  • The feminisation of Education disadvantages men
  • Girls outperform boys at all levels at education from primary school to university (more female teachers) 73% versus 64% achieving 5 A*-C
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12
Q

NR Criticisms

A
  • Men remain in power including in Education/22% of professors were female in 2013-14 compared with just 15% in 2003-04, Higher Education Statistics Agency.
  • 57% of NEETs (16-24) (Parliament 2014) were women and 60% aren’t looking for work due to family or home compared to men
  • Outdated, Unproven, Ignored the dark side
  • ‘golden age’ that never really existed as lone parenting, cohabitation and extra-marital affairs existed then, too
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13
Q

Marxism (Engles)

A
  • The exploiter–exploited relationship that occurs between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat is translated into the household in relationships between men and women
  • Under capitalism, men gained control over women as they wanted to pass on private property in the form of inheritance and they wanted to be sure that the heirs were their legitimate offspring.
  • Rise to the ideology of the nuclear family, which sought to restrict women’s sexuality and enforce monogamy to protect male property rights.
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14
Q

Marxism

A
  • Women are exploited just like men
  • Workers and the Reserve Army of labour
  • Treated the same in regards to class identity
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15
Q

Marxism Criticisms

A

-Criticised for over-emphasising the impact of class on gender. RF argue that the oppression of women by men was the first form of oppression.
-Criticised for focusing on macro, structural issues and neglecting the small- scale interactions that provide a more valid understanding of relationships between men
and women.
-Postmodernists would argue that Marxist views are outdated and fail to recognise the changes to gender roles that have happened

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16
Q

Four Main Types of Feminism

A

1.) Liberal
2.) Marxist
3.) Radical
4.) Black
Different strands but all agree fundamentally that society is functional and functions to suppress and cause inequality for women

17
Q

Liberal Feminism

A
  • Men are socialised to exploit women in this patriarchal society and they are taught to do this by agents of socialisation like The Family and the media
  • Unfair laws and practices that reinforce discrimination between men and women, rather than innate, bio diffs
18
Q

LF Example

A
  • Television commercials, frequently casting women in subservient domestic roles. Ads may also cast men as domestic superheroes.
  • Mr Muscle will mansplain to women about the best product and how to use it even though they don’t actually do any cleaning themselves.
19
Q

LF Ways Forward

A
  • Changes in the norms and values that reinforce gender divisions.
  • Change Socialisation and Education
  • Current Abortion Bill in parliament that aims to remove criminal liability in respect of abortion performed with the consent of the pregnant woman up to the twenty-fourth week of pregnancy (So women have increased rights to decide what happens to them without fear)
20
Q

LB Feminists

A
  1. )Oakley (1972) identifies four processes of socialisation that take place in the home: Manipulation. Canalisation.The verbal appellation. Activity exposure.
  2. )Sharpe (1994)
21
Q

Marxist Feminism

A
  • Social class affects the life chances of women
  • Family is a patriarchal institution and that women’s position in the family, results in them being exploited by capitalism
  • Gender inequalities in society are maintained because women are encouraged to accept the dominant ideology that the nuclear family is a natural and that any inequalities and diffs between men and women in society are fair and legitimate because capitalism is presented as a meritocratic system
  • Overthrow Capitalism and Introduce Communism
22
Q

MF Example

A

Only 6 out of 100 CEOs are women according to the High Pay Commission are paid under half of what their male counterparts paid . 2m v 6m

23
Q

MF: Benston

A

-Women’s domestic work is unpaid, which benefits capitalism as only one wage has to be paid and the wife is then dependent upon her husband’s wage.
-Wife keeps her husband in good running order by feeding
and caring for him and that this is essential to the smooth running of capitalism. Man must provide so less likely to challenge
-Contends that if women were paid a wage for their work, there would have to be a massive redistribution of wealth.

24
Q

MF: Ansley

A

-Women are a ‘safety valve’ and talks of women as being ‘the takers of shit’
-As husbands return home having been exploited at work and take their frustrations and anger out on their wives.
-‘When wives play their traditional role as takers of shit, they often absorb their husbands’ legitimate anger
and frustration at their own powerlessness and oppression.
-The important role that women play in maintaining capitalism.

25
Q

Radical Feminists

A
  • Patriarchy is the main source of oppression for women.
  • Society is run by men and in the interests of men. So men is advantaged in every area of society
  • No interest in giving up any of their power or control
  • Gender inequality is the outcome of male efforts to dominate, control and exploit women.
  • Family is central to oppression. Do not accept that bio diffs should mean that women are treated unequally
  • Men are prepared to defend their power at all costs and will use violence against women to control them and maintain their domination
26
Q

RF Supporting Evidence

A

1.3 million women experienced DA last year compared to 4.3 million since the age of 17 (2014)

27
Q

RF Ways Forward

A
  • Separating men and women
  • Reproduction without men is possible
  • Lesbianism over heterosexual relationships
  • Atkinson: ‘Feminism is the theory; lesbianism is the practice.’
28
Q

RF: Johnson’s (1995)

A

Concept of patriarchal terrorism can be used to explain the violence that is the result of ‘patriarchal traditions of men’s right to control “their” women’. It is a form of terroristic control of wives by their husbands that involves the systematic use of not only violence but also economic subordination, threats, isolation and other control tactics.

29
Q

RF: World Health Organisation

A

Incidence of women who had experienced physical or sexual abuse from an intimate partner in their lifetime was 30% globally and 25% in Europe.

30
Q

Black Feminism

A
  • Not all women were the same; Women from ethnic groups experienced sexism differently from white women
  • ‘Double oppression’ sexism and racism add to the exploitation
  • White feminists were accused of being guilty of racism and stereotyping themselves
  • ‘racist bias’ in feminism/White feminism are guilty (Hills-Collins)
  • Need to tackle Racism First
31
Q

BF: Brewer

A
  • Black women suffer disadvantage because of their multiple characteristics
  • Disadvantage is more than the ‘sum of the parts’
  • Each inequality reinforces and multiplies the other
32
Q

Strength of Feminism

A

Has contributed towards our understanding of gender issues in society and has helped women experiences and position through legislation

33
Q

Critique of Feminism: Post-Colonial Feminism

A
  • The status of women in LDCs has been created through historical experiences of colonialism
  • Imposed Western norms and values have introduced/reinforced Patriarchy
  • Critical of ‘western feminists’ for ignoring the differences between the experiences of women in poorer countries, and seeing ALL women as the same
34
Q

Post-Colonial Feminism Evidence

A
  • 70% of people in poverty are women
  • 2/3 of the 960m illiterate are female
  • 70% of all unpaid care for family members, women
  • U.N: 40% of young women in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa are married by age 18.
  • In Pakistan, women are expected to accept arranged marriages and refusal can lead to “honour killings” that typically go uncontested by the government.
35
Q

Critique of Feminism: The New Right

A
  • Society had gone ‘too far’
  • Masculinity threatened: male underachievement in school and the impact of a ‘feminisation’ of society
  • Blame for the decline in the NF
  • Unfashionable to call yourself a feminist. Backlash against feminism particularly since the 1990’s coming from the new right and middle America.
36
Q

Critique of Feminism: Hakim and Perference Theory

A

women choose to work part-time because of a commitment they feel towards their home and family. She argued that they were ‘uncommitted’ workers who have chosen flexible hours to fit in with domestic priorities
Women have more choice than ever before
She claims to have identified 3 types of work-lifestyle preferences that women adopt
Home centred (20%)
Adaptive (60%)
Work centred (20%)
As a result women are in conflict with each other because they don’t all want the same thing. Men tend to be more work centred on the whole so are a more unified group and this helps them maintain their power and dominance

37
Q

Barron and Norris and Dual Labor Market Theory (Weberanism)

A

Women’s inferior position in the workplace made up of ‘primary’ and ‘secondary’ markets.
Many female workers are confined to the secondary labour market characterised by low wages, low status, low skills and insecure employment relationships with little or no prospect of promotion.
Barron and Norris liken women’s position in the secondary labour market to the Marxist concept of a reserve army of workers serving the profitability of capital by having access
to a pool of easily expendable labour.
They also refer to the mechanisms by which women remain in the secondary labour market. These include not being promoted and failing to plan institutionally to ensure women are not disadvantaged through child-bearing.

38
Q

Conclusion and Intersectionality

A
  • Not just gender
  • How much inequality one faces is also based on S/C, E and A
  • Complex
  • This term has now become a widely used idea in the consideration of the multiple disadvantages that women may suffer
  • The difference between the life chances of a wealthy white middle-class woman compared to a poorer working woman from a minority ethnic group
39
Q

Lib, Marx and Rad Evaluation

A
  • LF: viewed as too “safe” by the other strands of feminism. Radical feminists argue that changing the law doesn’t go far enough to change behaviour because patriarchy is so deeply ingrained in our culture/ fail to explain how males and females come to hold different levels of power in the family and more widely in society. Radical feminists would explain patriarchy and Marxist feminists would cite capitalism/middle-class movement that represents the interests of educated, professional women
  • MF: Too much S/C/Postmodernist thinkers are also critical of the focus on class as they believe that it is no longer a significant social division/patriarchy is a more significant form of exploitation that predates capitalism and has existed in all known societies, not just capitalist ones
  • RF: Variations in family life through s/c, ethnicity - many women from matrifocal African- Caribbean family networks regard their experience of family life as supportive and positive/change ignored/over- emphasising the factors that separate women from men. It is argued that men and women work cooperatively together in a range of ways in society, including campaigning for gender equality

Stratification Sociology (13 decks)

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