Navigating Gender Relations and Sexuality
GENDER
The behaviours associated with being male or female
SEX
The biological characteristics that define a person as male or female
Gender and sexuality are socially constructed—they are not universal but are conditioned by the society in which we live
Gender roles are not binary
Most people are not categorically male or female: their gender lies somewhere on a continuum between these two extremes (Butler)
Gender roles are influenced by patriarchy
A social/political system in which men hold power and women are excluded from it
Hegemonic Masculinity
Masculine gender role that encourages competition for power, subordination of women, control over fears and emotions, and heterosexual behaviour
Performativity
Gender is a performance of behaviours we are taught to associate with “being male” or “being female” (Butler)
Sexism
Perceived superiority of one sex (typically men) over the other (typically women)
Inequalities in the workplace
Gender and sex influence the distribution of authority, status, income, and power
Tokenism Theory
Members of a social group (e.g. women) who are outnumbered by members of another group (e.g. men) will suffer adverse effects, including greater stress at work (Kanter)
Gender Quotas
Formal regulations require a particular percentage of political offices to be occupied by women
Glass Ceiling
An unacknowledged barrier to equal opportunity bars women from certain positions and promotions within the workplace
Second Shift
Women are far more likely than men to experience heavy daily workloads, both in the workplace and in the home
Work Is...
Vertically differentiated
Men are more likely than women to hold managerial positions and supervisory positions (“gender management gap”)
Horizontally differentiated
Even when men and women do jobs with similar pay and prestige, they are doing different kinds of jobs ("men's jobs vs "women's jobs)
Prostitution
Oppression paradigm
Views prostitution as a form of enslavement that women have been driven into by poverty, addiction, or powerlessness
Empowerment paradigm
Considers sex work to be a realm of legitimate economic activity that frees many women from traditional controls by men
Context-based approach
Views the work context, including place, legality, and safety, as shaping the positive or negative experiences of sex workers (Weitzer)
Intersectionality Theory
An individual’s experience of disadvantage stemming from one dimension of inequality is shaped by the way it combines with other social factors, such as sex, gender, sexuality, disability, race, class, etc. (Crenshaw)
- Women of different classes, races, ages, etc., experience gender discrimination differently
Intersectionalist Approach
Proposes that a person’s sexuality combines with race, gender, sex, and class to create an identity system (Collins)
SEXUALITY
Feelings of sexual attraction and the way we respond to and express these feelings
Heterosexuality
Sexual or romantic attraction to people of the opposite sex
Homosexuality
Sexual or romantic attraction to people of the same sex
Queer theory
People’s identities are not fixed and do not determine who they are (Butler)
Gay community subculture
Shares the same cultural elements as the larger society but also has its own distinctive values, beliefs, norms, styles of dress, and behaviour patterns
Sexual Double Standard
Expectation that women will feel or behave differently from men in sexual matters
Sexual Scripts
Guidelines that set out socially acceptable ways of behaving when engaging in sexual activities
Heteronormativity
Social institutions, practices, and norms that support the assumption that people are or should be heterosexual
Heterosexism
Belief in the moral superiority of heterosexual institutions and practices
Homophobia
Overt or covert hostility toward gay and lesbian people, sometimes stemming from an irrational fear or hatred of homosexuals
Homosociality
Social preference for members of one’s own sex and sexuality
Sex-role rigidity
Learned belief that men and women’s roles are clearly defined with no blending between the two
Sex-role confusion
People’s uncertainty about their own sexuality
NAMES WORTH KNOWING
Edward Laumann (b. 1938) conducted the most comprehensive study to date on sexual behaviour and practices in America, observing that the general population favours monogamy both in principle and in practice.
Rosabeth Kanter (b. 1943) proposed that women’s careers are limited not by their individual characteristics but by structural and situational conditions of the workplace.
Suzanne Bianchi (1952–2013) studied gender roles in the home and observed that mothers’ labour force participation had increased, but that the time mothers spent with their children remained relatively unchanged.
Judith Butler (b. 1956) has written influentially on the social construction of gender, arguing that gender, sex, and sexuality are not innate but rather socially constructed and performative.
Kimberlé Crenshaw (b. 1959) is a critical race theorist who developed intersectionality theory, proposing that we cannot assume that any dimension of inequality inevitably and universally causes disadvantage.
Hanna Rosin (b. 1970) wrote The End of Men: And the Rise of Women, in which she predicts the triumph of women in higher education, the workforce, and society.
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