How Does Gender Impact Our Lives? Gender and Society How Does Gender Impact Our Lives?

Spin the Bottle Sex, Lies and Alcohol How is drinking defined for men? How are men supposed to act? How is drinking defined for women? How are women supposed to act? How is drinking by women related to men’s expectations about women?

Spin the Bottle Sex, Lies and Alcohol How are gender roles enforced? How is alcohol related to sexual assaults? What is the double standard when it comes to drinking and sexual assaults?

Gender is Pervasive Gender tends to be present in nearly all of our interactions. We tend not to notice when gender fits our expectations. Notions of gender are enforced to conform to those expectations.

Gender is Socialized Socialization of gender varies by culture. Our concepts of gender come from the socialization that we receive from birth. Baby blankets Toys

Gender Interaction Men’s networks (who they interact with) are larger and more loosely connected than women’s. Men’s networks tend to revolve around work while women’s tend to be associated with family and neighborhood.

Gender Interaction In conversation, Men tend to dominate, but not always. Who dominates the conversation varies by the perceived gender role.

Gender Socialization Interaction in conversation Expectations about how to act and the qualities of men and women Expectations about alcohol use

Gender Roles in the US What do we consider feminine? What do we consider masculine? What are the qualities we associate with a leader like the President or a CEO?

Feminine Intelligent Smart Compassionate Polite Sensitive Dainty Caring Emotional Listener Nurturing Dependent Passionate Selfless Masculine Confident Strong Decisive Competitive Assertive Arrogant Stubborn Impartial Controlling Persuasive Aggressive

honest / trustworthy intelligent friendly educated confident strong determined compassionate good speaker hard working responsible courageous decisive Female 157-18 Female 118-58 Female 170-8 Both 90-86 Male 20-158 Male 1-177 Male 57-120 Female 175-3 Male 77-100 Male 32-147 Female 152-27 Male 11-166 Male 58-118

Women in Power To date, thirty-five women have served in the United States Senate, with sixteen serving at this time. http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/briefing/women_senators.htm There are currently 74 women serving in the U.S. House of Representatives. (of 435 = 17%) http://clerk.house.gov/member_info/cong.html 10 women CEO’s in the 2006 Fortune 500 (2%) http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/womenceos/

Gender Roles Can men and women cross roles? What are the consequences?

Gender vs Sex All of the following are based on a continuum – meaning, no category is either male or female, but a combination of both to varying degrees. Gender is related to how people perceive their femininity or masculinity. Sex is related to a person’s biological characteristics. Sexuality is related to who someone is attracted to emotionally, physically, and sexually.

Gender and Sexuality Transgender Transsexual Lesbian/Gay/Homosexual Person who feels comfortable breaking conventional gender roles. Transsexual Person who feels they should be the other sex. Lesbian/Gay/Homosexual Person who is attracted to someone of the same sex. Bisexual Person is attracted to both opposite and same sex. Straight/Heterosexual Person who is attracted to someone of the opposite sex.

Women-men and Men-women Various North American Indian groups have/had genders in between male and female. Men who wear women’s clothes but maintain masculine role such as warrior. Men who wear women’s clothes as part of spiritual role. Men who assume the gender role of women and may marry other men, but not always. Intersexed individuals who are not masculine or feminine. Women who performed men’s tasks but did not assume male gender roles. Women who did exclusively men’s tasks but may not wear men’s clothes. Some married women while others did not.

Recap Gender is pervasive in our society, but we may not see its effects. There are expectations in society regarding gender roles. Gender and sexuality are socialized and vary from culture to culture. Gender and sexuality are not “either or” but exist on a continuum.