1. GENDER AND SEXUALITY

2. Introduction
The investigation of cultural constructions of gender is frequently an arena for a version of the nature-nurture debate.
Sex refers to biological differences, while gender refers to the cultural construction of male and female characteristics.
Sexual dimorphism refers to marked differences in male and female biology besides the primary and secondary sexual features (for example, the average difference in height and weight between men and women is an aspect of sexual dimorphism, but not the differences in genitalia and breasts).

3. Preliminary Definitions
Gender roles are the tasks and activities that a culture assigns to the sexes.
Gender stereotypes are oversimplified but strongly held ideas of the characteristics of men and women.
Gender stratification describes an unequal distribution of rewards (socially valued resources, power, prestige, and personal freedom) between men and women, reflecting their different positions in social hierarchy.

4. Foragers: Gender Stratification
Roughly equal contributions to subsistence by men and women correlates with decreased gender stratification.
As women’s contributions to subsistence becomes differentially high or low, gender stratification increases.
Gender stratification is lower when domestic and public spheres are not clearly distinguished.

5. Foragers: Public vs. Domestic
Strong differentiation between the home and the outside world is called the domestic-public dichotomy, or the private-public contrast.
The activities of the domestic sphere tend to be performed by women.
The activities of the public sphere tend to be restricted only to men.
Public activities tend to have greater prestige then domestic ones, which promotes gender stratification.

6. Foragers: Sex-Linked Activities
All cultures have a division of labor based on gender, but the particular tasks assigned to men and women vary from culture to culture.
Almost universally, the greater size, strength and mobility of men has led to their exclusive service in the roles of hunters and warriors.
Lactation and pregnancy also tend to preclude the possibility of women being the primary hunters in foraging societies.
However, these distinctions are very general, and there is always overlap (!Kung San are used as an example).

7. Foragers: Oldest Human Society
Before 10,000 years ago, all human groups were foragers.
In foraging societies, the public-domestic spheres are least separate, hierarchy is least marked, aggression and competition are most discouraged, and the rights, activities, and spheres of influence of men and women overlap the most.
Relative gender equality is most likely the ancestral pattern of human society.

8. Gender among Horticulturalists
Martin and Voorhies (1975) study of 515 horticultural societies to investigate how gender roles and stratification varied according to economy and social structure.
Women were found to be the main producers in horticultural societies.
In half of the societies, women did most of the cultivating.
In a third of the societies, men and women made equal contributions to cultivation.
In only 17% of the societies did men do most of the work.
Women dominated horticulture in 64% of the matrilineal societies and in 50% of the patrilineal societies.

9. Gender Among Horticulturalists
South American corn farmers. Women tend to be the main producers in horticultural societies.
Photo Credit: Stuart Franklin/ Magnum

10. Matrilineal and Matrilocal Societies
Female status tends to be relatively high in matrilineal, matrilocal societies (e.g. Minangkabau).
Reasons for high female status were that women had economic power due to inheritance, and the residence pattern lent itself to female solidarity.
A matriarchy is a society ruled by women.
Anthropologists have never discovered a matriarchy, but the Iroquois show that women's political and ritual influence can rival that of men.
Warfare was external only, as is typical of matrilineal societies.
Women controlled local economy; men hunted and fished.
Matrons determined entry in longhouses and also had power of impeachment over chiefs.

11. Matrifocal Societies
A survey of matrifocal (mother-centered, often with no resident husband-father) societies indicates that male travel combined with a prominent female economic role reduced gender stratification.
The example of the Igbo (Nigeria) demonstrated that gender roles might be filled by members of either sex.

12. Matrifocal Societies
Map showing Igbo cultural areas in Nigeria, with its ecological subdivisions.

13. Patrilineal-Patrilocal Societies
The spread of patrilineal-patrilocal societies has been associated with pressure on resources and increased local warfare.
As resources become scarcer, warfare often increases.
The patrilineal-patrilocal complex concentrates related males in villages, which solidifies their alliances for warfare.
This combination tends to enhance male, prestige opportunities and result in relatively high gender stratification (e.g. highland Papua-New Guinea).
Women do most of the cultivation, cooking, and raising children, but are isolated from the public domain.
Males dominate the public domain (politics, feasts, warfare).

14. The Etoro: Homosexual Behavior
Etoro culture is used as an example of extreme male-female sexual antagonism and the degree to which gender is culturally constructed.
Etoro men believe that semen is necessary to give life force to a fetus
Men have a limited supply of semen.
Sexuality depletes this supply and saps male vitality.
Heterosexual intercourse is seen as a necessary to reproduce, but unpleasant because it will lead to a man's eventual death.
Heterosexual sex is discouraged and limited to only about 100 days a year.
Heterosexual sex is banned from community life and must take place in the woods far from the village.

15. The Etoro: Homosexual Behavior
Although heterosexual sex is discouraged, homosexual sex between males is viewed as essential.
In order for boys to grow into men, they must orally receive semen from older men.
Homosexual acts can take place in the village.
Etoro homosexuality is governed by a code of conduct.
Homosexual sex between older men and younger boys is seen as essential.
Homosexual sex between boys of the same age is discouraged.

16. The Etoro
Map showing location of Etoro.

17. Sexual Orientation
All human activities, including sexual preferences are to some extent learned and malleable.
Sexual orientation refers to a person’s habitual sexual attractions and activities.
Heterosexuality refers to the sexual preference for members of the opposite sex.
Homosexuality refers to the sexual preference for members of the same sex.
Bisexuality refers to the sexual preference for members of both sexes.
Asexuality refers to indifference toward or lack of attraction to either sex.

18. Sexual Norms
Sexual norms vary considerably cross-culturally and through time.
There tends to be greater cross-cultural acceptance of homosexuality than of bestiality and masturbation.
Flexibility in human sexual expression is part of our primate heritage.
Masturbation exists among chimpanzee and other primates.
Homosexual behavior exists among chimpanzee and other primates.
Sexuality is a matter that culture and environment determine and limit.

19. Gender among Agriculturalists
With agriculture, women become cut off from production.
Martin and Voorhies (1975) found that women were the main workers in only 15% of the agricultural societies, down from 50% of the horticultural ones.
Martin and Voorhies (1975) found that males dominated the cultivation in 81% of the agricultural societies, up from only 17% of the horticultural ones.
This shift is due in part to the increase of heavier labor that characterizes agriculture and the increase in the number of children to raise.

20. Gender Among Agriculturalists
Social changes that accompany agriculture also functioned to reduce the status of women.
Belief systems started to contrast men's valuable extradomestic labor with women's domestic role, now viewed as inferior.
The decline of polygyny and the rise of the importance of the nuclear family isolated women from her kin and cowives.
Female sexuality is carefully supervised in agricultural societies which results in men having greater access to divorce and extramarital sex.
However, there are many exceptions to this, wherein women still do most of the cultivation work, and have a correspondingly high status (e.g. Betsileo).

21. Gender Among Agriculturalists
Male and female contributions to production in cultivating societies. Numbers are percent of societies by type.
Horticulture
Agriculture
Women are primary cultivators 50 15
Men are primary cultivators 17 81
Equal contributions to cultivation 33 3
Source: Martin and Voorhies 1975, p. 283.

22. Patriarchy and Violence
Patriarchal Societies
The male role in warfare is highly valued.
Violent acts against women are common and include dowry murders, female infanticide, clitoridectomies.
Domestic Violence
Family violence is a worldwide problem.
Abuse of women is more common in societies where women are separated from their supportive kin ties (e.g. patrilineal, patrifocal, and patrilocal societies).

23. Early American Industrialism
The public-domestic dichotomy as it is manifested in America (“a woman’s place...”) is a relatively recent development.
Initially, women and children worked in factories, but were supplanted by immigrant men who were willing to work for low wages.
This shift coincided with associated beliefs about the unfitness of women for labor.
Since World War II, the number of women in the work force has increased dramatically, driven in large part by industry’s search for cheap, educated labor, in combination with technology mitigating the effect of notions about appropriate work for women.

24. The Feminization of Poverty
The number of single-parent, female headed households has doubled since 1959, with the largest proportion of these being minorities.
The combination of dual responsibilities (parenting and work) and poorer employment opportunities means that these households are increasingly poverty stricken.

25. The Feminization of Poverty
Earnings in the United States by gender and job type for year-round full-time workers in 1994.
Median Annual Salary
Ratio of Earnings
Female/Male
Women
Men
1994
1989
Median Earnings
$21,744
$30,407 71 68
For Executive
$30,299
$45,944 66 61
For Professional
$32,321
$46,488 70
For Sales
$18,986
$32,850 58 54
For Service
$13,518
$20,996 64 62
Source: The American Almanac, , p. 428.

26. What Determines Gender Variation?
In economies where both sexes contribute more or less equally (foragers, matrilineal cultivators), there is relatively little gender stratification.
Resource competition, warfare, patrilocality, patrilineality, and reduced female role in the public economy correlate with high gender stratification.

27. THE BIG QUESTIONS
Where do the differences between men and women come from?
How have the lives of women and men changed in the past 50 years?
How are our sex lives shaped by biology and society?
How has sexual behavior changed in the last 50 years?

28. Where do the differences between men and women come from?
QUESTION 1
Where do the differences between men and women come from?

29. The Social Construction of Gender
So-called “natural differences” have been used to justify unequal opportunity in education, employment, politics, and more
Women were once thought incapable of succeeding at college because of their biological makeup
Our cultural suppositions are more rooted in our social constructions of what is natural than in biological limitations
© The McGraw Hill Companies

30. Sex and Gender Sex: biological differences between males and females
Refers to who we are as males and females
Gender: the social and cultural significance we attach to those presumed biological differences
Refers to what we become as men and women, which occurs through socialization
© The McGraw Hill Companies

31. Gender and Inequality
Gender stratification refers to the unequal distribution of wealth, power, and privilege between men and women. Men and women differ in their access to privilege, prestige, and power. Traditionally, men have been first in line when it comes to who gets what, when, and how. Sex is a biologically determined characteristic, while gender is a socially constructed characteristic. All societies use anatomical differences to assign gender roles. Gender identities are the conceptions we have of ourselves as being male or female. Sexism operates at both an individual and an institutional level.
© Alan S. Berger

32. Sources of Gender Differences Gender roles can be seen as arising from biological development or cultural contributions. The biological aspects of gender consist of the physical differences between men and women. Gender roles probably represent the earliest division of labor among humans. Gender identities are the concepts we have of ourselves as being male or female. Theories of the acquisition of gender identities include the Freudian approach, cultural transmission, and cognitive development.
© Alan S. Berger

33. Sociological Perspectives on Gender Stratification The major sociological perspectives offer interpretation of gender stratification that resemble and parallel their positions on class and racial or ethnic stratification. Functionalists suggest that families are organized along instrumental-expressive lines, with men specializing in instrumental tasks and women in expressive tasks. Conflict theorists contend that a sexual division of labor is a social vehicle devised by men to ensure themselves of privilege, prestige, and power in their relationships with women. Symbolic Interactionists argue that gender inequality persists because of the way we define men and women and their appropriate roles in society. Language helps perpetuate inequality. Feminists argue that women are disadvantaged because society is patriarchal.
© Alan S. Berger

34. Gender and Power
Patriarchy is a form of social organization in which males dominate females.
In general, women fare better in rich nations than in poor countries.
Matriarchy is a form of social organization in which females dominate males. No matriarchal societies are known to exist or to have existed.
Sexism is the belief that one sex is innately superior to the other. It underlies patriarchy and harms men, women, and the society as a whole.
Patriarchy is not inevitable because modern technology has eliminated most of the historic justifications for it.
© Alan S. Berger

35. Gender and Socialization.
Gender roles are attitudes and activities that a culture links to each sex.
Parents treat male and female children differently from birth.
Peer groups reinforce these differences.
Boys and girls play different kinds of games and learn different styles of moral reasoning from games.
Curricula in schools further reinforce a culture’s gender roles.
The mass media, especially television, also serve this function.
© Alan S. Berger

36. Women continue to enter a narrow range of occupations
Gender and Social Stratification
In industrial societies, women working for income is now the rule rather than the exception.
Sixty-two percent of U.S. married couples depend on two incomes.
Women continue to enter a narrow range of occupations
almost half in clerical or service work.
The greater a job’s income and prestige, the more likely it is that the position will be held by a male.
Working has not substantially reduced women’s dominance in housework as men have failed to increase helping more at home.
© Alan S. Berger

37. Gender and Inequality
The average female full-time worker earns about 76 cents for every dollar earned by a male full-time employee.
Most of this results from the different kinds of jobs held by men vs. women.
The greater responsibility for family and childcare tasks that our society has traditionally assigned to women is another factor explaining the earning differential.
Discrimination is a third critical factor.
Our society still defines high-paying professions as masculine; this helps to explain why an equal number of women and men begin most professional graduate programs, but women are less likely to complete their degrees.
Female involvement in politics is also increasing, although very slowly at the highest levels.
As technology blurs the distinction between combat and noncombat personnel, women are taking on more military assignments, though equality has not yet been achieved.
© Alan S. Berger

38. Gender and Inequality
While women fit the definition of a minority group, most white women do not think of themselves this way.
A minority is any category of people, distinguished by physical or cultural difference, that a society sets apart and subordinates.
Minority women are doubly disadvantaged. This fact is at the heart of intersection theory, the investigation of the interplay of race, class, and gender; often resulting in multiple dimensions of disadvantage.
© Alan S. Berger

39. Violence against women:
Family violence is frequently directed against women.
Female genital mutilation is practiced extensively in parts of Africa and the Middle East.
Sexual harassment refers to comments, gestures, or physical contact of a sexual nature that is deliberate, repeated, and unwelcome.
Women are more likely to be sexually harassed than are men.
Some harassment is blatant but much of it is subtle.
Feminists define pornography as a form of sexual violence against women, arguing that it demeans women and promotes rape.
© Alan S. Berger

40. Theoretical Analysis of Gender.
Structural-functional analysis suggests that traditional sex roles emerged in hunting and gathering societies where they promoted the efficient functioning of the family.
Each sex played a role that complemented the role played by the other, with men taking the instrumental part and women the expressive.
Talcott Parsons argues that gender role complementarity helps to integrate society; that girls and boys are socialized into expressive and instrumental roles respectively; and that social control reinforces gender-linked behavior.
This view has been criticized as follows:
It ignores the fact that many women have had to work outside the home due to necessity.
It ignores the personal strains and social costs produced by rigid gender roles.
It legitimizes the status quo.
© Alan S. Berger

41. It casts conventional families as morally evil.
Social-conflict analysis explains contemporary sex roles in terms of dominance, subordination, and sexism.
This perspective draws heavily on the work of Friedrich Engels, who felt that capitalism intensified male domination.
This view has been criticized as follows:
It casts conventional families as morally evil.
It minimizes the extent to which people live happily in families.
It argues, perhaps falsely, that capitalism stands at the root of gender stratification.
© Alan S. Berger

42. Source: Curry et al Sociology For The Twenty-First Century, Fifth Edition, Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River,2008
© Alan S. Berger

43. Opposition to feminism.
Feminism is the advocacy of social equality for the sexes in opposition to patriarchy and sexism.
Basic feminist ideas:
Working to increase equality.
Expanding human choice.
Eliminating gender stratification.
Ending sexual violence.
Promoting sexual freedom.
Types of feminism:
Liberal feminism.
Socialist feminism.
Radical feminism.
Opposition to feminism.
Opposition is primarily directed at its socialist and radical forms, while support for liberal feminism is widespread.
There is a trend toward greater gender equality.
© Alan S. Berger

44. Looking Ahead: Gender in the Twenty-first Century.
While changes may be incremental, we are seeing movement toward a society in which women and men enjoy equal rights and opportunities.
© Alan S. Berger

45. What Do Differences Actually Mean?
Do males score higher than females on standardized math tests?
Male and female means and distribution on Math SAT test
More people score in the middle distribution than at either extreme
Males have higher average, but many members will have higher average who are below average of sex with lower average

46. Gender Socialization
What shapes gender differences in behavior and preferences?
Biological differences, including hormones, anatomy, or brain structure
Social construction of gender including parenting and mass media
Definitions:
Gender: Way in which social forces structure how being male or female affect what is expected of you, what opportunities you have, and the results for individual men and women.
Social construction of gender: Entire system of social processes that create and sustain gender differences and gender inequality.
Patriarchy: Gender system in which men have more power than wormen in politics, the economy, and the family.

47. Sex versus Gender
Sex
Biological grouping based on anatomy, chromosomes, and levels of hormones
Gender
Result of how society shapes differences and inequalities between men and women
Transgendered Individuals
Challenge assumptions about how sex and gender and how these go together
How do we distinguish the concepts of sex and gender?

48. Gender Differences by Setting and Time
Rationale for Social Construction of Gender
Gender differences vary between social settings
Gender arrangements have changed over time
Lightdale and colleagues concluded that gender-stereotypical behavior is more likely when people believe they are being watched
How do social expectations affect the interactions between men and women when they know they are being watched by others?

49. Do you know? Check your text!
What does the fact that gender differences vary across situations and over time tell us about the concept of gender?
Gender-stereotypical behavior is more likely to happen when people believe that they are being watched.
Some of how women and men act results from trying to live up to what they think others expect from someone of their sex.
Social pressure, even with no rewards or punishment, has an effect.
Do you know? Check your text!

50. The Impact of Stereotypes
Stereotypes: Beliefs about group that are often untrue or exaggerated as a description of the group
Research findings reveal that what people hear from others about whether their sex is better at something affects their confidence and even their actual performance
Social context determine how “macho” men act
Correll: Women’s assessment of their math skills were influenced by disclosures of male superiority on tests
Spencer and colleagues: Differences in math test performance influenced by disclosure of male higher performance or male equal performance on tests.
These studies do not prove that biological influence have no influence on gender differences. Gender difference fluctuations indicate influence of social situations.

51. How have the lives of women and men changed in the last 50 years?
QUESTION 2
How have the lives of women and men changed in the last 50 years?

52. Rising Women’s Employment and Education
Of all the changes in the lives of women over the last several decades, the biggest is the increase of women in the paid workforce
Increased wages
Higher share of jobs in service work
Feminist movement and laws against sex discrimination
Steady increase in women’s educational level
What are some of the reasons that women’s employment increased dramatically between 1960 and 1990?
Increased wages offered incentive to work for pay
Economy changed to include higher share of jobs in service work
Feminist movement and the laws against sex discrimination were influential
Women steadily increased their share of degrees over time
More women than men now receive degrees
Financial support for college has changed

53. Change in Women’s Jobs Occupational sex segregation measures
Sex segregation declined substantially in 1970s and 1980
Declined more slowly since then
Jobs still sex segregated partly due to socialization and hiring discrimination
In the last 40 years, occupational sex segregation has declined significantly
In the last 40 years, occupational sex segregation has declined significantly
One example of this is that more women have entered into engineering, still a largely male-dominated field.

54. Why do women earn less than men?
Women earned about 60 to 65 percent of what men earned from the 1950s to the 1980s. After 1980, this began to equalize so that by about 2000, women earned 76 percent of what men did. Since 2000 there hasn’t been much more progress toward equality.

55. What Do You Think?
Why haven't the changes in men's roles been as dramatic as the changes in women's roles?
Let’s find out!

56. The Impact on Men
Women have entered traditionally male employment more than men have taken on traditionally female activities
Greater stigma for men to engage in female-identified activities
Attitudes towards female employment improved
Men’s housework increased slightly
Employed fathers spend more time caring for their children than they did 50 years ago, but so do employed mothers.
Women’s hours of paid work have increased much more than men’s hours in household work.
Norms of masculinity seem relatively unchanged in insisting that married men are supposed to have a job—so much so that when men aren’t employed, couples more often divorce
Women have entered traditionally male employment more than men have taken on traditionally female activities
Greater stigma for men to engage in female-identified activities
Attitudes towards female employment improved
Men’s housework increased slightly
Employed fathers spend more time caring for their children than they did 50 years ago, but so do employed mothers.
Women’s hours of paid work have increased much more than men’s hours in household work.
Norms of masculinity seem relatively unchanged in insisting that married men are supposed to have a job—so much so that when men aren’t employed, couples more often divorce

57. How are our sex lives shaped by biology and society?
QUESTION 3
How are our sex lives shaped by biology and society?

58. Drastic Measures
In the “Long Neck” tribe in Northern Thailand, women are seen as more beautiful if they have long necks, and some take drastic measures to achieve this beauty
Do American women take any drastic measures to alter their bodies?
If so, what are these?
What Drastic Measures Do American Women Take to Alter Their Bodies?

59. Sexual Orientation Sexual orientation Heterosexual Homosexual Bisexual
Terms and labels
Sexual orientation
Heterosexual
Homosexual
Bisexual
Definitions:
Sexual orientation: Refers to whether individuals are attracted to members of the other sex, the same sex, or both
Diamond
Showed that behavior (which sex one has sex with), attraction (which sex one is attracted to), and identity (whether one refers to oneself as lesbian, bisexual, or heterosexual) are not always consistent

60. Does Biology Influence Sexual Orientation?
What the research tells us
Higher percentage of identical twins of gay men were also gay, compared to lower percentage of fraternal twins of gay brothers and even lower percentage of adoptive brothers of gay men
Similar pattern found for women
What conclusion can you develop from these findings?

61. Our culture supports double standard of sexuality
Sexual Behavior
Evolutionary theories
Specific sex-genes help men and women to produce offspring
For women: Number of surviving children will not be enhanced by frequent sex with multiple partners
For men: Genes that encourage frequent, casual sex would increase men’s number of offspring-evolution led to more preference for causal sex among men
Nightclubs and college parties often feature women showing more skin than men. Why is this?
Our culture supports double standard of sexuality
Nightclubs and college parties often feature women showing more skin than men. Why is this?

62. Sexual Minorities Sexual minority
Anyone who is not heterosexual, or who is transgendered
Heteronormativity
Situation where culture and institutions send message that everyone who is normal is heterosexual
Heterosexism or homophobia
Bias directed at person because of sexual orientation

63. Let’s Talk About It! Same sex marriage
What do you think is the future of same-sex marriage in America?
On what do you base your opinion?
Gay rights movement Queer Nation: group highlighted the concerns of nonheterosexual persons of color, lesbians, bisexuals, transgendered persons, and those who didn’t like pigeonholing people into any of these categories and preferred the umbrella term queer.
Strong backlash: Religious institutions, local and state government groups opposed gay marriage; DOMA at federal level

64. How has sexual behavior changed in the last 50 years?
QUESTION 4
How has sexual behavior changed in the last 50 years?

65. Premarital Sex Overview
Increase in proportion of Americans have sex before marriage
American parents against teen children having sex
Cohabitation
Increasing numbers of young couples in relationship living together as unmarried couple
How have relationships in which premarital sex occurs changed in recent decades in the U .S.?

66. Hooking Up
In recent decades sexual activity in causal liaisons with no expectation that a relationship with ensue
Do you think that hookups often lead to relationships?

67. Gender Scripts Sex before marriage has become more acceptable
How much change has occurred in the sexual and romantic behavior that are scripted by gender?
Sex before marriage has become more acceptable
Little change in gender differences in what is expected in the romantic and sexual realm
In hookups, women feel obligation to try to give pleasure; men more selfish

68. Births Outside of Marriage
Birth outside of marriage more common with increase in all education, income, and racial groups
Highest rates occur among most disadvantaged African Americans
Reduction of stigma of pregnancy outside of marriage related to acceptance of sex before marriage

69. Generational Differences
Younger generation more likely to have sex before marriage, to have cohabited before marriage, and to have more sexual partners
Oral sex more accepted and appealing to younger generation
Married or cohabiting people reported more frequent sex in the last year

70. THANK YOU
What about the Malaysian society?
Share.