9 1 gender (1) 0 - 11m 18s

Hi everyone,
welcome to class this week.

It's nice to be able to be here

and meet with you,
here in this virtual lecture.

This week, I have divided the lecture up

into two separate parts.

This is the first part,
and we'll be talking about gender

in this part of the lecture,

and then in the second part

we'll be talking about sexuality.

So, related topics,
often conflated topics,

but not the same topic.

They're both covered in the same chapter

in your textbook, so you'll be reading just one chapter,

but I think it's important to...

talk about these two topics separately,

as they are such different things
in sociology.

In this lecture,
we'll learn to distinguish

between sex and gender.

We'll look at some of the differences
on nature and nurture.

We'll assess how men and women

are ranked by their power,
property and prestige.

We'll compare different theories

to analyze gender stratification.

We'll also look
at examples of institutional

and individual discrimination.

And finally,
we'll apply some of the themes

from "Outliers"
to talk about gender stratification.

Let's start off here,

distinguishing between
what is sex and what is gender.

As sociologists, we see these
as two very different things,

yet the terms are often conflated
within our language

and within our culture.

As sociologists, when we talk about sex,

we're talking
about the biological characteristics

that would be associated
with being male or female.

We're talking about whether someone

has higher levels of testosterone
or estrogen.

We're talking about whether someone

has an XY chromosome or XX chromosome.

We're talking
about whether someone has a penis

or a labia and vagina.

So these are some of the ways

that we identify sex within our culture.

However, it's not as cut
and dry and easy

as what we might assume

based on this gender dichotomy

that we often see within our society.

There's an assumption that most people

would be either an XY male
or an XX female,

and no other options.

However, we do see that there
are XY males and XX females,

which is the most common--
which are the most common,

but we also see XXY individuals

who might present
more as male or more as female.

We have individuals
who are missing one of the chromosomes

that have just an X and a zero
in their chromosomal pattern.

We also have XY females,

and we have androgynous
or intersex individuals,

where medical professionals are not sure

or it's not clear at birth

which sex someone is to be identified as

on their birth certificate.

Gender, however, is different.

When we talk about gender,
we're not talking about

these biological differences
between sexes.

Instead, we're talking about
what it means in our society

to be masculine or feminine.

We're talking about the cultural

and behavioral characteristics

that are associated
with our gender identity.

Someone who's cisgender

has the gender identity
that would match their genitalia,

or would match what others might assume

based on a birth certificate.

Transgender individuals

have a gender identity that's different
than what we might assume

in our cultural expectations
of having sex and gender match up.

There are also individuals
who are gender non-conformant,

who are non-binary,

two-spirited genders,
which would be a term

often used by native tribes

or...

in indigenous populations,

and there's more options,
there will be more options.

This is really a change

that we've seen in the last 20, 25 years

here in the United States,
to much more of an openness

about discussing the options of gender

beyond the binary.

Gender can really be seen
as a mix of nature and nurture.

The nurture part of it is

for sure what we expect out of a male

or a female or a non-binary person

within our social system.

But there are also some components

that might be related to nature,

like how individuals
might act due to hormones

and how that is associated
with gender identity.

So, these are all pretty complicated,

but basically, when we talk about sex,

we're talking
about the biological characteristics.

When we talk about gender,
we're talking about

what's expected by our culture.

As things have been changing swiftly

in the last few decades
here in the United States,

there is really a new
and emerging field of research

that looks at gender beyond the binary.

Unfortunately, we don't
have a ton of research yet in this area

because it is such a new area

and because it's a small portion
of the population.

So sometimes it's hard
to find a good sample size

to conduct this type of research.

When we look at how gender

has affected individuals
within our society,

we can see that gender
has determined property,

whether individuals
were perceived as property

or allowed to own property.

In our historical United States,

women were seen as property,

and they were not allowed
to own property

until the mid 1800s.

In our culture,
men often have more political power

and more power within workforces,
more power overall.

Men have more options
and opportunities because of patriarchy.

Men's-- what we have typically
seen as "men's jobs"

often have more prestige,
often pay higher,

and when we look at
what we expect out of men versus women,

we expect that men
would have more prestigious careers

and economic success.

We've seen talked about
in discussion boards,

um, some of the problem of the idea

that a male would be able
to be a breadwinner

in our current social system,

where it's really impossible
for most people

to have a one income household.

We see that most families today
need two incomes to survive,

so a one income household
is really difficult,

even if you're looking
at a heterosexual married couple.

So we have this expectation
of men being breadwinners,

which isn't possible for a lot,

but we have an expectation
of women being beautiful,

and that's also a cultural expectation
of prestige

that is not really obtainable

for all individuals.

And of course,
how we see beauty is different,

but we do have these cultural standards
of beauty.

These things are changing,
but they're still problematic,

and it's still problematic
on how men and women

are interacted with in society.

Different theoretical backgrounds

study different parts
of this gender stratification,

and different parts of what it means
to be in a gendered society.

Structural functionalists
have really looked

at the existence of gender roles

as functional for society.

They would say that if we go back
to earlier time periods

where men were the providers

and women were
these angels of the hearth

who took care of the home,

then they would say
that was structurally functional

because it made it so that
children could be cared for

and families could run smoothly.

However, some of the problems we see

are that this image

of a male breadwinner
with a female homemaker

was really only possible
for a small portion of the population

who happened to be heterosexual
in a married relationship

and who were white,
middle class or higher.

So for lower classes, we...

saw that this didn't work very well,

because in most cases,
both men and women had to work for pay.

And definitely
in ethnic minority families,

this didn't work
where both members of a couple

were expected to work for pay.

When we look historically,
we didn't see the options

that we have today
regarding gender identity

or even legal, same sex relationships.

So historically, this
was not something that's been studied

or that we've seen a lot
when we look at the historical records.

Researchers
who follow the conflict theory,

who identify as conflict theorists,

would say
that we have a lot of inequality

by gender in our society

because our society is patriarchal

and embedded
in a patriarchal social system

are gender inequalities.

Feminist theorists
are a type of conflict theorist

that call for equality for all genders.

They want
to see a society where men, women,

non-binary,
gender non-conforming, two-spirit,

where individuals, regardless of gender,

can be treated fairly.

And a lot of research
has been done in this area,

looking at how those in power

attempt to maintain power

and how we see power structures
and dynamics change.

The other group of researchers

that have studied a lot
with gender stratification

are symbolic interactionists,

and these researchers look at it

through a lens of micro-sociology.

So they're really looking
at how individuals

interact with each other.

There's a term
in sociology we call "doing gender,"

and this means that
within our social structure,

we act and are acted upon

based on what's expected of our gender.

So if you hold a door open for someone,

or if you've had door opened for you,

that's doing gender.

If you have expectations about,

um, maybe family members

who have expected you
to take a certain career

or not take a certain career

because of your gender,
that's doing gender.

If it's expected that you
would know how to cook

or clean or take care of a child

because of your gender,
that's doing gender.

And what we see
is that within our society,

if we don't do gender,
if we don't perform gender,

or how it's expected of us,
often others

will perform gender for us.

So, we may be perfectly capable
of opening our own door,

but if we approach a door

and someone else is there, that is male,

and in our culture, it's expected
that oftentimes males

would hold doors open for females,

then doing gender
or having gender done for us

might be that someone else
opens the door for us.

Or, you know, I think this
is just the easiest example to give,

that in our society, we often do gender

without even thinking about it.

In our culture, we are very much
socialized to do gender.

Young children learn distinct

and different expectations by gender.

So even if you take a child
as young as 2 or 3 years old

and you hand them a doll
that looks to be male

and a pretend razor,
they would know to shave

that doll's face with the razor.

But if you hand a razor and a doll

that looks to be female
to a young child,

they would shave that doll's legs.

So, this
is where we're really socialized,

even very young,
by what gender expectations are.