Gender and the Social Construction of Gender Relations 5

Exam 2 

28 cards   |   Total Attempts: 182
  

Cards In This Set

Front Back
Decribed by C wright mills as the intersection of biography and history and understands the context in which a person constructs their identity
Sociology
Context in which people construct their identity
Insitutions
4 elements of a social constructonist perspective
1. masculinity and feminitiy vary from culture to culture
2. vary in any one culture over time
3. gender definitions vary over the course of a person's life (younger, older facing menopause)
4. definitions of masc and fem will vary within any one culture at any one time (by race, class, ethnicity, sexuality and sex)
Adds specific dimensions to the exploration of gender
Social constructionism
They explore the ways a person becomes gendered
they explore the ways they find some internal consistency despite definitions that go against their identity
Sex role theorists
Sociologists found 6 problems with sex role theory (1)
1. idea of "role" minimizes the importance of gender (too dramatic and appear too changeable (the role of being techer or sister is different then race or age) (role of being a female teacher is different from a male teacher)
A broad body of thory, drawing from both psychology and sociology, that studies individuals socialization into gender roles and acquisition of gender identities
Sex role theory
Sociologists found 6 problems with sex role theory (2)
2. they assume one normative definition about masc and fem (if it varies across culture and across time, it can't just be one universal definition - they find how that definition is established and explain all the way of the differences - but we need to find all the definitions in the world expressed by different cultures and people to make up "femininities and masculinities)
Sex role theory thinks people who don't fit the normal definition of gender has a expressing sex role problem. Whereas we believe the many definitions is an outcome of social environments therefore we can not understand differences in masc and fem without first looking at the institutions and racial inequality structures the wya people construct their identity
Sociologists found 6 problems with sex role theory (3)
3. they assume two seperate speheres of differentiation (sorting) (to masculine and to feminine) - they suggest zero relationship (and that to be masculine, is to be non-feminine)
Sociologists found 6 problems with sex role theory (4)
4. ignores the fact that gender is plural, relational AND situational (what it means to be a man and a woman varies in different contexts (with friends, with boss) gender changes in different settings
Sociologists found 6 problems with sex role theory (5)
5. it depolictizes gender , making gender a set of individual attributes and not an aspect of social structure (they think "male roles and female roles" are complementary - seperate yet equal) that neglects question of power and conflict
Sociologists found 6 problems with sex role theory (6)
6. cannot comprehend the dynamics of change (gay right movements or feministic movements want to expend role definitions (to break free of constraints) and to regain power that was stripped away) only social constructionism can understand these changes because they are about power
Systematic structural inequality produces a "culture of self-hatred' among the target group. and yet we don't of race roles. Why would that be absurbed?
(1) the differences WITHIN each race are far greater than BETWEEN races
(2) what it means to be white or black is always constructed in RELATIONSHIP to one another
(3) there is power involved
They argued that rather than gender defining who we are it defines what we do. What one does in interactions with others. (We are constantly doing gender and doing the traits that are prescribed for us)
The interactionist approach
A social movement and body of theory that developed after WWII.
Second wave feminism