Gender & Sexuality

1. Lecture 5

2.  The core ideas and theories developed by
founding fathers of sociology e.g Positivism,
Social Facts, Capitalism and Modernity
fundamentally shaped contemporary
sociological thought.
 From this week onwards, we will be covering a
range of contemporary sociological debates,
including debates on gender and sexuality,
social class, education and the media.

3.  Sex and gender
 Gender inequality
 Feminism

4.  Sexuality has long been considered a highly personal
subject and not been discussed in social sciences.
 Sex: Anatomical and physiological differences that define
male and female bodies.
 Gender: The psychological, social and cultural differences
between males and females. It relates to socially
constructed notions of masculinity and femininity and is
not necessarily a direct product of biological sex.
 Sexual orientation: direction of one’s sexual or romantic
attraction (homosexual/ heterosexual/bisexual… etc).

5.  There has been great interest in gender
studies across social science disciplines.
 While biologist/ essentialist views dominated
gender studies in the past, the social
constructionist views gained significant
popularity in the past several decades.

6.  Biological factors ranging from hormones to
chromosomes to brain size to genetics largely
determine behaviour patterns in men and
women and are responsible for innate
differences between the two genders.
 Natural factors produce gender inequality in
the society. For example men’s tendency
towards aggression is associated to male’s
biology.

7.  Gender is a ‘social construction’. What it
means to be a man or a woman is learnt and
not given and depends largely on when and
where people live.
 Gender roles are guided by socialisation
processes and strengthened through
positive and negative sanctions that reward
or restrain behaviour. e.g. What a brave
boy/What a sweet girl/ boys do not cry... etc.

8.  Regards biological explanations to be
reductionist as they reduce complex human
activities and social relations to a single
biological ‘cause’ and neglect the role of social
interaction in shaping human behaviour.
 Cultural factors are influential in defining
masculinity and femininity. For example
anthropological and historical data on human
behaviour reveal a great degree of variation in
male and female behaviour over time and place.

9. Most nations are at their root patriarchal where
the father is considered the head of the
household, the breadwinner and decision-
maker. Males are given more power in political
and economic spheres.

10.  Women’s increasing presence in paid employment
and the public sphere, however, led to changing
behavioural norms between men and women, gender
relations and public and private attitudes towards
sexuality.
 Sexuality is not anymore tied to the process of
re-production & child birth and has come to be
increasingly separated from it.
 Religious beliefs and traditional norms relating to
sexuality continue to exert an influence on peoples
attitudes and values, however, there is now a growing
acceptance of diverse forms of sexual behaviour and
orientations.

11.  Through ‘gender socialisation’ children
gradually learn the social norms and
expectations that, according to dominant
ideas, correspond to their sex. Such
differences are not biologically determined
but culturally produced.
 Gender socialisation may also lead to gender
inequalities due to assigning superior roles to
men and inferior roles to women.

12.  Cultural and media products aimed at
young audiences embody stereotypical,
gendered representations of girls and boys.
 Agencies of socialisation such as the family,
schools and peer groups may not produce a
homogenous socialising experience.
 Individuals have the capacity to reject or modify
the social expectations around sex roles therefore
gender is not solely determined by socialisation
(refer to Durkheim’s ideas on social facts and
Weber on Social Action).

13.  Feminist movements try to explain gender
inequalities and to set forth agenda for overcoming
those inequalities (Giddens & Sutton 2015: 653)
 They criticise ‘patriarchy’ as the socially organised
dominance of men over women and argue that social
power held by men creates and sustains gender
inequality.
 In their view, gender is a significant form of social
stratification and a key factor in structuring the types
of opportunities and life chances faced by individuals
and groups. Men’s roles are generally more highly
valued than women’s roles.

14.  Feminist scholars argue that there is nothing
‘natural’ or ‘functional’ about the sexual division
of labour in the society which has led to men
and women assuming unequal positions in terms
of power, prestige and wealth. Order and control
in society are based on male power.
 Feminist theories, however, contrast with one
another and have sought to interpret gender
inequalities through a variety of deeply
embedded social processes such as sexism,
patriarchy and capitalism.

15. Effective from September 2015 | FY10 Sociology week 2 - Society
Feminist Theories I
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There are different types of feminist theories and each emphasises different
forms of control as a way of understanding male-dominated social order.
 Feminist social theory has influenced social policy for many years
addressing women’s lack of legal rights in society, lack of representation
on their rights to reproduction and the social consequences of living in a
patriarchal culture.
 Feminism is concerned with improving the conditions of women in society,
hence feminist theory is about developing ideas, concepts and
philosophies that help meet that agenda.
 It also focuses on adding to sociology as a subject and injecting the
acknowledgement of women’s female-oriented private sphere of
household and families.

16. Effective from September 2015 | FY10 Sociology week 2 - Society
Feminist Theories II
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Feminist theory is a term covering an increasing range of positions. Here we
will focus on the three core feminist views:
1.Liberal Feminism which focuses on the control of women through sexual
discrimination.
2.Socialist/Marxist Feminism which focuses on social class inequality as a
context in which females are oppressed, exploited and discriminated against
in patriarchal capitalist societies.
3.Radical Feminism which focuses specifically on patriarchy as the main
system of oppression against women. They argue that under patriarchy
women are controlled by men in both the public ( e.g. workplace) and private
(e.g. home) spheres.

17.  Liberal Feminists look for explanations of gender inequalities in
social and cultural attitudes & call for legal and political equality
between males and females.
 Unlike radical and socialist feminists, they do not see women’s
subordination as part of a larger system or structure and believe
in gradual reform.
 For Liberal Feminists, gender equality is achievable through
progressive legislations and other democratic means such as
campaigning for gender equality legislations in the workplace,
education and the media.
 Critics of Liberal Feminism argue that they are unsuccessful in
dealing with the root causes of gender inequality because they
do not acknowledge the systemic nature of women’s oppression
in society.

18.  Social/Marxist Feminists aim to defeat both patriarchy and
capitalism and focus on the systemic nature of women’s
oppression.
 They believe Capitalism as a socioeconomic, political and cultural
structure plays a major role in women’s subservience to men
and intensifies patriarchy in several ways:
a. By concentrating wealth and power in the hands of a small number of
men.
b. It also defines people – in particular women- as consumers,
persuading them that their needs will be met only through ever
increasing consumption of goods and products.
c. Capitalism also relies on women to labour for free in the home, caring
and cleaning.
 They call for the restructuring of the family, the end of domestic
slavery which in their view can only be achieved through a
socialist revolution which would produce true equality under a
state-centred economy designed to meet the needs of all.

19.  Patriarchy – systematic domination of females by males- is of central concern for
Radical Feminists. Men deny women’s access to positions of power and influence in
society and are responsible for and benefit from the exploitation of women. They
consider men’s violence against women central to male supremacy.
 Popular conceptions of beauty and sexuality are imposed by men on women in
order to produce a certain type of femininity that perpetuate women’s
subordination. The objectification of women through the media, fashion and
advertising turns women into sexual objects whose main role is to please and
entertain men.
 They see family as one of the primary sources of women’s oppression as it enable
men to control women’s roles in reproduction and child-rearing and makes them
dependent materially on men for protection and livelihood.
 Women can be emancipated only through the abolition of the family and the
patriarchal order and the power relations which characterise it.

20.  Throughout this session, we distinguished
between the naturalist and the social
constructionist perspectives on gender.
 We also looked at ‘gender inequality’ and
Feminism and developed discussion on
different ways in which gender inequality has
been conceptualised by different feminist
schools of thought.

21.  Review lecture notes and write down
questions for seminar one.
 Read Giddens and Sutton (2015)
‘Gender Socialisation’ pp 636-639
and take notes.
Homework
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