Sex and Gender:
- Sex: biological differences between males and females
- Gender: the roles that people perform and the values and attitudes that people have regarding men and women
- Gender constructs: colours, gifts, jobs
o Ex: pink for girls, blue for boys
The Cultural Construction of Gender Identity:
- Cultural Constructs: models of behaviour and attitudes that a particular culture transmits to its members
o Body posture
o Clothing and bodily adornment
o Cross-dressing o Status and social value
o Speech styles
Intersectionality:
- A concept often used in critical theories to describe the ways in which culturally constructed categories such as gender, race, class, ability, and other axes of identity intersect on various levels
- While they do intersect, the result is institutionalized inequality
Gender and Sexuality:
- Sexual feelings and practices shaped by culture
- Beliefs about what is appropriate for different genders
- Relationship between sex and marriage
Gender and Homosexuality:
- Attitudes about homosexuality reflect cultural learning
- Third gender categories:
o Neither men nor women - genderqueer
o Hijras - in between gender in India
o Two-spirits
Sexualities:
- Heterosexual
- Homosexual
- Bisexual
- Asexual - no interest in other people sexually
- Pansexual - attraction to people heterosexual and transgender (video)
- Polysexual - attracked to many different types of orientations
- Transsexual (does this belong on this list?)
o Might not be sexually related
Gender Roles and Relations:
- Gender roles:
o Constellations of rights, duties, attitudes, and behaviours
o Culturally associated with each gender
- Gender relations:
o Norms of interaction between men and women
o May reflect differences in relative status, prestige, and power
Division of Labour by Gender:
- Men's and women's work often complementary
- Some patterns common cross-culturally; other tasks variable
o Example of cross-cultural pattern: women cook
- Gender roles change as economic and material factors change
o WWII - men to war, women take over their jobs in factories
- Gendered division of labour also supported by cultural beliefs
Gender and Status:
Continuum of gender relations
- Gender equality <-^Gender inequality -> male dominance
- Status of women varies greatly across cultures
- In general, women's status is higher where their labour contributes major share of food
o Foraging societies - egalitarian (equal) - pull their weight=more status
Gender and Subsistence:
- Modes of subsistence relate to gender roles, gender status, and gender relations
- Foragers and Gender:
o Economic roles defined by gender, but some what flexible in many societies o Status of women related to source of annual caloric intake
- More women contribute, the higher their status
- Gender in Pastoral and Horticultural Societies:
o Status influenced by the control over distribution of produce and goods
o Somewhat related to descent and residence patterns
o Mostly male dominated
- Gender in Agricultural States:
o Complex societies with social stratification
o Often characterized by male dominance, but degree varies widely
o Role/status of women is dependant on economic, political, and historical factors
- Industrialism and Gender:
o Women marginalized
o Segregation in employment
o Gender gap - unequal pay
o Cult of domesticity
- Women knowing how to do all of the things around the house (cooking, cleaning, raising kids) - keep going with it because their good at it
- Post-Industrial Era:
o Expansion of service sector
- Men and women