What is the Sociology of Sex and Gender?

I. Important Terms

a. Sex

b. Gender

II. Two Major Issues to Confront

a. Gender differentiation

b. Gender inequality

III. A Sociological Approach – the Sociological Imagination

a. Personal troubles vs. private issues

b. Social structure

c. Systematic/empirical

IV. History of Sociology of Sex and Gender

a. Arose out of women’s movement

b. Emphasis on differences between men and women

c. Only women are “gendered”

V. Recent Sociological Knowledge

a. Increased recognition that differences among are larger than differences between

b. Both men and women are “gendered”

c. Gender is relational

d. Variation among -> multiple masculinities and femininities

e. Race, class, and gender variation

VI. Major Frameworks

a. Individuals characteristics

b. Social interaction

c. Institutional/structural

VII. Three major conclusions

a. Gender is socially constructed

b. Not simply a characteristic of the individual

c. Important in organizing systems of inequality