SOCIOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE STUDY OF GENDER
I. Critique of biological and
psychological perspectives
1) emphasis is on difference despite variation within a
particular gender is greater than between genders.
2) multiple genders – multiple masculinities and femininities
3) “artificial” creation of public/private dichotomy
4) focus is on individual rather than interactional and
institutional organization
II. Assumptions
1)
gender is socially constructed –
2)
gender is not simply a characteristic of the individual
3)
important dimension along which resources (material and non-material) are
distributed in society
III. A Sociological Approach – Gerson and Peiss
·
any adequate
theory of gender difference must incorporate the individual (consciousness),
interactions (negotiation and domination), and social organization
(boundaries).
o
Individual –
“consciousness”
1)
gender awareness
2)
female and male consciousness
3)
feminist/antifeminist consciousness
o
Interactions –
“Negotiation and Domination”
1) Domination
2) Negotiation
o
Social
Organization, social structure, institutional -- “Boundaries
IV. Gender in Interaction –
“Doing Gender”
A. What does this mean?
B. Requires distinguishing between
o
Sex: determination
made through the application of socially agreed upon biological criteria for
classifying males and females
o
sex category:
achieved through application of sex criteria
o
gender: activity
of managing situated conduct in light of normative conceptions of attitudes and
activities appropriate for one’s sex-category
C. How can we see people “doing gender?”
o
Gender displays: demonstrations of behavior that communicate gender
identities, or membership within a particular sex category.
D. If gender is simply something that we do, why not act
differently?
E. Contributions
F. Limitations
V. Institutional Approach
·
Emphasis on how
organizations and institutions are “gendered”
A. What does this mean?
o
Organized and
function in gendered ways
o
Examples
B. Acker
o
Production of
gender divisions
o
Construction of
symbols and images
o
Interactions
between individuals
o
Internal mental
work
o
Ongoing “logic”
of organizations
C. Contributions
D. Limitations
VI. Multiple Masculinities
and Femininities
·
Sociological
approach also recognizes that it is not just important to study relations
BETWEEN men and women but also AMONG men and women.
A. Construction of Masculinities (Messerschmidt)
·
How different men
in different social contexts construct different masculinities.
·
Three locations
o
The Street
o
The Workplace
o
The Family
B. Hegemonic Masculinity (Bird 1996)
·
“The maintenance
of practices that institutionalize men’s dominance over women … it is
constructed in relation to women and to subordinate masculinities” (Connell
1987, cited in Bird 1996)
o
Where is
hegemonic masculinity primarily maintained?
o
What are the
three meanings that are maintained?
o How?