DOCUMENT: THEORIES ON GENDER RELATIONSHIPS

https://www.scribd.com/document/124133697/Theories-on-gender-relations

Theoris on gender relations, retrieved from https://www.scribd.com/document/124133697/Theories-on-gender-relations

Gender differences

Inner psychic life of women is different from men; differ in basic values and interests, achievements, motives, creativity, sexual fantasies, personal identity

Differences are explained in terms of biological, institutional or psychological factors

Gender inequality

View that women do not just occupy a different location in society but they have unequal access to wealth, status and power in relation to men

Inequality does not result from biological, institutional or social-psychological differences between men and women but from nature of society

Gender oppression

Women’s location in society is a result of power relationship between men and women in which men control, subjugate, and oppress women

Basic structure of domination is PATRIARCHY

Marginalization of women are legitimized by traditional norms, values, institution and scriptures that provide the broad ideological foundation of patriarchy and other forms of domination

What causes the oppression of women? A.

Location in a different sphere from that of men

 Two binary divides:1. Public/Private (domestic)

Women involved in domains of activity committed to reproduction and mothering/nurturing

Men are free to form broad associations in political, economic and military spheres

Note:

Women’s status is highest in society in which the public and domestic spheres are only weakly differentiated;

while women’s status will be lowest in societies where there is a firm differentiation between domestic and public spheres of activity and

where women are isolated from one another and placed under a single man’s authority in the home (patriarchy)

Women may enhance their status by creating a public world of their own or by entering the men’s world

Most egalitarian societies will be those in which men participate in the domestic domain.

Issues about domestic-public model

Whether male domination is universal

Whether male domination is explained by domestic-public dichotomy

Whether concept of domestic-public has relevance in all cultures.

Sexual division of labor 

- division of labor between men and women serves as

basis for man’s dominance because of their 

contribution to the material well-being of the family

Production vs reproduction

Paid work vs unpaid household work (esp. in capitalism where family production was replaced by commodity production

was replaced by commodity production solidifying men’s control over women who become economic dependents)

Women’s reproductive functions have either limited their work to the home or created a “double burden” of unpaid

housework and childcare as well as paid work

What is the relationship between economic roles of women and gender stratification?

In many parts of the world, women contribute significantly if not predominantly to subsistence

Female productive activities enhance the social position of women in society

Control over fruits of their labor and a positive valuation of this labor are other factors to consider and the extent to whichwomen are involved in at least some political activities

A decline in importance of women in agricultural activities lead to a decline in social status; women’s value is defined by

their reproductive abilities rather than by productive activities

Nature/civilization divide

identification of women with “nature” has been seen

not only as a cause for exclusion from the

“civilized public political domain, but

also as explanation of the fact that in all cultures, women are less valued socially than men

Women identified with “nature” because they bear children, thus creating new “things” naturally; men are free/forced to create culturally.

Women as a result, more confined to domestic sphere and rear children who are “pre social” beings

Human beings everywhere rank cultural products higher that the realm of physical world (aim to control/transcend nature),thus women end up with an inferior symbolic position

You're reading a preview. Issues/problems about women’s identification with nature. Assumes universal values of nature-culture by societies3.

Patriarchy

A social system in which the role of the male as the primary authority figure is central to social organization, and where fathers hold authority over women, children, and property. It implies the institutions of male rule and privilege, and is dependent on female subordination

Includes all the social mechanisms that reproduce and exert male dominance over women

Critique of Patriarchy

 Does not allow to differentiate between diverse forms of social relations in different societies

Gender, ethnicity and class are intermeshed in each other and articulated in each other in concrete social relations

Definition of Terms

GENDER

refers to social and psychological characteristics associated with being female and male; exists along a continuum of femininity and masculinity

GENDER IDENTITY

psychological state of viewing one’s self as a girl or boy and later as man or woman; identity is largely learned; is a reflection of society’s conceptions of femininity and masculinity

GENDER ROLE

set of social norms that dictate what is socially regarded as appropriate female and male behavior; socially defined and can be enacted by either sex; e.g. strong, aggressive, decisive for men; weak, passive, indecisive for women

SEX ROLE

 defined by biological constraints and can be enacted by members of only one biological sex, e.g. wet nurse, sperm donor, childbearer 

GENDER ROLE IDEOLOGY

 refers to what is regarded as the proper role relationships between men and women; may be traditional or modern

TRADITIONAL

 perpetuates male dominance and male bias in almost every sphere of life

MODERN