SOCIOLOGY OF GENDER

© Dr. Ramjit Kumar

B.A. PART- III (SOCIOLOGY)

 Distinction between Sex and Gender

 Sex are the biological traits that societies use to assign people
into the category of either male or female. When people talk
about the differences between men and women, they are often
drawing on the idea of sex, which is based on a rigid ideas of
biology rather than gender.
 Feminists argue that the biological difference between men and
women are exaggerated. The differences are socially
constructed by the patriarchal system of society by which men
are described as superior to women.

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 Distinction between Sex and Gender

 However, Judith Butler argues that, ‘sex’ itself becomes a social

category. This means that the distinction between ‘male’ and
‘female’ on the basis of sex-identification is a social distinction
made by the society, that is, it is a social construction.
 Butler explains that ‘gender is a secondary construct which is
imposed over the top of this natural distinction. Sex though seen
as biological, is as much a product of society as it gender. So the
term sex is also socially constructed. It is a particular way of
perceiving and dividing the differences between ‘male’, ‘female’.

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 What is Gender?
• Gender though inherent to a person’s identity, is actually a process of
social conditioning. Examples include the way in which men and women
speak and utilize language, women are treated in the media and
advertising, and the way they are commodified. Both Men and Women
are shaped by society but continue to follow their roles because social
pressure. They end up getting social conditioned by themself. The way
that women present themselves is a direct result of societal expectations
and attitudes that are placed on them from the time they are born.
• Gender is “the socially constructed roles, behaviors, activities, and
attributes that a given society considers appropriate for men and
women.

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 What is Gender?
 Gender is a socially constructed norms and ideologies which
determine the behavior and actions of men and women. It is a
routine, methodical, and recurring exercise and accomplishment.
 Society has different expectations, different rules and different
values for people based on their gender. Society make them to
confirm these social rules.
 Gender organises our identities and self-concepts, structures our
interactions. This is one of the basis upon which power and
resources are allocated.
 What is Gender?
• The gender binary attempts to lock men and women into their
respective roles, and allows for no exploration, and exhibits its
stereotypes in everything from advertisements to expectations.
Altogether, gender is a social construct that begins when we are born
and serves to change or modify our behavior to conform; however,
acknowledging that this is the case can lead people to broaden and
break their expectations.
• Butler says that “…gender is not a noun, but neither is it a set of
free-floating attributes, … substantive effect of gender is
performatively produced and compelled by the regulatory practices
of gender coherence” (Butler, 1990, p.24).
 What is Gender?
 Gender involves complex set of acts which is socially guided
through perceptual, interactional, and micro-political activities as
expressions of masculinity and femininity. This is embedded in
our micro as well as our macro world.
 Gender is being continually produced and reproduced. In other
words, gender is a social construction.
 Gender is also determined by what an individual feels and does.
 Gender as a Social Construction
Gender is an achieved status
• Children learn to walk, talk and gesture in concert with their status. Indeed, we
can tell the difference by such social markers (show picture)
Gender is a process, stratification system and structure;
• Process = day to day interactions reinforce gender as opposites. For examples,
conversations, rituals of daily life, sayings, etc.
• Stratification = Men as a group have more status and power than women as a
group. Women are treated as “other,” and compared to men.
• Structure = Gender divides work in the home and economic production. It
legitimates those in authority and organizes sexuality and emotional life.
• The central concept of feminist theory is the social construction of gender.
• Feminists all critique the essentialist view of gender and family.
• Ie. T. Parsons-instrumental and expressive role=nuclear family.

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 Gender as a Social Category.

 In one sense of course it is individual who do gender but this is

the emergent properties of every social situations.
 It determine the structure in many ways, like, as an outcome of
various social arrangement and organizing principle of many
social arrangement.

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 Attributes of Gender
 Gender is a process, stratification system and it take the form of a
structure.
 Process = day to day interactions reinforce gender as opposites.
For examples, conversations, rituals of daily life, sayings, etc.
 Stratification = Men as a group have more status and power than
women as a group. Women are treated as “other,” and compared
to men.
 Structure = Gender divides work in the home and economic
production. It legitimates those in authority and organizes
sexuality and emotional life

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 Gender as Social Stratification
 Gender inequalities are result of the complex form of social stratification
in the society.
 A set of relations link familial and labor market positions, in which
women and men have asymmetrical, interdependent, and unequal
relations to each other.
 Feminists argue that women are marginalised not only in cultural
beliefs, representations and practices but are also oppressed and
exploited through political, economic, social and physical forms/systems
of power.

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 Gender as Enactment
 Human bodies are gendered. They are built into major social institutions
of the society such as economy, ideology, polity, family and so on.
 Being a gendered in a society simply means that the person is following
the normative rules and regulations of the society.
 Doing Gender involves a complex of socially guided perceptual,
interactional, and micro-political activities that casts particular pursuits
as expressions of masculine and feminine “natures”.

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 Gender and Socialization
Patriarchy exists through learning of
stereotyped gender roles.
• Examples of learning gender roles
in the family:
 Pink for girls and blue for boys.
 Girls treated tenderly, boys more
roughly.
 Men is supposed to be devoid of
emotion and other emotive qualities
whereas women are supposed to less
than rational.
• Gender and the Mass media:
– Ads traditionally show women in
domestic roles and men in
occupational roles
– Men’s photograph to appear taller than
women.
– Men play more interesting characters
than women.

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 Gender & Socialisation
• Feminists argue that gender differences are universal but
culturally variable. The distinction between men and women,
masculine and feminine, are natural but they are historical and
culturally variables.
• For example, there are range of feminities and masculinities but
only some of them only become the norm of the society.
• Sociological perspectives try to understand such social
construction and differences that are manifested in gender order.

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 Distinctions between Sex and Gender

SEX GENDER
 Sex are the biological traits that societies  Gender is a fluid category, it may or may
use to assign people into the definitive not depend upon biological traits.
category of either male or female.
 More specifically, it is a concept that
 This happens through the focusing on describes how individuals understand
chromosomes, genitalia or some other their identities of but not limited to, being
physical ascription. a man, woman, transgender, intersex,
gender queer and other gender positions.
 When people talk about the differences
between men and women, they often rely  Gender involves social norms, attitudes
on the description of sex. and activities that society deems more
appropriate for one sex over another.
 Sex is based on rigid ideas of biology.  Gender is also determined by what an
individual feels and does.

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 Nature Versus Culture
• There is a constant shifts between conceptualizations of human beings
as controlled by either predominantly biological or social forces.
• On the debates on sex and gender , some argue in favor of biological
differences while other feminist writers favor the differences as socially
constructed, supported by social institutions like religion, caste, family
marriage and so on.
• Women’s roles and performances have changed drastically over the past
decades which has added new dimensions to the debates on sex/gender
distinctions.

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 Sociology of Gender
• The sociology of gender examines how society influences our
understandings and perception of differences between
masculinity (what society deems appropriate behavior for a “man”)
and femininity (what society deems appropriate behavior for a
“woman”).
• This influence identity and social practices. Feminists pay special focus
on the power relationships that follow from the established gender
order in a given society, as well as how these changes over time.

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 Sociology of Gender
 Sociology of gender is understanding gender relations and power relations
behind them.
 Understanding sociology of gender is essential to understand individuals’ access
to and distribution of resources, the ability to make decisions and the way
women and men are affected by socio-political and other processes in daily life.
 Sociology of gender examines how society influences (and our understandings
and perception of) differences between masculinity (what society deems
appropriate for a “man”) and femininity (what society deems appropriate for a
“woman”).
 This, process of perception and construction of gender in turn, influence
identity and social practices.
 Sociology of gender pay special focus on the power relationships between men
and women that follow from the established gender order in a given society, as
well as how these changes over time.

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 What is Sociology of Gender?
 Understanding sociology of gender is essential to understand individual’s
access to and distribution of resources, the ability to make decisions and the
way women and men are affected by socio-political and other processes in
daily life.
 In other words, sociology of gender examines how society influences and our
understandings and perception of differences between masculinity (what
society deems appropriate for a “man”) and femininity (what society deems
appropriate for a “woman”). This, process of perception and construction of
gender in turn, influence identity and social practices.
 Hence, sociology of gender pay special attention on the power relationships
between men and women that follow from the established gender order in a
given society, as well as how these changes over time.

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 Tasks/Agendas of Feminist Sociology
 Feminist theory emphasizes women’s lives and their experiences.
 Though subordination of women is a universal phenomenon. They
claim that subordination of women is culturally constructed and
maintained at material and ideological levels each reinforcing the other.
 The extent and nature of subordination of women is conditioned by
their social, economic and cultural environment. Feminist theorists and
researchers put their belief into action. This is called feminist pedagogy.
 Gender is not a monolithic category. Gender, class and caste intersect
with patriarchy.

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 Tasks of Sociological Imagination

 Though becoming a man or a woman is a natural process, gender differences

are universal, however, culturally variable. Gender differences are evident
because in most societies men are accorded high places in relation to power
and equity.
 The differences between genders are a matter of cultural selection and
appropriation. For example, there are range of femininities and masculinities
but only some of them only become the norm of the society.
 Gender inequalities are the outcome of the complex form of social
stratification in the society. Sociological perspective tries to understand such
social construction and differences that are manifested in gender order.
 An understanding of how gender is produced in social situations need
elaboration and clarification on how social processes at interactional control
it.

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 Judith Butler
• There are more important differences between human beings, but only some become a
basis for dividing human beings into distinct types. Hence this is an arbitrary but social
classification.
• Butler’s concern is that ‘biology’ itself, as a scientific discipline, is a social system of
representation. In other words, even if we accept that there are basic differences
between the ‘sexes’ there is no logical or rational reason for use.
• Judith Butler further explains ‘sex’ not only stipulates what men and women are but also
stipulates what men and women ought to be. It formulates rules to regulate the behavior
of men and women. Butler concludes that sex is not just an analytical category but also
normative and social category.
• There are some feminist writers who do not agree with Butler and regard ‘sex’ as
basically biological in nature. However, it is difficult to accept a rigid distinction between
sex and gender as either wholly biological or singularly cultural.
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 Performativity
• According to Judith Butler theorization about gender introduces the notion or
idea of performance of gender in terms of masculinity and femininity.
• Thus performance of gender becomes involuntary as gender gets internalized
through the socialization process within the dominant discourses of patriarchy
gender is performed at different levels within the family and in the society.
• We socially enter into our gendered categories of masculine and feminine right
from birth.
• Gender identities are constructed and constituted by language, which means
that there is no gender identity that precedes language.

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 Performativity
• Judith Butler’s theorization about gender introduces the notion of
performativity, an idea that gender is involuntarily ‘performed’ within
the dominant discourses of hetro-reality.
• Butler’s conception of performativity is most radical as she asserts that
all identities are in effects of institutions’ practices, discourses with
multiple and diffuse points of origin.
• This approach challenge the way discourses establish and reinforce
certain meanings and institutions ascribed meanings to sex
identification and differences questions constructing of gender identity.

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 • Five Key
Feminist •
•
1. Social construction gender
2. Social Change
Concerns •
•
3. Family
4. Social Theory
• 5. Social Justice
 Doing Gender
• "Doing Gender" is a classic sociological concept developed by Candace
West and Don Zimmerman. Their article "Doing Gender" was published
in Gender & Society (Vol. 1, No. 2, June 1987, pp. 125-151).
• Theoretical direction of issues of analytical distinction of sex and gender
• An understanding of how gender is produced in social situations need
elaboration and clarification on how social processes at interactional
control it.
• Being a gendered in a society: It does simply mean that the person is
following the normative rules and regulations of the society

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 “Doing Gender” as a Concept
 "Doing gender” means that gender is a routine accomplishment in everyday
life. We “do gender” every day, all the time. It's an ongoing activity. From an
early age, we learn about “doing gender.” We do gender in interaction.
 Gender is not simply what a person is, it is something that a person does, in
interaction with others. It is a product of social interaction. A production, A
construction and social dissemination.
 We do gender knowing that we will be judged by others. In this sense, we are
accountable for our gender performances.

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 “Doing Gender” as a Concept
• Doing gender has social consequences. It results in social stratification.
In doing gender, men become dominant, and women become
submissive. This results in power differences and hierarchy.
• Purses and wallets are gendered spaces. There’s nothing inherent in
men’s and women’s constitutions that naturally recommends boys to
carry money in wallets and girls to carry to money is purses.
• Doing gender also means creating differences between girls and boys,
men and women – differences that are not natural, biological and or
essential. Once the differences are started and used, they are ready to
reinforce the essentials of gender.
• In this sense individuals achieve gender in interaction with others.

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 Goffman on “Gender display”
• Erving Goffman contends that when human beings interact with others in their environment,
they assume that each possesses and expresses essential qualities. Femininity and masculinity
are regarded as “prototypes of essential expression – something that can be conveyed
fleetingly in any social situation”.
• According to Goffman gender is not something that happened in the nooks and crannies of
interaction, fitted in here and there and not interfering with the serious business of life.
• Goffman asserts that human beings themselves employ the term expression and conduct
themselves to fit their own notions of expressivity. These gendered expressions like femininity
or masculinity can be declined or can be offered. In this sense they are optional performances.
• Goffman ideas provide an insightful perspectives in sociology that gender is a socially scripted
dramatization of the culture’s idealization of feminine and masculine natures, played for an
audience that is well schooled in the presentational idiom. These are scheduled performances
in a special locations.

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 Garfinkel Case Study of Agnes
• This case study shows that gender is constructed and created through interaction and structure
interaction.
• A transsexual raised as a boy who went through the process of medical complication (Sex
reassignment) of transformation and finally adopted a female at the age of 17. Agnes case is a
typical example of how culture works through invisible process and achieve accomplishment of
gender.
• Agnes had lacking some social resources of a girl’s biography that would provide a female identity
in their interaction. To quote, West & Zimmerman, “she needed to display herself as a women
while simultaneously learning what does it mean to be a women”. Agnes had to consciously learn
what vast majority of women do without thinking. She had to learn how to act within socially
structured circumstances. This is a secret apprenticeship and in preparation to move from
apprentice participation to bona fide participation.
• Drawing on Garfinkel, theorists have argues that masculinity and femine qualities are cultural
events. They are the products of “gender attribution process”.

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 Can we avoid doing Gender?
• Doing gender is unavoidable because of social consequences that it has like, the
allocation of power and resources in domestic, economic, and political domains
but also in broad arena of interpersonal arenas.
• In virtually every situation such distinctions are necessary and relevant but
doing gender furnishes the interactional scaffolding of social structure along
with a built-in mechanism of social control.
• While maintaining distinctions between men and women one should not lose
sight of the fact that in such processes people go through interactional
validation and legitimization of those distinction that confers the sense of
“naturalness” and “rightness”.
• Hence there is need to reconceptualization of gender not as a simple property of
individuals but as an integral dynamic of social orders Social change, hence,
must be pursued at- institutional level, cultural level and interactional level.

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 Gendered Work Culture
• Such gendered work cultures reflect and enhance segregation, helping to preserve conventional
views of masculine and feminine behavior both inside and outside work. They
“domesticise”/“masculinise” capitalist work conditions.
• The asymmetry of men’s and women’s relations to the labor market means class experiences are
‘gendered’, and gendered experiences are also ‘classed’.
• The acknowledgement of the significance of gender means that classes are not only divided by
gender, but they are “gendered” in the sense that gender is integral to processes of class formation,
action and identification.
• Because women and men have a different pattern of relations to employment, they also often work
in settings dominated by one gender, with a marked ‘gendering’ in workplace cultures: segregated
workgroups of women and men develop their own highly specific and mutually excluding cultures.
• Men’s cultures also emphasise exaggerated versions of masculinity. Studies have shown that even
friendship patterns and group relations still emphasise gender boundaries.

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 Can we avoid “Doing Gender”?
• Doing gender is unavoidable because of social consequences that it has
like, the allocation of power and resources in domestic, economic, and
political domains but also in broad arena of interpersonal arenas.
• In virtually every situation people go through interactional validation
and legitimization of those distinction that confers the sense of
“naturalness” and “rightness”. Such distinctions are necessary for doing
gender.
• Hence there is need to reconceptualization of gender not as a simple
property of individuals but as an integral dynamic of social orders.
• Social change, hence, must be pursued at- institutional level, cultural
level and interactional level.

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 Can we avoid “Doing Gender”?

• Doing gender is unavoidable because of social consequences that it has

like, the allocation of power and resources in domestic, economic, and
political domains but also in broad arena of interpersonal arenas.
• In virtually every situation people go through interactional validation
and legitimization of those distinction that confers the sense of
“naturalness” and “rightness”. Such distinctions are necessary for doing
gender.
• Hence there is need to reconceptualization of gender not as a simple
property of individuals but as an integral dynamic of social orders.
• Social change, hence, must be pursued at- institutional level, cultural
level and interactional level.

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 Gender Fluidity
• Sex and gender do not always align. Cis-gender describes people whose biological body they were
born into matches their personal gender identity. This experience is distinct from being
transgender, which is where one’s biological sex does not align with their gender identity.
• Transgender people will undergo a gender transition that may involve changing their dress and
self-presentation (such as a name change). Transgender people may undergo hormone therapy to
facilitate this process, but not all transgender people will undertake surgery.
• Intersexuality describes variations on sex definitions related to ambiguous genitalia, gonads, sex
organs, chromosomes or hormones. Transgender and intersexuality are gender categories, not
sexualities. Transgender and intersexual people have varied sexual practices, attractions and
identities as do cis-gender people.
• People can also be gender queer, by either drawing on several gender positions or otherwise not
identifying with any specific gender (nonbinary); or they may move across genders (gender fluid);
or they may reject gender categories altogether (agender).
• The third gender is often used by social scientists to describe cultures that accept non-binary
gender positions.
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 Sylvia Walby
• Status inequality between men and women is not a new phenomenon which is reinforced through
patriarchy and its institutions, gendered division of labour and social institutions like marriage, dowry,
property and inheritance and subordination.
• The unequal accesses to resources, opportunities and rewards and to rights between men and women are
legitimized by patriarchy across societies and cultures.
• The term patriarchy has been made popular by British writer Virginia Woolf to refer to a system of
government in which men ruled societies through their position as a head of household. Sociologists such
Walby has used the term to refer to a much broader form of social stratification in which men dominate in
whole range of settings.
• This consists of following interrelated structures: Paid employment, Household production, Marginalised
from state, Violence, Sexuality, Cultural socialization
• Sylvia Walby (1994) observes that patriarchy is not only differential distribution of power but also it is
built into the very mechanism of production.
• Feminist sociologists sought to explain origin and perpetuation of universal gender inequality in terms of
sociological, cultural and material terms. Each of these explanations rested upon a major dichotomy which
was taken to be universal: public/domestic, nature/culture and production/reproduction.

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