Chapter Info (Click Here)
Book No. – 15 (Sociology)
Book Name – Sociology: Themes and Perspective (Haralambos & Holborn)
What’s Inside the Chapter? (After Subscription)
1. Introduction
1.1. Feminism and “Malestream’ Sociology
2. Sex and Gender Differences
2.1. Hormones and the brain
2.2. Brain Lateralisation
3. Sociobiology-The Evolution of Human Behaviour
3.1. Criticisms of sociobiology.
4. Biology and the Sexual Division of Labour
4.1. George Peter Murdock – Biology and Practicality.
4.2. Talcott Parsons – Biology and the ‘Expressive’ Female
4.3. Ann Oakley- The Cultural Division of Labour
5. The Social Construction of Gender Roles
5.1. Socialisation and Gender Roles
5.2. Gender Attribution
5.3. Anne Fausto-Sterling – Sexing The Body
5.4. Sex and Gender Differences – Conclusion
5.5. Harriet Bradley – Gendering
6. Gender Inequality
6.1. Radical Feminism
6.2. Marxist and Socialist Feminism
6.3. Liberal Feminism
6.4. Black Feminism and Postcolonial Feminism
7. The Origins of Gender Inequalities – Feminist Views
7.1. Shulamith Firestone – A Radical Feminist View
7.2. Sherry B. Ortner – Culture and the Devaluation of Women
7.3. Michelle Zimbalist Rosaldo The Public and the Domestic
8. The Origins of Gender Inequalities Marxist and Socialist Perspectives
8.1. Engels-Inequality and Private Property
8.2. Stephanie Coontz and Peta Henderson – Women’s Work. Men’s Property
9. The Origins of Gender Inequalities and Industrialisation – A Liberal Feminist Approach
10. Gender in Contemporary Societies – Radical Feminist Perspectives
10.1. Kate Millett – Radical feminism and Sexual Politics
11. Gender in Contemporary Societies – Marxist and Socialist Perspectives
11.1. Marx and Engels and Women Under Capitalism and Communism
11.2. Marxist Feminism
11.3. Contemporary Socialist Feminism
12. Sylvia Walby – Theorizing Patriarchy
13. Gender Regimes, Patriarchy and the Future of Feminism
13.1. Responding to Criticisms of Patriarchy
13.2. Gender Regimes
13.3. The Progress of Feminism
13.4. The Future of Feminism
14. Postmodernism, Sex and Gender
14.1. Destabilising Theory
14.2. Tensions and Affinities between Postmodernism and Feminism
14.3. The Main Features of Postmodern Feminism
14.4. Influences on Postmodern Feminism
14.5. Postmodern Feminists
14.6. Postmodern Feminism – An Evaluation
14.7. Combining Modern and Postmodern Feminisms
14.8. Judith Butler – Gender Trouble
15. Ann Oakley Gender on Planet Earth
15.1. Postmodernism as a Delusional System
15.2. Feminism and Patriarchy
15.3. Conclusion and Evaluation
16. Gender and Paid Employment
16.1. Gender Inequalities at Work
16.2. Gender and Earnings
16.3. Explanations for Gender Inequalities in Employment
16.4. The Women and Work Commission – Shaping a Fairer Future
17. Feminism and The Future
17.1. Susan Faludi – Backlash
17.2. Postfeminism
17.3. Natasha Walter – The New Feminism
17.4. Imelida Whelehan Overloaded
17.5. Natasha Walter – Living Dolls
17.6. Germaine Greer – The Whole Woman
17.7. Catherine Redfern and Kristin Aune – Reclaiming the F Word
18. Masculinity
18.1. David D. Gilmore Cultural Concepts of Masculinity
18.2. Victor J. Seidler – Rationality and Masculinity
18.3. R.W. Connell – Masculinities
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Sex and Gender
Sociology
Chapter – 3
Introduction
- In the Bible, Original Sin in the Garden of Eden was attributed to woman.
- Eve tasted the forbidden fruit, tempted Adam, and has been paying for it ever since.
- Genesis 3:16 says: “I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.”
- Sociologists see this as a mythological justification for the position of women in society.
- Many women view this as an accurate description of their status throughout history:
- Women produce children.
- Women are mothers and wives.
- Women do cooking, cleaning, sewing, and washing.
- Women take care of men and are subordinate to male authority.
- Women are excluded from high-status occupations and positions of power.
- These generalizations have applied to most human societies.
- Some sociologists and anthropologists argue that there has never been a society where women did not have an inferior status compared to men.
- Feminist and post-feminist ideas have sparked debates about these differences in status.
Feminism and ‘Malestream’ Sociology
- The term ‘malestream sociology’ refers to mainstream, male-dominated sociology.
- Many feminists argue that early sociology was dominated by men and distorted the social world.
- Pamela Abbott, Claire Wallace, and Melissa Tyler (2005) identified five key criticisms of malestream sociology:
- Sociology mainly studied men, with all-male samples in areas like education and work.
- Generalization of male research findings to all people.
- Women’s issues were rarely studied, and areas like housework and childbirth were overlooked before the 1970s.
- When women were included in research, they were presented in a distorted sexist way.
- Sex and gender differences were added without addressing how theories justified women’s subordination.
- Abbott et al. state that women’s experiences were often ignored or distorted, and men’s subordination and domination of women was seen as natural.
- Since the influence of feminism began in the 1970s, malestream sociology has been criticized and addressed.
- There is now less sexist sociology than before, but progress is patchy and varies by topic.
- Some topics have been reconstructed from feminist perspectives:
- Sexuality, the body, identity, and cultural sociology.
- Sociology of family, health, education, crime, age, popular culture, and mass media.
- Class stratification, politics, and sociological theory remain less impacted by feminism.
- Feminists agree that existing sociology is inadequate but disagree on solutions:
- Integration: Filling gaps in malestream sociology with feminist research, but it risks marginalization.
- Separatism: Creating a ‘sociology for women by women’, but may still be marginalized.
- Reconceptualisation: Total reformation of sociology to incorporate women’s experiences and eliminate sexism.
- Abbott et al. argue that reconceptualisation is difficult but possible and worth aiming for.
- Feminist sociology has contributed significantly to the development of the field and understanding of the social world, especially in areas like poverty, family, education, crime, religion, health, and methodology.
- Sex and gender views often assume distinct, significant biological differences between men and women (sexual dimorphism).
- Some writers, since the 1960s, began questioning the assumption of biological differences and suggested that differences are as much social as biological.
- Robert Stoller (1968) distinguished between sex (biological) and gender (psychological and cultural):
- Sex refers to biological features like genitalia, gonads, and hormonal states.
- Gender refers to behaviors like being masculine or feminine, which are not necessarily linked to biological sex.
- Many sociologists and feminists support this distinction, challenging the belief that men are naturally masculine and women are naturally feminine.
- There is widespread belief in the ‘naturalness’ of male and female behavior, supported by some scientists, psychologists, and sociologists, but this view is subject to criticism.