GENDER SOCIALIZATION Jess MacDonald

The Historical Context of the Study of Gender Feminism:

The belief that women and men are or should be equal

3 Waves of Feminism: 1st Wave: 1848-1920 (political rights)

Seneca Falls Convention “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men

and women are created equal” 19th Amendment

2nd Wave: 1960s-1970s (social/civil rights) 3rd Wave: 1980s-present (economic rights)

Feminist Theory and the Study of Gender

Broad wide ranging theories that look at social phenomena and ask: What about the women? Why are the structures set up the way they are?

How can we change it?

Sex vs. Gender

Sex The biological characteristics that differentiate women and men (XX or XY Chromosome)

Gender The socially constructed patterning of masculinity and femininity, and of relations between women and men

“Doing Gender”: Socializing Gender in Society

Doing Gender: (West and Zimmerman, 1987) the ongoing process through which people create gender for themselves and others by acting and appearing the way we “should” as men and women.

Gender as a social construction Symbolic interaction

Significant Others

Birth Parents

Mead: Play stage Education System/ Teachers

Women and Men

Women and Men

Women and Men?

Socialization: The Importance of Peers and Others in Society

Cognitive categorization into one group of the other

Gender expectations for women and for men

Sanctions for not behaving the way a man or woman is supposed to behave

Socialization: The Media

Film, TV, advertising

Reinforce men’s and women’s roles

Jean Kilbourne: Killing Us Softly

Implications of Gender and Gender Inequality

Violence against women Around 18% of American Women have been raped But only 26%-37% of rapes are reported

1 in 4 college women will survive an attempted or completed rape

A woman is battered every 15 seconds in America

Implications of Gender and Gender Inequality

Disordered Eating 50% of girls 11-13 feel that they are

overweight 8 million people in the US have an eating

disorder 7 million women 1 million men

1 in 200 women in the US have anorexia nervosa

Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate out of any mental illness

Implications of Gender and Gender Inequality

Prohibits gender equality: Family and Home relations Work and economic opportunity