Gender

1. Gender • Sex and Gender • Recurrent Gender Patterns • Gender Among Foragers • Gender Among Horticulturalists • Gender Among Agriculturalists • Patriarchy and Violence • Gender and Industrialism • Sexual Orientation

2. Sex and Gender • Gender – cultural construction of male and female characteristics • Sexual dimorphism – marked differences in male and female biology besides the primary and secondary sexual features • Sex – biological differences

3. Sex and Gender • Gender stereotypes – oversimplified, strongly held ideas of characteristics of men and women • Gender roles – tasks and activities that a culture assigns to the sexes

4. Sex and Gender • Reflects different positions in social hierarchy • Gender stratification – unequal distribution of rewards (socially valued resources, power, prestige, and personal freedom) between men and women

5. Recurrent Gender Patterns • In domestic activities, female labor dominates • In extradomestic activities, male labor dominates • Women are primary caregivers, but men often play a role • Subsistence contributions of men and women are roughly equal cross-culturally

6. Recurrent Gender Patterns • Men mate, within and outside marriage, more than women do • Double standards that restrict women more than men illustrate gender stratification • Gender stratification lower when domestic and public spheres not clearly distinguished • Differences in male and female reproductive strategies

7. Gender Among Foragers • Strong differentiation between the home and the outside world is called the domestic-public dichotomy, or the private-public contrast • The activities of the domestic sphere tend to be performed by women • The activities of the public sphere tend to be restricted to men • The Public-Domestic Dichotomy

8. Gender Among Foragers • Public activities tend to have greater prestige than domestic ones, which promotes gender stratification • Sex-Linked Activities • All cultures have a division of labor based on gender, but the particular tasks assigned to men and women vary from culture to culture.

9. Gender Among Foragers • Lactation and pregnancy also tend to preclude the possibility of women being the primary hunters in foraging societies • !Kung San • Almost universally, the greater size, strength, and mobility of men have led to their exclusive service in the roles of hunters and warriors

10. Gender among Horticulturalists • Survey of matrifocal (mother-centered, often with no resident husband-father) societies indicates male travel combined with a prominent female economic role reduced gender stratification • Igbo (Nigeria) demonstrated that gender roles might be filled by members of either sex • Reduced Gender Stratification – Matrifocal Societies

11. Gender among Horticulturalists • Spread of patrilineal-patrilocal societies has been associated with pressure on resources and increased local warfare • Patrilineal-patrilocal complex concentrates related males in villages, which solidifies their alliances for warfare • Increased Gender Stratification-Patrilineal-Patrilocal Societies

12. Gender Among Horticulturalists • Results in relatively high gender stratification (e.g., highland Papua-New Guinea) • Women do most of the cultivation, cooking, and raising children, but are isolated from the public domain • Males dominate the public domain (politics, feasts, warfare) • Patrilineal-patrilocal tends to enhance male prestige opportunities

13. Gender Among Horticulturalists • Women dominated horticulture in 64% of the matrilineal societies and in 50% of the patrilineal societies

14. Gender among Agriculturalists • Women were main workers in 50% of horticultural societies but only 15% in agricultural societies • Gender stratification associated with plow agriculture rather than with intensive cultivation • When economy based on agriculture, women typically lose role as primary cultivators

15. Patriarchy and Violence • Patriarchy – political system ruled by men in which women have inferior social and political status • Patriarchy – political system ruled by men in which women have inferior social and political status • Societies that feature a full-fledged patriarchy, replete with warfare and intervillage raiding, adopt such practices as dowry murders, female infanticide, and clitoridectomy

16. Patriarchy and Violence • With spread of women’s rights movement and human rights movement, attention to domestic violence and abuse of women increased • Patriarchal institutions persist in what should be a more enlightened world • Family violence and domestic abuse of women worldwide problems

17. Cash Employment of American Mothers, Wives, and Husbands, 1960-2002*

18. Earnings in the U.S. by Gender and Job Type for Year-Round Full-Time Workers, 2003*

19. Gender and Industrialism • “Traditional” idea that “a woman’s place is in the home” developed among middle- and upper-class Americans as industrialism spread after 1900 • Attitudes about gendered work varied with class and region • Woman’s role in the home stressed during periods of high unemployment • Gender roles changing rapidly inNorth America

20. Gender and Industrialism • Both men and women constrained by their cultural training, stereotypes, and expectations • The Feminization of Poverty • Increasing representation of women and their children among America’s poorest people • Consequences in regard to living standards and health are widespread

21. Gender and Industrialism • Contributing Factors • Male migration • Civil strife • Divorce • Abandonment • Widowhood • Unwed adolescent parenthood • The Feminization of Poverty

22. Median Annual Income of U.S. Households by Household Type, 2001

23. Sexual Orientation • Persons of the opposite sex, heterosexuality • Persons of the same sex, homosexuality • Both sexes, bisexuality • Person’s habitual sexual attraction to, and sexual activities with

24. Sexual Orientation • Recently in U.S., tendency has been to see sexual orientation as fixed and biologically based • Culture always plays a role in molding individual sexual urges to a collective norm • Sex acts involving people of the same sex were absent, rare, or secret in only 37% of 76 societies studied by Ford and Beach

25. Sexual Orientation • Sudanese Azande males shifted from sex with older men (as male brides), to sex with younger men (as warriors), to sex with women (as husbands) • Etoro in Papua New Guinea believed limited lifetime supply of semen that boys had to acquire orally from older men • Various forms of same-sex sexual activity considered normal and acceptable

26. The Location of the Etoro, Kaluli and Sambia in Papua New Guinea • The western part of the Island of New Guinea is part of Indonesia. The eastern part of the island is the independent nation of Papua New Guinea, home of the Etoro, Kaluli, and Sambia