Gender Inequality Chapter Four

Gender Inequality Chapter Four By: Melissa Pereira, Melissa Weedon and Ivana Pandzic

Introduction Chapter 4 Summary Part one: Framing the Problem by Melissa. P Part Two: (De) Constructing Gender by Ivana. P Part Three: Gender Inequality By Melissa. W Question/Answer Period Game Treats Agenda

Thesis: • Gender Constitutes a constructed and contested site of progress and regress of empowerment and disempowerment • Social constructed ness of gender and gender relations creates social problems

Framing the Problem • Gender roles tightly scripted • Feminism helped women progress and fight sexist assumptions • Feminism has helped women “come a long way” • Women are now able to assert control over their lives instead of having them decided by men

Women still have a long way to go • The “old boys network” seems to have remained in tact • Stereotypes still persist • Women are expected to perform a double duty • Seen as having a rightful place in workforce, also required to take care of household chores and children

Men, experiencing gender crisis • Certainties associated with masculinity has dissolved • Canada still continues to be governed by men • Augie Fleras notes that the question is: How to analyze and assess a situation in which women have made progress, but yet continue to be hobbled because of patriarchal biases? (pg 105) • Social constructed ness of gender is problematic when:

1. perceived differences between men and women are manipulated • 2. competition over scarce resources creates unhealthy friction which invites great interpersonal costs and risk • 3. scripting of masculinity and femininity leads to rigid roles

(De) Constructing Gender • Individuals express interest in the cultural meaning of womanhood or manhood • Manhood, nor womanhood qualify as purely biological attributes • Culture shapes what is perceived as male and female

A Gendered Society • Gender is culturally defined • Children and adults conditioned to absorb dominant ideals • Reality in itself is gendered • Feminism has helped to redefine the shift in balance of power • Women continue to be portrayed as vacuous, vulnerable

double standard that prevails when a man shows his “softer” side • Men are experiencing and identity crisis in trying to figure out who they are and what is expected of them

Men are From Mars/Women From Venus? • Some would argue that men and women are alike • Others propose dissimilarity due to the radically different social and cultural experience • Many believe that gender relations reflect innate and inherited qualities • Biologists argue that brains of women and men process information differently

Similarities and differences in gender are the result of social forces • Concepts of what it means to be a man or a women is socially constructed

The Masculine Mystique: • Sociology textbooks that deal with gender focus on the social problem that confront women • One sided look glosses over the male component of gender relations • Both men and women experience confusion about male roles • Men are now experiencing a crisis of confidence • Support system for men is not in place • Confusion can erupt into hostility • Take charge guy appropriate at times but so to is the sensitive and thoughtful type

From Ruling the Roost to Roasting the Chicken • “real” man embodies core cultural values • Women are unthinkable outside of their relationships to men • Men are entering into new century in more precarious positions because” • Women have seized power • Children are asserting rights • Computers taking their jobs • Their value to society is eroded • Their command and control skills becoming obsolete

Men appear unhappy about sharing power • Feminists have argued, women only and men only are not the same thing because men are trying to monopolize power and women trying to acquire power • Masculine mystique has been unzipped • Rules of the game are changing

Gender inequality is valued in many parts of the world Women and men are differently situated in society These inequalities are patterned, persistent and resistant Women are underrepresented in politics Women are excluded from the socio-economic ladder Women are subject to violence Patterns of inequality remain entrenched Gender Inequality

Women represent about half of the world’s population • Canadian women are about four fifths of the way to equality • Women contributions are undervalued except in their roles as mothers, wives, sisters, and daughters • Unpaid domestic work remains invisible • Gender is not always the most important inequality for women • Class, race and ethnicity create intersecting and interlocking patterns of inequality

Employment Status • Women are prominent in the labour force and occupy 46.7% • Women created 34% of all businesses • Gendered division of labour restricts women from higher paid male jobs • Progress in desegregating occupations has stalled • Women spend more time looking after children • Marital breakup due to failure to create an equitable division of household labour

Income Earnings • Women earn 61% of what men earn • Single women earn 95.5% of what single men earn • Married women earn 67.5% • Women between 45-54, single with university education earned same as men • Gaps in earnings may be misleading • Women tend to work in less progressive and more part-time companies • Prone to jobs which they believe can help individuals or society

Education • Women are outperforming men across the board in math, writing, and reading • Women represent 58% of university graduates • Women moving into disciplines reserved for males • So where is the problem?

Political Status • Women represent 20.6% of total seats • Few women who do make it to Parliament find themselves on soft legislative committees pertaining to culture or welfare

Domestic Violence • rates of spousal violence rose from 302/100 000 to 344/ 100 000 • Men and women display aggressiveness within domestic relations • Women more likely to suffer injuries • Men use violence to control, women use it in order to settle conflict

Gender Inequality Chapter Four