Social Construction of Gender Week 2 Gender and

Social Construction of Gender Week 2 Gender and Society

Outline • Brief history of 20 th century Western Feminism up to the Second-wave • Sex and gender theories • Relationship between feminism and sociology

Women’s suffrage movements • Campaigns throughout late 19 th and early 20 th centuries in many western countries • Often a tension between claiming the right to political power and claims of ‘normal womanhood’

‘Unnatural women’ • Many of those who argued against women’s suffrage claimed that campaigners were not ‘normal women’ • Ideas about the ‘natural’ role of women often appear in debates today

Representations of Womenhood • Natural • Unnatural • • • Women: Mayor, Nurse, Mother, Teacher, Doctor, Factoryhand Men: Convict, Lunatic, Proprietor of White Slaves, Unfit for Service, Drunkard Suffragettes who have never been kissed

‘natural womanhood’ • Discuss with the person sitting next to you what you think these representations of women are saying about the ‘natural’ role of women.

Between wars • Campaigns for women’s rights continued • Political rights – Education – Employment (especially marriage bar) – Concerns for children • Health care • School meals • Many of these campaigns build on ideas of ‘natural’ womanhood

1960 s • During the 1960 s alongside other social issues women’s place in society was once more subject to widespread public debate • This period is usually linked to the Women’s Liberation Movement

Women’s Liberation Movement • Increased interest and campaigning on women’s right’s issues in North American and Europe • Not one single unifying movement • Mixture of campaigns and organisations – Equality at work – Abortion

Sex and gender theories • Prior to 1960 s gender divisions understood often as a ‘sex-role’ • Developed by Talcott Parsons sex-role was part of structural functionalism • Women were socialised into their roles as wives/mothers • The different roles of men and women complemented each other

Sex and Gender distinction • Sex-role theory did stress socialisation rather than ‘nature’ as a cause of gender roles • 1960 s saw major developments in feminist thinking about sex and gender • Building on sex-role theory feminists began to stress key issues – Split between social/biological – Power

Social Construction of Gender • Anthropology has shown that – All societies have ideas about what activities are ‘normal’ for each sex – But ideas about masculinity and femininity are culturally specific and vary – For example cooking or ploughing may associated with just women, just men or both – These ideas come to be seen as ‘natural’

Sex and Gender • Sex was used to denoted the biological differences between men and women • Gender was adopted as the term to describe the normative roles and responsibilities that were usually associated with each sex. • The conceptual division between sex and gender allowed new strands of feminist thinking to emerge

Sex and Gender • Masculinity • Femininity

Power • Feminists introduced the concept of power to theorising about gender relationships • Gender relationships were seen as hierarchal • However, power is theorised differently within different forms of feminism

Power • Why do you think power is considered such a crucial concept?

Sociology and feminism • From late 1960 s rapid developments in feminist sociology – To develop feminist theories • Adapt malestream sociology – To develop new topics relevant to women • Reproductive health • Caring – To ‘add’ women into existing subjects • Work • Education

Theorising sexual divisions • Liberal Feminism – Equality through the law • Social feminism – Relationship to Marxism • Radical feminism – Patriarchy as a structure

Critiques of early feminism • Much early feminism was based on middle -class white women’s experiences and problems – Working-class women did not ‘return’ to work they never gave it up – Calls for ‘Women’s right to choose’ concentrated on issues such as access to contraception and abortion, and ignored the coerced sterilisation of poor and/or black women

Developments in Feminism • Critiques of the ethnocentric nature of early feminism have widened the research orientation • Recognition that certain groups of women are able to exercise more power than other groups of women and men • Topics such as ‘housework’ now well established as legitimate topics

Sociology and feminism • Feminism has adapted and debated sociological thinking for decades • Sociology has had a more limited response to feminism – ‘Founding fathers’ and malestream theory predominate

Summary • Briefly outlined the development of western feminism • Introduced theories of sex and gender • Outlined the relationship between feminism and sociology

Next week • Focusing on Liberal Feminism • Consider campaigns around gender equality • Look at the equality/difference debate