Transcript Essentials of Sociology, 7th Edition

Essentials of
Sociology
9th Edition
Chapter 10: Gender and Age
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Inequalities of Gender and Age
Chapter Overview
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Issues of Sex and
Gender
How Females Became a
Minority Group
Gender Inequality in
the United States
The Changing Face of
Politics
Aging in Global
Perspective
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The Symbolic
Interactionist
Perspective
The Functionalist
Perspective
The Conflict
Perspective
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Inequalities of Gender and Age
What’s Gender
Stratification?
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3
“Unequal Access to Power, Prestige, and
Property on the Basis of Sex.”
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Inequalities of Gender and Age
Sex and Gender
 Sex – refers to biological characteristics
 Gender – refers to social characteristics –
”Male and Female”
 Each culture has its own definitions of gender
 We inherit our sex and learn our gender
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Inequalities of Gender and Age
Gender Differences in Behavior:
Biology or Culture?
Most sociologists believe that if biology was the
compelling factor in human behavior males and
females would act the same around the world
Opening the Door to Biology:
 A Medical Accident
 The Vietnam Veterans Study
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Inequalities of Gender and Age
Gender Inequality in Global
Perspective
Every society sorts men and women into separate
groups and gives them different access to property,
power, and prestige. These divisions always favor
men-as-a-group.
 Females are therefore classified as a minority group
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Inequalities of Gender and Age
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The Origins of Patriarchy
 Early On, Life was Short
 Females Limited by Childbearing
 Men Became Dominant as Hunters and Warriors
 Weapons, Trade, and Knowledge gained from
Contact with Others Gave Men Power
 Ideology developed that women were less dominant
than men
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Inequalities of Gender and Age
The Three Feminist
Movements
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Feminism – the belief that biology is not destiny and
that stratification according to gender is wrong
 1st Feminist movement – 1920s- Trying to win the
right to vote for women
 2nd Feminist movement – 1960s- Trying to earn equal
pay for women
 3rd Feminist movement-happening today-includes a
greater focus on the plight of women in the Least
Industrialized Nations
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Inequalities of Gender and Age
Gender Inequality
in the U.S.
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 Gender Inequality in Education – Gender
tracking is evident
 Gender Inequality in Health Care
 Gender Inequality in Politics
 Gender Inequality in the Work Place
The Pay Gap
The Glass Ceiling
The Glass Escalator
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Inequalities of Gender and Age
Figure 10.2 Changes in College Enrollment, by Sex
*This sharp drop in female enrollment occurred when large numbers of male soldiers returned from World War II and attended college under the new
GI Bill of Rights.
**Projection by U.S. Department of Education 2008.
Source: By the author. Based on Statistical Abstract of the United States 1938:Table 114; 1959:Table 158; 1991:Table 261; 2010:Table 272.
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Inequalities of Gender and Age
Figure 10.5 Women’s and Men’s Proportion of the U.S. Labor Force
Note: Pre-1940 totals include women 14 and over: totals for 1940 and after are for women 16 and over. Broken lines are
projections by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Sources: By the author. Based on Handbook on Women Workers, 1969:10; Manpower Report to the President 1971:203, 205;
Mills and Palumbo 1980:6, 45; Statistical Abstract of the United States 2010:Table 575.
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Inequalities of Gender and Age
Violence Against Women
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Forcible Rape-1 out of 1,000 U.S. girls and women
between the ages of 12 and 50 is raped each year.
Most victims know their attackers
 Date Rape-Many victims are college women and it
is often not reported
 Murder-men are more likely than women to be
killers
 Violence in the Home
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Inequalities of Gender and Age
Glimpsing the
Future With Hope
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 Structural Barriers Coming Down
 Abandoning Stereotypes
 New Consciousness
 Change in Relationships
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Inequalities of Gender and Age
Aging in The Global
Perspective
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 Social Construction of Aging
 Tiwi vs. Abkhasians
 Every society treats the elderly in different ways
 Graying of America – the growing elderly
population in the U.S.
 Life expectancy has increased with industrialization
 7 million more elderly than teenagers today in the
U.S.
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Inequalities of Gender and Age
Figure 10.11 U.S. Life Expectancy by Year of Birth
Sources: By the author. Based on Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970, Bicentennial Edition, Part 1, Series B, 107–115;
Statistical Abstract of the United States 2010:Table 102.
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Inequalities of Gender and Age
Figure 10.14 As Florida Goes, So Goes the Nation
Source: By the author. Based on Statistical Abstract of the United States 2009:Table 17. Projections to 2015.
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Inequalities of Gender and Age
Symbolic Interactionist
Perspective
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 Ageism – Discrimination based on ones age
 The “meaning” of growing old has changed
through the years
 In the U.S. the elderly used to be seen as an asset,
today they are seen more as a liability
 Why has this occurred?
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Inequalities of Gender and Age
Functionalist
Perspective
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 Disengagement Theory – There needs to be a smooth
transition between those leaving their jobs and those
entering the workplace
 Activity Theory – the more informal and formal
activities the elderly engage in the more they find life
fulfilling
 Continuity Theory – The more roles one continues to
possess in retirement the more fulfilling life will be
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Inequalities of Gender and Age
Conflict Perspective
 The conflict perspective looks at the rising costs of the
elderly and how money is being taken away from other
age cohorts
 Looks at how the Dependency Ratio is affecting
Social Security
 The ratio of workers paying into Social Security vs.
those who are collecting Social Security
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Inequalities of Gender and Age
Figure 10.16 Health Care Costs for the Elderly and Disabled
Note: Medicare is intended for the elderly and disabled. Medicaid for the poor. About 22 percent of Medicaid payments ($58 billion) go to the elderly (Statistical
Abstract 2010:Table 144). Source: By the author. Based on Statistical Abstract of the United States various years, and 2010:Tables 137, 144. Broken lines indicate
the author’s projections.
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Inequalities of Gender and Age