Chapter 5

1. Summary

Sex and gender cannot be used interchangeable--sex is biological, whereas gender is either masculine or feminine. The innate differences between men and women are differences in health. Men are more likely to develop coronary heart disease than women after puberty, whereas women have strengthened immune systems. However, learned behaviors such as the stereotypical "emotional, patient" woman and the "strong, providing" man are determined entirely by the environment as the three tribes studied in New Guinea. These gender roles (including the personality traits mentioned above) are formed through sociobiology (how biology effects social behavior), social learning theory (people learn behaviors through social interactions), cognitive development theory (children acquire female or male traits through their own thinking), symbolic interactions (gender roles depend on the social situation such as work), and feminist theories (gender roles are taught). Parents teach us our gender roles along with our peer groups, teachers, and media. Traditional views of gender roles are generally very weakening towards women--some churches will not allow women to be pastors, a broadcaster degraded a women on the radio, and a senator said the amendment that allowed women to vote should not be celebrated. This is shown more between instrumental and expressive roles--men are the providers, women are the caretakers. This view has both benefits and costs: there is stability because this is what most of our society is used to. Also, the wives benefit from only having to focus on housework and not on working in addition to this. Men benefit because they only have to focus on working. However, fathers are the sole breadwinners--less money and more stress to maintain their job. Women also are not given the opportunity to explore careers, and if the husband leaves them, they will have no work. The new modern twist on gender roles often has the women working. This usually leads to the "second shift" for when they come home, they must take care of the home and the family. This is a major source of relational stress when the husbands do not help with this. However, more and more men are helping their wives out with this. Surprisingly, women are making most of the decisions in the household instead of the man. Although much discrimination has been made in the household, in the workplace, there still remains a fair amount of discrimination. Women are less likely to be promoted or given a raise for doing the same amount of work as men, and they are much more likely to have to deal with sexual harassment. In politics, women are unfortunately less seen as mayors, and we are still yet to have elected a female president! Thankfully, social scientists believe that androgyny will be the answer to sexism--it is the combination of "male" and "female" characteristics in the same person: assertive yet patient, caring yet firm, and loving yet strong.

2. Interesting/Something I Learned

I found the first page of the chapter had a very good point. We often tend to describe the same actions differently for men and women:

• He's firm, but she's stubborn
• He's careful about details, but she's picky
• He's honest, but she'd opinionated
• He's raising good points, but she's bitching
• He's a man of the world, but she's "been around"

This is very true by how we look at men and women. I've never noticed it before, but I sometimes make the same classifications as above, but if it was the opposite sex, I would have viewed it in a different light.

3. Questions

Do you find that women are highly discriminated against as compared to men? Or do you feel that this is overhyped because of how much worse it used to be and because of the media?

--Bonnie Noel