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The Two-Spirited People
- -Native Americans that behaved like the opposite sex
- -Individuals became two-spirited people in one of 2 ways:
- 1)Developed characteristics as children
- 2)Experienced spiritual visions during adolescence
- -Generally accepted by society
- -Could marry person of same sex
- -Sometimes females of reproductive age were not allowed to take on two-spirited role
- -Number of two-Spirited people rapidly declined by end of 1800's
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Sex and Gender
- Sex-Biological characteristics
- Gender- Social and cultural characteristics
- -There are 2 genders, but two-spririted people represented a "sort of" 3rd sex
- -Intersexuals-Born w/ ambiguous sex organs
- -Brain forms gender identity in response to biological & social cues
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Gestational Construction of Gender
- Gestation-9 month development in the womb
- -genetic sex is determined at moment of conception
- -Egg contributes X chromosome, sperm contributes Xor Y chromosome
- -XX=girl
- -XY=boy
- -Hormonal Influences
- -some scientists believe that the sex hormones, androgens, do more than change genitals
- -Level of androgens may affect brain development
- -Biosocial Influences
-Biosocial approach: Gender identification & behavior based on peoples innate biological differences - -exist only on average
- -depends on environment in which a person is raised
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The Childhood Construction of Gender
- Parental Socialization-Socialization:process by which one learns the ways of a given society/social group in order to function in it
- -Socialization Approach:Children rewarded for appropriate gender behavior; punished for inappropriate
- -Males and females are treated differently from birth on
- The Media:-children learn from what they see (books, tv, videos)
- -As recently as the 1960's, children's media was most likely to have male main character
- -Since feminist movement, more equal treatment is evident
- -Peer Groups
- Peer Group:
a group of people who have roughly the same age and status as one another - -help children to develop a sense of self
- -Same sex peer groups help children to become socialized as to appropriate behaviors
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Doing Gender
- Interactionist Approach: Gender identification/behavior based on day-to-day behavior that reinforces gender distinctions
- -Recent thinking is that gender is more fluid/fragile
- -needs constant reinforcement
- -constant maintenance
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Gender and Male Domination
- Structure of society--hierarchies of dominance and power
- Patriarchy-Social order based on the domination of women by men, especially in agricultural societies
- -Stratifies society
- Capitalism-An economic system where goods and services are privaely produced and sold on a market for profit
- -employers hire women at lower rates
- -women's lower wages create divisions b/n male and female workers
- -unpaid household work of housewives helps families
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Do employers discriminate against women?
-Comparable worth discrimination-Men and women doing different jobs of equal value for the same company but women get paid less
- Socialism-Government decides on number and types of goods and who they are distributed to
- -Gender as primary basis of social stratification
- -In order to really understand social stratification, all 3 overlapping lenses (GENDER, CLASS, and RACE) must be studied
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Men and Masculinities
- -Often look at gender from women's conditions
- -In 1980's began looking at masculinity
- -Set of personal characteristics that society defines as being typical of men
- -Many feel that "essence" of men such as aggressiveness and emotional detachment is a social construction
- -Fathers are capable of nurturing children, but do so differently than mothers
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Contributions of Gender Studies
- -Different approached to studying gender
- -Socialization
- -Biosocial
- -Interactionist
- -Patriarchy
- -Sociologists contributions:
- -Roles of mena dn women are part socially and culturally constructed
- -Gender distinctions sometimes reflect differences b/n men & women
- -Patrilocal:kinship system in which newly married couples live w/ the husband's parents
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