Handout for GEE 001B (Gender and Society)
2019-2020
Lesson 1: Introduction
Women in the Philippines:
• Protected under the Constitution (Article II,
Section 13) – women are a vital aspect of
nation-building, and their inclusion in
societal structures and processes are key
towards equality and development.
• As of 2016, the Philippines ranked 7th in the
world for gender equality (highest in Asia)
according to WEF.
Discrimination Today:
• In the reproductive sphere, or in the
household, childcare is a primary task that
has been left mostly to women in a majority
of societies.
• Pay Gap – women earn less than men. In
fact, in the United States, for each one dollar
($1.00) a man earns, a woman will only earn
80 cents ($0.80) even if they have the same
qualifications, and the same responsibilities.
• Glass Ceiling – certain attitudes and beliefs
about women’s abilities limit the positions
they can attain in a company. Most likely,
women will be left to do menial jobs as
compared to men of the same qualifications –
such discrimination is based solely on them
being women.
• Generally speaking, in most societies,
women are often perceived as the weaker
sex.
Lesson 2: Levelling Off: Gender and Sexuality
Sex – in the Biological sense, is a category for living
beings specifically related to their reproductive
functions. For most living creatures, there are two
sexes – the male and the female.
Characteristic Males Females
PRELIM 1st Semester, S.Y.
Genitalia Penis Vagina
Chromosomes XY XX
Hormones Testosterone Progesterone
and Estrogen
Sex Cell Sperm Cell Egg Cell
• There are instances where people could have
higher levels of the opposite sex’s hormone.
A man with higher levels of progesterone and
estrogen is called an effeminate man; and a
woman with higher levels of testosterone is
called a masculinate woman.
Gender – a socially learned behavior usually
associated with one’s sex. Based on how people see
themselves and on their tendency to act along either
a masculine or feminine line.
Gender Role Socialization – the process of learning
and internalizing culturally approved ways of
thinking, feeling and behaving.
Types of Gender Roles Socialization:
1. External Regulation – involves various
institutions (family, society, church, State,
etc.) dictating what is proper and normal
based on one’s identity.
2. Internal Regulation/ Internalized Social
Control – a person polices himself or herself
according to society’s standards and norms.
Gender Stereotypes develop when different
institutions reinforce a biased perception of a certain
gender’s role.
Types of Gender Stereotypes:
1. Sex Stereotype – a generalized view of traits
that should be possessed by men and women,
specifically physical and emotional roles.
2. Sexual Stereotype – assumptions regarding
a person’s sexuality that reinforces dominant
views.
Heteronormativity – the assumption that all
persons are only attracted to the sex opposite
theirs.
3. Sex-Role Stereotype – the roles that men and
women are assigned to based on their sex and
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Handout for GEE 001B (Gender and Society)
what behaviors they must possess to fulfill
these roles.
4. Compounded Stereotype – assumptions
about a specific group belonging to a gender,
and vice versa. Example: lady guard, old
men, young women, etc.
SOGIE – Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity
and Expression
1. Sexual Orientation – covers three
dimensions of human sexuality. Involves
who one is attracted to and how one identifies
himself/herself in relation to this attraction
which includes both romantic and sexual
feelings.
i) Sexual attraction, behavior, and fantasies
ii) Emotional and social preference; self-
identification
iii) Heterosexual and Homosexual lifestyle
2. Gender Identity – refers to one’s personal
experience of gender or social relations.
3. Gender Expression – determines how one
expresses his/her sexuality through the
actions or manner of presenting oneself.
LGBTQIA – an initialism movement meaning:
Lesbians – women attracted to women
Gays – men attracted to men
Bisexuals – people who are attracted to either sex
Transgenders – people who are transitioning
Queer/Questioning – people who are not yet sure
Intersex
Asexual – people who have no sexual feelings
Gender Equality – the recognition of the State
(government) that all human beings are free to enjoy
equal conditions and fulfill their human potential to
contribute to the State and to the society.
Lesson 3: Cultures and Rationalities
PRELIM 1st Semester, S.Y. 2019-2020
Culture – the system of symbols that allow people
to give meaning to experience. It is malleable and
adaptable – meaning, culture can change.
Microaggression – hostile, derogatory, or negative
racial slights and insults that can cause potentially
harmful or unpleasant psychological impacts on the
target person/group.
Lesson 4: Women’s Ways of Knowing
• The role of universal caregiving has been
given to women.
• Girls learn by copying their mothers; boys
learn through disassociation.
• Women learn through empathy; men learn
through separation.
Women’s Ways of Knowing:
1. Women and Silence – silence indicates an
absence of thought or reflection. Women who
live in silence are often disconnected from their
families and communities due to their situation
which brings about the lack of space for
constructive thought. Women who learn through
silence lack the ability to understand abstract
thought. They do not enjoy introspection.
2. Received Knowledge: Listening to the Voice of
Others – developed by absorbing knowledge
(like a sponge). Women who learn through
receiving knowledge listen to friends and
authorities (community leaders and/or their
husbands), and understand what is being said
enough for them to repeat words. They are able
to do the right thing by following rules of
authority figures, but they lack the ability to
comprehend paradoxes (if two or more of her
authority figures have contradicting information,
she cannot distinguish which is correct).
3. Subjective Knowledge: The Inner Voice and
the Quest for Self – women learn to trust their
“inner voice and infallible gut.” Women who
learn through this are those who have awakened
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Handout for GEE 001B (Gender and Society)
to the previous abuses they have suffered. They
realized that following rules will not make them
happy. They depend on their selves and their
experience to attain truth (use of intuition).
4. Procedural Knowledge: Voice of Reason and
Separate and Connected Knowing – women
who learn through process, and they learned well
from formal systems of knowledge, enough for
them to excel. They learn to defend their beliefs
and rationalize their thoughts, and they focus on
the method more, and less on the problem.
5. Constructed Knowledge: Integrating the
Voices – women need the ability to reflect on and
accept themselves. Women must learn to value
their own methods of knowing and their own
constructed knowledge. They must turn inward.
Lesson 5: Gender-Fair Language
Language – a primary symbol for communication,
and for how humans understand and participate in the
world.
• Language defines men and women
differently as seen in common adjectives (his,
him, she, her, etc.) associated with these
genders.
Sexist Language – a tool that reinforces unequal
gender relations through sex-role stereotypes,
microaggressions, and sexual harassment. Example:
“women cannot be engineers,” “men cannot take care
of children.”
PRELIM 1st Semester, S.Y. 2019-2020
genders. Example: “The farmers and their
wives tilled the land.” This assumes that men
can have jobs as farmers, and women who do
the same jobs are still called as wives.
• The use of male job titles or terms ending
in ‘man’ to refer to functions that may be
given to both genders. Example:
“chairman,” “congressman”
Trivialization of Women
• Bringing attention to the gender of a
person, if and only if that person is a
woman. Example: “lady guard,” “working
wives”
• The perception that women are immature.
Example: “baby,” “darling”
• The objectification, or likening to objects,
of women. Example: “honey,” “sugar,”
“tart”
Identities and Naming Things – naming things give
them power. Example: sexual harassment was never
seen as an issue until it was given a name. The same
thing goes with “date rape,” prior to naming as such,
it is just referred to as “rape.”

Invisibilization of Women – rooted in the

assumption that men are dominant and the norm of
fullness of humanity, and women do not exist.
• The generic use of masculine pronouns or
the use of a masculine general. Example:
“mankind” assumes that men are
representatives of all people of the planet.
• The assumption that certain functions or
jobs are performed by men instead of both
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