SSP 101C

GENDER AND SOCIETY

Aaron M. Degaños, ASEAN-Ed, LPT

Faculty, Social Science Department
College of Social Sciences and Philosophy
Bulacan State University
AGENDA
AGENDA
 FUNCTIONALIST
THEORY

According to Crossman (2019), functionalist theory states that

all men are filled with instrumental roles in society while
women are filled with expressive roles for the benefit of the
society.
 FUNCTIONALIST
THEORY
INSTRUMENTAL ROLE (attributed to Males)
An understanding of the male’s functions in the family:
- To discipline and to provide economic support.

EXPRESSIVE ROLE (attributed to Females)

- To pay attention how everyone is getting along, managing
conflict, soothing hurt feelings, encouraging good humor, and
take care of the things that contribute to one’s feelings with the
social groups or family.
 FUNCTIONALIST
THEORY
THEREFORE…

The father and the mother have their own specific functions in the
family.

Common Filipino Expectations:

“lalaki ka kaya dapat provider ka ng pamilya mo.”

“dapat alam ng mga babae ang mga gawaing bahay: marunong

magluto, maglinis, mag-alaga ng mga kapatid para kung siya ay mag-
asawa, alam na niya ang dapat gagawin sa bahay.”
 FUNCTIONALIST
THEORY

Sociologists believed that this gender-based mentality has

created inequality by encouraging men and women to make a
choice between family and work.
 SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONALIST
THEORY

Symbolic Interactionalism
- Explains social behavior in terms of how people interact
with each other.
- It emphasizes that human behavior is influenced through
interaction with others.
- It aims to understand human behavior by analyzing the
critical role symbols in human interaction.
 SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONALIST
THEORY

Our identity is shaped by immediate social groups by

interacting with them. Perhaps, to idolize somebody is a
product of our outward interaction with other people who
possess traits same as ours.
 SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONALIST
THEORY
The meanings attached to symbols are socially created and
not natural, and fluid not static. We act and react to symbols
based on the current assigned meaning.

Example:
The word GAY once meant cheerful, but in 1960s it carried
primary meaning of homosexual. It was once carried a
negative and unfavorable meaning over half a century ago, but
now, it has gained more neutral and optimistic connotations.
 CONFLICT
THEORY
This theory argues that individuals and groups within society
interact based on conflict over limited resources.

According to Chappelow (2019), social order is maintained by

domination and power, rather than consensus and conformity.
Those with wealth and power try to hold on it by any means
possible, chiefly by suppressing the poor and powerless.
 CONFLICT
THEORY
Proponents:
- Karl Marx – saw society as fragmented into groups that
compete for social and economic resources.
- Max Weber
- Ralph Dahrendorf

Gender is placed in its bias to men since they are the major
player in politics, governance, and economic and social
activities (PATRIARCHAL SOCIETY).
 FEMINIST THEORY
Feminist Theory aims to understand gender inequality and
focuses on gender politics, power, relations, and sexuality.

It focuses more on the promotion of women’s rights and

interests and examines inequalities in gender-related issues.
 FEMINIST THEORY
Inclusions of Basic Feminist Ideas:

1. Working to increase equality between male and female.

2. Expanding human choice by developing interests and
talents.
3. Eliminating gender stratification by opposing laws and
cultural norms that limit income, educational, and job
opportunities for women.
4. Ending sexual violence and promoting sexual freedom
through control over sexuality and reproduction.
 FEMINIST THEORY
BLACK FEMINISM
- Black feminism is a philosophy centered around the condition of
Black women—who experience oppression both based on race
and sex—in patriarchal, white-dominated, capitalist western
society.

CULTURAL FEMINISM
- refers to the separatist idea that women innately possess an
evolved essence, which distinguishes them from men, giving them
societal advantages that culture at large has historically qualified
as weaknesses. Cultural feminists believe that a woman’s
perspective should receive more credence.
 FEMINIST THEORY
ECOFEMINISM
- Ecofeminism aligns the historical and present-day oppression of both
women and the environment, arguing that patriarchal societies have
used the same methods to dominate the planet’s resources as they
must control women. Ecofeminists believe that respecting and
prioritizing a healthy planet is integral to achieving true equality.

LIBERAL FEMINISM (MAINSTREAM FEMINISM)

- Also known as “liberal feminism,” this form mainly focuses on
achieving women’s rights and social justice through legal and political
reform applied to existing social structures. Mainstream, liberal
feminists focus on abortion rights, sexual harassment, affordable
childcare, reproductive rights, and domestic violence.
 FEMINIST THEORY
MARXIST AND SOCIALIST FEMINISM
- Socialist and Marxist feminism teaches that achieving gender
equality will involve dismantling capitalist economic systems that
exploit and undervalue women’s labor.

MULTIRACIAL FEMINISM
- Multiracial feminism aims to educate people on how race influences
gender constructions and oppression. Multiracial feminists offer
feminist perspectives from marginalized groups such as Asian,
Latina, and Black women.
 FEMINIST THEORY

RADICAL FEMINISM

- Radical feminists believe that society prioritizes the male experience

and that gender roles are so far ingrained in every facet of modern
life that true equality can only be achieved with a complete overhaul
of the current societal system.
 STRUCTURAL FUNCTIONALISM
THEORY

Structural Functionalism explains why society functions the

way it does by emphasizing on the relationships between the
various social institutions (e.g., government, school, religion,
mass media, family, etc.).

The Society is constantly striving to be in the state of balance

or in the state of equilibrium.
 STRUCTURAL FUNCTIONALISM
THEORY

Gender inequality I structural functionalism is clearly illustrated

by looking at the labor and employment perspective.

In addition, women being subordinate to men allow the wage

earners to function smoothly as everyone in the society knows
his/her position in the hierarchy.
 STRUCTURAL FUNCTIONALISM
THEORY

According to Risman and Johnson-Sumerford (1998),

contemporary critical sociologists suggest that when women
become wage earners, they can gain power in the family
structure and create more democratic arrangement in the
home, although they may still carry majority of the domestic
burden.
 PSYCHODYNAMIC
THEORY
Sigmund Freud believed that the relationship of the child and
early experiences with the parents (or guardians, caregivers,
etc.) is crucial in the child’s gender identity.

In addition, Freud believes that a person is born with “Id”, the

pleasure-seeker portion of our personality. The Id is said to be
inconsiderate other circumstances – all it cares about is its
own satisfaction.
PSYCHODYNAMIC THEORY
 PSYCHODYNAMIC
THEORY
Phallic Stage
- This psychosexual development stage (the third stage)
occurs between ages three to six. During this time, the
child’s libido is focused on his or her genitals. The
development for boys and girls are different.

Oedipus Complex (Boy or Young Male)

Elektra Complex (Girl or Young Female)
 PSYCHODYNAMIC
THEORY
Alfred Adler argued that all of us were born with a sense of
inferiority as evidenced by how weak and helpless a newborn
is. He was able to explain that this inferiority is a crucial part
of our personality, in a sense that it is the driving force that
pushes us to strive becoming superior.

Likewise, he also consider the birth order as a major factor in

the development of our personality.
 PSYCHODYNAMIC
THEORY
Gender rest in child’s awareness as a result from the parent-
child relationship since birth (Freud) or a product of interaction
among siblings (Adler) or it could be through the child’s social
development (Erikson).
 SOCIAL LEARNING
THEORY
- Emphasizes the child’s environment and learning
experiences. It recognizes the importance of role modeling
and reinforcement in the development of child social
behavior.

- Children recognizes the differences between boys and girls

and the consequences of their actions, either rewards or
punishment.
 SOCIAL LEARNING
THEORY
- Modeling or observational learning refers to a person’s
tendency to learn vicariously by observing other people
engage in gender-type behaviors and witnessing the
responses (rewards or punishments) that these people
receive from the others.
 COGNITIVE-DEVELOPMENTAL
THEORY
It states that intelligence is brough about by a series of
transformation and interactions with the environment in
various stages in life.

It explains how a child constructs a mental model of the world

which may differ from time to time as he/she grows.

Gender constancy, stability and consistency happen when a

child reached a certain level of cognitive maturity.
 EVOLUTIONARY
THEORY
The evolutionary approach believes that aspects if human
behavior have been coded by our genes, thus, we are
naturally adaptive. Gender role appears to be a result of our
natural ability to adapt in whatever challenges placed before
us.
 WOMEN IN DEVELOPMENT
(WID) THEORY

The movement believes that women’s disadvantages in

society will be eliminated by breaking down customary
expectations of women.

It integrates women in the broader development agenda and

acted as the precursor to later movements such as the
Women and Development (WAD), and ultimately, the Gender
and Development (GAD) approach.
 GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT
(GAD) THEORY
Gender and Development (GAD) approach focuses on the
socially constructed differences between men and women.

In an attempt to establish gender equality, GAD aims to

redefine traditional role expectations.

Convention on the Elimination of All forms of

Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)

Beijing Platform of 1995

 QUEER THEORY
A critical discourse developed in the 1990s in order to
deconstruct (or ‘to queer’) sexuality and gender in the wake of
gay identity politics, which had tended to rely on strategic
essentialism. Opposed to gender essentialism, queer theorists
see sexuality as a discursive social construction, fluid, plural,
and continually negotiated rather than a natural, fixed, core
identity.
 QUEER THEORY

Queer theorists foreground those who do not neatly fit into

conventional categories, such as bisexuals, transvestites,
transgendered people, and transsexuals.
 Thank You
for Listening!
☺