MODULE 2: Theorizing Gender
as:
Gender and Sexuality Across Time
• Divine Feminine
• Egalitarian
• Human discovers paternity
• Men- is for productive sphere
• Women- is for reproductive sphere
PATRIARCHY
is a system based on the control and oppression of
women wherein they are perceived to be the weaker sex.
Patriarkhes- “the rule of the father”.
Patrilineal Society often follows a patriarchal society, this
means only men can inherit property from the family
name.
PATRIARCHY
Friedrich Engels, argues that patriarchy came about
when people started having private property instead of
communal living.
History Views on Gender
GREEKS
Aristotle, Plato, and other Greek philosophers viewed
women as the inferior sex and properties of men whose
only job was to obey their husbands, bear children, and
take care of household,
EGYPT
Egyptian civilization, Egyptian women enjoyed higher
social status than Greek women because they can inherit
property and engage in trade and politics.
CHINA
- Confucianism
• “Three obedience's and four virtues"
• “Precepts of women"
- Women have come a long way since the ancient times
through feminist movement, patriarchy has taken on
subtle forms of oppression that often go unnoticed such
• sexism
• Gender pay gap
• Under representation in politics, military,
executive positions, etc.
• Rape on women and the stigma making on
women ashamed to report the crime
• Very conservative expectations on women on
how they behave
• Unrealistic depictions of women in fiction
• Women do more housework and childcare
• Boys were trained to be leaders while women
were trained to do house chores
Gender and Sexuality As a Subject of Inquiry
Gender studies is a field of study concerned about how
reproductive roles are interpreted and negotiated in the
society through gender.
Gender role or sex role are sets of culturally defined
behaviors such as masculinity and femininity" according
to the Encyclopedia of Sex and Gender (2019).
Gender studies is not just for women or all about
women, it is about everyone.
Gender studies lets us analyze these gender norms so
that it does not create inequalities in our social,
political, and economic spheres.
Gender Studies and Research
Gender Studies utilizes a systematic approach in
identifying problems, making hypotheses and
assumptions, gathering data, and making conclusions.
This systematic processes referred to as the research
process.
Approaches in Research
• Qualitative approach focuses more in the
meanings created and interpretations made by
people about their own personal or vicarious
experiences.
Methods used in the qualitative approach are as
follows:
• Phenomenology
• Hermeneutics
• Ethnography and ethnomethodology
• Quantitative approach focuses more on
characterizing a population or a sample, and in
some cases, making generalizations about the
populations based on the behavior of a sample.
Methods used in the quantitative approach are as
follows:
• Survey
• Experiment
Ethics in Gender and Sexuality Research
• Ethical Principles to remember:
• Informed consent
• Confidentiality and anonymity
• Non-maleficence and beneficence
• Distributive justice
PSYCHOLOGICAL THEORY ON GENDER
- Development of the personality through stages.
Psychosexual Theory -Dr. Sigmund Freud
FREUD PSYCHO-SEXUAL THEORY
Freud proposed that there were s stages of
development. Freud believed that few people
successfully completed all 5 of the stages. Instead, he felt
that most people tied up them
libido at one of the stages, which prevented them from
using that energy at a later stage.
PSYCHO-SEXUAL DEVELOPMENT
• Five stages
• Each stage focuses on a part of the body for
experiencing pleasure.
• How conflicts between sources of pleasure are
resolved determined adult personality.
The Five Stages of Psychosexual Development
Oral Stage- (Birth to 18 months)
Anal Stage- (18 months to 3 years)
Phallic Stage- (3 to 6 years)
Latency Stage- (6 years to puberty)
Genitals Stage- (Puberty on)
1. Oral Stage (0 - 1 1/2 years)
• Pleasure centers around the mouth.
• Chewing, sucking, biting are sources of pleasure.
• Weaned too early or late will develop personality
problems.
• Dependency or rejection of others
• Fixation: smoking, eating, chewing, talking.
2. Anal Stage (2 -3-year-old)
• Pleasure centers around the anus.
• Eliminative functions are sources of pleasure.
• Issue is control through Toilet training.
• Child view = Giving the gift
• Dirty vs. Lavish Praise
• Stingy or Overly Generous
Fixation
• Leniency leads to: Anal-expulsive personality--
messy, wasteful, or destructive.
• Strictness leads to: Anal-retentive personality:
stringent, orderly, rigid, and obsessive.
Phallic Stage (3rd to 5th year)
• Self-manipulation is a source of pleasure.
• Oedipus Complex appears.
• Focus is on the genital areas a (Boys vs. Girls)
• Oedipus Complex: Parents seen as threats.
 • Wide range of psychological disorders through
failure to resolve this conflict, (unreasonable
anxiety, phobias, & depression)
Definition of the Oedipus Complex
The Oedipus Complex is Freud's term for the young
child's development of an intense desire to replace the
same-sex parent and enjoy the affections of the
opposite- sex parent.
Oedipus Complex
• The boy begins to have sexual desires for his
mother
• sees his father as a rival for her affections.
• begins to fear that his father is suspicious of his
longing for his mother
• father will punish him for his desires.
• The punishment, the boy fears, will be
castration, which brings Us to the
second critical episode for this stage.
Castration anxiety.
• fear of castration make the boy anxious
• leads to the boy thinking that the father hates
him eventually becomes unbearable
• boy renounces his sexual feelings for his mother
and chooses instead to identify with his father
• hopes to someday have a relationship with a
woman (though not his mother)just like dear old
dad has with his mother.
Resolution of the Oedipus Complex
• Children recognize that their same-sex parent
might punish them for their
incestuous wishes.
• To reduce this conflict, the chila identifies with
the same-sex parent, striving to be like him or
her
Electra Complex
• Feelings go round and round for awhile until the
point when the girls renounce their feelings for
their fathers
• Identify with their mothers.
• focus changes, for girls, from the mother to the
father, when the girls realize that they don't have
penises, so they develop penis envy.
• coupled with the knowledge that her mother
doesn't have a penis leads to her thinking her
mother unworthy, and becoming attracted to
her father, as he does have a penis.
FIXATION
If a man finds himself fixated because he fails to join
forces with dad, he's been successfully emasculated. He
becomes a failure at life, unable to strive for
achievement because of his disabling guilt generated
from competing with his father for his mother's
attention.
FIXATION
-With successful resolution of the Electra complex, a girl
finds herself equipped to deal with her adult sexual and
intimate relationships. She turns her penis envy into a
healthy search for a "fatherly" husband.
-But if she fails, she becomes fixated and may be overly
seductive and flirtatious.
Latency Stage (5th to Puberty)
• Sexual Desires pushed into background
Latency Stage (5th to Puberty)
• The child represses all interest in sexuality.
• The child develops social and intellectual skills.
• Energy is channeled into emotionally safe areas.
• The child forgets the highly stressful conflicts of
the phallic stage.
Genital stage (Puberty +)
• This is a time of sexual reawakening.
• The source of sexual pleasure comes from
someone outside the family.
• Libidinal energy returns to the sexual organs.
• Seek marriage partner, prepare for adult life.
Fixation
-Due to a parent smothering a child with too much
attention, as an adult the individual has difficulty in
romantic relationships due to being extremely "needy."
Socialization makes the stereotypes applied at birth a
reality
Society Uses the labels male and female to sort its
members into separate groups

Sociological Theories on Gender Starts within the family and is reinforced by the society

Structural Functionalism THEORY

Structural Functionalism looks at a patriarchal society, or

one in which men rule over women.

- As justification, over time, men have linked manhood

with superiority

CONFLICT THEORY

According to conflict theory, society is defined by a

struggle for dominance among social groups that
compete for scarce resources. In the context of gender,
conflict theory argues that gender is best understood as
men attempting to maintain power and privilege to the
detriment of women.

Contemporary conflict theorists suggest that when

women become wage earners, they can gain power in
the family structure and create more democratic
arrangements in the home, although they may still carry
the majority of the domestic burden, as noted earlier
(Rismanand and Johnson-Sumerford 1998).

Symbolic Interactionism THEORY

Sex- the different biological equipment of males and

females

Gender- how we express our "maleness" or "femaleness"

Sex is biological and gender is learned, or social

Symbolic Interactionists study how are socialized into

gender roles, the attitudes and behaviors expected of
boys and men because they are male and girls and
women because they are female.

Symbolic interactionist assume that gender differences

are learned.