Theoretical
Perspectives on
Gender
GROUP 3
4 Major Perspectives on Gender
1 Structural Functionalism
2 Conflict Theory
3 Symbolic Interactionism
4 Feminist Theory
Structural
Functionalism
According to the structural functional theory,
gender serves as a means to organise social life
and forms a complementary set of roles that
links women and men into family units and
gives each sex responsibility for carrying out
important tasks.
A structural functionalist view of gender
inequality applies the division of labor to view
predefined gender roles as complementary.
Conflict Theory
According to conflict theory, society is a
struggle for dominance among social groups
(like women versus men) that compete for
scarce resources.
When sociologists examine gender from this
perspective, they typically classify men as the
dominant group and women as the subordinate
group.
According to conflict theory, society is a
struggle for dominance among social groups
(like women versus men) that compete for
scarce resources.
When sociologists examine gender from this
perspective, they typically classify men as the
dominant group and women as the subordinate
group.
Friedrich Engels (1820-1895), a German
sociologist and Karl Marx’s frequent
collaborator, studied family structure and
gender roles.
Engels argued that the same owner-worker
relationship that exists in the workplace also
exists in the home, with women portraying
the proletariat.
This is because women depend on men for
their income, which is worse for those who
are entirely dependent on their spouses for
financial support.
Symbolic
Interactionism
Symbolic
Interactionism
Symbolic interactionism aims to understand
human behavior by analyzing the critical role of
symbols and meaning-making in human
interaction. This is certainly relevant to the
discussion of masculinity and femininity.
George Herbert Mead (1863–1931)
• George Herbert Mead taught in the Philosophy
department at the University of Chicago in the
early 1900s.
• Contributed founding theory for the emerging
new field of “Sociology”
• Never wrote up his theories, but his most
renown student, Herbert Blumer did.
• Mind, Self, Society is still in use today.
George Herbert Mead (1863–1931)
• George Herbert Mead taught in the Philosophy
department at the University of Chicago in the
early 1900s.
• Contributed founding theory for the emerging
new field of “Sociology”
• Never wrote up his theories, but his most
renown student, Herbert Blumer did.
• Mind, Self, Society is still in use today.
Herbert Blumer (1969)
He set out three basic premises of the perspective:
• Humans interact with things based on meanings
ascribed to those things.
• The meaning of such things is derived from or
arises out of, the social interaction that one has
with the others and the society.
• These meaning are handled in, and modified
through, as interpretative process used by the
person in dealing with the things, he/she
encounters.
Herbert Blumer (1969)
He set out three basic premises of the perspective:
• Humans interact with things based on meanings
ascribed to those things.
• The meaning of such things is derived from or
arises out of, the social interaction that one has
with the others and the society.
• These meaning are handled in, and modified
through, as interpretative process used by the
person in dealing with the things, he/she
encounters.
Gender can be understood through symbolic
interactionism because it is sociological construct
like for the symbols attached to males and
females actions and looks are based on what is
believed is true from your interactions rather than
what is objectively true.
Feminist Theory
Feminist Theory
A type of critical sociology that examines
inequalities in gender-related issues.
It also used critical approach to examine the
maintenance of gender roles and inequalities.
There is a division between the directly lived, bodily
experience of women’s worlds and the dominant,
abstract, institutional world to which they must
adapt.
Sanday’s study of the Indonesian Minangkabau
(2004) revealed that in societies that some consider
to be matriarchies, women and men tend to work
cooperatively rather than competitively regardless
of whether a job is considered feminine by North
American standards. The men, however, do not
experience the sense of bifurcated consciousness
under this social structure that modern Canadian
females encounter (Sanday 2004).
Sanday’s study of the Indonesian Minangkabau
(2004) revealed that in societies that some consider
to be matriarchies, women and men tend to work
cooperatively rather than competitively regardless
of whether a job is considered feminine by North
American standards. The men, however, do not
experience the sense of bifurcated conscious