ANT 101: INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

Lecture 14: Gender Issues

Chapter: 9 (Kottak),
Chapter 14 (Giddens 2009)

I will be talking outside of the text book

Dr. Bulbul Ashraf Siddiqi

Assistant Professor
Dept. of Political Science and Sociology
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT
FOLLOWING
 Male Crying

 In our stereotypes, changing one’s mind is more

associated with women than men and may be perceived
as a sign of weakness. Men who do it may be seen as
“girly.”
 SEX AND GENDER
 What is the difference between men and women?

 Men and women differ genetically. Women have two X chromosomes, and
men have an X and a Y.

 The chromosomal difference is expressed in hormonal and physiological

contrasts.

 Humans are sexually dimorphic, Sexual dimorphism refers to differences in

male and female biology besides the contrasts in breasts and genitals.

 Women and men differ not just in primary (genitalia and reproductive
organs) and secondary (breasts, voice, hair distribution) sexual characteristics
but in average weight, height, strength, and longevity. Women tend to live
longer than men and have excellent endurance capabilities. In a given
population, men tend to be taller and to weigh more than women do.
 JUST HOW FAR, SUCH GENETICALLY AND
PHYSIOLOGICALLY DETERMINED DIFFERENCES GO?

The biological nature of men and women [should

be seen] not as a narrow enclosure limiting the
human organism, but rather as a broad base upon
which a variety of structures can be built. (Friedl
1975, p. 6)

Humanattitudes, values, and behavior are limited

not only by our genetic predispositions— which
are often difficult to identify— but also by our
experiences during enculturation.
SEX AND GENDER
 What does ‘sex’ mean?
 ‘sexualactivity’
 Physical characteristics that separate men and women

 Ingeneral, sociologists use the term 'sex‘ to refer to

the anatomical an physiological differences that define
male and female bodies.
SEX AND GENDER
 Gender?

 Gender, by contrast, concerns the psychological, social and

cultural differences between males and females rather than
biological ones.

 Gender is linked to socially constructed notions of masculinity

and femininity; it is not necessarily a direct product of an
individual's biological sex. Some people, for example, feel that
they have been born into the wrong bodies and seek to 'put
things right' by switching gender part way through life, or
following the lifestyles or dress of the other sex
SEX AND GENDER
 What is Gender Role? Why this is important to understand?

 Gender roles are the tasks and activities a culture assigns to the
sexes.

 Gender roles are related to gender stereotypes which are

oversimplified but strongly held ideas about the characteristics
of males and females.

 Gender Stratification is unequal distribution of social resources

between men and women.
SEX AND GENDER
 Two broad approaches will be explored in this lecture.

 First we will look at arguments for a biological basis to

behavioural differences between men and women.

 Next, attention will turn to importance on socialization and the

learning of gender roles.
GENDER AND BIOLOGY: NATURAL
DIFFERENCES?
 Some authors hold that aspects of human biology - ranging from
hormones to chromosomes to brain size to genetics - are
responsible for innate differences in behaviour between men and
women.

 They view that natural factors are responsible for the inequalities
between genders which characterize most societies.

 Men are biologically/ naturally stronger than women and have

aggression that women lack.
GENDER AND BIOLOGY: NATURAL
DIFFERENCES?
 Critics point out that theories of 'natural difference' are often
grounded in data on animal behaviour rather than in
anthropological or historical evidence about human behaviour,
which reveal variation over time and place.

 Cultural factors is important that that produce such

characteristics.

 Although the hypothesis that biological factors determine

behaviour patterns in men and women cannot be dismissed out of
hand.
GENDER SOCIALIZATION

 Gender Socialization is an approach that makes a

distinction between biological sex and social gender-an
infant is born with the first (biological identity) and
develops the second (social identity).

 Theories of gender socialization have been favored by

functionalists who see boys and girls as learning 'sex
roles' and the male and female identities – masculinity
and femininity - which accompany them.
GENDER SOCIALIZATION
 Feminist researchers have demonstrated how cultural
and media products marketed to young audiences
embody traditional attitudes towards gender and towards
the sorts of aims and ambitions girls and boys are
expected to have.
THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF GENDER
AND SEX
 In recent years, socialization and gender role theories have been
criticized by a growing number of sociologists. Rather than seeing
sex as biologically determined and gender as culturally learned,
they argue that we should view both sex and gender as socially
constructed products. Not only is gender a purely social creation
that lacks a fixed 'essence', but the human body itself is subject to
social forces which shape and alter it in various ways.

 Individuals can choose to construct and reconstruct their bodies as

they please - ranging from exercise, dieting, piercing and personal
fashion, to plastic surgery and sex-change operations.
MASCULINE VS FEMININE
 What does it mean by Masculine and Feminine?

 What does it mean to be men?

 What does it mean to be women?