GENDER AND

SOCIETY
GENDER AND SEXUALITY
AS A SOCIAL REALITY
SEX
 Male or Female organ
 Biological sex or physical sex
 Parts of your body that are relevant to reproduction
 Determined by examining the genitals
 Resistant to change
Hermaprohroditism (from Hermes, a male Greek god, and Aphrodite, a female Greek goddess) Difficult to
classify baby’s sex without further examination.
INTERSEXUALITY – Modern times used to refer this phenomenon.
Chromosomes – protein structures which contain your genetic materials, marks a person’s biological sex.
XY sex chromosomes is a Male tend to have higher levels of testosterone, which is associated to sex drive and
aggressions.
XX sex chromosomes is a Female tend to have higher levels of estrogen and progesterone, which is associated
to lactation, menstruation, and other female reproductive functions.
GENDER
 The social interpretation of sex: Masculinity, Femininity, etc.
 The Characteristics, traits that differentiate men and women – behavioral, aesthetic
 What it takes to be good at being a man/ woman
 It includes value judgments, positive and negative, associated with masculinity and femininity
 things other than people can be ‘gendered’ — an outfit, a color (blue/pink), a sport
 gender is social/ socially constructed
Heteronormativity are set of behaviors that all female and male individuals must follow and all are expected to
stick that are aligned with their biological sex. Determining the normality of a behavior based on
whether it confirms or not to the expectations relative to one’s biological sex.
Filipino Culture
 Girls are expected to be gentle, caring, and loving.
 Boys are expected to be strong, rough, and assertive.
Gender Identity – one important aspect of our sense of who we are: do we see and experience ourselves as a
person’s inherent sense of being a man, a woman, both, neither, somewhere in the middle and another gender
altogether.
Cisgender – A person’s gender identity is the same as the sex assigned at birth.
Transgenders – A persons biological sex does not align with one’s gender identity.
Transgender woman – a male who does not feel comfortable identifying as a man.
Transgender man – a female who is not comfortable identifying as a woman.
Transgender people may undergo gender reassignment surgery to align their physical characteristics to
their gender identity. However, due to many factors such as belief systems, culture, and
economics, some do not opt for surgery.
Genderqueer – A person’s gender identity does not conform to the traditional, binary gender paradigm.
Non-binary – is sometimes used as a synonym for genderqueer (though they are not fully interchangeable).
Genderfluid – A person’s gender identity is not fixed, but instead varies with time and/or situation.

Sexual Orientation – Another aspect of our gender pertains to our emotional and sexual attraction to a person.
Everyone’s sexuality is different and deeply personal. Our capacity for emotional and sexual attraction is
diverse and complex, but there are few common terms or labels for us to use.
 Heterosexuals or Straight – People who are attracted to the opposite sex.
 Homosexual, Gay or Lesbian – People who are attracted to people of the same sex.
 Bisexual or Bi – People are attracted to both sexes, male or female.
 Pansexual – People are attracted regardless of their gender.
 Asexual – no sexual attraction to others.
LGBT refers to the lesbian, gay, bisexuals, and transgender community.
SEXUALITY
 About your sexual feelings, thoughts, attractions and behaviors towards other people. You can find other
people physically, sexually or emotionally attractive, and all those things are a part of your sexuality.
 Diverse and personal, and it is an important part of who you are.
 GENDER AND SEXUALITY ACROSS TIME
Introduction
 Society has progressed so much in a way that information and knowledge is available to everyone.
 This gives us an opportunity to examine our social and political conditions in more detailed than when
information was scarce and limited to only a few individuals.
 Historical accounts show that across time, human’s conception of gender and sexuality has also changed.
 Archeological artifacts reveal that in the distant past, during the dawn of civilizations, human societies
have high regard for women.
 The concept of the divine feminine (the sacredness of the woman due to her ability to conceive children)
has prevailed and thus, women are treated equally with men.
 This makes societies egalitarian (men and women have equitable power and roles).
Introduction
 However, humans’ discovery of paternity (fatherhood/ role of the father in conception), presumably
during the Agricultural era, when societies began to establish communities and tame rear cattle and stocks,
have also changed how societies have viewed women and man therefrom.
 For the longest time thereafter, societies have privileged men over other genders, mainly because of the
preferential given to them in the productive sphere (world of public work).
 Women who have been revered due to their ability to conceive have been viewed as solely capable only
of reproductive affairs (world of the home and related tasks such as suckling the young, child rearing, and
home management).
 The gender disparity was intensified by the Industrial era where factors were built and men were preferred
because they did not have to bear children for nine months and because their perceived physical strength.
 But how did really the conceptualization of gender and sexuality changed? This lesson tackles movements
in history which shows how men, women, and people of other genders are viewed in human societies.
Patriarchy – A system based on the control and oppression of women wherein they are perceived to be the weaker
sex. It is a structure that upholds male supremacy in the law, at home, in the workplace, and in society.
Patriarchy from the Greek word Patriakhes which means “the rule of the father”.
In the social, legal, political and economic spheres, men are expected to lead while women are expected to obey
and are relegated to house chores, bearing children and child care.
Examples: ()
Feminism – The advocacyof women’s right on the ground of the equality of the sexes. Both sexes have equal
power. Women’s right is secured.
HISTORICAL VIEWS ON GENDER
Greek – Aristotle, Plato and other Greek philosophers viewed women as the inferior sex and are properties of men
whose only job was to obey their husbands, bear children, and take care of the household. They were forbidden to
learn philosophy, politics, and science.
Egypt – Herodotus (Father of History), a Greek historian, observed the Egypt civilization citing that Egyptian
women enjoyed higher social status than Greek women because they can inherit property and engaged in trade and
politics. However, Greek influence quickly spread in Egypt through the conquest of Alexander the Great across
Asia and Africa.
China – Confucianism has stringent written rules that dictate how women should conduct themselves. The written
documents titled “ Three obedience’s and four virtues” and “Precepts of women” states that women should obey their
father, when married she is to obey her husband, and when widowed she is to obey her son.
Gendered biases in ancient patriarchal societies were very strict, heavily enforced, and often violent.
Imagine not being able to go to school just because you are a woman, not being able to express your opinion on important
matters even when it concerns your future, and not being able to say no to any man.
Women have come a long way since the ancient times through the feminist movement, however, patriarchy has taken on
subtle forms of oppression that often go unnoticed such as:
• Sexism – prejudice, stereotypes, and discrimination based on sex;
• Gender pay gap – men earn more than women;
• Underrepresentation in politics, military, executive positions, etc.;
• Rape on women and the stigma making women ashamed to report the crime;
• Very conservative expectations on women on how they behave;
• Unrealistic depictions of women in fiction, often very sexualized;
• Women do more housework and childcare;
• Boys were trained to be leaders while women trained to do house chores.
WOMEN EMPOWERMENT
During the 19th and early 20th century, first wave feminism spread across western countries as women
demanded for their right to vote or participate in elections and to be able to legally own property.
In France, Simone de Beauvoir wrote book titled “The second sex” in 1949. (outlined how the patriarchal
society disadvantaged women by slowly raising her into submission and hindering their productivity and
happiness by relegating them to housecleaning.
Le Mouvement de Liberation des Femmes or the women’s liberation movement was formed in Europe and
they sought the right to education, right to work, and right to vote in the 1940s.
Inspired by Beauvoir’s book, second wave feminism in 1960’s through the 80’s, women drew attention to
various social and cultural inequalities such as domestic violence especially marital rape, reproductive
rights, wage inequality, and etc.
The 90’s gave birth to the 3rd wave and 2012 started the forth wave. These movement only show that there
is still much to be done for women’s rights.
To put simply, feminism demands equality. Here are few salient points that feminism demands.
1. Women suffrage – women were not allowed to vote before because they were not viewed as irrational and
temperamental and therefore, not able to make rational decisions.
2. Equality in politics and society – for hundreds of years, women’s voices were silenced, so society must make an
effort to restore their rights.
3. Reproductive rights means the woman is in control of her body, and she can decide for herself on what she sees
is best for her. Contraception, abortion, and other reproductive options should be available to women because it
is their body.
4. Domestic violence – such as marital rape and physical abuse are often dismissed by society as part of a marriage.
Although we have RA 9262 or Anti Violence Against Women and their Children, our culture still dismiss such
incidents as “away mag-asawa”
5. Sexual harassment and sexual violence – The center for Women’s Resources in the Philippines estimates that one
woman or child is raped every hour mostly by someone they know.
6. Other rights include the right to divorce their husbands, the right to make decisions on her preganancy, equitable
wages, and equal employment opportunity.
 GENDER AND SEXUALITY AS A SUBJECT OF
INQUIRY
Gender Studies – a field of study concerned about how reproductive roles are interpreted and negotiated in the
society through gender.
- Is not just for women or all about women, it is about everyone. It explores how our gender roles have
changed throughout our history and how it created inequalities.
- Would ask us to question, is it still right to say that the men are the providers of the family when both
mothers and fathers now work and earn money.
Gender Roles/ sex roles – are socially constructed and are not something that we are born with. Society,
through a lifelong process of normalization, encourages or reprimands behaviors to make a child adapt to these
social expectations.
Gender norms - are social norms defining acceptable and appropriate actions for women and men in a given
group or society.
Diversity and Inclusion
 Gender role are socially constructed and are not something that we are “born with”.
 Society, through a lifelong process of normalization, encourages or reprimands behaviors to make a child
adapt to these social expectations.
 A young boy is always encourage to be brave, to play rough, to be loud, and to not show signs of weakness
such as crying.
 A young girl is discouraged from playing rough and being loud, instead they are told to be gentle and soft.
 If the child does not follow these gender roles, they are reprimanded by parents, relatives, friends, or
anybody that they interact with.
 Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people often do not fit in the traditional binary gender roles so they
are often reprimanded, bullied, and discriminated.
 They are often subjected to violence and hate just because they do not fit in what society calls “normal”.
GENDER STUDIES AND RESEARCH
As a subject of inquiry, Gender studies utilizes a systematic approach in identifying problems, making
hypotheses assumptions, gathering data, and making conclusions.
This systematic process is referred to as the research process.
Approaches in Research
Qualitative approach – focuses more on the meanings created and interpretations made by people about
their own personal or vicarious (observed) experiences.
Methods in Qualitative Approach
Phenomenology – conducting intensive interviews with individuals who have experienced a particular
event and understanding their “ lived experience”.
 Hermeneutics – understanding the meaning of texts (literary works, art works) and what they convey
about human realities
 Ethnography and ethnomethodology – immersing in a community and taking note of their
experiences, beliefs, attitudes, and practices.
Quantitative approach – focuses more on characterizing a population (total number of individual in a group) or a sample (a sub-
group within the population), and in some cases, making generalizations about the population based on the behavior of a sample.
Methods in Quantitative Approach
 Survey – collecting information from a sample

 Experiment – creating actual set-ups to observed behavior of people in an experimental group and comparing it to the
behavior of people in a control group.
Ethics in Research – these are considerations in conducting research to make sure that the well-being of the participants are
ensured, and that the outcome of the study is sound without undue harm to people involved.

The following are the principles to remember:

 Informed consent – Research should make sure that the participants in the study are aware of the purpose and
processes of the study they are participating in.
 Confidential and anonymity – Research should not reveal any information provided by the participants, much so,
their identity to anyone who are not concerned with the study.
 Non-maleficence and beneficence – A study should do no harm (non-maleficence) to anyone. Especially in
researches involving humans, a study should be beneficial for it to be worth implementing.
 Distributive Justice – Any study should not disadvantage a particular group, especially the marginalized and the
oppressed (e.g., poor people, women, LGBTQ+, the elderly)
“DO THE RIGHT THING,
EVEN WHEN NO ONE IS
WATCHING. IT’S CALLED
INTEGRITY”.
 THANK YOU FOR
LISTENING
Juby L. Pangan, RL, MLIS