Assignment 4: Learning Gender and Gender and Paid Work
1) According to the lecture slides what is the difference between sex and gender? Use your own words.
The difference is that “sex” is defined as the anatomical part of a human being, the components that are unique to males and females. Sex consists of hormones and chromosomes that make us distinctive from the rest.
“Gender” is comprised of cultural and societal definitions. It is recognized and accepted that boys should not play with dolls and be involved in sports. Men should not display sensitive emotions such as crying and should possess masculine identities. Girls by societal means should playing house, wear dresses and not be involved in sports. Women should be fluent in cooking and household abilities. It is accepted to see them cry and show emotions.
2) Give an example from your own life of doing gender (i.e. acting in a gender stereotypical way). I was doing gender when:
An example of myself displaying a stereotypical gender role is cooking and cleaning for the household. On a daily basis, I am the one who prepares the meals, cleans the house, does the laundry and take care of the children (and pets). Aside from being a professional woman and a recent full time student, I am still reverted to the classic gender role as the primary person for household chores and childcare.
3) According to the chapter by Reisman and Seale:
A) What method(s) did these researchers use to collect their data, who was their study population, and what was the sample size of the population?
Methods used by Risman and Seale are noted on page 344/345 in the textbook. A series of interviews, questions and stories were asked and told to the participants in order to collect data from their responses. The children, also referred to as “tween-agers”, were asked to compose a poem that correlated to the aspects of their own lives. The study population were (44) middle school students in a southeastern city in the U.S., however, two participants did not offer sufficient data therefore the sample size was reduced to (42). Their ages ranged from eleven to fourteen and were in grades sixth through eighth. The students were primarily from middle-class households and were not ethically equally.
There were two interesting questions that the participants were asked: 1. How would your life be different if an alien made you gay. And 2. If an alien with supernatural powers came into your bedroom one night and turned you into a girl, how would you life be different in the morning? Since the responses were not published, I thought it would be interesting to ask a couple “tweens” that I know to find out what they thought. Here are their responses:
Julien (boy age 13) “If an alien made me gay, so much would be different. I most likely wouldn’t have the friends I have now, who knows how my parents would react. And overall everything would be changed.
2. If an alien came into my room overnight and turned me into a girl, I wouldn’t know where to start because I wake up, shower, and then I’m off to school. But if this did happen I would prob go to my sisters room for clothes, do my hair maybe haha, also try to adapt to a girl's life.”
Anna (girl age 11) (answer to question #2) “My life would be so different, first when I have to use the bathroom I would have to stand not sit and that would be so weird. Then I would have to wear my brother’s clothes and not have to worry what I look like. I would also have to become friendlier with the boys at school so that I would fit in. I would want to be nice to my girl friends because they are my bffs and I would try to show the boys how to treat a girl like a princess, because boys can really hurt our feelings and not think twice about it.”
The comments were posted with the permission of the parents who also read the answers to the question. What I have gathered from such a small piece of the research is that Anna answered with a more descriptive answer than Julien. His answer was very vague even though he was instructed to be candid with the answer.
B) Describe one limitation of the method used as described by the researchers.
A limitation that the researchers faced was the fact that they did not conduct any observations of the interactions of the students together. The researchers felt confident that the answers alone from the students were adequate enough.
C) What was the difference between what the "tweens" said about the "ideal" of gender equality and how they actually acted?
The difference that was expressed by the students are noted on pages 346/347. They are aware of who they are in personally in gender but when asked if they are to become the opposite sex their responses are based on societal labels of what that gender should be. The students were asked to use cards with careers labeled on them and place them in either the male or female category. What the researchers discovered was that even though the students felt strongly the men and women should be treated equal, the careers were placed in typical gender male/female roles.
D) Describe one example of how the middle-schoolers defined "girly-girls" and one example of how they described "tomboys."
Girly-girls is described by one female student (page 347) as always wanting her hair perfect, wearing high-heeled shoes, always laughing and flirting. Being labeled as a tomboy meant that you were more athletic or failed to recognize that you are a girl with difficulties finding a boyfriend.
E) After reading the lecture slides and this chapter, briefly describe your own beliefs regarding whether children "naturally" act like girls or boys or how this behavior might be learned or fostered by the larger society and/or social institutions like education, the economy, government etc. For example, think about toys that children play with or the clothes/colors they like and wear. Pick a side "nature/biology" or "nurture/learned," and defend it! Do you think children want to play with these toys or do we create gender roles by rewarding children for gender appropriate behavior or punishing them when they display gender inappropriate behaviors? Many of you work in day care centers or schools - how do teachers react when boys want to play dress up versus when girls act aggressively? Why do girls like pink and boys blue? Are we born that way or do we learn to like these colors?
After absorbing the readings and slide information, I feel that children today have a combination of following gender roles by the influence from parents, friends and society. Parents today, in my opinion, are more apt to allow children to express themselves by their own intuitions and not follow the typical gender roles that society has deemed the norm. Girls are not always in pink dresses with frilly white socks. They are not just playing with dolls they are building with blocks and Legos and exploring their skills in sports. In the school setting that I am exposed to the children are encouraged to play together regardless of the play center activity or game. If a boy picks up a doll, they are not reprimanded but encouraged. Their peers are not judging them either. There is never a time when a boy is corrected because he is playing dress-up nor are the girls taken out of a game of ball or building blocks. They Boys are also taking on more classes in the arts and even trying out for Hip Hop. (I had a student come to preschool every day with his toes and fingernails painted and loved to show everyone.) As for colors, it is tradition to give girls pink and boys blue. Personally, my girls hate pink unless it is hot-pink with swirls and peace signs. In my opinion they are not born to love their “gender color”. It is society saying they should love it.
The nurture/learned theory would best guide children to make decisions for their futures by recognizing who they are as individuals and not who society says they should be. Positive parental guidance during this generation is different than in the past. The family dynamics have changed drastically in the last fifty years. We are learning that gender roles are not the same and the swing of male and female roles are more accepted. We are not always “doing gender.”
3) Last, go this True False quiz on changes in women's employment rate
Next click on the link below to the chart Mothers in the Labor Force, 1955–2004 Percentage of mothers with children to answer the True or False questions.
4) Print this copy in word so you can add T for true and F for False
5) Copy and paste your completed the True/False questions quiz into your blogs.
Directions: Study the Mothers Participating in the Labor Force 1955-2004 table. (The table can be found online at http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0104670.html.) Then read each statement below. On the line before each statement, write T if the statement is true. Write F is the statement is false. - __F___ In the year 2000, 64.6 percent of mothers with children younger than age 6 were part of the labor force.
- _F____ The number of working mothers with children ages 6 to 17 increased by 15 percent between 1975 and 1980.
- _F____ During the period 1995 to 2001, the number of working mothers with children younger than age 6 increased by more than 5 percent.
- ___T__ In the last five years on the chart, the percentage of working mothers with children younger than age 18 decreased.
- __T___ The number of working mothers with children younger than age 6 went above the 50 percent mark for the first time between the years 1980 and 1985.
- ___F__ The number of working mothers with children ages 6 to 17 has not been below 70 percent since 1980.
- _T____ The number of working mothers with children younger than age 6 decreased between 1997 and 2001.
- _F____ In 1955, fewer than one-fourth of all mothers with children under age 18 were part of the U.S. workforce.
- __T___ Working mothers with children younger than age 6 have always made up a smaller percentage of the workforce than those who have children ages 6 to 17.
- _T____ In the year 2001, more than three-fourths of all mothers of children ages 6 to 17 were part of the labor force.
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6) Do you think women are doing as well as you as expected, less well, or better and why?
I feel that women are doing better than expected comparatively from 1955. With the exception of answering this question during an economic decline, women have put their marks in the workplace managing work and home. A majority of women are also forced into the workplace since they are unable to live on a single income. With the costs of daycare on the rise, it puts families in a difficult position. There are even cases where women drop out of the workplace due to the fact that there wages do not cover the costs of daycare. Women are taking on higher education and careers and disregarding the “rules” of gender in order to positively satisfy themselves. My mother always said, “you do not need a man, if you need something done – do it yourself.” So, if I want a tree cut down, I buy a chainsaw and cut it down, just like she did. I was not taught to follow the roles of the female gender. I was to go after what I wanted that would make my life happy. That is what I teach my girls. Be positive and be yourself.
