CHAPTER 9

GENDER ROLES AND INEQUALITIES IN AGE

Gender roles – are patterns of attitude and behaviour that a society expects of its members because of their being male
or female.

MUSCULINE AND FEMININE IN THE PHILIPPINES

Men Women
-breadwinner -housekeeper
-work to provide family’s needs -“woman’s world” in the home: to comfort and care for
-“man’s world” outside home: harsh and heartless jungle in husband and children, maintain harmony, and teach
which men needed strength and aggression. children to conform to society’s norms
-ambitious -shy
-aggressive* -easily intimidated
-strong -passive*
-athletic -weak
-hold back emotions and do not cry -demure
-sexually aggressive and experienced -worry about appearance and aging
-independent -emotional and cry easily
-fit to be leaders -sexually passive and inexperienced
-logical, rational and objective -dependent
-woman: “sex objects” physically and sexually attractive -need of male protection
-inconsistent and intuitive
-more sociable; more likely to seek security and intimacy in
the company of others
-more people-oriented
-more likely to help others
-virtuous
-maintain faith
-conform to customs
-man: “success objects” financially secure and well-
educated

GENDER ROLES IN OTHER CULTURES

Margaret Mead (1935) found 3 differences among 3 tribes in New Guinea.

Arapesh Mundugumor Tchambuli

-both men and women behaved in a
feminine way.
-they were passive, gentle and home-
loving
-men were just as enthusiastic as the
women about taking care of babies
and bringing up children.
-both sexes show masculine traits.
-they were competitive, aggressive
and violent.
-men were emotional, passive, and
dependent; they took care of
children, did housework and use
cosmetics.
-women were the bosses at home;
they were the economic providers,
doing hunting, farming, and fishing.
Mead’s Conclusion:

“Human nature is almost unbelievably malleable, responding to cultural conditions. Standardized personality, differences
between the sexes is of this order, cultural creations to which each generation, male and female, is trained to conform” –
power of culture.

In most societies, the public world is considered a man’s domain and the private world a woman’s. “Men’s work” is
more highly valued than woman’s work”. Thus, male dominance over females is nearly universal.

GENDER INEQUALITIES

“Underlying these inequalities is sexism-prejudice and discrimination against women.”

Sexism is characterized by the belief that women are inferior to men.

CHARACTERISTICS
MEN WOMEN
-independent -submissive
-courageous and the like -dependent
-unadventurous
-easily influenced
-excitable in minor crises
-susceptible to hurt feelings
-conceited about her appearance

Men are described positively while the women are described negatively as having “sexual timidity and social anxiety”.

 EDUCATION

Schools – Harvard was one of the last to give up sex discrimination; San Beda in the Phil. started admitting female
enrollees only in 2002.

Students – girls receive less attention from teachers than boys. Girls suffer a dramatic drop in self-esteem when
reaching high school.

Administrations – in the Phil. , there are more males who are college and university president than women.

 JOBS AND MONEY

Economic inequality between the sexes has increased too because many people considered housekeeping and child care
the only real career for a woman. Woman who did work often had less experience, as well as less education, than men.
Consequently, women lagged behind men in employment and earnings.

Women’s ghettos – are traditional female occupations that are subordinate to positions usually held by men.

Even when women hold the same jobs as men or have comparable skill and training, they tend to earn less.

o Reasons:
 1. Women hold lower-level jobs
 2. Women interrupt their careers to have children.
 3. Men are their families’ principal wage earners
  POLITICS

“If a woman campaigned vigorously, she was likely to be regarded as a neglectful wife and mother. If she claimed to be
an attentive wife and mother, she was apt to be judged incapable of devoting energy to public office.” – Sexism

Yet, women seem likely to occupy more positions of political leadership in the future because women have greater
credibility with the public than men do on questions of honesty and integrity.

 RELIGION
o “Men are superior to women on account of the qualities in which God has given them pre-eminence. –
Muslim Koran
o Buddhism and Confucianism instruct wives to obey their husbands.
o Female members of the “Iglesia ni Kristo” are barred to occupy the position of Ministers.
o “In pain you shall bring forth children, yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over
you” –God (after Eve ate the forbidden fruit and gave it to Adam)
o “Man is the image and reflection of god, but woman from man. Neither was man created for the sake of
woman, but woman for the sake of man” – St. Paul
o “I thank Thee, O Lord , that Thou has not made me a woman” – The daily Orthodox Jewish prayer
o GOD – is spoken and thought of as belonging to the male sex.
o Over the course of the four Gospels, there is a total of 633 verses in which Jesus refer to women, and
almost none of these is negative in tone – Mar Van Leeuwen (1990)

SOURCES OF GENDER ROLES AND INEQUALITITES

 BIOLOGICAL EVIDENCE

Men and women are different in their genes, which provide the inherited blueprint for their physical development.

FEMALE MALE
XX XY

“The male’s lack of a second X chromosome makes him in many respects the weaker sex.”

Male infants are more likely than females to be stillborn or malformed. Over thirty hereditary disorders, such as
haemophilia and webbing of the toes, are found only in men.

Men and women also have differences in their hormones, chemical substances that are secreted by the body’s various
glands which can influence both physical development and emotional arousal. Both sexes have “male” as well as
“female” hormones, but the proportion of male hormones is greater in men and that of female hormones is greater on
women.

The present consensus among natural and social scientists is that hormonal differences probably do have some
influence on the behaviour of men and women but that influence varies greatly – not only among individuals, but also
within the same person over time.

A man’s biological involvement in reproduction begins and ends with a brief act of insemination. Women, on the other
hand, bear and suckle children, and as a result their personal, social, and economic activities may be periodically
restricted.
There are also anatomical dissimilarities in such characteristics as height, weight, amount of body hair, distribution of
body fat, and musculature.

 PSYCHOLOGICAL EVIDENCE

Many studies of young infants have found sex linked personality differences early in life.

MALE BABIES FEMALE BABIES

-more active -smile more readily
-sensitive to warmth and touch

This case is not totally proved. It remains possible that even these early variations are learned.

 CROSS-CULTURAL EVIDENCE

The biological differences between males and females seem logically related to the division of labor between the sexes.
If men are bigger and stronger, then it makes sense for them to do the work that requires strength. And assigning
women the care of the home and children may be a logical extension of their biological ability to bear and nurse
children.

However, there are limitations to biological constraints on gender roles and inequalities. Since women have smaller
hands and greater finger agility than men, they are logically fit to be dentists and neurosurgeons. Yet men dominate
these high-paying professions because our culture has long defined them as “men’s work.”

American and Filipino culture, being a physician is defined as men’s work, therefore, majority of American and Filipino
doctors are males, and they are among the highest paid professionals. By contrast, in Russia, where medicine is a
feminine” profession, most of the doctors are women, and they are generally paid “women’s wages” – less than most
skilled blue-collar workers make.

The complicated relationship between the biological characteristics of the sexes and their eventual gender roles is
perhaps best illustrated by cases in which a person’s sex was ambiguous or mislabelled at birth. In one such case, 38
boys in the Dominican Republic had been raised as girls because they had an enzyme deficiency that made their external
genitals look female when they were born. But at puberty, when they developed the normal male characteristics, they
changed their sexual identity, taking on the male role. In other cases, however, adults happily maintained the sex role
they had been assigned at birth, even after they had developed characteristics of the opposite sex during puberty. In
these cases, culture, not biology, seemed to have the last word.

Obviously, biology sets male and females apart. But it cannot make us behave in any specific way. It can only predispose
us to behave in certain ways, because society does much to accentuate gender differences.

Thus, we are born male or female, but we learn to become men or women.

SOCIALIZATION

The learning of gender roles is part of socialization.

 THE FAMILY

Newborn babies do not even know their gender, much less how to behave like boys or girls. Influenced by their parents,
children very quickly develop their sexual identity and learn their gender roles.
 BABY BOYS BABY GIRLS
-wrapped in blue blankets -wrapped in pink blankets
-bounced around and lifted high in the air -girls are cuddled and cooed over
-often left alone to explore their environment -protected against any possible accident
-given toy trains, toy guns, play trucks, and building sets -given dolls, toy vacuum cleaners, and miniature kitchen
-build houses appliances
-care less about their little boys’ appearance -play house
-fuss about how pretty their little girl should look
When learning to talk…
They are taught to differentiate “he” and “she” and “hers”
AGE 2 AGE 2
-less emotional -use more emotional words
-father tend to use more commanding or threatening -mothers talk more politely
language with sons than daughter
AGE 4 AGE 4
-learned to imitate their father’s conversational styles -learned to imitate their mother’s conversational styles
-use more threatening, dominating language -emphasize agreement and mutuality
-taught to behave “like men”, to avoid being “sissies” -taught to be “ladylike”
-told that boys don’t cry, only girls do -to be polite
-boys tend to grow up with a fear of being feminine, -to be gentle
which forces them to maintain a macho image as well as -to rely on others for help
an exploitative attitude toward women. -they are allowed to express their emotions freely.
-are encouraged to be self-reliant and assertive, to avoid -seeing their mother spend much time and money on
being “mama’s boys” fashion and cosmetics, they learn the importance of being
-more likely to receive physical punishment such as pretty
spanking, so they develop a sort of reactive -feel that they must rely more on their beauty than
independence. intelligence to attract men.

 SCHOOLS AND PEER GROUPS

The socialization of boys and girls into their gender roles gets a boost from schools.

BOYS GIRLS
-engineering and mechanics -home economics
-basketball -softball
-proficient in mathematics -score low in math tests

During adolescence, the peer groups tend to pressure boys to prove their manhood and sexual prowess with girls and
girls to prove their popularity with boys. As a result, young men may take advantage of women, sometimes to the extent
of committing date rape without seeing it as a rape.

 THE MASS MEDIA

Of all the sources of sexual stereotypes, the mass media – television, newspapers, magazines, radio – are the most
pervasive.

BOYS GIRLS
IN SPORTS MAGAZINES
-describe male athletes as “great”, “tough”, “brilliant”, -describe female athletes as “pretty”, “slim”, “attractive”,
“cool”, and “courageous” and “lovely”
 IN TELEVISION COMMERCIALS
- shown as being “solid citizens, responsible, dependable, -presented as sex objects and dedicated housewives
in charge, busy” -typecast as either lovers or mothers
-mostly portrayed as weak, passive sidekicks to powerful,
effective men.

GENDER INEQUALITY: A FUNCTIONALIST VIEW

They point out that it was highly functional for men and women to play different roles. A society operates much more
efficiently if duties are allocated to particular people who are socialized to play the specific roles involved.

Talcott Parsons and Robert Bales claimed that a modern family needs 2 adults who will specialize in particular roles:

THE INSTRUMENTAL ROLE: FATHER THE EXPRESSIVE ROLE: MOTHER

- Focuses in the relationships between the family
and the outside world
 Responsible for earning the income that supports
the family
 Requires that he be dominant and competent
- Focuses on relationships within the family
 Responsible for providing the love and support
that is needed to hold the family together
 Requires that she be passive and nurturant.

The whole society, too, benefits from these practical arrangements, despite the inequality they create.

GENDER INEQUALITY: A CONFLICT VIEW

The underlying source of sex inequality is the economic inequality between men and women. Since wealth is a prime
source of social status, it can be readily converted into power and prestige as well. It follows that if men make a greater
economic contribution to the family and the society than women, then men are likely to have superior social status in
both. Conversely, if the economic contribution of women increases relative to that of men, then the inequalities
between the sexes should diminish.

GENDER ROLES TODAY/ TOWARD GENDER EQUALITY

There has been significant progress toward gender equality in the last two decades. This is largely due to the women’s
liberation movement. Women’s attempt to liberate themselves from the constraints of female-role stereotypes has
further induced a growing number of men to free themselves from male-role stereotypes.

 THE WOMEN’S MOVEMENT

The women’s movement for sexual inequality started in the US in the middle of the last century. It developed out of the
larger social movement to abolish slavery. The women attempted to eradicate all forms of sexual discrimination, but
gradually focused their attention on winning the right

SOCIAL GERONTOLOGY

- It is a study of the social aspects of aging. This examines the influence of social forces on the aged and the aging
process, and the impact of the aged and their needs on society.

3 processes of aging:

1. Physical aging – the maturation and other age- related changes that take place over time in the body.
 2. Psychological aging – the developmental and other changes that occur in the personality, including its
emotional, cognitive, and behavioral components.
3. Social aging – involving the various transitions from one social status to another that the individual experiences
over the life course.

Cohort – a category of people who are born during the same time period.

Age structure – the relative proportion of different age categories in a population.