9.6 Institutions and Inequalities
Throughout this chapter, we’ve examined gender as an identity, a set of ideas individuals may internalize, how our gender performances are policed, and the consequences of gendered power relations. Now let’s focus on the many ways in which gender acts to structure both our lives and opportunities. Our ideas about gender shape the world that we live in, including our social institutions. Over the past few decades, countless studies have been dedicated to examining how gender inequalities are built into the organizational structure of our social institutions. For example, we continue to see gender inequalities in education (Ballantine et al. 2021), workplaces (Black 2021), and the military (Reis and Menezes 2020).
In this section of the chapter, we will turn our attention to the social institutions of family and work, but first let’s take a moment to review some of the key concepts you learned in “Examining Interactions.” We can build on that knowledge by starting to think about how gender inequalities are experienced in social institutions. Please complete the activity “Activity: Gender Stratification” before heading to the next sections “Families” and “Social Stratification in Work/Public Sphere” where we will take a closer look at how gender inequalities are experienced within institutions.
Activity: Gender Stratification
In this short video (figure 9.18), you will learn more about gender stratification. First, you’ll have an opportunity to reflect on gender socialization. Then, you’ll consider how gender structures our major social institutions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yb1_4FPtzrI
Please watch the video and come back to answer the following questions:
- What does it mean when sociologists say that “gender is a social construct”?
- What is gender stratification? What examples from the clip resonated with your experiences?
- How do social institutions, such as media, families, and education, contribute to or perpetuate gender stratification?
Licenses and Attributions for Institutions and Inequalities
Open Content, Original
“Institutions and Inequalities” by Jennifer Puentes is licensed under CC BY 4.0.
“Activity: Gender Stratification” adapted from Gender Stratification: Crash Course Sociology #32 by Crash Course Sociology, licensed under the Standard YouTube License, and is licensed under CC BY 4.0. Modifications include framing activity and authoring questions.
All Rights Reserved Content
Figure 9.18. “Gender Stratification: Crash Course Sociology #32 [YouTube]” by Crash Course Sociology is licensed under the Standard YouTube License.
a term that refers to the behaviors, personal traits, and social positions that society attributes to being female or male
mechanisms or patterns of social order focused on meeting social needs, such as government, the economy, education, family, healthcare, and religion.
a society’s categorization of its people into rankings based on factors like wealth, income, education, family background, and power.
the process wherein people come to understand societal norms and expectations, to accept society’s beliefs, and to be aware of societal values.