1.1 Chapter Introduction
Chapter Overview: Thinking About Gender as a Sociological Concept
Think for a moment about stories in the news about sexual violence, gender inequality, and gender-based discrimination in the U.S.: the continuing pay gap between men and women, the rise in online sexual harassment, “don’t say gay” laws and other legislation that prohibit discussion of gender and sexual identity in schools, prohibit children from seeing drag performers, outlaw reproductive and gender-affirming healthcare and limit transgender and nonbinary individuals’ participation in sports and use of public restrooms (figure 1.1).
LGBTQIA+ is an acronym that stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual, and Plus, a continuously expanding spectrum of gender identities and sexual orientations. Canada issued a travel warning for people who identify as LGBTQIA+ who travel to the U.S. because of recent discriminatory laws in several American states (National Public Radio, 2023). This trend is part of a worldwide increase in harsh laws that threaten the well-being of women and people who identify as LGBTQIA+. According to Human Rights Watch, an international human rights organization, “at least 67 countries have national laws criminalizing same-sex relations between consenting adults” (Human Rights Watch n.d.).
The previous examples of social conflict around gender and sexuality are ripe topics for sociological inquiry. Sociology of gender applies the tools of sociology to explore how gender, sexuality, gender expression, and identity are socially constructed, imposed, enforced, reproduced, and negotiated. This chapter will introduce approaches sociologists use to understand the social aspects of gender and sexuality, including identity formation, interpersonal relationships, social movements, and systems of power. You will learn about foundational sociological perspectives and methods, as well as key sociological concepts, including intersectionality, systems of power, patriarchy, and the gender binary. You will also meet sociologists and gender theorists who have made important contributions to the field. The chapter closes by answering the question, “Why study the sociology of gender?”
Key Terms
This section contains a list of foundational key terms from the chapter. After reviewing them here, be on the lookout for them as you work through the rest of the book.
- cisgender: describes people who identify as the same gender they were assigned at birth.
- culture: a group’s shared practices, values, beliefs, and norms. Culture encompasses a group’s way of life, from daily routines and everyday interactions to the most essential aspects of group members’ lives. It includes everything produced by a society, including social rules.
- gender: the meanings, attitudes, behaviors, norms, and roles that a society or culture ascribes to sexual differences (adapted from Conerly et.al. 2021a).
- gender binary: a limited system of gender classification in which gender can only be masculine or feminine. This way of thinking about gender is specific to certain cultures and is not culturally, historically, or biologically universal.
- gender inequality: the unequal distribution of power and resources based on gender.
- heteronormativity: the social enforcement of heterosexuality, in which there are only two genders, that these genders are opposites, and that any sexual activity between people of the same gender is deviant or unnatural.
- LGBTQIA+: an acronym that stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual and Plus, a continuously expanding spectrum of gender identities and sexual orientations.
- patriarchy: literally the rule of fathers. A patriarchal society is one where characteristics associated with masculinity signify more power and status than those associated with femininity.
- peer review: a process in which researchers evaluate one another’s work to assess the validity and quality of proposed or completed research.
- People of the Global Majority (PGM): an emerging term that refers to people who identify as Asian, Black, African, Indigenous, Latinx, and other racial and ethnic groups who are not White (Campbell-Stephens 2020).
- reflexivity: a practice of self-reflection to examine how personal biases, feelings, reactions, and motives influence research.
- research: a systematic approach that involves asking questions, identifying possible answers to your question, collecting, and evaluating evidence—not always in that order—before drawing logical, testable conclusions based on the best available evidence.
- sexual orientation: emotional, romantic, or sexual attraction to other people; often used to signify the relationship between a person’s gender identity and the gender identities to which a person is most attracted (Learning for Justice 2024).
- social institution: a large-scale social arrangement that is stable and predictable, created and maintained to serve the needs of society (Bell 2013).
- socialization: the process of learning culture through social interactions.
- society: a group of people who live in a defined geographic area, who interact with one another, and who share a common culture (Conerly et al. 2021).
- sociological imagination: an awareness of the relationship between a person’s behavior, experience, and the wider culture that shapes the person’s choices and perceptions. (Mills 1959)
- sociology of gender: applies the tools of sociology to explore how gender, including sexuality, gender expression, and identity, is socially constructed, imposed, enforced, reproduced, and negotiated.
- systems of power: interconnected ideas and practices that attach identity and social position to power and serve to produce and normalize arrangements of power in society.
- transgender: describes people who identify as a gender that is different from the gender they were assigned at birth.
Learning Objectives
After reading this chapter, you will be able to:
- Explain how the practice of sociology studies patterns of individual and group behavior to better understand the role gender plays in our society.
- Recognize how social power has shaped the social sciences and scientific process in general and the sociology of gender in particular.
- Identify the foundational concepts of the sociology of gender.
- Describe the value of studying the sociology of gender for both individuals and communities.
- Explain why critical self-reflection is important practice for sociologists.
Licenses and Attributions for Chapter Introduction
Open Content, Original
“Chapter Overview: Thinking About Gender as a Sociological Concept” by Heidi Esbensen and Nora Karena is licensed under CC BY 4.0.
Figure 1.1. “Gender Neutral Restrooms” by Heidi Esbensen is licensed under CC BY 4.0.
any sexual act, attempt to obtain a sexual act, or other act directed against a person’s sexuality using coercion by any person, regardless of their relationship to the victim, in any setting (WHO 2022).
the unequal distribution of power and resources based on gender.
the meanings, attitudes, behaviors, norms, and roles that a society or culture ascribes to sexual differences (Adapted from Conerly et.al. 2021a).
describes people who identify as a gender that is different from the gender they were assigned at birth.
refers to gender identities beyond binary identifications of man or woman/masculine or feminine.
an acronym that stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, and Asexual, Plus a continuously expanding spectrum of gender identities and sexual orientations.
people with differences in sexual development (DSD) sometimes identify as intersex.
refers to a person’s personal and interpersonal expression of sexual desire, behavior, and identity.
applies the tools of sociology to explore how gender, including sexuality, gender expression, and identity, is socially constructed, imposed, enforced, reproduced, and negotiated.
the way our gender identity is expressed outwardly through clothing, personal grooming, self-adornment, physical posture and gestures, and other elements of self-presentation.
a process of coming to understand ourselves and differentiate ourselves in relation to our social world.
purposeful, organized groups that strive to work toward a common social goal.
interconnected ideas and practices that attach identity and social position to power and serve to produce and normalize arrangements of power in society.
describes how multiple social locations overlap and influence each other to create complex hierarchies of power and oppression, and that overlapping social identities produce unique inequities that influence the lives of people and groups (Crenshaw, 1989).
literally the rule of fathers. A patriarchal society is one where characteristics associated with masculinity signify more power and status than those associated with femininity.
a limited system of gender classification in which gender can only be masculine or feminine. This way of thinking about gender is specific to certain cultures and is not culturally, historically, or biologically universal.
a group of people who live in a defined geographic area, who interact with one another, and who share a common culture (Conerly et al. 2021).