4.6 Conclusion
Sociology of gender is a critical approach to sociology that applies lessons learned from both social research and social activism. It provides evidence to support a critique of the dominant culture in terms of power, gender, and sexuality, and it helps us better understand how gender is related to inequality, oppression, and poverty. It refutes the idea that gender and sexuality are biological, binary, fixed, and determinative. The sociology of gender centers on the perspectives and lived experiences of individuals in groups that are marginalized within the dominant culture.
This chapter has sketched out the development of feminist theory across three historical “waves” of feminism, introduced you to some of the many social scientists, historians, philosophers, and poets who have contributed to the larger interdisciplinary project of gender and sexuality studies, and introduced four contemporary theories related to gender: post-structuralism, queer-theory, crip theory, and postcolonialism. In Chapter Five, we will use these theories to take a closer look at the power of gender.
Review Learning Objectives
Now that you have completed this chapter, you should be able to:
- Identify three early theoretical perspectives of social inequality.
- Discuss key theoretical developments that correspond with each wave of feminism.
- Explain why post-structuralism made it possible to understand gender in new ways.
- Analyze the gender pay gap using foundational, feminist, poststructural, and post-colonial theories.
- Use Queer Theory to analyze sexual orientation as a social construct.
Questions For Discussion
- Summarize the three early sociological theories.
Answer: Structural functionalism, also called functionalism, is a macro-level theory concerned with large-scale processes and large-scale social systems that order, stabilize, and destabilize societies. Conflict theory is a macro-level theory that proposes conflict is a basic fact of social life, which argues that the institutions of society benefit the powerful. Symbolic interactionist theory is a micro-level theory concerned with how meanings are constructed through interactions with others. - Summarize the three waves of feminism.
Answer: The “first wave” of the feminist movement began in the mid-19th century and lasted until the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920, which gave women the right to vote. The focus of the first wave of feminism focused on securing the right to vote for women, striking down laws that give husbands ownership of their wife’s property, and securing women’s access to education and employment. Second-wave feminism applied principles learned from the civil rights movement to challenge gender norms that excluded women from politics and restricted them to the domestic sphere. A major focus of second-wave feminism was to secure the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment. This constitutional amendment still has not passed. Third-wave feminism was influenced by earlier waves but has expanded to include a multitude of standpoint-specific feminisms developed by Black women, transnational women, women of the Global South, disabled women, and people who are LGBTQIA+. A defining characteristic of the third wave is coalitional politics, in which the people with diverse identities build alliances that challenge systems of oppression. - How does post-structuralism analyze gender?
Answer: Post-structuralism focuses on how gender is constructed, reproduced, enforced, challenged, and transformed in gendered language and gendered ideas of work, as well as how gender is constructed by individual behavior or performance. More broadly, poststructuralism deconstructs the binary categories of gender. - Compare and contrast how early sociological theories, feminist theories, and contemporary theories analyze the gender wage gap.
Answer: Structural functionalists might look at how values and norms shape societal notions of success in the workforce and how these established values and norms reinforce the division of labor and gender inequality. Interactionists would likely examine how meaning, in the form of race and gender stereotypes and controlling images, is produced and negotiated in social interactions and then translated into wage inequality. Gender conflict theory, inspired by feminism theory, analyzes how economic gender inequality supports patriarchal power structures in the workplace and the marketplace. A feminist theoretical perspective of the gender wage gap helps us see how systems of power like patriarchy create the social conditions that lead to gender-based income inequality. Contemporary theories of gender are concerned with the impact of the global economy in terms of the economic situations of the nations in which they live and also by gender and race.
Real But Not True: Check-in
Let’s take a moment to reflect on what you’ve learned in this chapter about socially constructed gender norms.
Tools of Sociology:
What specific examples of the tools of sociology have been discussed in this chapter?
- Sociological Imagination
- Research-based Evidence
- Social Theory
Socially Constructed: Sexual Norms
- What examples of gender being imposed, enforced, reproduced, challenged, and changed have you discovered in this chapter?
Real in Consequence: Social Stigma
- What examples of real consequences for violating or conforming to socially constructed gender norms have you discovered in this chapter?
Licenses and Attributions for Conclusion
Open Content, Original
“Conclusion” by Nora Karena and Dana L. Pertermann is licensed under CC BY 4.0.
“Real But Not True: Check-in” By Nora Karena is licensed under CC BY 4.0.
“Real But Not True Puzzle Images” by Nora Karena and Katie Losier are licensed under CC BY 4.0
applies the tools of sociology to explore how gender, including sexuality, gender expression, and identity, is socially constructed, imposed, enforced, reproduced, and negotiated.
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.
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.
the meanings, attitudes, behaviors, norms, and roles that a society or culture ascribes to sexual differences (Adapted from Conerly et.al. 2021a).
refers to a person’s personal and interpersonal expression of sexual desire, behavior, and identity.
is an interdisciplinary approach to issues of equality and equity based on gender, gender expression, gender identity, sex, and sexuality as understood through social theories and political activism (Eastern Kentucky University, n.d.)
de-centers dominant perspectives to decolonize ideas of culture and societal structures.
a subfield of sociology that reveals and interrupts the harmful social pressures and social norms of ableism and heteronormativity.
a framework for understanding gender and sexual practices outside of heterosexuality.
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 2018).
shared meaning that is created, accepted, and reproduced by social interactions between people within a society.
also called functionalism, a macro-level theory concerned with large-scale processes and large-scale social systems that order, stabilize, and destabilize societies.
is a macro-level theory that proposes conflict is a basic fact of social life, which argues that the institutions of society benefit the powerful.
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).
is a micro-level theory concerned with how meanings are constructed through interactions with others and is associated with the Chicago School of Sociology.
an acronym that stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, and Asexual, Plus a continuously expanding spectrum of gender identities and sexual orientations.
refers to political association with those who have differing identities, around shared experiences of oppression (Taylor, 2017).
the unequal distribution of power and resources based on gender.
interconnected ideas and practices that attach identity and social position to power and serve to produce and normalize arrangements of power in society.
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.
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)