gender studies

Examples of gender studies in the following topics:

• Gender and Research

  • Sociological research will study such things as social stratification between genders, the socialization of gender, influences of sexism on educational performance, gender and mass media, inequality in the workplace, gender roles and social norms , and other gender-related topics and social phenomena.
  • For example, a sociologist interested in gender stratification in education may study why middle-school girls are more likely than their male counterparts to fall behind grade-level expectations in math and science.
  • Starting in the late 20th century, the feminist movement has contributed extensive study of gender and theories about it, notably within sociology but not restricted to it.
  • Theories that have contributed to gender research and the realm of gender studies include structural functionism (the theory that gender roles were originally functional; for example, women took care of the domestic responsibilities in or around the home because they were often limited by the physical restraints of pregnancy and nursing and unable to leave the home for long periods of time); conflict theory (seeing society as a struggle for dominance among social groups, such as women versus men, that compete for scarce resources); feminist theories (which use the conflict approach to examine the maintenance of gender roles and inequalities); and symbolic interactionism (which aims to understand human behavior by analyzing the critical role of symbols in human interaction).
  • Sex and gender research, therefore, focus on different areas of study.

• Gender and Health

  • One study found that women are less likely than men to be recommended for knee replacement surgery, even when they have the same symptoms.
  • Studies demonstrate the positive impact of girls' education on child and maternal health, fertility rates, poverty reduction and economic growth.
  • Researchers also find health disparities based on gender stratification.
  • One study found that women are less likely than men to be recommended for knee replacement surgery, even when they have the same symptoms.
  • This often means a focus on gender-equality, ensuring participation, but includes an understanding of the different roles and expectations of the genders within the community.

• Childhood Socialization

  • Gender roles are taught from infancy through primary socialization, or the type of socialization that occurs in childhood and adolescence.
  • Gender is instilled through socialization immediately from birth.
  • Because gender norms are perpetuated immediately upon birth, many sociologists study what happens when children fail to adopt the expected gender norms rather than the norms themselves.
  • This is the standard model of studying deviance in order to understand the norm that undergirds the deviant activity.
  • Children can resist gender norms by insisting on dressing in clothing more typically associated with the other gender, playing with toys more typically associated with the other gender, or having opposite-sex playmates .

• Gender

  • Studies demonstrate that educating girls and women has a positive impact on child and maternal health, fertility rates, poverty reduction, and economic growth.
  • In a given society, sexual beliefs, values, and attitudes reflect the accepted norms of that society, and individual feelings and opinions are largely bypassed in the assignment of gender and gender roles.
  • Gender-related intersections and the crossing of defined gender boundaries are generally unaccounted for in socially constructed notions of gender.
  • Studies demonstrate that educating girls and women has a positive impact on child and maternal health, fertility rates, poverty reduction, and economic growth.
  • Examine the role gender plays in health care and healthy lifestyles, especially for women

• The Cross-Cultural Perspective

  • Gender roles vary significantly across cultures.
  • A 2010 study by the United Nations Development Programme found that 62% of Chileans are opposed to full gender equality and expressed the belief that women should limit themselves to the roles of mother and wife.
  • These social barriers to gender equality exist in the face of legal equality.
  • Chilean law has recently undergone some drastic changes to support gender equality.
  • Historically, gender has been an important principle of Japanese social stratification but the cultural elaboration of gender differences has, of course, varied over time and within social class.

• The Social Construction of Gender

  • Social constructivists propose that there is no inherent truth to gender; it is constructed by social expectations and gender performance.
  • These basic theories of social constructionism can be applied to any issue of study pertaining to human life, including gender.
  • Gender is never a stable descriptor of an individual, but an individual is always "doing" gender, performing or deviating from the socially accepted performance of gender stereotypes.
  • In other words, by doing gender, we reinforce the notion that there are only two mutually exclusive categories of gender.
  • Gender is maintained as a category through socially constructed displays of gender.

• Theories of Gender Differences

  • Sociologists and other social scientists generally attribute many of the differences between genders to socialization (note that even physiological differences mirror existing gender socialization processes).
  • In gender socialization, the groups people join are the gender categories, "cisgender women and men" and "transgender people".
  • Preparations for gender socialization begin even before the birth of the child.
  • One illustration of early life gender socialization can be seen in preschool classrooms.
  • This study supports the idea that subtle cues that surround us in our everyday lives strongly influence gender socialization.

• Gender Inequality in Health Care

  • In one study of a population group in a low-income urban community, 86 percent of women reported having access to health insurance through publicly assisted or private options, while only 74 percent of men reported having any health insurance at all.
  • Studies that address percentages of each gender covered by insurance only speak to one measure of inequality in health care.
  • Fewer than ten state governments prohibit gender discrimination in insurance premiums.
  • Gender discrimination in health care could be changing in the United States.
  • This bill is seen as a vital step in combating gender inequalities in the health care system.

• Gender Bias in the Classroom

  • Gender-based achievement gaps suggest the existence of gender bias in the classroom.
  • If test score gaps are evidence of gender bias, where does that gender bias come from?
  • Teachers may interact with boys and girls in ways that reinforce gender roles and gender inequality.
  • However, empirical studies give mixed evidence as to the efficacy of single-sex schooling, and critics worry that it constitutes a separate-but-equal form of discrimination.
  • The gendering of school subjects may, in itself, lead to gender bias in the classroom, and, further down the line, gender inequality in the workforce.

• Gender Roles in the U.S.

  • There has been significant variation in gender roles over cultural and historical spans, and all gender roles are culturally and historically contingent.
  • Much scholarly work on gender roles addresses the debate over the environmental or biological causes for the development of gender roles.
  • Gender role theory posits that boys and girls learn to perform one's biologically assigned gender through particular behaviors and attitudes.
  • The division of labor creates gender roles, which in turn, lead to gendered social behavior.
  • In the second model, men and women would be educated in the same institutions and study the same content in classes.