 The Difference between Sex and Gender

 Sex 
o refers to physical or physiological differences between males and females,
including both primary sex characteristics (the reproductive system) and
secondary characteristics such as height and muscularity. 
 Gender 
o is a term that refers to social or cultural distinctions associated with being male or
female. 
 Gender identity 
o is the extent to which one identifies as being either masculine or feminine
(Diamond 2002).

 “A person’s sex, as determined by his or her biology, does not always correspond with
his or her gender. Therefore, the terms sex and gender are not interchangeable.”

 George Catlin (1796-1872), Dance to the Berdache. Caitlin’s sketch depicts a ceremonial

dance among the Sac and Fox Indians to celebrate the two-spirit person. (Photo couresy
of Wikimedia Commons).

 “Berdache”
o refer to individuals who occasionally or permanently dressed and lived as the
opposite gender.
o The dichotomous view of gender (the notion that one is either male or female) is
specific to certain cultures and is not universal. In some cultures, gender is viewed
as fluid.
o The practice has been noted among certain Aboriginal groups  (Jacobs, Thomas,
and Lang 1997).
o “Fa’afafine”
o which translates as “the way of the woman,” is
o a term used to describe individuals who are born biologically male but embody
both masculine and feminine traits.

 Samoan culture accepts what they refer to as

o a “third gender.”

o Fa’afafines are considered an important part of

o Samoan culture. Individuals from other cultures may mislabel them as
homosexuals because fa’afafines have a varied sexual life that may include men
or women (Poasa 1992).
 The Legalese of Sex and Gender
o 1950
  American and British psychologists and other professionals working with
intersex and transsexual patients formally began distinguishing between
sex and gender.

o 1994
 U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia wrote in a 1994 briefing, “The
word gender has acquired the new and useful connotation of cultural or
attitudinal characteristics (as opposed to physical characteristics)
distinctive to the sexes. That is to say, gender is to sex as feminine is to
female and masculine is to male” (J.E.B. v. Alabama, 144 S. Ct. 1436
[1994]).
 The Legalese of Sex and Gender
o 1995
 Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had a different take, however.
Viewing the words as synonymous, she freely swapped them in her
briefings so as to avoid having the word “sex” pop up too often. It is
thought that her secretary supported this practice by suggestions to
Ginsberg that “those nine men” (the other Supreme Court justices), “hear
that word and their first association is not the way you want them to be
thinking”
o 2005
 In Canada, there has not been the same formal deliberations on the legal
meanings of sex and gender. The distinction between sex as a
physiological attribute and gender as social attribute has been used without
controversy.
 The Legalese of Sex and Gender
o In the 2002 case of Nixon v. Vancouver Rape Relief Society, a male to female
transsexual, Kimberly Nixon brought an application to the B.C. Human Rights
Tribunal that she had been discriminated against by the Vancouver Rape Relief
Society (VRR) when her application to volunteer as a helper was rejected.
 The controversy was not over whether Kimberly was a woman, but
whether she was woman enough  for the position. VRR argued that as
Kimberly had not grown up as a woman, she did not have the requisite
lived experience as a woman in patriarchal society to counsel women rape
victims.
 The B.C. Human Rights Tribunal ruled against VRR, finding that they had
discriminated against Kimberly as a transsexual. The ruling was
overturned by the Supreme Court of British Columbia, which argued that
the Act ‘‘did not address all the potential legal consequences of sex
reassignment surgery’’ (Cowan 2005, p. 87). The court acknowledged that
the meaning of both sex and gender vary in different contexts. The case is
currently under appeal.

 fOrientation
o refers to a person’s emotional and sexual attraction to a particular sex (male or
female).
 o Sexual orientation is typically divided into four categories: 
o heterosexuality, the attraction to individuals of the opposite sex; 
o homosexuality, the attraction to individuals of one’s own sex; 
o bisexuality, the attraction to individuals of either sex; and 
o asexuality, no attraction to either sex.

 Sexual Orientation
o Heterosexuals and homosexuals may also be referred to informally as “straight”
and “gay,” respectively.
o North America is a heteronormative society, meaning it supports heterosexuality
as the norm.
o Consider that homosexuals are often asked, “When did you know you were gay?”
but heterosexuals are rarely asked, “When did you know that you were straight?”
(Ryle 2011).

 Sexual Orientation
o According to current scientific understanding, individuals are usually aware of
their sexual orientation between middle childhood and early adolescence
(American Psychological Association 2008).
o They do not have to participate in sexual activity to be aware of these emotional,
romantic, and physical attractions; people can be celibate and still recognize their
sexual orientation.

 Alfred Kinsey
o was among the first to conceptualize sexuality as a continuum rather than a strict
dichotomy of gay or straight.
o To classify this continuum of heterosexuality and homosexuality, Kinsey created a
six-point rating scale that ranges from exclusively heterosexual to exclusively
homosexual (see Figure 12.4).
o In his 1948 work Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, Kinsey writes, “Males do
not represent two discrete populations, heterosexual and homosexual. The world
is not to be divided into sheep and goats … The living world is a continuum in
each and every one of its aspects” (Kinsey et al 1948).

o The Kinsey scale indicates that sexuality can be measured by more than just
heterosexuality and homosexuality.

 Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick

o Later scholarship by Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick expanded on Kinsey’s notions. She
coined the term “homosocial” to oppose “homosexual,” describing nonsexual
same-sex relations.
o Sedgwick recognized that in North American culture, males are subject to a clear
divide between the two sides of this continuum, whereas females enjoy more
fluidity.
o Example:
 o women in Canada can express homosocial feelings (nonsexual regard for people
of the same sex) through hugging, handholding, and physical closeness.
o In contrast, Canadian males refrain from these expressions since they violate the
heteronormative expectation.
o While women experience a flexible norming of variations of behaviour that spans
the heterosocial-homosocial spectrum, male behaviour is subject to strong social
sanction if it veers into homosocial territory because of societal homophobia
(Sedgwick 1985).

 Homophobia
o an extreme or irrational aversion to homosexuals.
o Major policies to prevent discrimination based on sexual orientation have not
come into effect until the last few years.
o In 2005 the federal government legalized same-sex marriage. The Civil Marriage
Act now describes marriage in Canada in gender neutral terms: “Marriage, for
civil purposes, is the lawful union of two persons to the exclusion of all others”
(Civil Marriage Act (S.C. 2005, c. 33)).
o The Canadian Human Rights Act was amended in 1996 to explicitly prohibit
discrimination based on sexual orientation, including the unequal treatment of gay
men, lesbians, and bisexuals.
 Gender Roles
o refers to society’s concept of how men and women are expected to act and how
they should behave.
o These roles are based on norms, or standards, created by society.
o In Canadian culture, masculine roles are usually associated with strength,
aggression, and dominance, while feminine roles are usually associated with
passivity, nurturing, and subordination.

 Role learning starts with socialization at birth.

o Studies have shown that children will most likely choose to play with “gender
appropriate” toys (or same-gender toys) even when cross-gender toys are
available because parents give children positive feedback (in the form of praise,
involvement, and physical closeness) for gender-normative behaviour (Caldera,
Huston, and O’Brien 1998).

 Gender Identity
o is an individual’s self-conception of being male or female based on his or her
association with masculine or feminine gender roles.
o Individuals who identify with the role that is the opposite of their biological sex
are called transgendered.
o Transgendered individuals who wish to alter their bodies through medical
interventions such as surgery and hormonal therapy—so that their physical being
is better aligned with gender identity—are called transsexuals.
o Cross-dressing is typically a form of self-expression, entertainment, or personal
style, not necessarily an expression against one’s assigned gender (APA 2008).
 o Transgendered expressions and experiences are so diverse that it is difficult to
identify their origin. Some hypotheses suggest biological factors such as genetics
or prenatal hormone levels as well as social and cultural factors such as childhood
and adulthood experiences. Most experts believe that all of these factors
contribute to a person’s gender identity
o Chaz Bono is the transgendered son of Cher and Sonny Bono. Being
transgendered is not about clothing or hairstyles; it is about self-perception.

 Gender and Socialization

o “boys will be boys”
o “girls will be girls”

o The “script” written by society is in some ways similar to a script written by a

playwright. Just as a playwright expects actors to adhere to a prescribed script,
society expects women and men to behave according to the expectations of their
respective gender role.
o Scripts are generally learned through a process known as socialization, which
teaches people to behave according to social norms.
 Socialization
o Children learn at a young age that there are distinct expectations for boys and
girls.
o Cross-cultural studies reveal that children are aware of gender roles by age two or
three.
o At four or five, most children are firmly entrenched in culturally appropriate
gender roles (Kane 1996).
o Children acquire these roles through socialization, a process in which people learn
to behave in a particular way as dictated by societal values, beliefs, and attitudes.
 Sexism
o to prejudiced beliefs that value one sex over another.
o Sexism varies in its level of severity. In parts of the world where women are
strongly undervalued, young girls may not be given the same access to nutrition,
health care, and education as boys.
o Further, they will grow up believing that they deserve to be treated differently
from boys (Thorne 1993; UNICEF 2007).
 Four Major Agents Of Socialization:
o Family
 is the first agent of socialization.
 There is considerable evidence that parents socialize sons and daughters
differently.
 Generally speaking, girls are given more latitude to step outside of their
prescribed gender role (Coltrane and Adams 2004; Kimmel 2000;
Raffaelli and Ontai 2004).
o Education
  Studies suggest that gender socialization still occurs in schools today,
perhaps in less obvious forms (Lips 2004).
 Teachers may not even realize that they are acting in ways that reproduce
gender-differentiated behaviour patterns.
 Yet, any time they ask students to arrange their seats or line up according
to gender, teachers are asserting that boys and girls should be treated
differently (Thorne 1993).

o Peers
 Like adults, children become agents who actively facilitate and apply
normative gender expectations to those around them.

 When children do not conform to the appropriate gender role, they may
face negative sanctions such as being criticized or marginalized by their
peers.

 Though many of these sanctions are informal, they can be quite severe.
o Mass Media
 Mass media serves as another significant agent of gender socialization.

 In television and movies, women tend to have less significant roles and are
often portrayed as wives or mothers.
 When women are given a lead role, they are often one of two extremes: a
wholesome, saint-like figure or a malevolent, hypersexual figure (Etaugh
and Bridges 2003).
 This same inequality is pervasive in children’s movies (Smith 2008).

 Social Stratification and Inequality

o refers to a system in which groups of people experience unequal access to basic,
yet highly valuable, social resources.
o Evidence of gender stratification is especially keen within the economic realm.
o Despite women making up nearly half (48 percent) of payroll employment, men
vastly outnumber them in authoritative, powerful, and, therefore, high-earning
jobs (Statistics Canada  2011). Women’s income for full-year, full-time workers
has remained at 72 percent of the income of men since 1992. The average hourly
wage is better: Women earned 83 percent of men’s average hourly wage in 2008,
up from 76 percent in 1988 (Statistics Canada 2011).
 Cultural Universal
o Gender stratification through the division of labour is not exclusively North
American.
o According to George Murdock’s classic work, Outline of World Cultures (1954),
all societies classify work by gender.
o When a pattern appears in all societies, it is called a cultural universal.
o While the phenomenon of assigning work by gender is universal, its specifics are
not. The same task is not assigned to either men or women worldwide.
 Short History Of Gender Stratification
  Before 1859—Married women were not allowed to own or control
property
 Before 1909—Abducting a woman who was not an heiress was not
a crime
 Before 1918—Women were not permitted to vote
 Before 1953—Employers could legally pay a woman less than a
man for the same work
 Before 1969—Women did not have the right to a safe and legal
abortion (Nellie McClung Foundation N.d.)

 Theoretical Perspectives on Gender

o Sociological theories serve to guide the research process and offer a means for
interpreting research data and explaining social phenomena.
o 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.
o Another scholar might investigate why women are underrepresented in political
office, while another might examine how women members of Parliament are
treated by their male counterparts in meetings.

 Structural Functionalism
o Viewing the family as the most integral component of society, assumptions about
gender roles within marriage assume a prominent place in this perspective.

o Functionalists argue that gender roles were established well before the
preindustrial era when men typically took care of responsibilities outside of the
home, such as hunting, and women typically took care of the domestic
responsibilities in or around the home.
 Talcott Parsons
 Talcott Parsons (1943) argued that the contradiction between
occupational roles and kinship roles of men and women in North
America created tension or strain on individuals as they tried to
adapt to the conflicting norms or requirements.
 Parson theorized that these tensions would lead women to become
expressive specialists in order to claim prestige (e.g., showing
“good taste” in appearance, household furnishings, literature, and
music), while men would remain instrumental or technical
specialists and become culturally narrow.
 The division of traditional middle-class gender roles within the
family—the husband as breadwinner and wife as homemaker—
was functional for him because the roles were complementary.
 They enabled a clear division of labour between spouses, which
ensured that the ongoing functional needs of the family were being
met.
  There was an “asymmetrical relation of the marriage pair to the
occupational structure”
 Being barred from the occupational system meant that women had
to find a functional equivalent to their husbands’ occupational
status to demonstrate their “fundamental equality” to their
husbands.
 He also proposed that the instability of women’s roles in this
system would lead to excesses like neurosis, compulsive
domesticity, garishness in taste, disproportionate attachment to
community or club activities, and the “glamour girl” pattern: “the
use of specifically feminine devices as an instrument of
compulsive search for power and exclusive attention”
 Critical Sociology
o According to critical sociology, society is structured by relations of power and
domination among social groups (e.g., women versus men) that determine access
to scarce resources.
o According to critical sociology, social problems and contradictions are created
when dominant groups exploit or oppress subordinate groups.
 Friedrich Engels
o a German sociologist, studied family structure and gender roles.
o Engels suggested that the same owner-worker relationship seen in the labour force
is also seen in the household, with women assuming the role of the proletariat.
o Women are therefore doubly exploited in capitalist society, both when they work
outside the home and when they work within the home.  
o Contemporary critical sociologists suggest that when women become wage
earners, they can gain power in the family structure and create more democratic
arrangements in the home, although they may still carry the majority of the
domestic burden, as noted earlier (Risman and Johnson-Sumerford 1998).

 Feminist Theory
o Feminist theory is a type of critical sociology that examines inequalities in
gender-related issues.
o It uses the critical approach to examine the maintenance of gender roles and
inequalities. Radical feminism, in particular, considers the role of the family in
perpetuating male dominance.
o In patriarchal societies, men’s contributions are seen as more valuable than those
of women.
 Dr. Dorothy Smith
o Additionally, women often perceive a disconnect between their personal
experiences and the way the world is represented by society as a whole.
o Dr. Dorothy Smith referred to this phenomenon as bifurcated
consciousness (Smith 1987).
o There is a division between the directly lived, bodily experience of women’s
worlds (e.g., their responsibilities for looking after children, aging parents, and
household tasks) and the dominant, abstract, institutional world to which they
 must adapt. There are  two modes of knowing, experiencing, and acting that are
directly at odds with one another (Smith 2008).
o Sanday’s study of the Indonesian Minangkabau (2004) revealed that in societies
that some consider to be matriarchies (where women are the dominant group),
women and men tend to work cooperatively rather than competitively regardless
of whether a job is considered feminine by North American standards.

 Symbolic Interactionism
o aims to understand human behaviour by analyzing the critical role of symbols in
human interaction
o This is certainly relevant to the discussion of masculinity and femininity.
o Because the meanings attached to symbols are socially created and not natural,
and fluid, not static, we act and react to symbols based on the current assigned
meaning.
 Charles H. symCooley
o Sociologist Charles H. Cooley’s concept of the “looking-glass self” (1902) can
also be applied to interactionist gender studies.
o Cooley suggests that one’s determination of self is based mainly on the view of
society (for instance, if society perceives a man as masculine, then that man will
perceive himself as masculine).

o When people perform tasks or possess characteristics based on the gender role
assigned to them, they are said to be doing gender.
 Sexual Attitudes and Practices
o Sexuality is viewed as a person’s capacity for sexual feelings.
o Studying sexual attitudes and practices is a particularly interesting field of
sociology because sexual behaviour is a cultural universal.
o Throughout time and place, the vast majority of human beings have participated
in sexual relationships (Broude 2003).
o Each society, however, interprets sexuality and sexual activity in different ways.
o Many societies around the world have different attitudes about premarital sex, the
age of sexual consent, homosexuality, masturbation, and other sexual behaviours
that are not consistent with universally cultural norms (Widmer, Treas, and
Newcomb 1998).
o What is considered “normal” in terms of sexual behaviour is based on the mores
and values of the society.
o ocieties that value monogamy, for example, would likely oppose extramarital sex.
o Individuals are socialized to sexual attitudes by their family, education system,
peers, media, and religion.

 Sexuality around the World

o Cross-national research on sexual attitudes in industrialized nations reveals that
normative standards differ across the world.
o A study of 37 countries reported that non-Western societies—like China, Iran, and
India—valued chastity highly in a potential mate, while western European
 countries—such as France, the Netherlands, and Sweden—placed little value on
prior sexual experiences (Buss 1989).
o According to a 33,590-person survey across 24 countries,
o 89% of Swedes responded that there is nothing wrong with premarital sex, while
only 42% of Irish responded this way.
o From the same study, 93% of Filipinos responded that sex before age 16 is always
wrong or almost always wrong, while only 75% of Russians responded this way
(Widmer, Treas, and Newcomb 1998).
o Sexual attitudes can also vary within a country. For instance, 45% of Spaniards
responded that homosexuality is always wrong, while 42% responded that it is
never wrong; only 13% responded somewhere in the middle
 Structural Functionalism
o When it comes to sexuality, functionalists stress the importance of regulating
sexual behaviour to ensure marital cohesion and family stability.
o Since functionalists identify the family unit as the most integral component in
society, they maintain a strict focus on it at all times and argue in favour of social
arrangements that promote and ensure family preservation.
o From a functionalist point of view, the purpose of encouraging sexual activity in
the confines of marriage is to intensify the bond between spouses and to ensure
that procreation occurs within a stable, legally recognized relationship.
o This structure gives offspring the best possible chance for appropriate
socialization and the provision of basic resources.
o From a functionalist standpoint, homosexuality cannot be promoted on a large-
scale as an acceptable substitute for heterosexuality. If this occurred, procreation
would eventually cease.
o Thus, homosexuality, if occurring predominantly within the population, is
dysfunctional to society.
o This criticism does not take into account the increasing legal acceptance of same-
sex marriage, or the rise in gay and lesbian couples who choose to bear and raise
children through a variety of available resources.

 Critical Sociology
o From a critical perspective, sexuality is another area in which power differentials
are present and where dominant groups actively work to promote their worldview
as well as their economic interests.
o Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, homosexuals were even treated as national
security risks and hundreds of gays and lesbians lost their civil service jobs or
were purged from the military. Thousands were kept under surveillance (Kinsman
2000). It was not until 1969 that the Criminal Code was amended to relax the laws
against homosexuality.
o From a critical sociology point of view, a key dimension of social inequality
based on sexuality has to do with the concept of “sexuality” itself.
o Sexuality is caught up in the relationship between knowledge and power. The
homosexual was first defined as a “kind of person”  in the 19th century: the
 sexual “invert.” This definition was “scientific,” but in no way independent of the
cultural norms and prejudices of the times.
o The idea that homosexuals were characterized by an internal, deviant “inversion”
of sexual instincts, depended on the new scientific disciplines of biology and
psychiatry (Foucault 1980). 
o The new definitions of homosexuality and sexual inversion led to a series of
social anxieties that ranged from the threat to the propagation of the human
species to the perceived need to “correct” sexual deviation through psychiatric
and medical treatments.
o The powerful normative constraints that emerged, based largely on the 19th
century scientific distinction between natural and unnatural forms of sexuality, led
to the legacy of closeted sexuality and homophobic violence that remains to this
day.

 Dominant Gender Schema

o is an ideology that, like all ideologies, serves to perpetuate inequalities in power
and status.
o This schema states that:
 sex is a biological characteristic that produces only two options, male or
female, and
 gender is a social or psychological characteristic that manifests or
expresses biological sex.

 Symbolic Interactionism
o Interactionists focus on the meanings associated with sexuality and with sexual
orientation.
o The experiences of gender and sexual outsiders—homosexuals, bisexuals,
transsexuals, women who do not look or act “feminine,” men who do not look or
act “masculine,” etc.—reveal the subtle dramaturgical order of social processes
and negotiations through which all gender identity is sustained and recognized by
others.
o From a symbolic interactionist perspective, “passing” as a “normal” heterosexual
depends on one’s sexual cues and props being received and interpreted by others
as passable.

 Vivienne Cass
o The coming-out process of homosexuals :
o first, a period of identity confusion in which the person attempts to deny or resist
the growing suspicion that he or she is homosexual;
o second, a period of identity comparison in which the person examines the series
of available identity options to see which one explains his or her sense of self
best;
o third, a period of identity tolerance in which the person recognizes “I probably am
gay” and seeks out more information and contacts
o The coming-out process of homosexuals :
  fourth, a period of identity acceptance in which the person carefully
manages sexual information or claims public acknowledgment of his or
her sexual identity;
 fifth, a period of identity pride in which the person identifies strongly with
his or her reference group and minimizes the value of others; and
 sixth, a period of identity synthesis in which the person’s sexuality is
naturalized, becoming “no big deal.”
o “Constant exposure to derogatory labels, jokes, and pervasive homophobia would
lead to a negative self-image, or worse, self-hate.”
 Queer Theory
o is a perspective that problematizes the manner in which we have been taught to
think about sexual orientation.

o By calling their discipline “queer,” these scholars are rejecting the effects of
labelling; instead, they embrace the word “queer” and have reclaimed it for their
own purposes.
o Queer theorists reject the dominant gender schema and the dichotomization of
sexual orientations into two mutually exclusive outcomes, homosexual or
heterosexual.
o Rather, the perspective highlights the need for a more flexible and fluid
conceptualization of sexuality—one that allows for change, negotiation, and
freedom.
o The current schema used to classify individuals as either “heterosexual” or
“homosexual” pits one orientation against the other.
o Sedgwick identified dozens of other ways in which people’s sexualities were
different, such as:
o Even identical genital acts mean very different things to different people
o Sexuality makes up a large share of the self-perceived identity of some people, a
small share of others
o Some people spend a lot of time thinking about sex, others little
o Some people like to have a lot of sex, others little or none
o Sedgwick identified dozens of other ways in which people’s sexualities were
different, such as:
o Many people have their richest mental/emotional involvement with sexual acts
that they do not do, or do not even want to do
o Some people like spontaneous sexual scenes, others like highly scripted ones,
others like spontaneous-sounding ones that are nonetheless totally predictable
o Some people, whether homosexual, heterosexual, or bisexual, experience their
sexuality as deeply embedded in a matrix of gender meanings and gender
differentials. Others of each sexuality do not (Sedgwick 1990)