Sociology of Gender

By Dr Upasana Borthakur
 Sociology of gender
• Sociology of gender is the theoretical understanding of gender and gender relation from a
sociological perspective.
• It analyses how gender helps to understand social reality and how society moulds gender relations.
• An understanding of gender creates an awareness of the ways in which gender permeates our
lives.
• It gives an alternate, variant and invaluable insight into the world.
• Prior to the 1970’s sociologists work only on sex roles.
• Sociologists studied the world of men as constituting the whole society. This rendered women
invisible.
• By early 20th century sociologists started focusing on women’s question, confined to issues of
family, emotion, sexually embedded within wider theories that stressed the importance of male
dominated structures.
• By the 1980’s there was focus on the social construction of normative masculinity and femininity
and the gender division of labour.
 Emergence of gender as a category of
analysis
• The term gender was adopted to emphasize the social ordering of relations.
• Sociology of gender provides explanation for the differences in gender and sexual identity.
• It analyses how gender shapes structures of inequality and power, e.g. wage gap between man and
women in labor.
• Addresses the dynamics of oppression and resistance.
• Strategies adopted by men and women to negotiate and contest power.
• Gender inequalities is embedded in the structure of economy, family, religion and social institutions.
These structures work to benefit men as a group.
• Gender is socially constructed in everyday life.
• Sex and gender are interconnected but both convey different meanings.
• Gender is socially constructed as opposed to that which is biologically given.
• Thus gender refers to personality traits and behaviour in distinction from the body.
• Experience of femininity and masculinity are dependent on variations in culture.
• Gender is a system of social practices that creates and maintains gender distinctions and it organizes
relations of inequality on the basis of these distinctions.
 Feminism
• The term feminism describes political, cultural, and economic movements
that aim to establish equal rights and legal protections for men and
women.
• It lays emphasis on the fact that gender and gender relations are
fundamental to all social life including the lives of men and women.
• Feminist theory has several purposes:
• To understand the power differential between men and women
• To understand women’s oppression
• How to overcome oppression.
• Feminist theorization has been the result of the women’s movement.
 First wave of feminism
• Also known as the suffragist movement because it was centered around
the right to vote.
• Refers to a period of feminist activity during the late 19th and early 20th
century in US, UK and Canada.
• The American first wave of feminism ended with the passage of the 19th
Amendment to the the US constitution in 1919, granting women voting
rights.
• New Zealand was the first country to grant voting rights to women.
• The overall goal of the first wave feminism was to improve the legal
position for women and in particular the right to vote.
 Success and limitations of first wave
• Spread of women’s consciousness
• Suffrage (right to vote) in the USA
• Opening of higher education for women
• Married women’s property rights recognized in the Married Women
Property Act of 1870
• Widening of access to profession such as medicines.
• But the first wave of feminism confined to white middle class women
and focused specially on right to vote and education.
• The issues of differences among women from different race and class
ignored.
 Second Wave of feminism
• The second wave of feminism started from 1960’s to 1980’s and focused on issues of equality
and discrimination.
• The second wave rejected the biological differences between men and women and argued for
cultural construction of gender.
• The second wave is characterized by struggles for equal pay, equal rights at work, and better
representation in public bodies such as parliament.
• The second wave of feminism focused on the following issues:
• Raising consciousness about patriarchy
• Legalizing birth control and abortion
• Attaining equal rights in education and political realms.
• Gaining liberation from domination by men
• Equality both in the home and workplace
• Gave the slogan “Personal is political” implying that domestic violence is a social problem and
not a private matter.
 Shortcomings of second wave
• Criticized on the ground that it did not meet the need of all women.
• It assumed that all women had the same need as white upper class
women.
• It neglected differences based on race and ethnicity.
 Third wave of feminism
• The third wave feminism came in the early 1990’s. It responded to the perceived
failures of the second wave.
• Second wave over emphasized experiences of upper middle class white women.
• The third wave sees women’s lives as intersectional, demonstrating how race,
ethnicity, class, gender, nationality are all significant factors when discussing
feminism.
• It examines issues related to women’s lives on an international basis.
• It focused on individual empowerment of women and less on activism.
• It celebrated the multiple and contradictory identity of women - accepting diversity
among women.
• Dealt with issues that limited or oppressed women’s participation in social, economic
and political life.
 Fourth wave feminism
• Fourth wave feminism is a phase of feminism that begun around 2012
and is characterized by a focus on the empowerment of women and the
use of internet tools and is centered on intersectionality.
• Associated with online feminism, especially using Facebook, Twitter,
Instagram, You tube and other forms of social media to discuss, uplift
and activate gender inequality and social justice.
• The first, second and third waves of feminism fought for and earned
women greater liberation, individualism, and social mobility.
• The fourth wave continues the push against problematic gendered
norms that cause the oppression and marginalization of women in
society.
 Theories of feminism
• Liberal feminism
• It is concerned with extending to women the liberal values of liberty, equality and
justice through legal and social reforms.
• They accepted the status quo, did not favor the alteration of the existing structure.
• It works within the mainstream society to integrate women into that structure.
• Affirms that women’s subordinate position can be addressed by the existing
political process under democracy.
• Eminent liberal feminist
• Mary Woodstonecraft and her famous book is “A Vindication of the rights of
Women” (1792).
• Betty Friedan – The Feminine Mystique (1963)
 Radical feminist theory
• Emerged in the late 1960’s with the new left civil rights and anti war protests.
• Radical feminists views patriarchy and sexism as the most elemental factor in
women’s oppression, cutting across all others from race and age to culture,
caste and class.
• It questions the very system and ideology behind women’s subjugation.
• They consider patriarchy as the main factor for women’s oppression in society
and talked about radical change in society to bring about social change.
• The radical feminists expanded their sites of politics from the public sphere to
the private sphere; the bedroom, family and body revealing how male power
is reinforced and exercised through practices such as sexual harassment, rape,
pornography, prostitution, housework etc.
 Marxists feminist theory
• Capitalists class relationships are the root cause of female oppression,
exploitation and discrimination.
• Marxist feminism analyses the ways in which women are exploited
through capitalism and the individual ownership of private property.
• According to Marxist feminists, women’s liberation can only be
achieved by dismantling the capitalist systems in which they contend
much of women's labour is uncompensated.
• Marxist feminists extend traditional Marxist analysis by applying it to
unpaid domestic labour and sex relations in the nuclear family system
under capitalism.
 Socialist feminist theory
• Socialist feminism was increasingly used during the 1970s to describe a mixed
theoretical and practical approach to achieving women's equality.
• Socialist feminist theory analysed the connection between the oppression of women
and other oppressions in society, such as racism and economic injustice.
• Like Marxism, socialist feminism recognized the oppressive structure of a capitalist
society.
• Like radical feminism, socialist feminism recognized the fundamental oppression of
women, particularly in a patriarchal society.
• However, socialist feminists did not recognize gender—and only gender—as the
exclusive basis of all oppression.
• Rather, they held and continue to hold that class and gender are symbiotic, at least to
some degree, and one cannot be addressed without taking the other into
consideration. 
 Eco feminism
• It is a moment that sees a connection between exploitation and
degradation of the natural world and the subordination and oppression
of women.
• It emerged in the mid-1970’s alongside second wave feminism and the
green movement.
• This form of feminism views patriarchy and its focus on control and
domination not only as a source of women’s oppression but as being
harmful to humanity as well as destructive of all living creatures and the
earth itself.
 Intersectionality and standpoint
• Intersectional feminism is the idea that 'gender' or 'women' doesn’t just refer to a single unified
concept: all women have a race, whether white, black, Asian, Latina, etc. as well as a class,
ethnicity, religion, etc., and their experiences as 'women' differ because of those other
differences.
• The different aspects of our identity intersect — white women’s experiences 'as women' is
partly defined by their race, just like black women’s experiences are, it’s just that it’s easier for
white women to ignore their race. So if 'feminism' is supposed to represent 'women' it has to
attend to those differences.”
• Intersectionality is the acknowledgement that everyone has their own unique experiences of
discrimination and oppression and we must consider everything and anything that can
marginalise people – gender, race, class, sexual orientation, physical ability, etc.
• Standpoint epistemology—or, more generally, standpoint theory—is concerned with the
impact of one's location in society on one's ability to know. Because men and women, for
example, are gendered differently and accordingly have different experiences, how they know
and what they are capable of knowing will differ.
 Queer theory of gender
• The feminist perspective also criticizes exclusive understandings of sexuality, such as heterosexist. 
• Heterosexuality is a system of attitudes, bias, and discrimination that favour male-female sexuality and relationships. At
one point, heterosexual marriage was the only lawful union between two people that was recognized and given full
benefits in the United States.
• This situated homosexual couples at a disadvantage, and made them ineligible for many of the government or employer-
provided benefits afforded heterosexual married couples.
• Like racism, heterosexuality can operate on an institutional level (e.g., through government) and at an individual level
(i.e., in face-to-face interactions). Feminist critiques of heterosexuality thus align with queer theory.
• One of the hallmarks of queer theory is the destabilization and subversion of existing categories.
• It questions socially established norms and dualistic categories with a special focus on challenging sexual
(heterosexual/homosexual), gender (male/female), class (rich/poor), racial (white/non-white) classifications.
• It goes beyond these so-called ‘binaries’ to contest general political (private/public).
• The queer theory also analyses and critiques societal and political norms in particular as they relate to the experience of
sexuality and gender. These are not viewed as private affairs.
• Just as feminists perceive of gender as a socially constructed public and political affair, so queer theorists argue with
regards to sexuality and gender expression.
 Patriarchy
• Patriarchy means rule of the father from literary point of view.
• Originally this word was used to narrate a particular type of male dominated
family.
• This type of family involved women, junior men, slaves, children and domestic
servants who were under the rule of dominant male.
• But nowadays it is being commonly used to refer to male domination, to the
power relationships by which men dominate women, and to characterize a
system whereby women are kept subordinate in a number of ways.
• Kamla Bhasin opines that the subordination women experience at a daily level,
regardless of the class women might belong to, take various forms-
discrimination, disregard, insult, control, exploitation, violence – within the
family, at the work place, in society etc.
• Patriarchy is not the same everywhere but the broad principles remain
the same, which is men’s control.
• Below I have mentioned some of the examples of patriarchy that we
experience in our daily lives.
• 1.Discrimination against girls in the distribution of property.
• 2. Preference of a male child by parents to continue family lineage.
• 3. Burden of household work on women and young girls.
• 4. Male control over women’s body, labour, property, sexuality etc.
• 5. Lack of educational opportunities and other exposure for girls.
• 6. Honor killing
• 7. Witch hunting
• 8. Female feticide
• 9. Domestic violence and dowry deaths