Gender & Society

Watch

• A More Fluid Understanding of Gender & Sexual Orientation | Karen Gee | TEDxMission College ↗TEDx Talks
• Gender Roles in Society | Ria Chinchankar | TEDxYouth@DAA ↗TEDx Talks
• Why Gender Equality Is Good for Everyone — Men Included | Michael Kimmel | TED Talks ↗TED
• Two Genders? What History Tells Us About Gender & Identity ↗DW History and Culture
• Berkeley professor explains gender theory | Judith Butler ↗Big Think

Read

• The Second Sex ↗This seminal work meticulously dissects the historical and existential subjugation of women, offering a foundational critique of patriarchy that remains profoundly relevant.Simone de Beauvoir
• The Second Shift: Working Families and the Revolution at Home ↗A pioneering sociological study that illuminates the persistent imbalance of domestic labour, revealing the 'second shift' women often undertake despite professional equality.Arlie Russell Hochschild and Anne Machung
• Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity ↗This influential text challenges conventional understandings of gender, arguing for its performative nature and deconstructing the very categories of sex and gender.Judith Butler
• Doing GenderA foundational sociological article that posits gender not as an inherent trait but as an ongoing, situated accomplishment, constantly performed in social interactions.Candace West and Don H. Zimmerman
• The Five Sexes: Why Male and Female Are Not EnoughThis provocative essay challenges the binary understanding of sex, advocating for a more nuanced spectrum that acknowledges biological variation beyond male and female.Anne Fausto-Sterling

Voices to follow

• Judith Butler ↗Her foundational work on performativity and gender has profoundly reshaped contemporary feminist and queer theory.Distinguished Professor, University of California, Berkeley
• Arlie Hochschild ↗Her influential sociological studies illuminate the emotional labour and gendered divisions within families and workplaces.Professor Emerita of Sociology, University of California, Berkeley
• Raewyn Connell ↗A leading theorist of masculinities, her work critically examines the social construction of gender and its global implications.Professor Emerita of Education, University of Sydney

Glossary

• DiscriminationDiscrimination is unfair treatment of a person or group based on characteristics like their gender, race, or religion. It happens when someone is denied opportunities or treated badly just because of who they are. For example, if a company refuses to hire a woman for a job because they think women aren't strong enough, that's gender discrimination.
• EqualityEquality means treating everyone the same, giving everyone the exact same opportunities and resources. The idea is that everyone should start from the same place. For example, if a school offers the same sports facilities to both boys and girls, that's equality.
• EquityEquity means giving everyone what they need to succeed, recognizing that different people might need different levels of support to reach the same outcome. It's about fairness, not just sameness. For example, if a school provides extra coaching for girls in a sport where they have historically been underrepresented, that's equity, aiming to help them catch up.
• GenderGender refers to the social and cultural roles, behaviors, and expectations that a society connects with being a boy/man or a girl/woman. It's about how society expects you to act, dress, or feel based on whether you're seen as male or female. For example, in some cultures, it's considered "masculine" for boys to play sports and "feminine" for girls to play with dolls.
• Gender ExpressionGender expression is how you show your gender to the world through your clothes, hairstyle, voice, or behavior. It's about how you present yourself, which might or might not match society's expectations for your gender. For example, a boy might express his gender by wearing a skirt, even though skirts are often seen as "feminine."
• Gender IdentityGender identity is your own deep, personal sense of being a boy, a girl, both, neither, or somewhere else on the gender spectrum. It's how you feel inside, regardless of the sex you were assigned at birth. For example, someone assigned male at birth might know deep down that they are a girl.
• Gender RolesGender roles are the specific tasks, behaviors, and responsibilities that a society expects from people based on their gender. These are often learned from family, school, and media. For example, in many societies, it was traditionally a gender role for women to cook and clean, and for men to work outside the home.
• InclusionInclusion means making sure everyone feels welcome, respected, and valued, and has the chance to participate fully. It's about creating environments where differences are celebrated. For example, a school club that actively encourages students of all genders, backgrounds, and abilities to join and share their ideas is practicing inclusion.
• SexSex refers to the biological differences between males and females, like body parts, hormones, and chromosomes. It's usually assigned at birth based on physical characteristics. For example, a baby might be identified as "male" at birth because they have a penis.
• StereotypeA stereotype is an oversimplified and often unfair idea about a whole group of people, assuming everyone in that group is the same. These ideas can be about gender, race, or other characteristics. For example, the stereotype that "all boys are good at math" is an unfair generalization because many girls are also excellent at math, and some boys are not.

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Where this connects to other fields, and why it's worth knowing.

• The Engineering Design Process Technology

  Crash test dummies, medicine doses, phone sizes, and office AC were mostly calibrated on the average man's body. So in the same car crash a woman is more likely to be badly hurt, because the seatbelt was designed around someone shaped differently. When engineers treat 'a human' as 'a man,' half the world gets a worse fit.

• Population and Migration Geography

  China once ordered families to have just one child; other governments beg couples to have more. Either way, the state is reaching straight into people's decisions about having babies. Reproduction, one of the most personal things there is, becomes a lever a government pulls to shape the whole nation.

• Linguistics Literature

  In some languages the word 'bridge' is treated as feminine, and those speakers tend to call bridges 'elegant' and 'slender.' Where the word is masculine, people say 'sturdy' and 'towering.' Same bridge, different words baked into the grammar, and it quietly bends how people actually see the thing. The language you speak can tint your view of the world.