Module: Society and Justice
Lecture 2 – Gender
Lecture outline
We will be looking at the beginnings of sociological scholarship into gender in the
1970s and its impact on the second wave.
Post-structuralist feminism
Intersectional feminism
Sociology and gender
Readings: chapter 5 in Punch et al. (2013) and chapter 25 in Korgan (2017)
Sociology and gender in the 1970s: the beginnings
Work on gender in Sociology started in the 1970s
There is a hierarchy that is often associated with gender – it’s often men who
benefit from this hierarchy e.g. as seen in workplaces
We will look at how different cultures ascribe roles to men and women.
Women are seen as sensitive and caring – these are seen as aspects of
femininity.
Men are seen as less open with their feelings, are ambitious – these are seen
as attributes of masculinity.
A lot of gender scholarship is not about producing knowledge for the sake of
knowledge. People have gone out to highlight and publicise the injustices to
politicians in order to bring about change. There is an activist streak to it.
Some key scholarship on gender in Sociology in the 1970s
One of the key feminist Sociologists who emerged in the 1970s was Ann
Oakley – see Korgan (2017)
Oakley says that a lot of the differences we see have emerged through
culture, not through biology.
Oakley says that we can’t keep linking back to biological factors.
Margaret Mead was one of the first major anthropologists (they study smaller
scale societies i.e. tribes). She studied three tribes and found that the men
and the women took on different roles from one another. They were not acting
on biological impulse. She found that in one of the tribes, the men took on
childbearing responsibilities, whereas the women took on leadership roles.
Again, this cannot be explained by biology. There must have been something
that emerged in their culture overtime socially.
Lecture 2 – Gender
Lecture outline
We will be looking at the beginnings of sociological scholarship into gender in the
1970s and its impact on the second wave.
Post-structuralist feminism
Intersectional feminism
Sociology and gender
Readings: chapter 5 in Punch et al. (2013) and chapter 25 in Korgan (2017)
Sociology and gender in the 1970s: the beginnings
Work on gender in Sociology started in the 1970s
There is a hierarchy that is often associated with gender – it’s often men who
benefit from this hierarchy e.g. as seen in workplaces
We will look at how different cultures ascribe roles to men and women.
Women are seen as sensitive and caring – these are seen as aspects of
femininity.
Men are seen as less open with their feelings, are ambitious – these are seen
as attributes of masculinity.
A lot of gender scholarship is not about producing knowledge for the sake of
knowledge. People have gone out to highlight and publicise the injustices to
politicians in order to bring about change. There is an activist streak to it.
Some key scholarship on gender in Sociology in the 1970s
One of the key feminist Sociologists who emerged in the 1970s was Ann
Oakley – see Korgan (2017)
Oakley says that a lot of the differences we see have emerged through
culture, not through biology.
Oakley says that we can’t keep linking back to biological factors.
Margaret Mead was one of the first major anthropologists (they study smaller
scale societies i.e. tribes). She studied three tribes and found that the men
and the women took on different roles from one another. They were not acting
on biological impulse. She found that in one of the tribes, the men took on
childbearing responsibilities, whereas the women took on leadership roles.
Again, this cannot be explained by biology. There must have been something
that emerged in their culture overtime socially.
