Inequality
A. Gender Historical View
a. In Europe
i. Views of social scientists 1. Influenced the majority of the world 2. August Comte a. Promoted the idea that women are mentally and physically inferior to men. Men are far superior to women in physical, practical, and all mental capabilities. Women are slightly superior to men with feelings, emotions, and love. ii. Political significance 1. As a result of August Comte's theories, only a handful of women were able to have any political significance
b. In Africa
i. 70% of agricultural work is done by women; they sell and grow the produce, yet they do not control the agricultural market or money ii. Angola and Nigeria 1. A school had residences for faculty around the school. Professor Hussein stayed in a guard's room that had 4 push buttons. The buttons each represented the guard's 4 wives. 2. In the US there was a 16 year old with 4 children.
c. In Asia
i. China: dominated by the theologies of Confucius 1. 3 Obediences a. A woman should be obedient to her father b. A woman should be obedient to her husband c. A woman should be obedient to her son 2. Four Virtues a. A woman must know she is inferior to men b. A woman must not talk too much c. A woman should pay attention to her appearance d. A woman's responsibility is to do the house work ii. India 1. Status in general: women are treated terribly a. The husband is God on earth; worship him b. A husband dies and is cremated, the should jump into the fire along with her husband and sacrifice c. She must spend the rest of her life in mourning d. If a woman dies the husband does not need to die 2. Concept of Sati: the concept of sacrifice a. A husband died and was cremated, suddenly his wife and jumped into the fire too. The people watching clapped- they were arrested b. She is looked at as a saint
d. In Arab countries
i. Conflict over religion, yet general view is: women are inferior ii. Religions change under the influence of modernization but the views about women remain the same: they are inferior iii. Spain is a catholic country, yet gays can marry there iv. Religions have all modernized yet women are still inferior v. A ruler in Kuwait married a virgin teenager every week because his religion allowed this to happen: institutionalized prostitution. He had many children and eventually wanted to marry daughters.
B. Religious View
a. Religion is used to impose inequality on women in every society
b. Woman in Judaism
i. Primary role of a woman is as a wife and a mother ii. Limited role of women in synagogue: segregation from men
c. Women in Christianity
i. Primary role of a woman is as a wife and mother ii. Church leadership are all male roles iii. Participation of women in the work force is prohibited
d. Women in Islam
i. ii. iii. iv. Woman are subordinate Extreme segregation Very limited role in economic activities Political, religious, and other leadership roles
C. Biological View
a. Comparison between animals and homo sapiens
i. Chimpanzees are close to humans but they have no inequality 1. They have no division of labor, thus humans' inferior view of women is not biological, it is sociological
b. Genetic differences
i. If a female wrestler fought Michael Jackson, she'd win ii. Physical differences between men and women are due to centuries of giving women the message that they are inferior
D. Sociological View
a. Functionalist viewpoint
i. Division of labor 1. Women should be at home 2. Men should go out and work 3. There is nothing wrong with this except for the fact that they call the work done by women inferior ii. Instrumental vs. Expressive roles 1. Women are good at expressive roles: teacher, nurse 2. Parsons and Bales a. Males should be dominant and competent b. Women should be passive and nurturing
b. Conflict Perspective
i. No gender inequality in hunting and gathering stage 1. Both struggled to stay alive ii. Domination of men on critical (economic, political) resources 1. To achieve equality, women must have the power iii. Economic inequality during industrialization 1. The woman is confined as a housewife in industrialized societies even though she is economically active in agricultural societies. When the society allows her to begin working in the industrialized society, equality will begin 2. Nations that are highly industrialized have more equality 3. Europe (most equality), U.S. (second most equality), Japan 4. Functional to Dysfunctional a. Marxists claim that in society, half of the society (women) is useless, thus gender inequality is dysfunctional. They say that socialism eliminates gender inequality because it eliminates the rights to own property. When men and woman can't own property, theoretically gender inequality is gone.
c. Socialization
i. Socialization and gender inequality is learned ii. Margaret Mead's research in New Guinea: there no such thing as biological gender roles, people shape roles, judging from experiments in the: 1. Arapesh culture a. Both men and women are raised with identical roles b. Raised with gentle practices to raise children leading to feminine characteristics c. Both genders had similar attitudes and behaviors d. Both men and women are gentle, un-aggressive, responsive, passive, cooperative, sensitive 2. Mundugumor culture a. Identical roles b. Children were raised with harsh practices such as slapping, shoving, and kicking as punishments c. Both genders were masculine, aggressive, selfish, involved with headhunting and cannibalism 3. Tchambuli a. Different roles assigned to men and women b. Females were active, strong, dominant, rational c. Men were submissive, emotional, nurturing, inferior
E. Gender issues contemporary in societies
a. Social Inequality i. Gender roles: assigned when child is young ii. Preferential treatments: in India, girls die younger because the boys are saved instead of the girls. In Bombay, 1 out of 8000 ratio iii. Religion, education, politics, and media iv. Institution of marriage: women are tied down in motherhood and marriage, they are dependent on men v. Video: during a Puerto Rican parade, women were stripped and harassed and police were close by yet they did nothing. b. Economic Inequality i. Definition of work: women's work doesn't earn money, therefore society does not value this work and it is not considered work ii. Limited jobs: many jobs around the world are off limits to women iii. Unequal pay: in some societies women are paid 50% less. In the U.S. it is 75 cents less than men, for the same work experiences. In jobs that are dominated by women, men still earn more money. iv. Working hours: longer hours for women. Women who work outside the home work longer and they also do housework. c. Political Inequality i. Right to vote: women were not given the right to vote till later ii. Right to lead: most countries (not the US) has had a female leader iii. Theoretical and real political rights: a royal woman from the Middle East is in first class on a plane and her baby is crying. She presses the button for help and the man does not show up to help for a long time, when he does arrive she slaps him. She was brave enough to do this because she is politically powerful since she is the family of a royal family. d. Physical and Sexual abuse and violence against women i. Negligence: baby girls in some countries die often due to this ii. Infant mortality: baby girls in some countries die more often iii. Selective abortion: ultrasound tells the gender, in some countries, the girls are usually aborted, the boys are usually saved iv. Rapes and murders: many women are raped yet they are ashamed to report it, afraid that people will blame the victim v. Sexual abuse: majority is women vi. Sexual harassment: generally, strangers are said to be dangerous. In reality, the most dangerous people are the people the woman already knows such as the ex-boyfriend or the ex-husband. Many women in the military (68.7%) are sexually harassed daily. vii. Pornography and prostitution: majority is women e. Freedom i. Freedom of choice: young girls are forced into marriage and have children. ii. Freedom of movement:
iii. Freedom of entertainment, rest and recreation: women are reprimanded for bad decisions if they jog alone at night through wooded areas, when it's the man's fault
F. Case History of Phoolan Devi
a. Indian girl born into a family of untouchable. She is ugly, poor, and untouchable. She is basically born into a "hate" list. She is married to a man who is 45 years old; she's very young. She goes to his house and she is abused, she is treated as a slave, and receives regular physical abuse. At age 14, she was so fed up that she ran away to her parents' house. When she arrived home, they were so shocked and they brought her back to the husband's house. She ran away again a year later, showed them her physical abuse and they still brought her back. The husband says, no I won't accept her again. The family took her in to a jury and they decided she was guilty so she was sentenced to work as a maid for a rich family in the village. One day when she was working in the farm one of the sons in that family attacked her so she fought back. He ultimately overpowered her and told the family that she wanted sexual favors. The family started beating her and they called the police, telling them she stole jewelry. The police raped her, at age 15, one after the other. They realized she may die so the called a doctor to help her. When she recovered she was presented to a court and proven guilty again. She was sent to a prison that is known for the sexual pleasures of men. People wanted to help her but on one condition: she has to work as a maid to show everyone that if you stand up against the upper class, this is what will happen to you. At the family's house, she is locked up night. One night the 65 year old man, drunk, tries to attack her. The family, instead of blaming the guy, they blame her. They decide to punish her publicly. They strip her naked and walk her around the streets like a dog. One night she was locked in the room, she got food, and the guy forgot to lock the door so she escaped. She ran towards the woods since she has nowhere else to turn. Armed robbers pick her up and bring her to a cave. The leader didn't want her but agreed to keep her as a prostitute. For her, she felt uplifted in her status because she was at least in the company with dangerous men. When the leader was killed, she became the leader of the game. She gave the following statement to the government of India: my mission is to kill every family member of that family, I will kill all police officers in this station, and the prison members in the jail I stayed in. she later arrives to the village and tells the men to come out, except for the untouchable men and children and women. She killed all of them. She burned the police officers alive. She announced she hasn't seen her mom and her mom is the only one she still likes. She says she will be in the village in a certain time. She knew people would be there to kill her and so she dressed in the police officer's uniforms she killed earlier and walked around the village, talked to her mom. She later turned herself in and was arrested. She got lenient punishment and was free years later. She later ran for congress of India and won.