SOCI 210 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Judith Butler, Intersectionality, Performativity
6 Nov 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Gender at the intersections
Sex and gender
Sex
A biological identity that is based on physical or biological
differences and that can be divided into the main categories
of male and feminine
Gender
A social concept that includes all social patterns associated
with being male or female and that ranges from masculine to
feminine. Gender focuses on differences that are social and
cultural, not biological.
•
Both problematic dichotomies
Two mutual exclusive categories
○
These distinctions do not hold in all societies
○
•
Gender roles and performativity
Gender appropriate behaviours are taught in social institutions
•
Gender
roles
The behaviours and mannerism that people learn as being
appropriate to their respective genders and that are
reinforces by cultural norms
•
Performativi
ty
The repeated rituals that create and sustain gender
through performance
Judith Butler
○
Generally we are forced to perform one gender or the other in
order to be accepted in society
○
There is a certain accepted version of both genders
○
•
Transgender
Gender and institutions
Social
institutions
The norms, values, and rules of conduct that structure
human interactions
Social arrangements and how things are done
○
•
Two effects
Specify gender roles
Define the content
§
○
Determine relationship between gender and inequality
In concrete terms
§
○
•
Sports, work, politics•
Media, family, state•
Gender and sports
Gives us norms about how we arrange physical activity•
Includes formal organization and educational organizations•
Reinforce binary gender division (men's and women's teams)•
Sports give gender roles meaning and vice versa
Masculine -> feminine -> tension
○
•
Link binary gender division to unequal incomes (teams and advertising)•
Gender and work
Higher proportions for women in part time work rather than full time
work
•
Gender pay gap: women earn $0.87 for every dollar earned by men
Based on hourly wages
○
•
Reasons
Occupational distribution
Differently valued
§
56% of women have occupations with the 5 Cs
§
○
Feminization of work
Ex. Secretarial work
§
○
Rank with occupations
Promotion into the ranks of management are associated
with traits that are considered masculine
§
That role cannot include absence for maternal related
reasons
Ex. staying home to care for a sick child□
§
○
Double shift/second shift
Women spend more time on house work compared to men
§
Condition doesn't change when a woman is the only bread
winner in a heterosexual home
§
○
Socialization and negotiation
○
•
Gender and politics
Canada 2015: 88 women/338 MPs = 26% (ranks 48th in world)•
Barriers
Parties do not nominate
○
Exclusion from party networks
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Unable to afford cost of running (lower incomes)
○
Conflict between political office and family (care word as
gendered female)
○
•
Role of media in constructing female gender as incompatible with
politics
•
Responses
Feminis
m
The various movements and ideologies that seek to define,
confirm, and protect equal political, economic and social
rights for women
18th century writers (Astell and Wollstonecraft)
○
"first wave": suffragists and enfranchisement
Legal and political inequalities
§
○
Sociology: 1960s/70s; "second wave"
Reproductive rights
§
○
"third wave" since 1990s
Critique of the second wave
§
Second wave was being run by white, middle-class women
§
Second wave feminism was not representativeness of
women from other races, cultures or classes
§
○
•
Intersectionality
We can't actually divide things the way we do•
Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw•
Study of how various hierarchical identity markers combine to produce
inequality
•
Intersecting categories
Ex. black women
○
•
"matrix of domination" (Patricia Hill Collins)•
Intersectionality and politics
Changes to birth control coverage in US healthcare
Decision by white, upper-class men but will affect lower-class
women that disproportionally black
○
•
"global gag rule"
Affected foreign NGOs from US aid for family planning,
earmarked these funds for not being used for contraception use
○
Now it's for any health care facility
○
Bans funding to any institution that offer abortion or gives
information about abortion
○
•
Global scale of intersectional outcomes of politics•
Lecture 13
Tuesday, October 17, 2017
10:05 AM
Document Summary
A biological identity that is based on physical or biological differences and that can be divided into the main categories of male and feminine. Gender a social concept that includes all social patterns associated with being male or female and that ranges from masculine to feminine. Gender focuses on differences that are social and cultural, not biological. These distinctions do not hold in all societies. Gender appropriate behaviours are taught in social institutions. The behaviours and mannerism that people learn as being appropriate to their respective genders and that are reinforces by cultural norms. The repeated rituals that create and sustain gender through performance. Generally we are forced to perform one gender or the other in order to be accepted in society. There is a certain accepted version of both genders. The norms, values, and rules of conduct that structure human interactions. Gives us norms about how we arrange physical activity. Reinforce binary gender division (men"s and women"s teams)
