ANTH 1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Enculturation, Gender Studies, Chromosome
● A lot of gender studies focus on discrimination against women. Historically, there has
been a lot of discrimination against women, however this discrimination against women
also brings down men as well as women. When women are discriminated against, the
options for men are also restricted
● There’s a pre-disposed idea that femininity is organic- it’s something that we’re born
with and that masculinity needs to be earned or achieved
○ This implies that for the female, femininity should be easy and natural,
inherently a part of who we are
○ This implies that for the male, there’s a massive pressure to “earn” one’s
masculinity
● There are a lot of cultural differences when it comes to gender
○ In Iran, classrooms are segregated based on gender. Boys are taught completely
separately from girls. The last woman to win a Nobel Prize in Mathematics was
from Iran where this system is employed, so there’s something to be said about
it
○ In Scandinavian countries, such as Finland, there’s great equality between men
and women, particularly in STEM fields. In these countries, there isn’t a binary
system of gender, and there’s no emphasis put on what gender someone is. It’s
unimportant
○ The United States is somewhat in between the two extremes of Iran and Finland.
The United States is strict about male and female differences and has a pretty
binary system, with different gender roles being important
● We have specific ideas about what it is to be a man and what it is to be a woman. There
are often myths about which is perceived to be the stronger sex (men are typically seen
as stronger). However, all of these things are on a continuum. Some men are stronger
than some women, however some women are stronger than some men
● Sex is determined by 3 different factors (genitalia, gonads and chromosome pattern).
Therefore, it cannot be a strictly binary system. There’s a spectrum, and many people
have differences that blur the lines between strictly male versus strictly female
● Gender is based on someone’s self identity and their own perceived gender
○ Typically, gender is based on secondary sex characteristics. This is how the world
views you. Sex identifying characteristics are typically unknown to the rest of the
world. It’s the secondary sex characteristics that people see
○ There’s a spectrum when it comes to secondary sex characteristics. There are
also generalizations and stereotypes that come with that. However, there’s no
consistent way in which physical and behavioral characteristics correlate with
one’s gender identity
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Document Summary
A lot of gender studies focus on discrimination against women. Historically, there has been a lot of discrimination against women, however this discrimination against women also brings down men as well as women. When women are discriminated against, the options for men are also restricted. There"s a pre-disposed idea that femininity is organic- it"s something that we"re born with and that masculinity needs to be earned or achieved. This implies that for the female, femininity should be easy and natural, inherently a part of who we are. This implies that for the male, there"s a massive pressure to earn one"s masculinity. There are a lot of cultural differences when it comes to gender. In iran, classrooms are segregated based on gender. The last woman to win a nobel prize in mathematics was from iran where this system is employed, so there"s something to be said about it.
