1.4 Applying Sociology to the Study of Gender
Gender is the meanings, attitudes, behaviors, norms, and roles that a society or culture ascribes to sexual differences. When we say that gender is socially constructed, we are saying that the meanings of gender are created, imposed, performed, enforced, reproduced, and negotiated in our shared culture, social norms, and social interactions. In other words, we learn and teach what gender is every day. This shared social learning and teaching is called socialization. Sociology of gender reveals that gender is real but it is not true.
Gender is real because it is a consequential aspect of identity that shapes how people are treated and can determine their general standing in society. Gender is commonly, but not always, divided into two categories: women and men. Gender differences are visible in behavior, emotions, relationships, and in the organization of social institutions such as family and the workforce.
Understanding that gender differences are socially constructed and therefore not universally true, helps us make sense of the shared expectations we have about how people with different gender identities should look and behave. It can also help us understand why people respond so strongly when our common understandings of gender are challenged by people whose lived experience, sexuality, and gender expression diverge from what we have been socialized to accept. By studying how gender is socially constructed, sociologists can explore the meanings and consequences of gender and sexualities, like gender inequality.
In this section, we will consider how gender is constructed and maintained. This section also introduces some foundational gender theories, which we will delve deeper into in the coming chapters.
Real But Not True
We take it for granted that the meanings, attitudes, behaviors, norms, and roles that a society or culture ascribes to sexual differences are based on objective fact, and that are therefore true. Throughout this book, we will use these puzzle pieces to draw attention to examples of the sociological imagination in action, sociological research, and sociological theories that demonstrate that gender is real in its consequences but not universally true.
The tools of sociology include:
- Sociological Imagination
- Research-based Evidence
- Social Theory
For example, in the section, Identifying Patterns, you learned that Noelle Chelsley’s research on “breadwinner moms” was based on 42 in-depth interviews with 21 heterosexual couples, in which women earned 80-100% of the household income.
We can recognize that socially constructed meanings, attitudes, behaviors, norms, and roles that a society or culture ascribes to sexual differences are not universally true when we can demonstrate that they:
- Change over time
- Are not the same in all societies
- Are imposed, enforced, reproduced, negotiated, or challenged through social interactions.
Returning to Chesley’s research, she found that m