PSY 304 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Roberta Bondar, Career Woman, Gender Role
13 May 2017
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Repeat after me: sex and gender are not the same thing. Sex: biological differences in genetics and productive anatomy and function. Gender: (cid:498)characteristics and traits socioculturally considered appropriate to males and females(cid:499) Aka the traits that define masculinity and femininity. Most societies use sex as bias for social distinctions. Process of creating gender begins at (before) birth. Very little is truly inborn, innate or inevitable. Gender is dynamic and interactive, not stable and static set of traits. Gender is a (cid:498)classification system that influences access to power and resources, and shapes the relations among women and men(cid:499) Gender-based distinctions exist at many levels of society: The influence of gender is pervasive, almost beyond our conscious level of awareness(cid:495)s. Most societies are: hierarchical: one or more dominant group and other subordinate groups. Have greater access to resources (education, property, high-paying jobs). They have more power: ability to control their own lives and the lives of less powerful others.
