SEX AND GENDER:

A CROSS-CULTURAL
PERSPECTIVE

THE BIG QUESTIONS

To what extent does biology influence maleness and femaleness?
Are males dominant over females in all societies?
How similar are gender roles throughout the world?

Do women and men in the same culture communicate differently?

How can extreme gender ideology lead to the exploitation of
women?

SEX VERSUS GENDER

Sex refers to the biological differences between males
and females based on physiological factors, including:
sex chromosomes, reproductive organs, hormones,
secondary characteristics

Gender refers to the way a society perceives,

evaluates, and expects males and females to behave
All societies have gender categories but the traits
assigned to each differ from culture to culture

THE CULTURAL CONSTRUCTION

OF GENDER
similar to the concept of race as a cultural construction, the construction of
gender refers to how cultures take the framework set up by biology and add
meaning and value to it
they do this in many ways
what is manhood, or womanhood?
masculinity and femininity?
what roles are appropriate for each?
careers, members of a household, members of society

what kinds of symbols are equated with each?

what rights and obligations do each have?
how distinct are the differences between each biological sex?

GENDER, CULTURE, AND

IDENTITY
gender, like other subcultural markers, affect how one perceives
themselves and how they are perceived by others
this is referred to as one's self-identity and one's social identity

both are shaped by a person's culture

how they are supposed to think and behave is contingent upon
that culture's ideas about gender and the roles, rights, and
responsibilities inherent within
identity often serves as the basis for the formation of social groups,
as well as the origins of social stratification and inequality

SEX VERSUS GENDER

there are two main biological differences that are useful in a comparative
study of sex and gender cross-culturally
sexual dimorphism
physical differences based on genetic differences between males and females

ex: differences in size and strength

reproductive physiology
women's ability to become pregnant, carry and birth children, and produce milk to nurse
them
men's contribution of sperm

both areas are interpreted differently depending on the culture

THE CULTURAL CONSTRUCTION

OF GENDER
Western construction
personality traits

females as caring, emotional, social, physically

fragile, and family oriented
males as rational, physically strong, selfish,
rational/non-emotional, individualistic

careers
teacher, waitress, nurse, homemaker, secretary,
receptionist, nanny, representative
professor, chef, doctor, CEO, construction
worker, truck driver, President, oil field worker,
coach

GENDER IDENTITIES
Typically, we conceive of gender as
following the dichotomy of male
and female

in other cultures there may be

more than two genders
modern social science suggests
that other categories of gender
exist in other cultures and are
just as real as our own

GENDER IDENTITIES
sometimes people do not conform to the genders and gender roles
already in place in a given culture
oftentimes these people choose to adopt behavior, dress, values,
and mannerisms considered to be outside of their own gender

gender crossing
occasionally this will be so prevalent that these alternatives are
institutionalized
they become a part of that society's conceptions of gender
little to no stigma against them; not seen as deviants or
degenerates
ex: tomboys, metrosexuals

SEXUAL ORIENTATION
pattern of sexual and emotional attraction based on the
gender of one's partner
Heterosexuality
refers to the emotional and sexual attraction between men
and women
Homosexuality
Being emotionally and sexually attracted to those of the same
sex. "Lesbian is used to refer to a woman being attracted to
other women; "Gay is used to refer to a man being attracted
to other men.

SEXUAL ORIENTATION
Bisexuality
Being both emotionally and sexually attracted to both
males and females.
Pansexuality
The potential for attraction to people, regardless of their
biological sex or gender. This includes a possibility for
attraction to those who fall outside the gender binary8 of
male/female.

THE GENDERED DIVISION OF

LABOR
the patterned ways productive and other economic tasks are allocated to men
and women

one aspect of a culture's gender roles

the rights and duties individuals have because of their perceived gender
identity
some have argued that gender roles and the division of labor are connected

highly similar division of labor based on gender (or is it sex?) cross-culturally

ex: males hunt large animals, conduct warfare, work wood, stone, and
metal; women care for children, collect water, gather and prepare foods,
and make clothes

PATTERNS IN THE DIVISION OF

LABOR
mostly males:
metalworking
fishing
clearing land, preparing soil
tending large animals

house building
making rope, cordage, nets

mostly females:
gathering shellfish and wild plant foods

caring for small animals

gathering fuel
fetching water
making clothing

mat making, loom weaving and making pottery

PATTERNS IN THE DIVISION OF

LABOR
both males and females:
gathering small animals

planting tending and harvesting crops

milking animals
preparing skins
making leather products

THEORIES FOR DIVISION OF

LABOR
multiple theories have been set forth, many adding to a more
comprehensive explanation, but none ever fully explaining this
phenomena on their own
PHYSICAL DOMINANCE OF MALES
men have greater body mass and strength and thus are better
equipped at engaging in highly physical activities such as hunting and
clearing land
counterpoints:
East African women who routinely carry enormous loads of firewood on
their backs for long distances

the Agta of the Philippines; hunting is both a male and female activity

THEORIES
CHILD-BEARING AND CHILD-REARING
another theory to explain the division of labor involves the role of women in
childbirth
suggests that women do certain tasks because they are compatible with pregnancy,
breast-feeding, and childcare; women's tasks do not require them to leave the area
near their homes
counterpoint:
although pregnancy and childcare limit work roles, sometimes women's economic obligations
take precedence
in these situations, women rely on others for childcare needs
ex: in preindustrial societies, women leave children with older siblings or other family
members; in industrial societies, women leave children at daycares or schools and use formula
instead of breast-feeding

OTHER CONSIDERATIONS
FERTILITY MAINTENANCE
heavy, prolonged physical exercise by women results in lowered body fat and hormonal
changes that reduce female fertility
most strenuous tasks are done by males
counterpoints:
many female tasks quite strenuous
male tasks like hunting less strenuous than portrayed

REPRODUCTIVE ROLES
few males are needed to sustain population size

societies protect their females by assigning hazardous tasks to males

counterpoints:
only when all else is equal, such as lack of warfare or external threats

GENDER STRATIFICATION
the degree to which males and females are unequal in dimensions such as:
status, power, or influence
access to valued resources
eligibility for social positions
ability to make decisions about their own lives

like anything else in reality, gender stratification is multidimensional

not simply based on one factor and not uniform cross-culturally
power relations in different facets of life
status changing over time
other identity markers that play a role in determining status (class, ethnicity, religion)

COMPONENTS OF GENDER STRATIFICATION

what determines the degree of stratification?
the social roles men and women play in a society

cultural value attached to the contributions of men and women to both their families
and society as a whole
access to positions of power and influence
general ideas and beliefs (sometimes religiously motivated) about the sexes

many social scientists suggest the almost universal existence of sexual asymmetry
tendency of women to be in a subordinate position in their social relationships with
men
we can then frame this discussion in terms of how much power women have in a
society

SEXUAL ASYMMETRY
why would we think that sexual asymmetry is universal?
no matriarchal societies in existence
but how does one define matriarchy?
Sanday (2002) suggests that if we define matriarchy as the opposite of patriarchy, then of course
they do not exist, but that does not mean that there are not cultures where women hold high
status positions of power (ex: Minangkabau)

according to who though?

if we look at the ethnographic record, we run into some issues
who wrote these early ethnographies?
problem of essentialization; using non-native categories, values to categorize and value people,
societies

SEXUAL ASYMMETRY AND

LANGUAGE
one way to look at the degree of sexual asymmetry is to analyze the
language a group of people use
most obvious = pronouns
using he in most circumstances when we could be talking about either a male or
female
The student is required to turn in his homework by the beginning of class.

"mankind"
policeman, fireman, chairman, caveman, congressman, manpower

GENDERLECTS
refers to the gender differences in language that are culturally determined
how different genders use different forms of the same language

Women ask more questions, encourage responses, interject more

conversation-promoting utterances like uh huh and yes, allow themselves
to be interrupted, and use interactional pronouns like you and we.
Men are more likely to interrupt, to argue, to ignore the others comments, to
try to control the topic, and to offer opinions or declarations (Maltz and
Borker, 1996)

SEXUAL ASYMMETRY, POLITICS,

AND CHANGE
we can see how women's statuses can change over time,
even within one cultural group
example: purdah
rules involving domestic seclusion and veiling for women in
small towns in parts of the Middle East
in Afghanistan, for example, before Taliban takeover, society was
fairly egalitarian, with women making up over 70% of teachers in
the capital of Kabul
post-Taliban takeover, literacy rates in women fell drastically due to
the ban on education for all women and girls

EQUALITY?
There is a general tendency toward universal male dominance (sexual
asymmetry)
one suggestion for why this is so is that men tend to control resources of all
types, whether it be physical goods like money or food, or social and political
capital, or control over education and employment

again, the way this manifests itself in a culture varies

one way to see equality, or the lack thereof, is through the gender empowerment
measure
based on political participation and decision making, economic participation and decision
making, and power over economic resources

AREAS OF GENDER DISPARITY

similar to the gender empowerment
measure, we can also look at some
dimensions of gender inequality in
terms of how much access women
have to:
education
employment
reproductive health

EDUCATION
2/3s of all the illiterate people in the world are women

In many countries women are not allowed to be educated

EMPLOYMENT
women are generally found in the lowest paid
positions and jobs
sweatshops

more likely to be part time than full time

have less seniority and have little upward mobility
members of informal economies, like prostitution

according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, women

in the US make 82.8% of what men do as of 2010

FEMINIZATION OF POVERTY
the inequality in education and thus
employment has led to what is known as the
feminization of poverty
refers to the high proportion of femaleheaded families below the poverty line
which may result from the high proportion of
women found in occupations with low prestige
and income

REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH
in the developed world, women generally are able to control the amount of
children they have and prevent disease
however, in much of the world, women do not have access to reproductive
health services
this not only includes contraception but also cancer, STD, and AIDs screenings, as
well as pre and post natal care
in Africa, this is particularly problematic and in Zambia in particular, three quarters of
women as of 2001 did not feel that they were able to refuse sex to their husbands,
even if he has been unfaithful and may be infected with HIV

INFLUENCES ON GENDER
STRATIFICATION
we have an idea of how asymmetry occurs, especially on a more
material/tangible level:
the greater the contributions women make to the welfare of a group, the higher
their status
ownership of resources and the control women have over the distribution of
products of labor influences their status

but what are the more philosophical and/or intangible reasons?:

women have higher status in matrilineal and/or matrilocal societies
gender ideologies

GENDER IDEOLOGY
thoughts and values that legitimize gender roles,
statuses, and customary behavior
this is how roles are created and maintained
it is what decides how men and women are expected to
behave, as well as their obligations and responsibilities to
each other and society as a whole
often times stems from fundamental religious, social, or
world views

GENDER IDEOLOGY CROSSCULTURALLY

creation myths from many cultures put emphasis on one gender
over another
Judeo-Christian mythology has a male-termed God and blames Eve
for sin
the Hopi creation myth has both a male and female aspect, but
emphasizes the female's creative powers which is reflected in their
matrilineal society
in Bangladesh, men are associated with the right side and women
with the left side, a dichotomy that also denotes puritypollution,
goodbad, and authority submission

GENDER IDEOLOGY
how strong are these gender ideologies? that is, how much do they actually play
a role in day to day life?
do people of a given culture unequivocally accept the ideological justifications for
gender roles?

roles are often contingent on the situation at hand, for instance, in the Yoruba of
Kenya, female subordination is also contextual
in many situations women show deference to their husbands, male family elders, and
public officials
in other instances, like that of the marketplace, they wield great power, confidence, and
control due to the contributions they make to their family and society by making
money in the markets

GENDER IDEOLOGY
some cultures show marked gender ideologies that can
physically manifest and cause harm
gender bias in children and infanticide
preference found in some societies for one gender, sometimes to
the point of killing infants and small children
most often preference for sons rather than daughters
ex: female infanticide in China and India

nutritional deprivation
form of child abuse involving withholding food; can retard learning,
physical development, or social adjustment

GENDER IDEOLOGY
Honor killings
a euphemism referring to a practice found in various
Middle Eastern cultures whereby women are put to
death at the hands of their own family members
because they are thought to have dishonored the
family

dowry death
the killing of a wife by her in-laws if the wifes
parents fail to pay additional dowry
often occurs in rural India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh

KEY THEMES
feminism has influenced social science's perspective on how to study gender
and identity
sex and gender are different categories
they interact with each other and differ in meaning cross-culturally

some cultures have more than two categories

different cultures also determine who works what jobs differently

gender stratification is how cultures rank different genders
involve both material and ideological factors