Preface

This module, Gender and Society discusses gender as a social construction, its role
and impact on different facets of societal life. It offers a wide variety of perspectives on
issues plaguing the society with respect to class, gender and intersectionality of race. It is
intended for students interested in a meaningful discussion about diversity, humanity and
society in general.

It has three major issues which I believe are crucial to our understanding of these
relations. These issues are the difference between Sex and Gender, Filipino women issues
and trends, and Laws on Women. In the context of Sex and Gender, it explore the
connections between the two. This exploration is to look into how gender manifested in
contemporary Philippine society. Presentations of issues and trends of Filipino women,
showcase data on the present situation of men and women in the country. In the field of
law, understanding sex and gender as an essential component of human behavior and
motivation helps us advcoate for policies and programs that promote and protect human
rights and equity.

I hope the words and ideas contained in this module encourage both women and
men to think about their own situation and to seek ways, as individuals to transform their
lives as well as the lives of other women and men.

SADIE D. LAW-AY

2 | Gender and Society

3 | Gender and Society
 MODULE1: Sex and Gender

LESSON1: Sex and Gender Concepts 

OBJECTIVES 

1. To understand sex, gender concepts and definitions.

2. To ilustrate the distinct characteristics of sex and gender.
3. To reflect on gender and gender differences and their implications for societies.

TIME FRAME 

  1 week

OVERVIEW 

Hi! To understand the problem of gender subordination, one must first understand two key concepts
: sex and gender. In common usage, the two terms are often interchanged. Properly, each has a
meaning distinct from that of the other. This distinction has important implications for the way
we look at existing inequality between women and men.

 
ACTIVITY 

To start this lesson, I would like you to read and answer the following statements.

EXERCISE SEX vs. GENDER: Statements about men and women. Write S for Sex and G for Gender.
1. Women give birth to babies, men don’t.
2. Girls are gentle, boys are tough.
3. In one case, when a child brought up as a girl learned that he was actually a boy, his
school marks improved dramatically.
4. In Europe, most long-distance truck drivers are men.
5. In ancient Egypt men stayed at home and did weaving. Women handled family
business. Women inherited property and men did not.
6. Men’s voices break at puberty; women’s do not.
7. Men are susceptible to prostate cancer, women are not.

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8. Amongst Indian agriculture workers, women are paid 40-60 percent of the male
wage.
9. Most building-site workers in Britain are men.
10. There are more women than men in the caring professions such as nursing.
Answer: 1. S 2. G 3. G 4.G 5.G 6. S 7.S 8. G 9. G 10. G

Were you able to answer all correctly? If No, which statement/s you got wrong? Why do you think
so? Write your answer inside the box.

ABSTRACTION 

SEX AND GENDER: WHAT THEY ARE, HOW THEY DIFFER

Sex : In the Realm of the Biological

1. What It is?
SEX is a biological term. We use it most often to refer to the act of mating between two
organisms – an act which is part of the process of biological reproduction. The “sex” may also be
expanded to include other behaviour associated with the act of mating: animal courtship rituals,
human “foreplay”.
While sex in this sense begins with biology, human sex differs from that of other animals in
that biological factors no longer play a primary role in it. The human desire and capacity for sex are
not determined, as these are in other animals, by the instinct, or the body’s readiness, for
reproduction. For example, a woman’s fertility cycle does not dictate when she will want sex;
pre-pubescent children and post-menopausal adults may have a sex life. Human sex does not simply
respond to a physical urge. It is often used to express human emotions and relationships: love, anger,
domination, affirmation or the need for affirmation. Thus, human sex has acquired cultural
dimensions; human beings have sexuality that is influenced, but not dictated by biological
circumstances.
Sex also refers to the two categories of animals- male and female – needed for the act of
mating to result in biological reproduction. This categorization is made according to reproductive
function: the female produces the egg cell, or ovum; the male provides the sperm that fertilizes it. It
is in this second general sense of categorization that sex is often confused with gender.

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2. Men and Women According to Biology
Males and Females differ from each other in several indisputable ways. They have different
chromosomal make up; different internal and external sex organs; and different quantities of various
hormones. Most male and female humans also have different secondary sex characteristics, such as
muscular development, voice pitch and patterns of body hair distribution.
Chromosomes are the first determinants of sex. These elongated bodies of a cell nucleus
contain the genes that parents pass on to their offspring. Each cell of a female ovary or male testis
contains twenty-three chromosomes; one of these is the sex chromosomes. There are two types of
chromosomes: X and Y. Female egg cells contain only the X chromosomes, while male sperm may
have either. An XX combination produces a female; an XY combination, a male. Sex chromosomes
present in sperm determine whether offspring are genetically male or female. Some of the
“intersexed” are genetically male or female – that is, their chromosomal make-up is either XX or XY
and the confusion in their body structure is due to faulty embryonic development. Others are truly
“neuter” (neither male nor female), having the chromosomal make –up XO.

Hormones are secretions of the endocrine glands, which include the pituitary, adrenal,
thyroid and primary sex glands and the pancreas. The main function of hormones is to stimulate the
development of primary sex characteristics, so that individuals become capable of reproduction. It is
also responsible for the development of secondary sex characteristics. All human beings produce
both male and female hormones. However, the actual quantity varies from one individual to another;
some females may actually produce more male hormones than some males, and vice-versa.
Similarly, secondary sex characteristics vary from person to person.

Moreover, racial differences in secondary sex characteristics are often more significant than
differences between men and women of the same race. In general women tend to have less body
hair than men, but many Caucasian women have more body hair than Filipino men. Men tend to be
taller and heavier-built than women, but the average Caucasian woman is probably taller than the
average Southeast Asian man.

Gender: In the Realm of the Social

1. What is it?
Gender refers to the differentiated social roles, behaviours, capacities, and intellectual,
emotional and social characteristics attributed by a given culture to women and men – in short, all
differences besides the strictly biological. There are two genders: masculine, ascribed to the male
sex; and feminine, ascribed to the female. The way the society is organized according to sex is
referred to as the “sex-gender system”.
Definitions of masculine and feminine often vary from one race and culture to another. For
example, in one Brazilian tribe, women are seen by most cultures as the sexually passive partners.
The sexually aggressive as the men; among the Zuni Indians, women not men are the sexual
aggressors. Similarly, Filipinos view construction work as “heavy” labor fit only for men; in Thailand
and India, it is low-wage work viewed as suitable only for women.

Gender expectations also vary in degree among different social classes within the same
ethnic group. The religious teaching that a woman's place is in the home also finds more adherents
among the propertied classes than among the working classes who need both spouses’ income. In

6 | Gender and Society

many societies, physical strength is less essential to the definition of maleness among the propertied
and professional classes than among the classes which engage in manual labor.

Gender also changes through history. The women of many tribes in pre-Hispanic Philippines
enjoyed a good measure of property and political rights, social status and premarital sexual freedom.
This situation was changed when Christianity was introduced by the Spaniards, where they promoted
the ideal of the chaste and docile woman subservient to the authority of father, husband and priest.

Such variations in gender definitions are due to specific economic, political and social
conditions of each class, culture or era.

2. Men and Women According to Society

The most basic and common element in contemporary gender systems is a difference in
gender roles: the assignment to women of the primary responsibility for caring for children and the
home, and to men of the task of providing the income on which their families live. In most
contemporary societies, this sexual division of labor exists in the form known technically as the
production – reproduction distinction.
Production here refers to social production, or the production of commodities: that is, goods
and services for exchange rather than for immediate consumption. Participants in social production
usually get a wage or fee in return for their labor or the product they produce. Production is viewed
as men’s sphere.
Reproduction includes not just biological reproduction, but also the other tasks associated
with it: childbearing, the maintenance of other members of the family, and the maintenance of the
dwelling – activities indispensable to survival, but assigned no economic value. This is viewed as
women’s sphere.
The production- reproduction distinction manifests itself not simply as a family- work
distinction, but also in the work men and women do outside the home. Those engaged in the
production of capital goods, or in the extraction and processing of mineral resources largely employ
men. Meanwhile, female labor is the rule for light industries such as garments, food processing,
handicrafts and the assembly of electronic components. The jobs women get in these industries
though income- earning, are analogous to the tasks they perform within the home such as preparing
for food, sewing or making ornaments.
The production-reproduction distinction also has implications for gender roles in political life.
Women in the Philippines are said to rule the household, their husbands and through their
husbands, the rest of Philippine society. This is the myth of Filipino matriarchy. Because men are
viewed as the main providers of family income, women defer to them in the most important
household and personal decisions, particularly those that affect the family’s economic life: where to
live, whether or not to make improvements on the house, whether or not they themselves should
have children, get a job or go into business. Decision-making in the community and the larger society
is also dominated by men, because it is they who are involved in the economic activities that society
values. Few women run for public office, at whatever level; fewer still, the women who actually get
elected into office.

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Women who do win elections beyond the municipal level have very similar profiles. Most come from
traditional political families, having risen to power on the coattails of husbands, fathers or brothers
who were politicians before them; in effect they are extensions of male power.
Gender roles also interact with sexuality. Sexuality cannot be reduced to productive and
reproductive roles. The sexual servicing of men is an important task that women perform within the
reproductive sphere. This task is valued not simply, or even primarily, for its part in biological
reproduction, but for the pleasure it gives to men. The woman is expected to be desirable to men; on
the other, she must be sexually available to only one man, to whom she is both sexual and
reproductive property. If a woman has sexual relations with any other man, or if her desirability
invites sexual aggression from any other man, society condemns her as evil, the occasion for, if not
the agent of sin.
Sexual virility is a much a part of our culture’s definition of masculinity as sexual
attractiveness is of femininity. This, too has its links with reproduction in Asian tradition, for instance,
the more offspring a man has sired, and the more virile he is considered. Moreover, masculinity is
also measured by one’s ability to seduce many women. Thus, while society condemns promiscuity in
women, it implicitly encourages this in men.

APPLICATION 

Analyze the difference between SEX and GENDER. Provide statements that will describe
below:

SEX GENDER
Biological characteristics (including genetics,
anatomy and physiology) that generally define
humans as female or male.

Not born with

Natural
Universal , A historical
No variation from culture to culture or time to
time.
Gender roles vary greatly in different societies,
culture and historical periods as well as they
depend also on socio-economic factors, age,
education, ethnicity and religion.

Example Example
Only women can give birth. Only women can
breastfeed.

8 | Gender and Society

 LESSON 2: Gender Subordination 

OBJECTIVES 
 
1. To analyse the problem of gender subordination.
2. To illustrate the impact of gender subordination to the different societies' systems.
3. To trace the history of gender subordination.
3. To post a concrete solution to gender subordination.

TIME FRAME

1 week

OVERVIEW

Welcome to the second lesson. Gender has implications for equality between women and men in
society. “Gender subordination” is a phrase which describes the secondary position of women
vis-a- vis men in society. We go deeper in our understanding of the concept of gender
subordination.

 
ACTIVITY 

Let’s have a review first on SEX and GENDER concepts. Fill in the blanks to complete the following
statements.

1. _________________ refers to the biological distinction between females and males.

2. Gender varies historically and _____________________.
3. Gender roles are ______________________________________________________.
4. The genitals, organs used to reproduce the human species are considered as _________________.
5. ________________is the basic principle of society that shapes how we think about ourselves and
guides how we interact with others.

9 | Gender and Society

Can you now differentiate SEX from GENDER? What do you think is one basic difference of the two?
Write your answer below.

Congratulations!!! You are now ready to learn more about gender subordination.

ABSTRACTION 

1. Gender Subordination and the Economic System

The production-reproduction divide is the sexual division of labor that prevails within the
capitalist system. In this division, males as heads of households are the “breadwinners” and women,
the “homemakers”, responsible for housework and daily reproduction of laborers, husbands and
children. It is often the case, however, that wages of breadwinners are insufficient so that women
have to do paid work as well. But women’s responsibility for the home defined her work outside it.
Women’s homemaker role, meant that women were assigned to low level, low skilled, low
productivity and low paid work.

2. Gender Subordination and the Political System

Gender subordination in the political system means more than exclusion of women and their
concerns from political life. The state, used by particular groups in society to perpetuate themselves
in power, in turn uses gender to support its objectives or thwart those of other groups. The military,
the most male- dominated institution in our society, has been known to use the rape and sexual
torture of female dissenters as a warning to groups seeking social change.

3. Gender Subordination and Sexuality

Rape is an extreme illustration of the subordination of women’s sexuality. Women are not
just men’s sexual and reproductive property, they are also legitimate targets of sexual aggression.
While society officially condemns rape, its victims are perceived as being in some way to blame for it:
because their dress and manner “asked for it,” because they were engaged in gender inappropriate

10 | Gender and Society

activities such as travelling at night or agitating for political change; or simply because they were
young, or beautiful or women.

A more subtle and perhaps more commonplace manifestation of female subordination in

sexual relationships is the double standard of morality that condones male promiscuity while
demanding female chastity.

4. Gender Subordination and Personhood

The gender system encourages the development of different personality traits for women
and men. This stunts the personal growth of both sexes, but because the traits developed by men
are those on which society places greater value, women are subordinate in this area as well.

Gender Subordination through History

1. Roots
The roots of gender subordination are difficult to trace. We can only guess at the relations
between women and men in prehistoric communities, and much of written history already pre-
supposes the subordinate position of women. Social scientists have gained some idea of how gender
subordination developed.

a. Friedrich Engels, in his tract The Evolution of the Family, Private Property and the State, rejected
the theory that women’s subordination existed from the beginning of human society. He postulated
that as long as the means of production remained communal, women’s tasks were also communal
and their importance pretty well recognized, so that women’s status in the community was
comparable to that of men. He traced the beginning of women’s subordination to the evolution of
private property. As the technology increased, it became possible to produce more than was needed
for survival, and individuals began to appropriate the surplus production. The system of inheritance
from parents to children developed as a means for ensuring the smooth passing on of property from
one individual to another; with this system came the need to ensure that the inheritors were one’s
natural children, and thus, according to Engels, the practice of monogamy as a means of controlling
women’s sexuality.

b. Margaret Mead also indicates that male dominance is not a universal phenomenon.
c. Feminists group espoused one alternative view and that centers around the role of another early
human activity- hunting- in the development of gender subordination. In most cultures this was
probably a male activity, since it is difficult to carry a spear in one hand and a suckling child in the
other. According to this theory, it was not the economic importance of hunting itself that led to the
subordination of women, but the fact that hunting weapons could be used against human beings as
well. These became instruments of coercion, enabling the wielders (men) to appropriate for their
own private benefit the labor of other human beings. Since women were producers of both food and
children, they became the primary targets of such coercion. War, directed mainly at the taking of
slaves, thus became another important economic activity for the men; and in this women were of
little use, for the same reason that they were handicapped in hunting.
d. Maria Mies postulates that underlying these developments were differences in the relationship
that men and women developed with nature in their bid for survival. Because women were in
themselves productive, in a broad sense – that is, they were able to produce food (milk) from their
own bodies – their relationship with nature was one of unity and cooperation. Men, on the other

11 | Gender and Society

hand, could not produce food from nature except with the use of tools; thus their relationship with
nature was one of subjugation.

e. Early religions, which often worshipped both male and female gods in the same degree, came to
be placed by religions in which male gods were supreme, and eventually by monotheistic religions
which worshipped one male God. It is significant that the religions in the world portrayed men as the
masters of nature, and women as part of nature, therefore to be dominated by men.

2. Philippine Context

At the time the first Spaniards arrived, a number of economic systems operated in the
islands, ranging from nomadic agriculture in the North to incipient feudalism in the Islamic South.
Although women were in charge of the home, they were active in agriculture and other economic
activities, while many places men participated in the household work. The chroniclers and Catholic
missionaries who came with the Spanish soldier-colonizers were surprised and perhaps rather
shocked to observe the degree of status and freedom enjoyed by the women in the islands.
The missionaries transplanted Roman Catholicism, with its misogyny, into the native culture.
Ironically, the native women who had been active in the pre-colonial religions became avid recruits
and supporters of Catholicism, embracing with enthusiasm the new role that it circumscribed for
them: chaste, otherworldly, meek and devoted servants of men and the faith. Some religious orders
deliberately targeted women for their missionary efforts, realizing the powerful role these women
had in the community and in the socialization of their children.

European gender ideology found its most avid adherents in the native elite that emerged in
the nineteenth century. This elite drew its wealth from the ownership or control of land cultivated by
small tenants- a system similar to European feudalism – but had close links with European capitalists,
whom they supplied with agricultural raw materials for industrialization. Moreover, they were pretty
well exposed to European ways through education, literature and travels abroad. While the sons of
the elite led raucous and decadent lives as students in the universities of Europe, their sisters and
future wives were shut up in convent schools, learning the arts of home and the restricted ways of
Victorian womanhood. This womanly ideal was caricatured in Jose Rizal’s Maria Clara, obedient and
helpless, escaping from social and personal conflict into madness and death in a convent. In reality,
however, women of the rural elite were often not quite as useless and feckless as prevalent gender
ideology would have them be, actively participating in the management of land and finances.
The revolution against Spain and the subsequent war against the United States put both
working class and elite women on the sidelines. Although a few of them did take up arms, women
were for the most part cast in auxiliary and feminine roles: delivering messages, cooking meals,
nursing the wounded, and dancing to distract the authorities. One historian claims women were
denied full membership in the revolutionary organization, the Katipunan, because the men deemed
them incapable of keeping secrets. And in the discussions over the Constitution of 1898, elite men
patently denied women the right to vote.

3. American Colonization
American colonization, repressive as it may have been in fact, brought with it a more liberal
ideology – and the first great wave of women’s agitation for equality. Bourgeois women of Europe
and the United States at the turn of the century were waking up to the contradictions between
capitalism’s claim of equal opportunity for all and respect for individual rights and freedoms and the
reality of women’s continuing subordination in the home and the political sphere. Suffragists from

12 | Gender and Society

the United States, fighting for women’s right to vote, came to the Philippines to recruit elite women
into the struggle. Though hesitant at first, and never as aggressive as their Western counterparts, the
Filipino suffragists did win the vote, in 1937.
The increasing integration of the Philippines into the US capitalist system resulted in the
expansion of trade, export agriculture and the bureaucracy. This created more jobs, and women
entered into a formal work force not just as factory workers but as clerks, sales staff and teachers.
The public school system gave males and females, at least in principle, equal rights and opportunities
in formal education. The mass media brought in the image of the free white woman who smoked,
drank and held her own with men.

The working woman was still expected to be a loving and dutiful wife at home, putting her
domestic responsibilities above all. The individualistic rebellion of white women in films was seen as
a corrupting influence, and Filipino films not otherwise famous for their nationalistic sentiments
portrayed the “good”, domesticated, long- suffering traditional Filipino woman as continually winning
her man from the “bad” Westernized vamp.

The mass media also cast women in other roles in the capitalist scheme that were not so
liberating: as consumers and as the means for selling male-oriented products. The desirable woman
became a metaphor for the desirable commodity. From there it was a short step to women
becoming commodities themselves: or, in the vocabulary of the second wave of the women’s
liberation movement, “sex objects”.

4. Formal Independence
The period of formal independence continued many of the trends begun under direct United
States rule, partly because of the ever- increasing integration of the Philippines into US capitalism
and its military support system. The sexual objectification of women worsened, not just in the
Philippines but in other underdeveloped countries. In many cases this phenomenon grew alongside
military and economic intervention by the former colonizer nations, now calling themselves the
“First World” or the “industrialized world”. The United States military installations and wars in Asia
turned Manila, Bangkok, pre-communist Saigon and other Southeast Asian capitals into
world-famous brothels servicing the US Armed Forces. The tourism programs of the 1972- part of the
industrialized countries’ foreign exchange-dependent development plans for the underdeveloped
countries- expanded the market for prostituted women to foreign tourists and businessmen.

13 | Gender and Society

 APPLICATION 

Gender Lightbulb Moment

A “gender lightbulb moment” is a time you became aware of being treated differently because of
your gender. How did you feel? What have you realized? 150 words

14 | Gender and Society

 LESSON 3: Gender and Socialization 

OBJECTIVES 

1. To analyse the process of gender socialization has an impact on the life span development of a
person.
2. To justify how family acts as the most important agent of gender socialization for children and
adolescents.
3. To explain how peer- groups can have a major impact on the gender socialization of a person.

TIME FRAME

2 weeks

OVERVIEW

The previous lessons showed how changing social conditions influence gender. In this lesson, we
will deal with the socialization mechanisms that maintain gender in our society.

 
ACTIVITY 

To start this lesson, I would like you to read the following essay.

Ang Pantasya ni Eba

Masaya at maayos ang buhay sa bayan ng Kagawasan. Ang babae ay kilos babae, at ang
lalaki, kilos lalaki; nasa tamang lugar ang lahat. Bagamat pantay-pantay ang pagtingin nila sa
kababaihan at kalalakihan, hindi sila naniniwala sa mga makabagong pananaw na pareho dapat ang
kilos, ugali at papel ng babae at lalaki sa lipunan.
Babae ang Pangulo ng Kagawasan. Babae rin ang mga opisyal na nasa mahalang posisyon ng
gabinete, tulad ng Kagawaran ng Patakarang Pangkabuhayan, Tanggulang Pambansa, Pananalapi,
Industriya at Kalakal. Babae ang mga sundalo, ang mga negosyante, ang mga kaparian ng simbahan.
Babae ang mga manggagawa, magsasaka, mangingisda, at propesyonal.

15 | Gender and Society

 Nararapat lamang ito, dahil iyan ang papel ng itinakda ng Diyos-Ina para sa mga babae. Kaya
nga’t biniyayaan ng Diyos-Ina ang kababaihan ng Kagawasan ng mga katangiang angkop sa kanilang
mahalagang pananagutan sa lipunan: ang matalas na isip at kakayahang magpasiya, ang lakas at
katatagan ng kalooban, ang lakas ng katawan.
Ang mga lalaki naman ang mga maybahay. Sila ang nag-aalaga ng mga anak: total, may likas
silang katangiang mapagmahal at mapag-aruga. Sila rin ang biniyayaan ng mga kamay na mas may
resistensya sa init, kung kaya't mahuhusay silang magluto. Kasiyahan nila ang pagsilbihan ang
kanilang mga asawa at anak. Bagama’t hindi sila kumikita sa ganitong klaseng gawain,
sinusuportahan naman sila ng kanilang asawa bilang kapalit sa kanilang serbisyo. Kinikilala rin naman
ng lipunan ang kanilang mahalagang kontribusyon: sila ang tinaguriang “ilaw ng tahanan” at taon-
taon binibigyan sila ng bulaklak tuwing Araw ng mga Ama.
Ang ganitong pagkakahati ng trabaho sa lipunan, at ang pagkakaiba ng likas na pag-uugali ng
babae at lalaki, ay alinsunod sa pagkakaiba ng kanilang katawan. Tanda ng lakas at katatagan ng
kababaihan ang kanilang kakayahang magdala ng bata sa kanyang sinapupunan, at tiisin ang sakit at
hirap ng pagluluwal nito. Ang kanilang papel bilang mga manggagawa sa lipunan ay nakabatay rin
dito, at sa kanilang kakayahang magpasuso sa mga bata; hindi ba’t ang panganganak, at ang
pagkakaroon ng gatas para sa anak, ay isang uri rin ng produksyon?

Pati ang anyo ng kanilang aring pang reproduksyon ay naayon sa kanilang papel bilang
manggagawa, mangangasiwa, at tagapagpasiya sa lipunan. Ang ari ng babae ay nakatago, kung kaya’t
hindi madaling masaling; malaya siyang nakagagalaw. Papaloob ang direksyon nito, ang sagisag ng
kanyang kakayahang pagmumuni-munihan ang mga bagay-bagay at magbigay ng mahusay na
kapasiyahan. Sa pagtatalik, ang ari niya ang sumasakop sa ari ng lalaki, sagisag din ng kanyang
pananagutang sakupin ang mundo. Gayon din ang posisyon sa pagtatalik na nakapagbibigay sa kanya
ng higit na kasiyahan: siya ang nangingibabaw sa lalaki tulad ng pangingibabaw niya sa kalikasan.

Samantala, dahil walang kakayahan ang lalaking magdalantao at magpasuso, at dahil ang
babae na ang nagsusugal ng buhay sa panganganak, makatarungan lamang na sa kalalakihan na
ipaubaya ang pag-aalaga at pagpapalaki sa mga anak. Bukod pa rito, nalilimitahan ang kanilang mga
galaw ng kanilang ari: di tulad ng sa babae, nakalawit ito at madaling mabasag. Kung kaya’t
kailanganng pakaingatan sila, huwag masyadong palabasin ng bahay, dahil kung may mangyari sa
kanilang ari, paano na ang pagpapatuloy ng lahi? Kita rin naman ang kanilang ari ang kakulangan nila
ng kakayahan sa mahalagang pagpapasiya: dahil nakalabas ito, may kababawan silang mag-isip at
hindi gaanong magaling magtago ng mga sekreto. Kung kaya’t nababagay silang magpasiya tungkol sa
mga bagay na hindi na dapat pagkaabalahan pa ng mga babae, tulad ng kulay ng kurtina. Gayon din,
ang posisyon nila sa pagtatalik ang nagpapakita kung ano ang papel nila sa lipunan: sila ang
nakatihaya, naghihintay habang tinatrabaho ng asawa. Dahil sa akto ng pagtatalik napapaloob ang
kanilang ari sa ari ng babae, laging sinasabi sa kanila kapag sila’y ikinasal: “Magpapasakop kayo sa
inyong mga asawa…..”

Sa Kagawasan, isang masayang pangyayari ang pagkakaroon ng anak na babae: “Hayan,” wika
ng insa, “may magdadala na ng pangalan ko.” At nangangarap na sila sa pagiging Pangulo balang araw
ng kanilang anak. Masaya rin sana ang pagkakaroon ng anak na lalaki, dahil magkakaroon rin ng isa
pang katulong sa gawaing bahay ang mga ama; ngunit kung bakit napapaluha ang mga ama kapag
nakitang lalaki ang kanilang supling, at naibibigkas ang : “Heto na ang isa pang pambayad sa
kasalan!”

16 | Gender and Society

What are your reactions and comments about the essay? Are you happy about it?

ABSTRACTION

From the birth until death, human feelings, thoughts and actions reflect the social definitions that we
attach to gender: Children quickly learn that their society defines females and males as different
kinds of human beings: by about age three, they incorporate gender into their identities by applying
society’s standards to themselves ( Kohlberg, 1966, cited in Lengerman &Wallace, 1985)

Gender and Family

“Gendering” or the socialization of persons into a given gender, begins the moment a child is
born. Almost the first thing people want to know about a baby is: “Boy or Girl?” Hospitals and
middle –class parents emphasize the difference, dressing girl babies in pink and boy babies in blue,
and friends’ and relatives’ responses to the baby take their cue from this color code.
According to Ruth Hartley, there are four processes involved in a child’s learning of gender
identity.

a. Manipulation – It simply means that people handle girls and boys differently, even as
infants. For example, it showed that a sample of mothers tended to use more physical and visual
stimulation on male infants, and more verbal stimulation on female infants.
b. Canalization – It means that people direct children’s attention to gender-appropriate
objects. The most common example of this is the choice of toys. Little boys are given war toys, cars
and machines that they can take apart or put together; little girls are given dolls, kitchen sets and toy

17 | Gender and Society

houses. These toys teach children early on what their prescribed roles in life will be, and serve to
familiarize them with the tools of their trade.

c. Verbal Appellation – it consists in telling children what they are (e.g.,“brave boy” or “pretty
girl”) or what is expected of them ( “Boys don’t cry”, “Girls don’t hit their playmates,” “Boys don’t hit
girls ( but other boys are fair game).
d. Activity Exposure – It ensures that children are familiarized with gender- appropriate tasks:
for instance, in our culture, girls are expected and encouraged to help their mothers with housework
and the care of younger siblings, while their brothers are encouraged to play or work out-side the
home.

Gender and the Peer Group

As they approach school age, children move outside the family, making friends with others of the
same age. Peer groups further socialize their members according to normative conceptions of
gender.

Gender and Schooling

School curricula encourage children to embrace appropriate gender patterns. For example, schools
have long offered young women instruction in secretarial skills and home-centered know how
involving nutrition and sewing. Classes in woodworking and auto mechanics, conversely, attract
young men.

In college, the pattern continues, with men and women tending towards different majors. Men are
disproportionately represented in mathematics and the sciences. Women cluster in the humanities,
fine arts, education courses and social sciences. New areas of study are also likely to be
gendered-typed. Computer science, for example enrols mostly men, while courses in gender studies
tend to enroll women.

Gender and the Mass Media

Print media (newspaper, magazines, komiks), broadcast media (radio and television) and films carry
the same gender stereotypes as school textbooks, and more. Even when both sexes appear on
camera. Men generally play the brilliant detectives, fearless explorers, and skilled surgeons. Women,
by contrast, play the less capable characters, and are often important primarily for their sexual
attractiveness.
Advertising uses gender imagery to get people to buy products; in so doing, it also convinces people
to buy the prevalent gender ideology. Females are shown as home-bound wives, mothers or
daughters whose greatest joy is to feed their families, keep their houses clean, see sons, husbands
and fathers off to work, and welcome them back from the trials of the world. They also appear as
sexy come-ons t specific male-oriented products, such as alcoholic drinks and cigarettes. Males are
shown engaged in sports, professions, wars, camaraderie with other men, or the conquest of
women.

18 | Gender and Society

 

APPLICATION

Encircle whether you believe it is a male’s occupation, female occupation, or both.

Job Description GENDER

1. Construction Worker M F Both
2. Flight Attendant M F Both
3. Social Worker M F Both
4. Elementary Teacher M F Both
5. Dentist M F Both
6. Cook M F Both
7. PE Teacher M F Both
8. Store Clerk M F Both
9. Machinist M F Both
10. Nurse M F Both

1. How and where do we learn our perception of male and female roles?
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________

2. Do these roles and descriptions limit or enhance us in life choices?

__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________

3. Have you or someone you know ever acted differently from how your gender is "supposed" to act?

__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
4. Have you or someone you know ever stood up for a person who challenged the gender
stereotypes?

__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________

19 | Gender and Society

 5. What other conclusions/statements do you have about this topic?

__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________

LESSON 4: Theoretical Analysis of Gender 

OBJECTIVES 

1. To deducing the theoretical analysis of Gender.

2. To articulate the concept of feminism in an understandable lexicon.
3. To differentiate the basic feminist ideas.

TIME FRAME

2 weeks

OVERVIEW

Hello! Hope you are safe and well. At this point, we look into the major theoretical
paradigms that address the significance of gender in social organization. Another major concept that
we are going to learn in this lesson is the concept of Feminism.

 
ACTIVITY 

Let’s make assumptions. Answer the following questions.

1. What assumptions do you think are held by various groups across cultures about the following
issues?

20 | Gender and Society