GENDER AND SOCIETY CHAPTER 1 DISCUSSION

Functionalist Perspective

Society is a system of interconnected parts that work together in harmony to maintain a state of
balance and social equilibrium for the whole. For example, each of the social institutions
contributes important functions for society: Family provides a context for reproducing, nurturing,
and socializing children; education offers a way to transmit a society’s skills, knowledge, and
culture to its youth; politics provides a means of governing members of society; economics
provides for the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services; and religion
provides moral guidance and an outlet for the worship of a higher power.

The functionalist perspective emphasizes the interconnectedness of society by focusing on how

Functionalists use the terms functional and dysfunctional to describe the effects of social
elements on society. Elements of society are functional if they contribute to social stability and
dysfunctional if they disrupt social stability. Some aspects of society can be both functional and
dysfunctional. For example, crime is dysfunctional in that it is associated with physical violence,
loss of property, and fear. But according to Durkheim and other functionalists, crime is also
functional for society because it leads to a heightened awareness of shared moral bonds and
increased social cohesion.

Sociologists have identified two types of functions: manifest and latent (Merton 1968). Manifest
functions are consequences that are intended and commonly recognized. Latent functions are
consequences that are unintended and often hidden. For example, the manifest function of
education is to transmit knowledge and skills to society’s youth. But public elementary schools
also serve as babysitters for employed parents, and colleges offer a place for young adults to meet
potential mates. The babysitting and mate- selection functions are not the intended or commonly
recognized functions of education; hence they are latent functions.

Functionalists argue that gender roles were established well before the pre-industrial era when
men typically took care of responsibilities outside of the home, such as hunting, and women
typically took care of the domestic responsibilities in or around the home. These roles were
considered functional because women were often limited by the physical restraints of pregnancy
and nursing and unable to leave the home for long periods of time. Once established, these roles
were passed on to subsequent generations since they served as an effective means of keeping the
family system functioning properly.
GENDER AND SOCIETY CHAPTER 1 DISCUSSION
Conflict Perspective

The origins of the conflict perspective can be traced to the classic works of Karl Marx. Marx
suggested that all societies go through stages of economic development. As societies evolve from
agricultural to industrial, concern over meeting survival needs is replaced by concern over
making a profit, the hallmark of a capitalist system. Industrialization leads to the development of
two classes of people: the bourgeoisie, or the owners of the means of production (e.g., factories,
farms, businesses); and the proletariat, or the workers who earn wages.

Society is a struggle for dominance among social groups (like women versus men) that compete
for scarce resources. When sociologists examine gender from this perspective, we can view men
as the dominant group and women as the subordinate group. According to conflict theory, social

problems are created when dominant groups exploit or oppress subordinate groups. Consider the
Women’s Suffrage Movement or the debate over women’s “right to choose” their reproductive
futures. It is difficult for women to rise above men, as dominant group members create the rules
for success and opportunity in society (Farrington and Chertok 1993).

Friedrich Engels, a German sociologist, studied family structure and gender roles. Engels
suggested that the same owner-worker relationship seen in the labor force is also seen in the
household, with women assuming the role of the proletariat. This is due to women’s dependence
on men for the attainment of wages, which is even worse for women who are entirely dependent
upon their spouses for economic support. Contemporary conflict theorists suggest that when
women become wage earners, they can gain power in the family structure and create more
democratic arrangements in the home, although they may still carry the majority of the domestic
burden, as noted earlier (Rismanand and Johnson-Sumerford 1998).

Symbolic Interactionist Perspective

Symbolic interactionism aims to understand human behavior by analyzing the critical role of
symbols in human interaction. This is certainly relevant to the discussion of masculinity and
femininity. Imagine that you walk into a bank hoping to get a small loan for school, a home, or a
small business venture. If you meet with a male loan officer, you may state your case logically by
listing all the hard numbers that make you a qualified applicant as a means of appealing to the
analytical characteristics associated with masculinity. If you meet with a female loan officer, you
may make an emotional appeal by stating your good intentions as a means of appealing to the
caring characteristics associated with femininity.

Because the meanings attached to symbols are socially created and not natural, and fluid, not
fixed, we act and react to symbols based on the current assigned meaning. The word gay, for
example, once meant “cheerful,” but by the 1960s it carried the primary meaning of
“homosexual.” In transition, it was even known to mean “careless” or “bright and showing”
GENDER AND SOCIETY CHAPTER 1 DISCUSSION

(Oxford American Dictionary 2010). Furthermore, the word gay (as it refers to a homosexual),
carried a somewhat negative and unfavorable meaning fifty years ago, but it has since gained
more neutral and even positive connotations. When people perform tasks, or possess
characteristics based on the gender role assigned to them, they are said to be doing gender. This
notion is based on the work of West and Zimmerman (1987). Whether we are expressing our
masculinity or femininity, West and Zimmerman argue, we are always “doing gender.” Thus,
gender is something we do or perform, not something we are.

Symbolic interactionism also suggests that our identity or sense of self is shaped by social
interaction. We develop our self-concept by observing how others interact with us a label us. By
observing how others view us, we see a reflection ourselves that Cooley calls the “looking glass
self.”