Gen Soc: Ch 3.2

• Socialization 

  • lifelong process of learning to become a member of the social world
  • It is a lifelong experience by which individuals develop their human potential and learn culture.
  • process of internalizing society’s values in order to adapt to one’s culture.
  • It influences how people behave as males and females in society.
• The Role of Nature – how much personality is determined by our biological inheritance. 
• The Role of Nature – how much personality is determined by our biological inheritance. 
• Agents of Socialization:

  1. Family
  2. School
  3. workplace
  4. mass media
  5. church
• FAMILY 

  • most important agent of socialization for children.
  • Parents’ values and behavior patterns profoundly influence those of their daughters and sons.
• PEER

  • Our peers also help socialize us and may even induce us to violate social norms. 
  • Peer groups generally only affect short term interest unlike the family, which has long term influence. 
• SCHOOL

  • Schools teach a set of expectations about the work, profession, or occupations they will follow when they mature.
  • Schools have the formal responsibility of imparting knowledge in those disciplines which are most central to adult functioning in our society.
• WORKPLACE

  • At the workplace, a person meets people of different age groups and belonging to different social and cultural backgrounds.
• MASS MEDIA

  • Television shows, movies, popular music, magazines, web sites, and other aspects of the mass media influence our
  • political views; our tastes in popular culture; our views of women, people of color, and gays; and many other beliefs and practices.
• CHURCH

  • Many religious institutions also uphold gender norms and contribute to their enforcement through socialization. 
  • Religion fosters a shared set of socialized values that are passed on through society.
• ROLE SET – a number of roles attached to a single status.
• ROLE CONFLICT – occurs when incompatible demands are built into a single status that a person occupies

  • (e.g., a woman whose roles include full time employee, mother, wife, caregiver for an elderly parent, community volunteer)
• ROLE STRAIN refers to the stress when, for any number of reasons, an individual cannot meet the demands of their social roles

  • (e.g., doctor to a public clinic who is responsible for keeping expenditures down and providing high quality patient care simultaneously).
• ROLE EXIT – occurs when people disengage from social roles that have been that have been central to their identity

  • (e.g., divorced women and men, retirees, ex-nuns).
• Gender Role Socialization is the process of learning and internalizing culturally approved ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving according to one’s gender.
• Gender Stereotypes are fixed, unquestioned beliefs, or images we carry in the back of our minds about women and men.
• Gender Discrimination

  • refers to any situation where a person is denied an opportunity or misjudged solely on the basis of their sex.
  • is when someone is treated unequally or disadvantageously based on their gender but not necessarily in a sexual nature
• GENDER ROLES are highly resistant to change due to continuous exposure and reinforcement of gender differentiation.

  • Once internalized, gender roles are further reinforced, maintained, and sanctioned by the mechanism of social control: family, language, school, church, media
• Agents of Socialization in the Context of Gender Role:

  1. Family
  2. Education or School
  3. Language
  4. Churches / Religion
  5. Mass Media
• Family: Four Processes in Child’s Learning of Gender Bias

  1 st stage: Manipulation – where people treat boys and girls differently 

  2nd stage: Canalization – people will direct their attention to gender appropriate objects exemplified by toys 

  3rd stage: Verbal Appellation – words used to tell children what they are. 

  4th stage: Activity Exposure – children are familiarized with gender appropriate tasks. 
• words used to tell children what they are.

  3rd stage verbal appellation
• children are familiarized with gender appropriate tasks.

  4th stage activity exposure
• Education / Schools

  • Schools reinforce sexist concepts e.g., textbooks depict stereotyped roles like females as mother, housewives, sewers, or well-behaved girls, and males as fathers, workers, or naughty adventurous little boys.
• Language

  • Language to communicate thoughts or ideas in the most pervasive institution of socialization.  
  • Sexist terms, no matter how subtle, very easily maintain gender ideology e.g. using male “man” (whether by itself or as prefix/suffix) and “he” to refer to both sexes. 
• Churches/ Religion

  • Religious teachings depicting women as martyrs, self-sacrificing and conservative, etc. 
• Mass Media

  • Print and broadcast media are most effective socializing agent; subtle and often subconscious way plus long amount of time people expose themselves to media
• GENDER ROLES are deep-seated in the culture as well as beliefs and value systems of the society. Pervasive social control further reinforces, maintains, and sanctions gender roles. 
• THE ABC MODEL

  A = Affect (Prejudice)

  B = Behavior (Discrimination)

  C = Cognition (Stereotypes)
• Stereotype 

  • is an inaccurate view or opinion that many people hold about something or a group of people based solely or largely on the way they appear to others.
  • Fixed idea of a person
• There are 2 ways to identify stereotypes:

  • Explicit the kind that you deliberately think about.
  • Implicita person is unaware of their "stereotypical" outlook.
• Examples of stereotypes:

  Negative:

  "Women are bad drivers."

  "Men who like pink are effeminate."

  "Christians are homophobic."

  Positive:

  "All Asians are smart."

  "Elderly people are wise."

  "Black people make better athletes."
• Prejudices

  • Unjustified or incorrect attitude (usually negative) towards an individual based solely on the individual's membership of a social group (McLeod 2008).
  • Prejudice represents our emotional response upon learning of a person's membership to a specific group like age, skin color, race, disabilities, generation, nationality, even religion, sex, sexual expression, gender expression and so on. Preconceived idea of something
• Examples of prejudice:

  Negative:

  "Bullying, Discrimination, Violence"
• Discrimination

  • When one individual or group is treated less favorably than another due to a person's or group's background or specific personal characteristics, that behavior is known as discrimination.
  • Unjust treatment for a particular social group
• Examples of discrimination:

  • Genocide
  • Apartheid
  • Gender Discrimination
  • LGBT Discrimination
• Freedom and Equality

  • All humans are born free and equal dignity and rights
  • Inherent dignity of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice, and peace in the world.
• Manifestation of Gender Bias:

  1. Marginalization
  2. Subordination
  3. Multiple burden
  4. Violence Against women
  5. Gender Stereotypes
• 1. Marginalization

  • Process which forces women out into the periphery of economic and social life, decision making, and diminishing the value of activities in which they contribute to the national development process.
• 1. Subordination

  • Is the institutionalized domination by men and women
  • Position (very few women in politics and top positions) 
  • Status (weaker sex)
  • Decision making (women are not included in the planning and decision-making process.)

  VISION: Quality participation in decision making, recognition of capabilities
• Multiple Burden

  • involvement in the three spheres of work:

  1. Reproduction
  2. Production
  3. Community work

  • parenting, housework, work in the public/private sector

  VISION: Shared parenting, shared housework; shared breadwinning