Gender

• Ansley (1972) - women as 'takers of shit'

  • women exploited in the nuclear family
  • men take anger of workplace exploitation out on their wives, eg. domestic violence
  • cons - outdated
• Sharpe (1994) - "Just Like A Girl" study (liberal feminist)

  • in the past (1970s), women prioritised family, and marriage
  • in 1990s, working class women focused on their careers, and education
  • cons - only interviewed working class women
• Oakley (1974) - liberal feminist

  • education in the family normalises inequalities
  • 'children are passive recipients of gender roles of socialisation'
  • canalisation - gendered stereotypes channelled through gendered toys
• Popenoe (1996)

  biological imperatives exist in the family, eg. innate motherly instinct in women
• Crowe (1989)

  • role of women has changed, eg. more financial independence
  • it is not necessary for gender roles as society is still able to continue with women breaking gendered barriers
• Butler (1990)

  • 3rd-wave feminist
  • gender is not tied to material bodily facts
  • gender as a social construction
• Weber (1923) - Gender Pay Gap

  women have less economic power, less status in the workplace and therefore have less political power
• Mac an Ghaill - The making of men (1994)

  • conducted research in a state secondary in the British Midlands
  • explored how masculinities are socially constructed and regulated in a school environment
  • crisis of masculinity - boys face academic underachievement and unemployment
  • in schools boys face pressure to conform to masculine norms which impact educational experiences
  • some boys felt demoralised and lacked a sense of purpose due to feminism dominating the education system
• Jackson (2006) - gender

  • there is a rise in “ladettes“
  • women have a “laddish” behaviour, eg. smoking
• Mac an Ghail (1994) - gender

  • there is a “crisis of masculinity“, due to feminism and a loss of the "breadwinner" identity
• Parsons (1955) - the functionalist view on gender

  • females have an expressive role in the family due to being maternal, reinforced by socialisation
  • males are the "breadwinners"
• Canaan (1996) - gender

  • studied working class males in Wolverhampton
  • found that those who were employed had traditional ideas of what it meant to be a man
  • those who were unemployed said that having a job was the most important thing and they felt emasculated by their lack of employment
• Connell (1995) - gender

  • hegemonic masculinity is most common in society, eg. dominance and aggression
  • subordinate masculinity, linked to homosexual males
  • marginalised masculinity, linked to unemployed men
• Beechey (1986) - marxist

  women as a reserve army of labour - used by capitalism when needed, can hire or fire based on the demands of capitalism
• Parsons (1949) - Warm Bath Theory 


  men expect to come home and his wife to have prepared the home, eg. a warm bath
• Barron and Norris (1976) - dual labour market (Weberian theory)

  • the labour market is divided into two sectors: primary (well-paid jobs) and secondary (poor paid jobs)
  • women are more likely to be found in the secondary sector due to stereotyping, career disruption due to maternity, and the weak support of women’s rights
  • pros - proves that regardless of academic achievement men will always be more advantaged
• Bradley (1996) - critique of Barron and Norris

  fails to explain inequalities in the same sector, eg. teaching is not a secondary occupation yet women are less likely than men to gain a headteacher status
• Green and Singleton (2009) - feminist

  digital technology has the power to destabilise patriarchy because their use allows women to create new identities and to resist sexist representations
• Equality Act (2010)

  aims for anti-discrimination
• Marx - women as a reserve army of labour

  • women are under-employed or engaged in unpaid work
  • this allows employed to exploit the full-time workplace by keeping wages low
• Olsen and Walby (2004) - functionalist

  • found that women get paid less due to career breaks for maternity
  • the main cause of women’s low pay is “systematic disadvantage in acquiring human capital”, eg. pay is lower in occupations where there are high concentrations of women
  • women’s jobs provide less training than those jobs in which men are in the majority
• Dalla Costa and James (2007) - marxist

  women have a reproductive role in society, “women’s work” is to reproduce and raise children