Lesson 5

• Patriarchal social structure

  All known human societies have been patriarchal, with no evidence of any true matriarchal societies
• Matriarchal social structure


  The myth of matriarchy persists
• Matrilineal and matrilocal societies

  Although not matriarchies, they do grant women certain power
• Power


  The capacity to determine the outcomes of one's own as well as others
• Structural power


  Shapes how society operates and determining which groups of people have (or lack) access to resources, education, autonomy, jobs, etc
• Dyadic power


  The capacity to choose intimate partners and relationships and to control the interactions and decisions that occur within those relationships
• Men have structural power, whereas women sometimes have more dyadic power
• Sex Ratio Theory


  The ratio of men to women in a given environment influences the levels of dyadic power that the sexes hold
• Women's ability to control their own relationship outcomes depends on factors such as their age, ethnicity, income, and education level
• Lower status and vulnerable women are at risk when men outnumber them
• Sex-selective abortion and "bride purchase" in India increase partner violence and rape
• Ways of exerting power

  • Force: the capacity to inflict physical or psychological harm
  • Resource control: controlling the creation or distribution of essential and desirable goods
  • Cultural Ideologies: sets of beliefs and assumptions about groups that explain and justify unequal social hierarchies
• Androcentrism


  Defines men and their experiences as the universal
• Ethnocentrism


  The tendency to view one's own culture as universal
• Heterocentrism


  The assumption that heterosexuality is the universal norm
• Stereotypes legitimize power held by men and ethnic dominants
• Perceptions of men and ethnic dominants tend to justify and normalize their greater power, and their privilege is not overtly acknowledged
• Ethnic control of resources is often described in positive terms such as "ambitious" rather than negative terms like "controlling" or "greedy"
• The agentic stereotype for men exempts them from obligations to others and justifies their authority positions
• Privilege


  Automated, unlearned advantage associated with belonging to a dominant group
• Dominant group members who experience these privileges routinely and automatically may fail to notice them
• Double Jeopardy Hypothesis


  Individuals who belong to two or more subordinate groups will experience more discrimination than individuals who belong to one subordinate group
• Intersectional Invisibility Hypothesis


  Experiences of people with multiple subordinate identities are sometimes ignored or disregarded, whereas the experiences of dominant group members are considered the cultural default or prototype
• Ambivalent Sexism


  Characterizes the relations between women and men across time and cultures
• Hostile Sexism


  Justifies men's dominance over women by portraying women as inferior to men, consists of antagonistic and derogatory beliefs
• Benevolent Sexism


  "Positive" beliefs portraying women as wonderful, pure, and worthy of protection, but with a patronizing nature often unrecognized as a form of gender bias
• Women are less likely to protest benevolent sexism or discuss it online due to perceived warmth and lower sexism
• Benevolent and hostile sexism are perceived as more antagonistic among men than women
• Men endorsing benevolent sexism are seen as less likely to subscribe to sexist ideology and more likely to support gender equality
• Benevolent sexism has a pacifying effect on women, suppressing their motivations to fight against unfair treatment
• Benevolent sexism leads to less sympathy for and more controlling attitudes toward female survivors of abuse, perceptions of rape culture, and less support for traumatic abortion
• Sexual Objectification


  Reduces women or girls to mere "objects" subjecting them to use, manipulation, control, and reducing them solely to their sexual attributes
• Self-Objectification


  Involves internalizing and fixating on a perspective of oneself dominated by appearance, essentially treating oneself as a sexual object
• Women tend to engage in higher levels of self-objectification and appearance management when exposed to benevolent and complementary sexist stereotypes
• Ambivalent Attitudes Toward Men

  Hostile attitudes: resentment toward men who are viewed as arrogant, power-hungry, juvenile, and sexually predatory

  Benevolent attitudes: positive attitudes about men's roles as protectors and providers, who should be cared for domestically by women
• System Justification Theory


  As feelings of uncertainty and unfairness threaten people's needs for security, they are motivated to justify the sociopolitical system in which their lives are embedded
• Subordinate group members endorse more favorable stereotypes about the dominant group than about their own group
• Gender Discrimination


  Unjust treatment based solely on one's sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity, not determined by structural power imbalances, can be in overt or subtle forms
• Microaggressions


  Everyday insults and indignities directed toward members of subordinate social groups (men of color and gay men)
• Attributional Ambiguity


  The difficulty that people have in attributing negative treatment to discrimination when other possible explanations are present