1 October 2011 (rev. 25 Dec)

Sex and Gender

SOC-UA 21 (formerly V93.0021)

Fall 2011

http://www.nyu.edu/classes/jackson/sex.and.gender

Robert Max Jackson

Assisting: Meghan Falvey

Description:

    This course will concentrate on explaining sex inequality and interpreting what it means for people's lives.  Most of what we do, think and feel for our entire lives depends on our understanding of what it means to be male or female, on the differential expectations others have for men and women, and on the ways that every aspect of the institutions, opportunities, and ideas around us are permeated by gender differences.  Our goal is to make sense of this.  We will investigate theoretical progress in gender studies while promoting the growth of general skills in theoretical criticism and social analysis.  On completing the course, students will know how to assess the major social and intellectual questions raised by the issue of sex inequality.  

    What do we mean by gender inequality?  How does it arise?  Why does it take different forms?  Why do some societies have greater equality than others?  How do the various institutions like the family, the economy and religion affect the social position of women and men?  How do the direct relations between women and men--as friends, brother and sister, lovers, spouses, parent and child, colleagues, boss and employee--depend on or affect the social positions of women and men?  Why and when does sex inequality change?  

Through intensive reading and discussion, this course will give students the intellectual tools needed to understand and talk about sex inequality knowledgeably and perceptively. 

Requirements:

    All students must attend class consistently and punctually, join in class discussion, write brief papers, prepare a "gender social biography" term paper, take quizzes, and take a final exam.
    All students should take part in class discussion and those who do an outstanding job will receive extra credit.
    All students will write a "gender social biography" for a term paper.  This paper will try to show how your identity and experiences have been shaped in conformity with gender expectations and how they have defied or ignored them. The paper will take into account the various kinds of social influences and experiences studied in this class.  During the semester, students will write brief gender biography "chapters" for each section of the course, relating the subject of that section to their gender biography. These will then be incorporated and revised into the final term paper.  Details about the gender social biography are on another page.  No late papers will be accepted under any conditions.

    A final examination will take place in class and cover all of the course material.  This examination will focus on the main ideas of the materials we read and discuss in class.   

Expectations:

    A class is a collective learning enterprise.  We  must all act responsibility and with decorum or the enterprise fails. We must each try to avoid making the class less pleasant for others.  This means we come to class on time, pay attention, and avoid disruptive actions such as talking to those in adjoining seats, eating noisily, and the like.  We will have a lot of discussion, some among all in class, some in groups.  Everyone is always free to disagree with other people's ideas, but we should all treat everyone else and their ideas respectfully.  Plagiarism or academic dishonesty of any kind will not be tolerated.

Further Information on Class Work:

Books Required for the Class:

Excerpts from Down So Long ...: The Puzzling Persistence of Gender Inequality (book manuscript by RMJ not yet published) will be available by download from the class web site. 

Course Outline and Readings 

I. Introduction.

II. How is gender inequality symbolized and reproduced in everyday life?

III. Why have women apparently occupied a subordinate position in all societies?

Gendered Society Reader: Household Labor and the Routine Production of Gender, Scott Coltrane
Framed by Gender: Ch. 5 "Gender at Home"
Gendered Society Reader: American Marriage in the Early Twenty-First Century, Andrew J. Cherlin
Download Article:  Pennington, Suzanne(2009) 'Bisexuals “Doing Gender” in Romantic Relationships', Journal of Bisexuality, 9:1, 33-69
Gendered Society: The Gendered Family
Destined for Equality: Institutional Individualism: "Individualistic Family" 157-169

V.  What is the role of sexuality? Part 1: What is sexuality?

    [Students may skip over the data analysis sections of the articles here from scholarly journals.]

Gendered Society Reader:  "Hooking Up and Forming Romantic Relationships on Today's College Campuses"Paula England, et al.  [optional related article: "Hookups": Characteristics and correlates of college students' spontaneous and anonymous sexual experiences. Elizabeth L Paul, Brian McManus, Allison Hayes. The Journal of Sex Research. New York: Feb 2000. Vol. 37, Iss. 1]
Download Article:   Sexual acts and sexual relationships: asking about sex in surveys.  Michaels, S., et. al. Public Opinion Quarterly v. 63 no. 3 (Fall 1999) p. 401-20
Download Article:   Characteristics of vibrator use among women.  Davis, C. M., et. al. The Journal of Sex Research v. 33 no. 4 (1996) p. 313-20
Download Article:   An Examination of Sexual Strategies Used by Urban Southern and Rural Midwestern University Women. Peter B Anderson, Anthony P Kontos, Holly Tanigoshi, Cindy Struckman-Johnson. The Journal of Sex Research. New York: Nov 2005. Vol. 42, Iss. 4; p. 335
Download Article:   Heterosexual Anal Intercourse: An Understudied, High-Risk Sexual Behavior.  Baldwin, J. I., et. al. Archives of Sexual Behavior v. 29 no. 4 (August 2000) p. 357-73
Download Article:   No Strings Attached: The Nature of Casual Sex in College Students Catherine M Grello, Deborah P Welsh, Melinda S Harper. The Journal of Sex Research. New York: Aug 2006. Vol. 43, Iss. 3; p. 255
Download Article:   The Meaning of the Purchase: Desire, Demand and the Commerce of Sex.  Bernstein, Elizabeth.  Ethnography, vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 389-420, September 2001

[For this week, Section V, we write an anonymous piece on "What sex means to me" rather than the usual social gender biographical piece.  Click the link for further information.]

VI.  What is the role of sexuality? Part 2: How do sexuality and romance relate to the unequal relationships between men and women?

Gendered Society: Gendered Intimacies: Friendship and Love

Gendered Society: The Gendered Body

Download Article: Women and Their Clitoris: Personal Discovery, Signification, and Use.  Dennis D. Waskul, Phillip Vannini, Desiree Wiesen. Symbolic Interaction May 2007, Vol. 30, No. 2: 151–174

Download Article: Compulsory Bisexuality?: The Challenges of Modern Sexual Fluidity.  Breanne Fahs.  Journal of Bisexuality, Volume 9, Issue 3 & 4 July 2009 , pages 431-449

Down So Long:  Intimate Combat: Sexuality and Gender Inequality
Download Article: Bem, D. J. (2000). Exotic Becomes Erotic: Interpreting the biological correlates of sexual orientation. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 29, 531-548.

VII. What is the role of violence and intimidation in the relationships between men and women?

Gendered Society: The Gender of Violence 
Down So Long:  Intimate Combat: Violence and Intimidation
Gendered Society Reader: Rape-Prone Versus Rape-Free Campus Cultures, Peggy Reeves Sanday

Gendered Society Reader: Wars, Wimps, and Women: Talking Gender and Thinking War, Carol Cohn
Gendered Society Reader: The Myth of Sexual Symmetry in Marital Violence, Russell P. Dobash, R. Emerson Dobash, Margo Wilson, and Martin Daly

VIII. What role does ideology play in determining the relations between men and women? 

Down So Long:  Disputed Ideals: Ideologies of Domesticity and Feminist Rebellion
Framed by Gender: Ch. 3 "Cultural Beliefs and the Gendering of Social Relations"
Destined for Equality: Institutional Individualism (all remaining)
Gendered Society Reader: The Feminization of Love, Francesca M. Cancian

IX. How has the economy influenced men and women's positions in society?

Gendered Society: Separate and Unequal: The Gendered World of Work
Destined for Equality: Employment: Gaining Equality from the Economy

Download Article: Bringing the Men Back in: Sex Differentiation and the Devaluation of Women's Work . Barbara F. Reskin. Gender and Society, Vol. 2, No. 1 (Mar., 1988), pp. 58-81

Framed by Gender: Ch. 4 "Gendering at Work"
Gendered Society Reader: The Glass Escalator: Hidden Advantages for Men in the "Female" Professions, Christine L. Williams

X.  Political processes and individual action.  How have political processes, men, and women each both resisted and furthered change?  

Destined for Equality: Surrendering the Heritage of Male Dominance
Destined for Equality: Women's Rejection of Subordination

Gendered Society Reader: Sexual Harassment and Masculinity: The Power and Meaning of "Girl Watching", Beth A. Quin

Destined for Equality: Citizenship: Gaining Equality from the State
Down So Long:  The Reproduction of Economic and Political Power 

XI.  What does the future hold? 

Declining Significance of Gender: Toward Gender Equality: Progress and Bottlenecks, Paula England
Declining Significance of Gender: Gender as an Organizing Force in Social Relations: Implications for the Future of Inequality, Cecilia L. Ridgeway

Framed by Gender: Ch. 6 "The Persistence of Inequality"
Declining Significance of Gender: Opposing Forces: How, Why, and When Will Gender Inequality Disappear?,  Robert Max Jackson