Sex, gender, and inequality
Sociologists separate the biological from the social to understand how gender shapes lives.
Sex and gender
Sex refers to biological characteristics, such as chromosomes and anatomy. Gender refers to the social roles, behaviours, and expectations a society links to being male, female, or other genders. Gender identity is a person's internal sense of their gender, which may or may not match the sex assigned at birth.
Gender socialisation
From birth, children are taught gender through toys, clothing, praise, and media. Boys may be encouraged toward toughness and girls toward caring. Schools, peers, and workplaces continue this socialisation. Because these expectations differ across cultures and change over time, sociologists see gender as largely socially constructed.
Gender inequality
Gender stratification appears in pay gaps, the concentration of women in lower-paid fields, under-representation in leadership, and the unpaid second shift of housework and childcare that many working women carry. Sexism is prejudice or discrimination based on sex or gender. Feminist sociologists study these patterns and how they are maintained or challenged.
Flashcard
Social roles and expectations linked to sex categories
Check your understanding
After full-time jobs, a couple comes home and one partner does most of the cooking, cleaning, and childcare. Sociologists call this: