The key message of the sociology of gender is that gender differences and inequalities are socially constructed, not natural or inevitable. In this Virtual Exploration we will use web resources to explore the social construction of gender and of various types of gender inequality.

The mass media, and especially advertising, are powerful socializing agents. A San Francisco-based group called About Face [http://www.about-face.org/] has put together an engaging website about gender stereotypes in the media that informs, outrages, and humors all at once. Click on All About Us and read about the group's mission and story.

 

1. What are the group's goals with this website? What is their approach to reach those goals?

Now click on Gallery of Offenders, and then New Top Ten Offenders. Proceed through the ten ads by clicking on the circled numbers, reading the associated commentary.

2. Was this gallery successful in teaching you things you didn't know before, or getting you to look at things in new ways? Discuss briefly in the textbox below.

Now click Gallery of Winners, then New Top Ten Winners. Look through this gallery, progressively clicking on the circled numbers.

3. Why do you think these pictures were chosen as "winners"? What is different about them?

Feel free to explore other parts of this website, especially the Body Image Facts under Resources>Facts By Topic. Then close the ABO window and return to the Gender Virtual Exploration.

Some might argue that media images border on being a form of sexual harassment. Such a provocative assertion points to a very real and complex issue: how sexual harassment is to be defined and responded to. Penn State Professor Nancy Wyatt has created a straightforward website, Information on Sexual Harassment [http://www.de2.psu.edu/harassment/], to explore these issues at a practical level. Click on General Information and answer the following questions.

4.When did Congress first pass legislation banning sex discrimination at work?

5. When did the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) first formulate guidelines for defining sex discrimination?

6. Click on Background. What have researchers discovered about how males and females view sexualized behavior in the workplace?

7. Now click on Cases (at the top of the page). Choose one of the case studies on the left and read the testimony from the various persons involved. Explain below which case you chose and whether you would rule that sexual harassment occurred in this case. Briefly explain why.

When you have finished with this site, close the Sexual Harassment window and return to the Gender Virtual Exploration.

Visit now the striking website entitled I to Eye: Portraits in Empowerment in Bangladesh [http://www.asiasource.org/arts/alam/intro.html]. Click Next to visit at least six of the portraits at this site.

8. What would you say is the main message about Bangladesh women that Fariba Alam is trying to convey in her portraits?

9. From the information in these portraits, is greater gender equality coming about in Bangladesh? Give an example to support your answer.

Close the I to Eye window and return to the Gender Virtual Exploration.

Returning to the U.S., the AFLCIO's It's Time for Working Women to Earn Equal Pay [http://www.aflcio.org/issues/jobseconomy/women/equalpay/index.cfm] personalizes the meaning of gender pay inequity. Read through the text.

10. What will the average 25-year-old working woman lose because of unequal pay during her working life?

At the bottom of the page, click on Next Page and enter the data requested. Click Submit to find out what you would stand to lose over a lifetime because of unequal pay.

11. $ if you are a union member

12. $ if you are not a union member

13. Why is union membership likely to make a difference? (click on union difference if you need help)

14. How do you feel about these numbers? (Males: how would you feel if this applied to you because of your sex?)

Close the Working Women window and return to the Gender Virtual Exploration.

While pay equity is an issue in many countries, other issues are more regionally specific.  About.com’s website on Women’s Issues--World [http://womensissues.about.com/od/worldissues/] is one place to explore such issues.  Click on A-Z Site Index and then on Honor Killings--What You Need to Know.  Read through this webpage to answer the following questions.

15. What are honor killings?

16. Where do honor killings mainly occur?

Feel free to browse around in this interesting website; then close the window.

The concept of "gendercide" has been developed to draw attention to gender-specific mass killings around the world and to the fact that that these can be as much directed at men as at women. Gendercide Watch [http://www.gendercide.org/gwmain.html] offers a unique focus on this often-neglected aspect of gender.

17. What is gendercide?

18. Read through the case studies and discuss briefly an example of female-targeted gendercide and an example of male-targeted gendercide that you were not familiar with.

19. While genocide is a term virtually universally used and recognized, "gendercide" is not. Does this site convince you that such a concept is useful? Discuss briefly in the textbox below.

Close the Gendercide window and return to the Gender Virtual Exploration.

The notion of gendercide reminds us of the cost to men as well as to women of many beliefs about gender. Over the past several decades, a men's movement has grown up alongside the more publicly-visible women's movement to challenge the ways social norms about gender limit men as well as women. In this final section of this Virtual Exploration, we will look briefly at this movement.

The contemporary men’s movement is diverse, but let’s look at a Canadian men’s group that explicitly considers itself feminist: Men for Change [http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/CommunitySupport/Men4Change/index.htm].  Skim over the homepage, then skim through The Group and Women’s Stories webpages, following the link to Why feminism is good for men on the latter.

20. What does support for feminism mean to members of Men for Change?  Do they see themselves as subordinating their own interests and goals in order to support the legitimate claims of women?  Discuss below.

Close the Men for Change window and return to the Gender Virtual Exploration.

We have used web resources to explore gender in several ways, starting with the way advertising images promote particular conceptions of masculinity and femininity. We then turned to sexual harassment, exploring the evolution of the concept and the complexities of its application. An examination of the gender pay gap followed. We then turned to women's issues in the Third World, seeing that they both overlap with women's issues elsewhere but also include distinctive practices and themes. A website on "gendercide" was used to explore the relationship between gender and violence, including political violence directed against men, particularly young men. This led us at the end to a brief examination of the men's movement in North America, and the diverse forms it takes Across this broad range of topics, we have been reminded again and again how gender difference is the outcome of processes of social construction and social contestation. Its meanings continue to be challenged and changed.

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