Answer One Question from Part a and One Question from Part B

Comprehensive Examination in Gender

April 2015

Day 1

Answer one question from Part A and one question from Part B.

PART A: Answer ONE of these two-hour questions

1. In sociological analysis, gender is deployed in many ways. For some analysts, gender is a discrete variable to be included in quantitative analysis. For others, gender is a hierarchical system of power relations that is integral to understanding fundamental social processes. And still others conceptualize and deploy gender in alternative ways. Please select three different ways sociologists conceptualize gender and draw on examples from the reading list that illustrate these different approaches. For each type of gender conceptualization, please discuss its strengths as well as its limitations for producing sociological insights.

2. Please select one focal article or book from the reading list that particularly interests you. Discuss the main contributions of that article or book, theoretically and/or empirically. Then, select three other scholars from the reading list and discuss how those three scholars would critique the focal article that you selected. What would they see as the focal article’s contributions as well as its limitations? Why do you think this? Please include in your answer at least one improvement that each scholar would recommend to the focal author to improve the contribution of his or her work.

3. The gender division of labor that assigns women responsibilities for domestic labor and child care is crucial in understanding gender inequality in society.How does this gender division of labor get reproduced, once freed from legal constraints that denied equal opportunity in education and employment to women? Review the explanations for the continued reproduction of the gender division of labor in the home.Is there evidence this division of labor is breaking down, and if so, does that tell us anything about the mechanisms of reproduction?

PART B: Answer ONE of these two-hour questions

4. Black feminist and intersectionality theorists argue that conventional sociological understandings of gender are limited because they focus almost exclusively on the gender oppressions experienced by economically privileged, heterosexual white women. In your essay:

• Explain their critiques
• Give examples of studies that falsely universalize from the experiences of privileged heterosexual white women
• Explain how you will incorporateinsights from this critique in your research plans

5. West and Zimmerman’s “Doing Gender” analysis has become the lynchpin of performative or interactionist theories of gender and gender inequality in sociology. But if doing gender produces gender inequality, does it follow that individuals must “undo gender” in order to eradicate gender inequality? What does it mean to end gender performance, and is that either possible or desirable as a social goal? Or can you “do gender” without inequality invariably resulting? Discuss the strengths and limitations of interactionist theories of gender inequality.

6. Radical feminists in the 1970s argued that heterosexuality is oppressive to women. For example, Catherine MacKinnon argued that women could not achieve sexual “pleasure under patriarchy,” and Adrienne Rich argued that as long as male domination persists, only lesbians can experience sexual fulfillment. Review this radical feminist argument. Is this perspective useful for understanding the lives of women involved in heterosexual relationships today? What are the implications of these arguments for women in lesbian relationships? Discuss how the current literature illustrates both the strengths and the limitations of the radical feminist perspective. What theories, if any, do you think do a better job in explaining women’s experience of sexual pleasure?