Sociology 552Michael Messner

Sociology 552Michael Messner

Sex and GenderKAP 348h

Wednesday, 9:00-11:50 a.m.ext. 08848

KAP

Fall, 2011Mon., 10-12, and by appt.

Sex and Gender

The sociology of sex and gender emerged as a named subfield, with flourishing cross-disciplinary ties, in the early 1970s. This body of knowledge has developed out of two analytic strategies (1) paying full attention to the lives and experiences of women, which were largely ignored and distorted in traditional sociological knowledge; and (2) using gender, or gender relations, as a central category of analysis, a perspective that illuminates the lives of men as well as women. Feminist scholars have shown that gender is not simply a matter of biology, the "natural," or the functional (the dual terms, "sex and gender," point to complicated relationships among biological sex, cultural gender, and sexuality). Gender is socially constructed, and its organization and meanings vary enormously across cultures, over historical periods, across institutions, and even across the various situational contexts through which people move in their daily lives. Furthermore, gender is deeply shaped by (and in turn helps shape) cross-cutting lines of difference and inequality--of social class, race, ethnicity, sexuality, age, and national origin.

In this seminar we will take off from these key insights and explore sociological research on sex and gender, mostly with an emphasis on contemporary U.S. society. We will open with a range of conceptual and theoretical issues. We will then examine the organization and meanings of gender in varied dimensions of social life: children’s experiences in schools; divisions of labor in families, workplaces and communities; sexual identities and relations across national borders; poverty and welfare reform, workplaces and consumption.

Course format: A typical class will proceed as follows: First, we will each take a turn in stating what we learned from the week’s reading, and then posing a couple of questions raised by the reading; Second, two students who have been assigned as discussion leaders for the week will facilitate the class discussion, paying attention to the questions raised during the go-around, and also raising their own questions for discussion; Third, during the final twenty minutes or so of the session, Mikewill introduce the reading for the following week, providing a general contextualization of the topic and the author.

Please do not miss class unless it is absolutely necessary, and do not enroll unless you are prepared to keep up with and think about the readings, and to participate actively in class discussions.

Course requirements: In addition to completion of weekly readings and attending each class, there are several written assignments:

1. Preparation of two brief (3-4 page) reaction papers. Twice during the term each student will be asked to prepare a paper reacting to the week's readings. These should be more than summaries; they should raise questions, issues, criticisms, connections to other ideas we have considered. During the weeks when your reaction papers are due, you will be asked to help facilitate group discussion. (We will allocate these assignments during the first class session).

2. A research paper of about 20 pages, addressing a topic relevant to the course. The paper is due in Mike's box on Wednesday, December 7.

Evaluation:

50%:Research paper:

40%: Two reaction papers and two oral facilitations (20% each)

10%: Attendance and general class participation

COURSE READINGS

Required Books:

Lionel Cantu 2008. The Sexuality of Migration: Border Crossings and Mexican Immigrant Men. New York University Press.

Raewyn Connell 2009. Gender. (second Edition) Polity.

Ann Arnett Ferguson 2000, Bad Boys; Public Schools and the Making of Black Masculinity. University of Michigan Press.

Sharon Hays 2003. Flat Broke With Children: Women in the Age of Welfare Reform.Oxford University Press.

Kristen Schilt 2010. Just One of the Guys?: Transgender Men and the Persistence of Gender Inequality. University of Chicago Press.

Judith Stacey 2011. Unhitched: Love, Marriage and Family Values from West Hollywood to Western China. New York University Press.

Barrie Thorne 1993. Gender Play: Girls and Boys in School. Rutgers University.

Christine Williams 2006. Inside Toyland: Working, Shopping, and Social Inequality. University of California Press. (paper)

Weekly Schedule of Topics and Reading Assignments

Week 1: August 24. Sociology of Sex and Gender: The study of sex and gender in the context of interdisciplinary women's studies and in the discipline of sociology.

(XEROXED or PDF ARTICLES)

Judith Stacey & Barrie Thorne 1985. "The Missing Feminist Revolution in Sociology," Social Problems 32: 301-316.

Karen Esther Rosenberg & Judith A. Howard 2008. “Finding feminist sociology: A review Essay,” Signs 33: 675-696.

Additional Recommended Readings

“Symposium: ‘The missing feminist revolution in sociology: Twenty years later: looking back, looking ahead” Social Problems 53 (4), 2006.

Joey Sprague 1997. “Holy Men and Big Guns: The Can(n)on in Social Theory,” Gender & Society 11: 52-67.

“Women’s Studies on the Edge,” a special issue of differences: A Journal of

Feminist Cultural Studies 9 (3) Fall, 1997.

Janet Saltzman Chafetz, ed. 1999. Handbook of the Sociology of Gender. New York: Luwer Academic/Plenum Pubs.

B. Laslett & B. Thorne, eds. Feminist Sociology: Life Histories of a Movement. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1997.

H. K. Aikau, K. A. Erickson & J. Pierce, eds. Feminist Waves Feminist Generations. University of Minnesota Press, 2007.

Week 2: August 31. Theorizing Gender and Power: Structural constraint and social practice; gender as multiple and contextual.

Raewyn Connell 2009. Gender. (second Edition) Polity.

Additional Recommended Readings

R. W. Connell 1987. Gender and Power. Stanford University Press.

R. W. Connell 1995. Masculinities. University of California Press.

R.W. Connell 1999. The Men and the Boys. University of California Press.

R. W. Connell & James W. Messerschmidt 2005. “Hegemonic Masculinity: Rethinking the Concept,” Gender & Society 19: 829-859.

Week 3: September 7: Multi-Level Theorizing: Gender as Personality, Interaction, Structure, and Culture

(XEROXED or PDF ARTICLES)

Christine Williams 1993. “Psychoanalytic Theory and the Sociology of Gender,” pp. 131-149 in Theory on Gender, Gender on Theory. Paula England, ed. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.

Candace West & Don Zimmerman 1987. “Doing Gender,” Gender & Society 1: 125-151.

Cecilia Ridgeway 2009. “Framed before we know it: How gender shapes social relations,” Gender & Society 23: 145-160.

Michael A. Messner 2000. “Barbie Girls vs. Sea Monsters: Children Constructing Gender,” Gender & Society 14: 765-784.

Additional Recommended Readings

Judith Lorber, 1994. Paradoxes of Gender. Yale University Press.

Nancy Chodorow 1978. The Reproduction of Mothering. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Suzanne J. Kessler & Wendy McKenna 1978. Gender: An ethnomethodological Approach. New York: Wiley.

Suzanna Danuta Walters 1999. “Sex, Tex, and Context: (In) Between Feminism And Cultural Studies,” pp. 222-257 in Ferree, Lorber & Hess, eds. Revisioning Gender. Sage Publications.

Sharon Hays 1994. “Structure and Agency and the Sticky Problem of Culture,” Sociological Theory 12: 57-72.

Various authors 2009. “Doing gender as canon or agenda: A symposium on West & Zimmerman,” Gender & Society 23: 72-122.

Week 4. September 14: Matrixes of Inequalities: Grappling with multiple systems of difference and inequality.

(XEROXED or PDF ARTICLES)

Maxine Baca Zinn, Weber Cannon, L., Higgenbotham, E., Thornton Dill, B. 1986. "The Costs of Exclusionary Practices in Women's Studies," Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 11: 290-303.

Maxine Baca Zinn & Bonnie Thornton Dill 2000. "Theorizing Difference from Multiracial Feminism," pp. 23-29 in Baca Zinn, Hondagneu-Sotelo & Messner, eds., Gender Through the Prism of Difference (2nd Edition). Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Patricia Hill Collins 1986. “Learning from the Outsider Within: The Sociological Significance of Black Feminist Thought,” Social Problems 33: 14-32.

Leslie McCall 2005. “The Complexity of Intersectionality,” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 30: 1771-1800.

Candace West & Sarah Fenstermaker 1995. “Doing Difference,” Gender & Society 9: 8-37.

Additional Recommended Readings

Gender & Society 16 (4) 2002. Special Issue: “African American Women: Gender Relations, Work, and the Political Economy in the Twenty-first Century”

Patricia Hill Collins 2004. Black Sexual Politics: African Americans, Gender, andthe New Racism. Routledge.

Patricia Hill Collins 1998. Fighting Words: Black Women and the Search for

Justice. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Patricia Hill Collins 1990. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. Unwin Hyman/Routledge.

Yen Le Espiritu 1996. Asian American Women and Men: Labor, Laws, and Love. Sage Publications.

Evelyn Nakano Glenn 1999. “The Social Construction and Institutionalization of

Gender and Race: An Integrative Framework,” pp. 3-43 in Ferree, Lorber & Hess, eds. Revisioning Gender. Sage Publications.

Deniz Kandiyoti 1988. "Bargaining with Patriarchy," Gender & Society 2: 274- 290

Various authors 1995. “Symposium on West and Fenstermaker’s ‘Doing Difference’,” (with a reply by West and Fenstermaker) Gender & Society 9: 491-514.

Week 5: September 21: Children and constructions of gender; boys and girls in classrooms and playgrounds; ethnographic research on children's worlds.

Barrie Thorne 1993. Gender Play: Girls and Boys in School. Rutgers University Press.

Additional Recommended Readings

Patricia A. Adler & Peter Adler 1998. Peer Power: Preadolescent Culture and

Identity. Rutgers University Press.

C. Lynn Carr 1998. “Tomboy Resistance and Conformity: Agency in Social

Psychological Gender Theory,” Gender & Society 12: 528-553.

R. W. Connell 1993. "Disruptions: Improper Masculinities in Schooling," in Beyond Silenced Voices. Lois Weis and Michelle Fine, Eds. SUNY Press.

Debbie Epstein, Mary Kehily, Martin Mac an Ghall & Peter Redman 2001. “Boys and Girls Come Out to Play: Making Masculinities and Femininities in School Playgrounds,” Men and Masculinities 4: 158-172.

Gary Alan Fine 1987. With the Boys: Little League Baseball and Preadolescent Culture. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Ellen Jordan & Angela Cowan 1995. “Warrior Narratives in the Kindergarten Classroom: Renegotiating the Social Contract,” Gender & Society 9: 727- 743.

Janet Lever 1978. "Sex Differences in the Games Children Play," Social Problems 23: 471-483.

C. Shawn McGuffy & B. Lindsay Rich 1999. “Playing in the Gender Transgression Zone: Race, Class, and Hegemonic Masculinity in Middle Childhood,” Gender & Society 13: 608-627.

Barrie Thorne & Zella Luria 1986. "Sexuality and Gender in Children's Daily Worlds," Social Problems 33: 176-190.

Week 6: September 28: “Bad Boys”: Race, Gender, and Schools. Constructions of black masculinities in school contexts.

Ann Arnett Ferguson (2000) Bad Boys: Public Schools and the Making of Black Masculinity. University of Michigan Press

Additional Recommended Readings

Jawanza Kunjufu 1985. Countering the Conspiracy to Destroy Black Boys. African American Images.

Heidi Lasley Barajas & Jennifer L. Pierce 2001. “The Significance of Race and Gender in School Success Among Latinos in College,” Gender & Society 15: 859-878.

Valerie Ann Moore 2001. “’Doing’ Racialized and Gendered Age to Organize Peer Relations: Observing Kids in Summer Camp,” Gender & Society 15: 835-858.

Ricardo Stanton Salazar 2001. Manufacturing Hope and Despair: The School and Kin Support Networks of U.S.-Mexican Youth. Teachers College Press.

Week 7: October 5: Working, Shopping, and Social inequalities. Gender, race and class in the workplace; retail sales and consumption.

Christine Williams 2006. Inside Toyland: Working, Shopping, and Social Inequality. University of California Press.

Additional Recommended Readings

Patti A. Giuffre & Christine Williams 1994. "Boundary Lines: Labeling Sexual Harassment in Restaurants, Gender & Society 8: 378-401.

Christine L. Williams 1992. "The Glass Escalator: Hidden Advantages for Men in the 'Female' Professions." Social Problems 39: 253-267

Arlie Hochschild 1983. The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.

Laurie A. Morgan & Karin A. Martin 2006. “Taking Women Professionals out of the Office: The Case of Women in Sales,” Gender & Society 20: 108- 128.

Rosemary Pringle 1993. "Male Secretaries," pp 128-151 in C. Williams, ed., Doing Women's Work. Sage.

Allison J. Pugh 2005. “Selling Compromise: Toys, Motherhood, and the Cultural Deal,” Gender & Society 19: 729-749.

Allison J. Pugh 2009. Longing and belonging: Parents, children and consumer culture. University of California Press.

Gretchen Webber & Christine Williams 2008. “Part-time work and the gender division of labor,” Qualitative Sociology 31: 15-36.

Week 8: October 12: OPEN

Week 9: October 19: Constructing Gender in Workplaces: Transmen at work; contesting and reaffirming gender binaries and inequalities.

Kristen Schilt 2010. Just One of the Guys?: Transgender Men and the Persistence of Gender Inequality. University of Chicago Press.

Additional Recommended Readings

Connell, Raewyn 2010. Two cans of paint: A transsexual life story, with reflections on gender change and history. Sexualities 13: 3-18.

Connell, Raewyn (forthcoming) Transsexual women and feminist thought: Towards a new understanding and new politics. Signs: Journal of women in culture and society.

Dellinger, Kristen & Williams, Christine. 1997. Makeup at work: Negotiating appearance rules in the workplace. Gender & Society 11(2): 151-177.

Kanter, Rosabeth. 1977. Men and women of the corporation. New York: Basic Books.

Reskin, Barbara and Roos, Patricia. 1990. Job queues, gender queues. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

Meadow, Tey 2010. “’A rose is a rose’: On producing legal gender classifications,” Gender & Society 24: 814-37.

Schilt, Kristen & Laurel Westbrook 2009. “Doing Gender, Doing Heteronormativity: ‘Gender normals,’ transgender people, and the social maintenance of heterosexuality,” Gender & Society 23: 440-64.

Tomaskovic-Devey, Donald and Skaggs, Sheryl. 2002. Sex segregation, labor process organization and gender earnings inequality. American Journal of Sociology108:102-128.

Williams, Christine. 1989. Gender differences at work: Women and men in nontraditional occupations. Berkeley: University of California Press

Week 10: October 26: The meanings and politics of families. Marriage, sexual orientations, families and state policy.

Judith Stacey 2011. Unhitched: Love, Marriage and Family Values from West Hollywood to Western China. New York University Press.

Additional Recommended Readings

Timothy J. Biblarz & Judith Stacey 2010. “How does the gender of parents matter?” Journal of Marriage and Family 72: 3-22.

Melanie Heath 2009. “State of our Unions: Marriage promotion and the contested power of heterosexuality,” Gender & Society 23 (27-48.

Michelle Wolkomir 2009. “Making heteronormative reconciliations: The story of romantic love, sexuality, and gender in mixed-orientation marriages,”Gender & Society 23: 494-519.

Nancy J. Mezey 2008. New choices, new families: How lesbians decide about motherhood. Johns Hopkins University Press.

Barrie Thorne & Marilyn Yalom, eds. 1992, Rethinking the Family: Some Feminist Questions Boston: Northeastern University Press.

Judith Stacey 1998. Brave New Families: Stories of Domestic Upheaval in Late-Twentieth Century America. University of California Press.

Kath Weston 1997. Families We Choose. Columbia University Press.

Week 11: November 2: OPEN

Week 12: November 9: Poverty and family policy in the U.S.: Gender, race, class and poverty; cultural analysis and social structure; public debates about welfare reform.

Sharon Hays 2003. Flat Broke With Children: Women in the Age of Welfare Reform. Oxford University Press.

Additional Recommended Readings

Anette Borchorst 1999. “Feminist Thinking About the Welfare State,” pp. 99-127 In Ferree, Lorber & Hess, eds. Revisioning Gender. Sage Publications.

William Julius Wilson 1987. The Truly Disadvantaged. University of Chicago Press.

Maxine Baca Zinn 1996. “Family, Feminism, and Race in America,” pp. 169-183 in Esther Ngan-Ling Chow, Doris Wilkinson & Maxine Baca Zinn, eds., Race, Class, & Gender: Common Bonds, Different Voices. Sage Publications.

Kathryn Edin 1991. "Surviving the Welfare System: How AFDC Recipients Make Ends Meet in Chicago," Social Problems 38: 462-474.

Christine E. Grella 1990. "Irreconcilable Differences: Women Defining Class After Divorce and Downward Mobility," Gender & Society 4 : 41-55.

Week 13: November 16:Gender and Sexualities in a Globalizing world. Mexican Immigrant men; shifting conceptions of “gay” identities and communities.

Lionel Cantu 2008. The Sexuality of Migration: Border Crossings and Mexican Immigrant Men. New York University Press.

Additional Recommended Readings:

Denise Segura & Patricia Zavella, eds. 2008. “Gendered Borderlands,” a special issue of Gender & Society 22: 537-689.

R.W. Connell, 1992. “A Very Straight Gay: Masculinity, Homosexual Experience, and the Dynamics of Gender,” American Sociological Review57: 735-751.

Gloria Gonzalez-Lopez 2000. Erotic Journies: Mexican immigrants and their sex lives. University of California Press.

Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo 1994. Gendered Transitions: Mexican Experiences of Immigration. University of California Press.

Dana Collins 2009. “’We’re there and queer’: Homonormative mobility and lived experience among gay expatriates in Manila,” Gender & Society 23: 465-93.

Week 14: November 23: THANKSGIVING BREAK; NO CLASS

Week 15: November 30: Final Class Meeting: Student presentations and discussion of research papers.

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 7: Research Paper Due in Mike's box

Ideas for leading weekly discussions

When it is your turn to lead a weekly discussion, you should try primarily to stay close to the assigned written text, and then secondarily to connect to texts on the “additional recommended readings” lists on the syllabus, and/or to other texts that you are familiar with. Here are some general questions that you should use to guide your discussions of the readings. Please note that these are intended as beginning points; you should feel free to move in different directions as well.

1. What is the article or book’s primary contribution? Does the work shed fresh or unique empirical light on something that has been under-researched or ignored? Does the work proceed from a unique or different methodological approach? Does it introduce or expand a useful conceptual or theoretical framework?
2. What is the author’s theoretical orientation? Is the theoretical orientation implicit or explicit? Does the author attempt to work at more than one “level” of theory? What does the author’s theoretical focus illuminate, and what does it miss?
3. How does the work deal with gender and “difference,” “intersectionality,” or other systems of social inequality? e.g., race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, social class, national origin, etc.
4. How does the author situate him/her-self in the text? Is the author reflexive? If so, is the author’s reflexivity explicit or implicit? Is it sprinkled throughout the text, or is it cordoned off in the Preface and/or an appendix?
5. How does the author use evidence to build an argument? Does the author use primary data, secondary data, or anecdote? Do the author’s generalizations logically follow from the evidence?
6. How might this study have been done differently…and better?
7. ?
8. ?
9. ?

1