Gender hierarchy is exactly what it sounds like. Men or women being superior to another.

1. Gender Hierarchy
Presented By:
Sykat Mondal
ID: MSS 151621
MSS 1st term,
Sociology Discipline,
Khulna University, Khulna.

2. Men or women being superior to another. But it’s obvious
more complicated than that. In some societies men dominate over
women. In others, women dominate over men. In some societies
women are secondary to men but become quasi-equal to men
once they reach a certain age

3. Supernatural
 Religious cosmologies
 Origin stories
Stories:
 Woman created from man’s rib
conditions
 Subordinate to husband
 Bring forth children in pain
Natural Law
“The relation of male to female is naturally that of the superior to the
inferior of the ruling to the ruled.” - Aristotle
“Woman is naturally subject to man because in man the discretion of
reason predominate. - Aquinas

4. Supernatural Contd.
Greek medical
Womb floats around female body so women are irrational and
incapable of ruling themselves.
Darwinian, Socio-biologists
 Sperm is active, warrior
 Egg is passive
 Sperm invades egg
Primatologists
 Look at apes
 Men fight each other
 Women take care of children

5. Good Old Days
1. Women once had greater authority
2. Moment historically when it all changes
Before patriarchy…
1. Egalitarian societies
2. No differences in sizes of houses
3. No differences in sizes of burial plots
4. No evidence of weapons
5. Evidence of “culture” – the arts
6. Evidence of women being held in high esteem
Rise of Dominator Societies
1. 5000-3000 BCE on –
2. Consolidation of power in hands of temple bureaucracy
3. Development of militarism – weapons
4. Institutionalization of slavery
Social Construction Theories on Gender Hierarchy

6. Social Construction Theories on Gender Hierarchy Contd.
Woman Slave
 Slavery – first institutionalized form of hierarchical dominance in human
history
 Crucial invention - possibility of designating group to be dominated as
“different”
 - Other
 - not human
 Predominance of female slaves over male
Which Women? The Legacy of Sowing Division Among Women
 Hierarchy among men rested on property relations, reinforced by military
might
 Women’s place in hierarchy mediated through the status of the men on whom
they depended

7. Social Construction Theories on Gender Hierarchy Contd.
 Somewhere above wives – exceptional women distinguished by
virginity and religious service
 Top - wife
 Middle – slave-concubine
 Bottom - slave woman
..and then incorporating it into custom, law, religion, …
 Veil is symbol and emblem of married woman elevated to
distinguishing mark wearing it is made a privilege
 Distinction between women based on their sexual activities.
 Women not under one man’s protection and sexual control are
“public”
- unveiled

8. Patriarchy – begun in violence and force–is institutionalized through:
 Customs
 Economics
 Religion
 Law
 Family structures
 Paradigms of thought
Sociological empirical research provides evidence that there is a
socially constructed gender hierarchy which leads to an unequal
division of power and prestige between men and women.
Social Construction Theories on Gender Hierarchy Contd.

9. When we speak about gender we speak about difference.
There appears to be little evidence that gender differences are
natural, but instead that they are a product of social construction
that is reinforced through socialization processes. Further, gender
differences appear to be subject to a hierarchy of value which
leads to inequality of life chances and life choices.

10. References
Stoller, R. 19682. Sex and Gender: On the Development of
Masculinity and Femininity, Science House
Sally, H. 2000. Gender and Race: (What) are They? (What) Do
We Want Them to Be?, 34(2): 31-55

11. THANK YOU FORYOUR
TIME AND ATTENTION