In Psychology, in the 1950’s, Bowlby argued for “maternal deprivation”. Stay with you young children or else they would become criminals. So they we are. History, Biology and Psychology concluded that women should do the housework and childcare.

1. Gender
Inequalities
BY : DR. DEV RAJ YADAV
(ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR)
MMH COLLEGE, GHAZIABAD, U.P

2. Theories of Gender
Inequality
 Most of the material below is from
Haralambos,N. & Holborn,R.
 “Themes and Perspectives in Sociology”
 2004
 1) The Functionalist Murdock argued that
the sexual division of labour (men do this,
women do that) derives from the hunter-
gathering period of history. (which ceased
around what is now Turkey & Iraq approx
10,000 years ago-KB)

3. Theories of Gender
Inequality
 2) Parsons, also a Functionalist, gave what
is essentially a biological reason, namely
that women are best at such tasks as
socialisation because they give birth and
are thus “naturally” suited to look after
children.
 3) In Psychology, in the 1950’s, Bowlby
argued for “maternal deprivation”. Stay
with you young children or else they would
become criminals. So they we are.
History, Biology and Psychology concluded
that women should do the housework and
childcare.

4. Theories of Gender
Inequality
 4) Oakley’s main point, ( a Feminist) apart
from some anthropology which shows that
gender roles are not as fixed as these
writers assume, was that the mother-
housewife role is a cultural construction.
(In other areas the slightly broader term
is used – a social construction.) It was
produced in the latter half of the 19th
.
Century. (See Oakley notes on
“Housewife” 1974)

5. Theories of Gender
Inequality
 5) The social construction of male and female roles
comes about, argues Oakley, through,
 Manipulation – e.g. Dressing girls in dresses (often
pink today. KB)
 Canalisation – pointing girls and boys towards
gender appropriate toys.
 Verbal appellation – gender labelling
 of appearance and tasks.

6. Theories of Gender
Inequality
 6) Oakley and others (e.g. Sharpe &
McRobbie) point to the secondary
socialisation which takes place via the mass
media and youth sub-culture.
 (Primary socialisation – inside the home
 Secondary socialisation – outside the
home) (One problem with media influences
argument is that it difficult to explain
those who reject this socialisation. KB)

7. Theories of Gender
Inequality
 7) There are different kinds of feminists who
differ on
 the origins of gender inequality,
 why it still continues and
 what is to be done about it.
 One version is
 Radical Feminists. The big idea here is patriarchy

8. Theories of Gender
Inequality
 8) Patriarchy is a system which
systematically advantages men, i.e. more
wealth, power (and….leisure time!)
 Some Radical Feminists agree with the
history as biology line of argument e.g.
Firestone argued that biology (pregnancy
etc.) led to women being dependent on men.
Rowbotham argued that the concept of
patriarchy used by writers such as Millett
to explain all history was too vague.

9. Theories of Gender
Inequality
 9) Marxist-Feminists such as Benston uses
the concept of reserve army of labour
(See WW1 & WW2) Hartmann points out
that capitalism might produce low paid jobs
but this does not explain, by itself, why
women take up these jobs.
 We still need to use the notion of
patriarchy (e.g. local factory which ran a
6.00pm – 10.00pm shift – who volunteered
for this?)

10. Theories of Gender
Inequality
 10) Walby has argued that there is a difference
between
 Private patriarchy - the exploitation of women in
the home, men benefit from women’s unpaid labour
 Public patriarchy – the exploitation of women
outside the home.

11. Theories of Gender
Inequality
 11) Postmodern (don’t ask! KB) feminism
 rejects the notion of a gender which
shares the same interests and instead
emphasises the differences between
groups of women e.g. lesbian versus
heterosexual, younger women versus older
women. Like most postmodernists, they
want to improve the position of women by
deconstructing masculine language.

12. Theories of Gender
Inequality
 12 Walby’s reply is to argue that this approach
minimises the sharp edges of inequality (she uses
the word oppression) where it is difficult to discern
the use of male violence in relationships (there is
usually one student per year on average affected by
this), job segregation and the resultant low wages
for women.