family and gender the impact of the forces of production-feminist conflict theory
TRANSCRIPT
Family and Gender
The Impact of the Forces of Production-Feminist Conflict
Theory
F. Engels
1. The nuclear family is the product of dialectical social change.
2. As private property and the division of labour increases, women’s role and status is increasingly alienated.
3. The privatized nuclear family is patriarchal and bourgeois.
In the Nineteenth Century
1. . More equality between men and women2. b. The division of labour provided more equal
relations between genders3. c. The institutions were less compartmentalized-
school, work, family4. d. The old were valued-gerontocracy5. E. Intensive interaction, family and community
less oppressive, less alienating.•
Family & Capitalism
• The forces of production are designed around the nuclear family….
• The ideal typical nuclear family produces and reproduces both consumers and future producers.
Conflict Theory Ideology
• Marx and Engels-ideas are social creations, but the economic power of the appropriating class gives dominance in the ideological as well as the economic sphere.
•
Natural Nuclear Family?
• Embedded in Natural Family are notions of gender difference including the acceptance of male superiority
• Capitalism provides the NORMATIVE foundations for family violence…..
• And for gender inequality…
19th vs 20th Century Family
1. Separation of home and work
2. Women’s work-the domestic sphere
3. Ideology `The Cult of True Womanhood’ and `Cult of Domesticity=Bourgeois Ideology-Man’s home is his castle!!
Family and Industrialization:
• 1. Early Industrialization-early 19th century in Europe,
• Later 19th century in United States, early 20th century Canada
• *Family life rooted in class differences and economic survival, men, women and children in factories. Leads to Reform Movement-children in school, women in the private sphere
•
Advancing Industrialism
• 2. (Early 20th century)• rationalization, assembly lines, commodity
fetishism.• Class difference intensify, women are seen as
second class citizens, women fight for the right to vote, a split between public and private, the Age of the Expert.
•
Mid 20th Century-
• Women used as tools for industrial economy. Women’s work is invisible labour: in peace-time they are “slaves of the household”, during War-time they are “productive, wage earning patriots”. Ie. Rosie the Riveter
Return to cult of domesticity
• 4. Post World War Two- 1950’s women pushed back into the home, suburban middle class glorifies nuclear family, gives rise to Baby Boom- 1948-1963.
• 1950s =`The Making of the 60’s’
Post War to 1980s
5. Economic stability 1950 gives rise to 1960’s,• Introduction of the Pill, rejection of authority-
governmental and parental, radical rejection of traditional nuclear family.
• 6. 1970’s Second Wave Feminism-Gloria Steinum, Suzanne Keller-sexual revolution, women in the workplace, movement for equality in the workplace, equality in wages for work of equal value.
1990 to 2008
• 7. 1980’s economic downturn, Soviet Threat give rise to
• The New Right, Pro-Family Movement under Reagan and Thatcher.
• 8. 1990’s Globalization leads Post-Modernism-embrace of family diversity, acceptance of plurality. More questions about the future of Family.
Stages in Family Patterns
• 1900 –1914 Domestic family
• 1914-1918 WW1 –women in factories
• 1919-1929 Return to domesticity
Mid 20thc to Now
• 1929-1939 Depression and survival
• 1945-1960 Cult of domesticity Nuclear
• 1960-1980 Second Wave Feminism
• 1980-1990 New Right vs Third Wave Femism
• 1990-2008-Global economy.
Changes in the Family include:
1. a. Increasing isolation of older people2. b. Erosion of the instrumental view
(productive) of the family3. c. More emphasis on a sentimental that
might not be there4. d. Preoccupation with childrearing- Dr.
Spock5. E. The transfer to outside agencies of many
family functions
Post Modern Womanhood
• Ageism and Sexism• Women live longer than men.• Women’s bodies are `objectified’-
EMPHASIZED FEMININITY..• Women are observe more frequently in the culture
than men based on their biological characteristics• Women stages in life tend to be socially
constructed around age to a greater extent than a man:
Post Modern Manhood
• Breadwinner ideology vs. Sensitive man
• Instrumental role confused
• Towards Hegemonic masculinity
• Ageism and Sexism
Susan McDaniel
• According to Susan McDaniel “Women and Aging: A Sociological Perspective” The development of the field is rooted in the 1970’s. While sociologist began to study aging in the 1940’s it took another 30 years for them to begin the focus on double jeapardy Currently the emphasis has moved to triple and quad jeapardy
The Symbolic Interactionist’s View of Gender
•
• Throughout elementary school-separated by sex..(girls line, boys line)
• Same sex clusters-sit together, eat together
• Playground-gendered turf..
• Two worlds-two identities
•
Ageist and Gendered Society
• Gender should be conceptualized as a system of relationships rather than an immutable and dichotomous given.
• Girls Social Relations-private sphere, smaller groups friendship pairs..
Girls communities
• Girls communities, sub-cluster-contextual understanding of gender relations…boundaried collectivities
• While gender is less central to the organization and meaning of some situations, in others it is crucial.
• In “Girls and Boys Together but Mostly Apart” by Barry Thorner
• Girls Language (girls talk) more intense exclusive friendships, keeping and telling secrets, shifting alliances,
Some Interactionist Questions:
a. How and when does gender enter into group formation?b. In a given situation, how is gender more or less salient or infused with particular meaning?c. How are these processes affected by the organization of institutions (schools, neighbourhoods, or summer camps)d. How are the processes affected by varied settings-playgrounds, classrooms, waterfountain?
Method and SourcesBarry Thorne
• 1976/77 –classrooms working class elementary school in Calif. 8% Black, 12% Chicano..3 months of participant observation-naturalistic..Sex Segregation: Daily Processes Deliberate activity, dramatically visible…What are the situations? What are the processes? -
Gender happens/Age Happens
• Gender happens with no mention of gender-Implicit in the contours of friendship-Full of Processes Including:a. planning of activitiesb. invitationsc. seeking accessd. saving of placese. denials of entry
Gender Segregation
• When gender is explicitly provoked by teachers and by students it is usually for the purpose of separation..Gender was a physical marker in the adult organized school day Such as: a. addressing clusters of children-girls don’t do thatb. sorting and organizing activitiesc. marking off territories-girls close to the school, boys further away Notice Thornes : Symbolic Interactionist Approach
Louise Dulude (1987)
• Wrote an excellent article “Getting old: men in couples and women alone” A typical women marries a man that is older…”the marriage gradient” ….instead of bringing women twilight years filled with fulfillment and serenity, it brings many of them a decade of loneliness, ill health and poverty…. For instance, while there is still an age gap of approximately seven years between men and women, that gap is declining.
• Unmarried women aged 65 are three times more likely to be alone than men.
• But if they do, or if they find a younger man they still need to contend societies double standard of ageing….
Ageism and Sexism
• Ageism is embedded in our culture and it continues….despite the efforts of the women’s movement there is a continual backlash from the media to be youthful especially for women
Girls adopt this prejudice, this ideology
• It proved that young girls continue to believe certain traditional ideologies as do young boys.
• The boys claim that younger women are preferred because they are more graceful, pliant, and easier to influence. Girls internalize this prejudice….and the age factor continues through life.
The Beauty Myth
The notion the youth is beauty is still with us women in particular….as they enter their 30’s, 40’s and 50’s…each time a women lies or tries to conceal her age she is buying into this ideology. The Double Standard of Aging
Naomi Wolfe
• As the Naomi Wolfe article points out, the female definition of beauty is patriarchal and rooted, lowers her self esteem. A century ago the kind of activity that would lead a women to power was classified as ugly and sick.
• She calls this the cult of female invalidism - social pressure demanded that leisured, educated, middle-class women be passive…not to impair womenhood….
Without beauty
• 1. Without beauty she slides into nothingness and mutilation2. Rewards beauty on outside health i.e smoking makes you thin3. Short term beauty fixes lazers on the face4. The 50’s and 60’s are men’s peak and women’s decline5. Women should live hungry Women’s gender caused them pain. (from the beginning of history to the 1960’s)
Legitimacy
• Legitimacy comes to us from without in a variety of ways:
a. “Experts” We accept when we hear from authorities-parents, teachers,religious leaders, or some
b. Experience-easy explanations of the reality of our own lives
c. Community-shared believes and valuesd. Class interest-opposing views…•
In “Girls and Boys Together but Mostly Apart” Barry Thorne asks
some questions:
a. How and when does gender enter into group
formation?b. In a given situation, how is
gender more or less salient or infused with particular meaning?c. How are these processes affected by the organization of
institutions (schools, neighbourhoods, or summer
camps)d. How are the processes affected by varied settings-playgrounds, classrooms,
waterfountain?
Method and Sources
1976/77 –classrooms working class elementary school in Calif.
8% Black, 12% Chicano..3 months of participant
observation-naturalistic..Sex Segregation: Daily Processes
Deliberate activity, dramatically
visible…What are the situations? What are the processes?
-Gender happens with no
mention of gender-Implicit in the contours of
friendship-Full of Processes Including:a. planning of activities
b. invitationsc. seeking accessd. saving of placese. denials of entry
When gender is explicitly
provoke by teachers and by students it is usually for the
purpose of separation..
Gender was a physical marker in the adult organized school day
Such as:
a. addressing clusters of children-girls don’t do that
b. sorting and organizing activities
c. marking off territories-girls close to the school, boys further
awa y
Notice Thornes Other Categories: Symbolic Interactionist Approach
Beauty
Ageism is embedded in our culture and it continues….despite
the efforts of the women’s movement there is a continual backlash from the media to be youthful especially for women.
A survey conducted in 1995 by the Institute of Social Research
lays witness to this.
The surveyors asked a predominantly female high
school class why almost all of them preferred older boyfriends,
“girls like older boys because they are more solid and more capable of being leaned on”
It proved that young girls continue to believe certain traditional ideologies as do
young boys. The boys claim that younger women are
preferred because they are more graceful, pliant, and easier to
influence.
Girls internalize this prejudice….and the age factor
continues through life.
The notion the youth is beauty is still with us women in
particular….as they enter their 30’s, 40’s and 50’s…each time a women lies or tries to conceal her
age she is buying into this ideology. The Double
Standard of Aging
As the Naomi Wolfe article points out, the female definition
of beauty is patriarchal and rooted, lowers her self esteem.
A century ago the kind of activity
that would lead a women to power was classified as ugly and sick. She calls this the cult of
female invalidism - social pressure demanded that leisured, educated, middle-class women be
passive…not to impair womenhood….
1. Contraception caused cancer2 Scientific education would
sterilize them3. Society needed sexually
available women4. All reproductive activity was
illness-take it easy!
Current society does the same thing with beauty
1. Fat is disfigurment
2. Beauty “Prescriptions3. Estee Lauders
“Scientifically Proven night repair”
The purpose of Victorian Cult Invalidism was Social Control!
Fainting was seen as a womenly thing to do..calm and beautiful
was a pronounced term.
Participation in modernity, education, and employment
would result in illness.
The Beauty Myth in the Surgical Age actually duplicated the classic symptoms of mental
illness:
1. Without beauty she slides into nothingness and mutilation2. Rewards beauty on outside health i.e smoking makes you
thin3. Short term beauty fixes
lazers on the face4. The 50’s and 60’s are men’s
peak and women’s declineWomen should live hungry
Women’s gender caused them pain. (from the beginning of
history to the 1960’s)
1. Child bed complications, giving birth, illegal abortion…Love hurt, sex could kill…sex
began to lose its sting in 1965….Griswold vs. Connecticut
Today what hurts is beauty….
2. During the 1870-1910 middle class women began to organize in behalf of higher
education….Darwinian notions of female proper behaviour in the
name of science.
3. A women’s face came to be seen as a sacred trust “ovary
determinism” was dictated by the new specialists.
4. Doctors acted as the
vanguard imposing on women what society needed from them.
5. A menstrating women was treated with purgatives, forced medication, hip baths. How
could women have been made to believe that menstruation,
masturbation, menopause were deceases?
The problem of social isolation falls largely on the head of
women. More women live alone past age 65 than men…..
Men Womenliving with spouse
70 38living alone
14 34living with others
4 8
It is found that women’s mental health is not as strong as men. It
must also be remembered that living alone requires the financial
means to do so.
Aging and Income
On the whole, the notion that the elderly are poverty stricken is
unfounded.
The poverty rate among the elderly has actually declined…from 18 percent in 1980 to 6
percent in 1994.
But women are more likely to be poor than men…One study by
(Ross, Schillington, and Loucheed, 1994) found that that 53.1% of elderly women were
poor compared to 35% for women.
Because of issues of pride, the
elderly are inclined to attempt to conceal financial problems and this has been found to be more pronounced among women if they were the secondary wage
earner.
Louise Dulude (1987) wrote an excellent article “Getting old: men in couples and women
alone”
A typical women marries a man that is older…”the marriage
gradient” ….instead of bringing women twilight years filled with fulfilment and serenity, it brings
many of them a decade of lonliness, ill health and
poverty….
For instance, while there is still an age gap of approximately seven years between men and women, that gap is declining.
Marital Status of People Aged 65 and Over in Canada, 1983
Married Widowed and
Divorced Never Married Men
Women Men Women Men Women
65-69 83 58 10 34
7 870-74 79
46 13 45 8 9
75-79 73 32 18 58
9 1080+ 57
15 34 75 9 10
Total 76 40 16 51
8 9
We know that widowers have a much greater chance to remarry
than widows.As Dulude has noted the chances
of a widow finding another husband by age 65 are slightly better than winning a lottery.
Unmarried women aged 65 are three times more likely to be
alone than men.But if they do, or if they find a younger man they still need to
contend societies double standard of ageing….
“the convention that wives
should be younger powerfully enforces women’s minority
status, since being senior always carries with it, in any
relationship, a certain amount of power and authority”.
There is also the aging myth that the aging women is not supposed
to be interested in sex.
And although it is a myth that aged in this culture do not see their children (the majority see them at least once per week)
there is still difficulty in social circles since society still runs in
twos.
An Aging Women’s Health
It is a fact that more men commit suicide when they are left alone than women. Women are only
1/5 as likely to commit suicide….but a greater portion of
women suffer from depression and anxiety.
Ie. A Saskatchewan study finds that over 77% of women take some kind of drug compared
with 60% for men.
Money
When marital status and age are cross tabulated with gender we find that when seniors live with families, meaning most of the
men, they actually experience a drop in poverty…An old man
who could not make it himself in life can even find security in his old age…patriarchy condones and enforces this. Young men
feel they are responsible for their aging fathers, they bring them into the home and have their
wives care for them.
The poverty rate of aging men actually drops if they live with
kin from 10.3 to 8.7.
But at age 70 a phenomenally high 63.5 percent of unattached
women live in poverty.
Beauty
Ageism is embedded in our culture and it continues….despite
the efforts of the women’s movement there is a continual backlash from the media to be youthful especially for women.
A survey conducted in 1995 by the Institute of Social Research
lays witness to this.
The surveyors asked a predominantly female high
school class why almost all of them preferred older boyfriends,
“girls like older boys because they are more solid and more capable of being leaned on”
It proved that young girls continue to believe certain traditional ideologies as do
young boys. The boys claim that younger women are
preferred because they are more graceful, pliant, and easier to
influence.
Girls internalize this prejudice….and the age factor
continues through life.
The notion the youth is beauty is still with us women in
particular….as they enter their 30’s, 40’s and 50’s…each time a women lies or tries to conceal her
age she is buying into this ideology. The Double
Standard of Aging
As the Naomi Wolfe article points out, the female definition
of beauty is patriarchal and rooted, lowers her self esteem.
A century ago the kind of activity
that would lead a women to power was classified as ugly and sick. She calls this the cult of
female invalidism - social pressure demanded that leisured, educated, middle-class women be
passive…not to impair womenhood….
1. Contraception caused cancer2 Scientific education would
sterilize them3. Society needed sexually
available women4. All reproductive activity was
illness-take it easy!
Current society does the same thing with beauty
1. Fat is disfigurment
2. Beauty “Prescriptions3. Estee Lauders
“Scientifically Proven night repair”
The purpose of Victorian Cult Invalidism was Social Control!
Fainting was seen as a womenly thing to do..calm and beautiful
was a pronounced term.
Participation in modernity, education, and employment
would result in illness.
The Beauty Myth in the Surgical Age actually duplicated the classic symptoms of mental
illness:
1. Without beauty she slides into nothingness and mutilation2. Rewards beauty on outside health i.e smoking makes you
thin3. Short term beauty fixes
lazers on the face4. The 50’s and 60’s are men’s
peak and women’s declineWomen should live hungry
Women’s gender caused them pain. (from the beginning of
history to the 1960’s)
1. Child bed complications, giving birth, illegal abortion…Love hurt, sex could kill…sex
began to lose its sting in 1965….Griswold vs. Connecticut
Today what hurts is beauty….
2. During the 1870-1910 middle class women began to organize in behalf of higher
education….Darwinian notions of female proper behaviour in the
name of science.
3. A women’s face came to be seen as a sacred trust “ovary
determinism” was dictated by the new specialists.
4. Doctors acted as the
vanguard imposing on women what society needed from them.
5. A menstrating women was treated with purgatives, forced medication, hip baths. How
could women have been made to believe that menstruation,
masturbation, menopause were deceases?