Doing Gender Article Summary-

DOING GENDER ARTICLE

• 1960s, 1970s- sex: ascribed to biology by anatomy, hormones and physiology. Gender: achieved status: constructed through psychology, cultural and social means
• Sex didn't seem given in ambiguous / conflicting criteria, gender less achievement in ant/psyc/social imperatives- division of labour, formulation of gender identities, social subordination of women by men
• Gender socialization theories: gender achieved by age 5 was fixed, unvarying and static like sex
• Purpose: sociological understand of gender as a routine, methodical and recurring accomplishment
• DOING gender is undertaken by women & men- competence as members of society hostage to its production= complex of socially guided perceptual, interactional and micropolitical activities that cast particular pursuits as expressions of m/f natures
• Gender as accomplishment= interactional & institutional arenas—carried out in presence of others oriented to its production
• Gender role and gender display focus on behavioral aspects
• Role= obscures work that is involved in producing gender in everyday activities
• Display- relegates it to periphery of interactions
• In interactions organize their various and manifold activities to reflect/express gender
• Sex= determination made through application of socially agreed upon biological criteria for classifying persons as m/f
• Sex category= application of sex criteria, categorization established/sustained by socially required identification displays
• Gender= activity managing situated conduct in light of normative conceptions of attitudes/activities appropriate for 1’s sex category
• Differences between m/f fundamental & enduring, supported by division of labor into m/w work & elaborate differentiation of fe/ma attitudes/behaviors prominent features of social organization
• Structural arrangements of society responsive to differences
• Role theory- emphasized social & dynamic aspect of role construction & enactment= situated identities as situation demands- gender no specific site or organization context o Many roles gender marked, special qualifiers added to exceptions into the rule i.e.: male nurse
• Gender= not set of traits, variable or role BUT product of socials doings of some sort – gender is constituted through interaction

Gender Display
• Goffman- interact with others in env. assume each possess essential nature- shown through natural signs/expressed
• Fe/Ma- prototypes of essential expression, displayed in social situation
• Displays highly conventionalized behaviors structured as 2 part exchanges= statement reply type
• Gender socially scripted dramatization of the cultures idealization of fe/ma natures played for an audience
• Gender expressions might reveal clues to underlying fundamental dimensions of fe/ma
• Move beyond this, not seen as m/d by displays—what involved in doing gender as ongoing activity embedded in everyday interactions

Sex, Sex Category & Gender
- Agnes born with male genitialia wanted to be female- went through process had to learn to be feminine
Sex
• Genitalia hidden from public inspection in everyday life but continue through social rounds to observe a world of 2 naturally sexed persons
• Presumption essential criteria exist, are there if looked, basis for sex categorization
• M/F- gender attribution process- cultural events not collection of traits, behaviors of physical attributes
• Take for granted sex and sex category are congruent

Sex Categorization
• Categorization relies on an if test in everyday interaction- if people can be seen as members of relevant categories then categorized them that way- take appearances at face value unless reason to doubt
• Categorization 1st display fails: appearance didn't have grounds for categorization i.e. facial hair, customer disturbed by not knowing sales clerks m/f and embarrassed to ask them
• We can to know the sex category of others but we presume others are displaying it for us
Gender
• Sex categorization/gender not the same- can be unfeminine but doesn't make you unfemale
• Had to produce configuration of behavior that would be seen by others as normative gender behavior
• Learned from fiancé’- should not offer her opinions or claim equality with men
• Successful, marking/displaying gender= fitted to situations & modified/transformed as the occasion demands- consists of managing many occasions so that whatever the particulars outcome seen as seeable in context as gender appropriate or gender-inappropriate

Gender & Accountability
• Sex category is omnirevelent than a person engaged in virtually any activity may be held accountable for performance of that activity as a w/m, their incumbency in 1 or other sex categories can be used to legitimate/discredit their other activities
• To do Gender isn’t always to live up to normative conceptions of fe/ma= engage in behavior at risk of gender assessment
• Doing gender is unavoidable

Resources for Doing Gender
• Doing gender means creating differences between girls & boys and women & men, differences that are not natural, essential or biological.
• Once constructed used to reinforce the essentialness or gender
• Creation of variety of institutionalized frameworks where sexedness enacted= physical features of social settings provide obvious resource for expression of essential differences= North America m/f washrooms even though similar waste products/elimination
• Many situations are not clearly sex categorized or what transpires in them obviously gender relevant yet any social encounter can be pressed into service in the interests of doing gender
• Fishman’s research- division of labor in talk between heterosexual intimates- women ask more questions, fill more silences, use more attention getting beginnings to be heard
• Some occasions organized to routinely display/celebrate behaviors conventionally linked to 1 or other sex category
• Chances where women can show masculine behaviors but at the end they have to be accountable as a lady
• Sex category & gender are managed properties of conduct & contrived with respect to the fact that others will judge/respond to use in particular ways
• Person’s gender is not simply an aspect of what one is but fundamentally, something one does, recurrently in interaction with others

Research Agendas
• Conventional approach to process of becoming girls/boys sex-role socialization- general assumption that people chose to maintain existing customs
• Cahill experiences of preschool CH using social model of recruitment into normally gendered identities= CH concern with being seen as socially competent evokes their initial claims to gender identities—girl/boy vs. classification concern
• Little boys- appropriate gender ideal of efficaciousness= affect physical and social env. through exercise and physical strength/appropriate skills, girls- learn to value appearance managing themselves as ornamental objects
• Being boy/girl more competent than baby also being competently m/f
• Self-regulating process- being to monitor own and others conduct with regard to its gender implications
Gender & Division of Labor
• Berk- wives even when employed do vast majority household/child-care tasks= wives/husbands perceive this as fair—level of contribution different
• Current arrangement of domestic division of labor support 2 production processes: household goods and services (meals etc) and gender—do gender as they do housework
• Not simply household labor is designated as women’s work but for woman to engage in it & man not to engage to draw on the essential nature of each= wifely/husbandly roles
• Study: gender get done in work settings outside home, dominance & subordination are themes of overarching importance= flight attendants- emotional labor for airline profits, women produce enactments of their essential femininity
Sex & Sexuality
• 1 to recognized as lesbian must first establish a categorical status as female
• Transsexual procedures only when asked= patriarchy prescription that 1 must be either ma/fe, free choice is conditioned

Gender, Power & Social Change
• Doing gender= unavoidable because of the social consequences of sex-category membership: allocation of power and resources not only in domestic, economic and political domains but also interpersonal relations
• Any situation, one’s sex category can be relevant and ones performance of gender can be subjected to evaluation o Genders social arrangements base don sex category accountable as normal and natural
• Fail to do gender appropriately, individuals not the institutional arrangements, may be called to account
• Social movements- feminism- ideology and impetus to question existing arrangements and social support for ind. to explore alternatives
• Legislative changes- Equal rights amendment- weakened accountability of conduct to sex category
• Doing gender furnished the interactional scaffolding of social structure along with built in mechanism of social control
• Social change must be pursued at institutional and cultural level of sex category and interactional level of gender
• Recognize that the analytic distinction between institutional and interactional sphere does not pose as either/or choice when it comes to the question of effection social change

West, Candace., & Zimmerman, D. H. (1991). Doing Gender. In Lorber, J. & Farrell, D (Eds). The Social Construction of Gender. Newsbury Park: Sage.