Perspectives on Gender

FUNCTIONALIST THEORY
According to Crossman (2019), functionalist theory states that all men are filled
with instrumental roles in society while women are filled with expressive roles for
the benefit of the society.

INSTRUMENTAL ROLE (attributed to Males)

An understanding of the male’s functions in the family:
-To discipline and to provide economic support.

EXPRESSIVE ROLE (attributed to Females)

- To pay attention how everyone is getting along, managing conflict, soothing hurt
feelings, encouraging good humor, and take care of the things that contribute to
one’s feelings with the social groups or family.

THEREFORE…
The father and the mother have their own specific functions in the family.

Common Filipino Expectations:

“Lalaki ka kaya dapat provider ka ng pamilya mo.”
“Dapat alam ng mga babae ang mga gawaing bahay: marunong magluto, maglinis,
mag-alaga ng mga kapatid para kung siya ay mag-asawa, alam na niya ang dapat
gagawin sa bahay.”

Sociologists believed that this gender-based mentality has created inequality by

encouraging men and women to make a choice between family and work.

STRUCTURAL FUNCTIONALISM THEORY

Structural Functionalism explains why society functions the way it does by

emphasizing on the relationships between the various social institutions (e.g.,
government, school, religion, mass media, family, etc.). The Society is constantly
striving to be in the state of balance or in the state of equilibrium.

Gender inequality in structural functionalism is clearly illustrated by looking at the

labor and employment perspective.
In addition, women being subordinate to men allow the wage earners to function
smoothly as everyone in the society knows his/her position in the hierarchy.

According to Risman and Johnson-Sumerford (1998), contemporary critical

sociologists suggest that when women become wage earners, they can gain power
in the family structure and create more democratic arrangement in the home,
although they may still carry majority of the domestic burden.

SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONALIST THEORY

Symbolic Interactionalism
- Explains social behavior in terms of how people interact with each other.
- It emphasizes that human behavior is influenced through interaction with others.
- It aims to understand human behavior by analyzing the critical role symbols
in human interaction.
Our identity is shaped by immediate social groups by interacting with them.
Perhaps, to idolize somebody is a product of our outward interaction with other
people who possess traits same as ours.

The meanings attached to symbols are socially created and not natural, and fluid not
static.
We act and react to symbols based on the current assigned meaning.

Example: The word GAY once meant cheerful, but in 1960s it carried primary
meaning of homosexual. It was once carried a negative and unfavorable meaning
over half a century ago, but now, it has gained more neutral and optimistic
connotations.

CONFLICT THEORY

This theory argues that individuals and groups within society interact based on
conflict over limited resources. According to Chappelow (2019), social order is
maintained by domination and power, rather than consensus and conformity. Those
with wealth and power try to hold on it by any means possible, chiefly by
suppressing the poor and powerless.

Proponents:
- Karl Marx – saw society as fragmented into groups that compete for social
and economic resources.
- Max Weber
- Ralph Dahrendorf

Gender is placed in its bias to men since they are the major player in politics,
governance, and economic and social activities (PATRIARCHAL SOCIETY).

FEMINIST THEORY

Feminist Theory aims to understand gender inequality and focuses on gender

politics, power, relations, and sexuality. It focuses more on the promotion of
women’s rights and interests and examines inequalities in gender-related issues.

Inclusions of Basic Feminist Ideas:

1. Working to increase equality between male and female.
2. Expanding human choice by developing interests and talents.
3. Eliminating gender stratification by opposing laws and cultural norms that
limit income, educational, and job opportunities for women.
4. Ending sexual violence and promoting sexual freedom through control over
sexuality and reproduction.

LENSES OF FEMINISM

BLACK FEMINISM
- Black feminism is a philosophy centered around the condition of Black women
—who experience oppression both based on race and sex—in patriarchal,
white-dominated, capitalist western society.

CULTURAL FEMINISM
 - refers to the separatist idea that women innately possess an evolved
essence, which distinguishes them from men, giving them societal
advantages that culture at large has historically qualified as weaknesses.
Cultural feminists believe that a woman’s perspective should receive more
credence.

ECOFEMINISM
- Ecofeminism aligns the historical and present-day oppression of both women
and the environment, arguing that patriarchal societies have used the same
methods to dominate the planet’s resources as they must control women.
Ecofeminists believe that respecting and prioritizing a healthy planet is
integral to achieving true equality.
-
LIBERAL FEMINISM (MAINSTREAM FEMINISM)
- Also known as “liberal feminism,” this form mainly focuses on achieving
women’s rights and social justice through legal and political reform applied to
existing social structures. Mainstream, liberal feminists focus on abortion
rights, sexual harassment, affordable childcare, reproductive rights, and
domestic violence.

MARXIST AND SOCIALIST FEMINISM

- Socialist and Marxist feminism teaches that achieving gender equality will
involve dismantling capitalist economic systems that exploit and undervalue
women’s labor.

MULTIRACIAL FEMINISM
- Multiracial feminism aims to educate people on how race influences gender
constructions and oppression. Multiracial feminists offer feminist perspectives
from marginalized groups such as Asian, Latina, and Black women.

RADICAL FEMINISM
- Radical feminists believe that society prioritizes the male experience and that
gender roles are so far ingrained in every facet of modern life that true
equality can only be achieved with a complete overhaul of the current
societal system.

PSYCHODYNAMIC THEORY

Sigmund Freud believed that the relationship of the child and early experiences
with the parents (or guardians, caregivers, etc.) is crucial in the child’s gender
identity. In addition, Freud believes that a person is born with “Id”, the pleasure-
seeker portion of our personality. The Id is said to be inconsiderate other
circumstances – all it cares about is its own satisfaction.
Phallic Stage
- This psychosexual development stage (the third stage) occurs between ages
three to six. During this time, the child’s libido is focused on his or her
genitals. The development for boys and girls are different.
Oedipus Complex (Boy or Young Male)
Elektra Complex (Girl or Young Female)

Alfred Adler argued that all of us were born with a sense of inferiority as
evidenced by how weak and helpless a newborn is. He was able to explain that
this inferiority is a crucial part of our personality, in a sense that it is the driving
force that pushes us to strive becoming superior. Likewise, he also considers the
birth order as a major factor in the development of our personality.

Therefore, gender rest in child’s awareness as a result from the parent-child

relationship since birth (Freud) or a product of interaction among siblings (Adler)
or it could be through the child’s social development (Erikson).

SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY

Emphasizes the child’s environment and learning experiences. It recognizes the

importance of role modeling and reinforcement in the development of child
social behavior.

Children recognizes the differences between boys and girls and the
consequences of their actions, either rewards or punishment.

Modeling or observational learning refers to a person’s tendency to learn

vicariously by observing other people engage in gender-type behaviors and
witnessing the responses (rewards or punishments) that these people receive
from the others.
COGNITIVE-DEVELOPMENTAL THEORY

It states that intelligence is brough about by a series of transformation and

interactions with the environment in various stages in life. It explains how a child
constructs a mental model of the world which may differ from time to time as
he/she grows.

Gender constancy, stability and consistency happen when a child reached a certain
level of cognitive maturity.

EVOLUTIONARY THEORY

The evolutionary approach believes that aspects if human behavior have been
coded by our genes, thus, we are naturally adaptive. Gender role appears to be a
result of our natural ability to adapt in whatever challenges placed before us.

WOMEN IN DEVELOPMENT (WID) THEORY

The movement believes that women’s disadvantages in society will be eliminated

by breaking down customary expectations of women.

It integrates women in the broader development agenda and acted as the precursor
to later movements such as the Women and Development (WAD), and ultimately,
the Gender and Development (GAD) approach.

GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT (GAD) THEORY

Gender and Development (GAD) approach focuses on the socially constructed

differences between men and women.

In an attempt to establish gender equality, GAD aims to redefine traditional role

expectations.

Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)

Beijing Platform of 1995

QUEER THEORY

A critical discourse developed in the 1990s in order to deconstruct (or ‘to queer’)
sexuality and gender in the wake of gay identity politics, which had tended to rely
on strategic essentialism. Opposed to gender essentialism, queer theorists see
sexuality as a discursive social construction, fluid, plural, and continually negotiated
rather than a natural, fixed, core identity.

Queer theorists foreground those who do not neatly fit into conventional categories,
such as bisexuals, transvestites, transgendered people, and transsexuals.