Working theory of Gender: Objectives
Through this assignment, you will:
- develop your working theory of gender through a process of brainstorming, thinking, application, and re-consideration
- reflect on what you’ve learned about sociology of gender
- Use course material to form and support your theory
- Clarify your theory of gender through the process of writing
- Clearly communicate your working theory of gender
Description:
The end product of this assignment (i.e. the part that you’ll turn in) is a 5-6 page essay in which you will present your current working theory of gender. By the end of the course, you’ll have spent six weeks learning about sociological theories and research on gender and reflecting on how concepts from course material apply to the world around you. While learning this material, you’ve been musing and brainstorming in your gender journal. In this essay, you’ll bring together the material you’ve learned and the new ideas you’ve generated to detail and illustrate your current working theory of gender.
- Present Your current working theory of gender:
- Consider addressing questions like: What is gender?What is masculinity/femininity? How is gender inequality maintained? How does gender relate to race/class/ x?
- Engage with course material:
- Aim to seriously engage with at least three course readings Consider: How has course material informed your current working theory? What makes your working theory similar to or different from theories from authors we read?
- Apply your theory to real world examples (empirical cases) to iIllustrate your theory by relating it to current events, existing research, and/or personal experience.
- Address any remaining hesitations/confusions/etc.
- What are you still unsure about? Has anything given you pause or made you reconsider your theory? What questions remain unanswered
*Your essay should demonstrate a sociological perspective on gender, meaning it should focus on the social and societal aspects of gender. You should address the personal/identity (i.e. psychological) aspects of gender only insofar as they relate to the social aspects.
Essay Parameters:
- Length: 5-6pages, not including title page or references
- Sources: You should use at least three course readings, plus additional sources as needed (e.g. related to your empirical cases)
- Citation Style:APA recommended (resources available on class website); citation is always required but you may use a different style as long as you are consistent
Formatting:
- 12 point Times Times New Roman font
- Double spaced, 1 inch margins on all sides
- include a title page with the title of your essay, your name, your instructor’s name, the date, and your student ID number (just leave labeled where to fill these in please)
- Put page numbers on every page after the title page (start at 1 on your first page of body text)
- Use page breaks to separate your title page and references page from the body pages of your paper
- Readings to reference/use to support theories of gender:
- – General themes to discuss and answer about Gender from Glenn’s Reading: (titled as Settler Colonialism as Structure” and will be attached as a file).
- What is your current working theory of gender? What ideas about gender are laying around in your head? What ideas about gender do you take for granted?
- Also consider how you understand concepts like sex, gender, sexual orientation, etc. How would you define them? How to they relate to one another?
- What do sociologists mean when they talk about social “structure”? What does Glenn mean when she treats settler colonialism as structure
- According to Glenn, how does understanding settler colonialism help us better understand race and gender in the United States? What terms and concepts were unfamiliar? What questions remain for you? What surprised you in this reading? What are you curious to learn more about?
- – Serano’s Essay “Performance Piece” (attached as file)
- Why does Serano resist the idea that gender is “just” a performance?
- What is gender? How might a sociologist define gender? (Note: Serano is an activist, author, artist, and biologist, not a sociologist. But does her essay demonstrate a sociological perspective?)
- How do you conceptualize gender currently? What is your starting point?
- What does gender feel like to you? How do you experience gender?
- “Connell 1987 Gender and Power” reading provides us some historical context for understanding how sociologists think about gender. (attached as file)
- How have sociologists (and others) thought about gender in the past? What does Connell suggest as a way of thinking about gender and how is it similar to/different from others?
- What kinds of things do you think belong in a theory of gender? What questions should it address? What should it attempt to explain?
“West Zimmerman 1987 Doing Gender” reading is attached as a file.
- What does it mean to understand gender as a “routine accomplishment embedded in everyday interaction”? (125)
- What is the difference between sex, sex category, and gender? Why do West & Zimmerman (W&Z) find it important to distinguish between them?
- How is W&Z’s trio of concepts (sex, sex category, and gender) different from more widespread conceptualizations of sex, gender, and related ideas? (For example, if you’re familiar with the “genderbread person” model, how is W&Z’s model different?)
- Is it possible to NOT do gender? Why/why not?
- How is the idea of gender as an accomplishment different from the idea of gender as a role? Or from the idea of a display?
- What do W&Z mean by “accountability”? What does accountability look like in practice?
