2. Gender
Gender – “a culture’s
assumptions about
the differences
between men and
women: their
‘characters,’ the
roles they play in
society, what they
represent.”
- Domosh and
Seager
3. • Gender is a social as well as
biological difference.
• Modernization has reduced the
inequalities but has NOT
eliminated them.
• Even in Europe & the US
equality has NOT been
achieved.
• UK, India, Israel, Pakistan &
the Philippines have had
female leaders=the US has not
• Wages & barriers to economic
& social advancement are
found in the political and
corporate realm
4. Gender Inequality
• Women make 80 c. to the Male dollar-even accounting
for time off to raise kids.
• Over her career, the average U.S. woman loses $1.2 m.
to wage inequity.
• Every industrialized nation except US & Australia have
paid parental leave with a guaranteed job upon return
• Women over 65 are twice as likely to be poor as men.
• Women chose jobs closer to home
• Occupational segregation-women have less chance to
advance-take lower paying jobs in more restricted
locations
• Male dominance is a world-wide phenomenon
• In general Western women are better off than elsewhere
5. Female–Male Income Differences
Fig. 9-11: Women’s income is lower than men’s in all countries, but the gender gap is
especially high in parts of the Middle East, South Asia, and Latin America.
6. Demography & Health
• On average women live 4
yrs. longer than men
• Core countries-5 to 7 yrs.
Longer
• World Bank=Africa +3 yrs,
South America & Europe,
US + 6 yrs.
• Women less likely to:
– Smoke
– Drink
– Eat too much
– Drive too fast
– Have very high stress
7. Quality of Life-Maternal Mortality Rates
• Western World rate is
5/100,000
• South Asia has highest
maternity mortality
rates=650/100,000
• Reasons:
– Inadequate medical care
– Excessive number of
pregnancies
– Malnutrition
– Lack of adequate birth
control
8. Female Infanticide-India
• India-gender detection tests
often result in aborted
females-the ratio of men to
women in India is
widening.
• Although outlawed-dowry
still exists in India-families
with sons receive payments
from the bride’s parents
• Dowry deaths are common
• Laws against female
infanticide & dowry deaths
exist-but are not being
enforced.
9. Women in India
• Hindu culture attaches
great importance to the
male dominated family.
• Hinduism teaches a
reverence for all life-yet
girls are still forced into
arranged marriages-
disputes over dowries
“Bride Price” often
results in the death of the
young bride.
• Many dowry deaths are
reported as “kitchen
accidents” and never
investigated.
10. Dowry Deaths in India
- murders of brides (often by burning) when a dispute arises over a
dowry. Difficult to “legislate away” the power relationships that lead to
dowry deaths-female infanticide is also tied to the disempowerment of
women
11. China
• China’s traditional attitude
toward women-a burden
• Female infanticide was a
common rural practice-but
after the One Child Policy-it
rose in urban areas as well.
• Abortions in China are legal
after gender identification
tests
• Millions of female infants
die of food depravation,
denial of medical care,
abandonment or murder
12. Informal Economy –private, often home-based activities
such as tailoring, beer brewing, food preparation, or
vegetable gardening.
13. Women in
Subsaharan Africa
- populate much of the rural
areas, as men migrate to cities
for work.
- produce 70% of the region’s
food.
- only a small percentage of
women have legal title to their
land.
14. Family and Social Conditions
• Great contrast in treatment
of boys & girls that puts
females at a physical &
psychological disadvantage
• Many girls have to work 7
or mores hours a day as
children-married off as
early as possible;
– Mauritania 39% girls married
by age 15, 15% had children
– Bangladesh-73% married by
age 15, 21% had 1 child by
age 15
15. Women in Muslim Countries
• Many women in traditional
or fundamentalist Islamic
states live in isolation and
servitude.
• Iran, Afghanistan &
elsewhere women’s rights
have eroded.
• Ayatollah Khomeini’s 1979
Revolution in Iran created a
theocracy
• Taliban took over
Afghanistan in 1997 &
took women out of public
life
16. Education & Opportunity
• Education is the key to
remove gender gap.
• In India, over all illiteracy is
55%, for women it is 65% to
75%
• Progress in education &
literacy lags in South Asia &
Sub-Saharan Africa
• There is also a sharp contrast
between urban & rural areas
• Barriers remain in certain
professions-even in the West
17. Economy & Productivity
• Women in the periphery
produce over ½ the food,
build homes, dig wells, plant
& harvest crops, make
clothes, etc.
• Women in Africa work hard:
– Cultivating corn & staple
crops
– Walk long distances for water
– Gather firewood
– Take care of the children
– Cook the meals
18. Women in the Labor Force
• Core Nations-35% to 39%
of the labor force are
women
• Middle & South America
about 24% to 29% of the
labor force are women
• Sub-Saharan Africa-37%
are women-about 80%
work on plantations.
• Asia about 50% of the
labor force are women-
mostly on farms
19. Politics & Public Life
• US & Canada did not grant
enfranchisement to women
until 1920.
• Several women have been
leaders of their nations-but
no woman has ever ran or
been elected as President of
the US
• US-half of all voters are
women:
– yet only 8/100 Senators are
women
– 2/50 governors are women
– 53/435 House members are
women
20. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf
President of Liberia
Elected with a stunning 60 %
of the vote
This Harvard-educated
Grandmother, the first
woman
elected to lead an African
country faces huge
challenges
Nov. 2005 election
21. Race –a categorization of humans based on skin color and
other physical characteristics. Racial categories are social and
political constructions because they are based on ideas that
some biological differences are more important than others.
22. The Human Race
• Technically race is not a
correct term-since we are
all the same race or
species-human.
• Example-all dogs are the
same species-yet great
variation in size, color,
shape, etc.-FAR LESS
VARIETY IN HUMANS.
• Human subspecies exhibit
a difference in gene
frequency-e.g. northern
Europe-blue-eyed
dominant, southern Europe
brown-eyed is dominant
23. Four Basic Human Stocks
• Negroid stock from
African sources
• Australoid stock of
Southeast Asia origins
• Mongoloid stock which
arose in East Asia
• Caucasoid stock from
Southwest Asia &
European sources
• These stocks are based on
skin color, physique,
facial shape and hair style
24. Skin Color
• Skin color is determined by melanin or pigment-dark
skin originated in low latitudes-light skin originated at
high latitudes.
• Melanin is a pigment that protects the inner layers of
skin from damage from ultraviolet rays.
• Darker skin produces more vitamin D.
• Skin color not a reliable indicator of racial relationships-
e.g. Aboriginal Australians & Sub-Saharan Africans are
dark-skinned, but not closely related genetically.
• Why do Tropical South Americans have lighter skin than
Tropical Africans?-Arrival time-South American
indigenous population arrive there between 13,000 to
30,000 years ago-thus not enough time for more melanin
development.
25. Physique & Physical Traits
• Bergmann’s Rule-people in
warmer climates tend to be
more slender-people in cooler
climates tend to be more squat-
this also applies to animals
• Heads-cephalic index-ratio of
width & length of skull-
Europeans—long heads,
Japanese—round heads.
• Noses-warm, moist climates—
short,wide, flat noses; Low
latitudes deserts, high latitude
dry zones—long narrow noses
26. Physique & Physical Traits
• Hair- general tendency;
Asians—straight hair;
Europeans—curly hair,
African—wooly hair.
• Eyes-epicanthic folds-
small piece of overlapping
skin that give the eyelid a
distinctive appearance-the
fold is present in East
Asians, South African San
people and Native
Americans
27. Race as a Social Category
• Race is more difficult to use as a social category due to
increased mixing of races.
• In Africa-darkness of pigmentation is still the basis of
“racial” divisions, to some degree in India-Aryan,
Dravidian.
• Racism-a belief that your race is superior to others-
– Apartheid in South Africa ended in the 1990s
– Racial Segregation in the US not banned-but still de facto
28. On Racism and Colonialism -
“Colonial racism was a major element in that conception of
‘Empire’ which attempted to weld dynastic legitimacy and
national community. It did so by generalizing a principle of
innate, inherited superiority on which its own domestic
position was (however shakily) based on the vastness of
overseas possessions, covertly (or not so covertly) conveying
the idea that if, say, English lords were naturally superior to
other Englishmen, no matter: these other Englishmen were no
less superior to the subjected natives.” - Benedict Anderson
29. • Racial Categories are typically imposed on people
through:
– Residential segregation-(Milwaukee, Detroit)
– Racialized divisions of labor
– Racial categories defined by governments
30. Population in the U.S. by Race, 2000
In 2000, the U.S. Census Bureau allowed Americans to categorize themselves as one
race or more than one race.
31. Estimated
Percentage of U.S.
Population by
Race and
Ethnicity until
2050
In 2000, the U.S.
Census Bureau
calculated race and
Hispanic origin
separately. Estimates
are that by 2050, the
“White, non-Hispanic
population will no
longer be the majority.
32. Residential Segregation
• The “degree to which two or more groups live
separately from one another, in different parts of
the urban environment.”
– Massey and Denton
33. Highest Rate of
Residential
Segregation for
African
Americans:
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
34. Lowest Rate of Residential Segregation for
Hispanics/Latinos: Baltimore for Asians/Pacific Islanders:
Baltimore, Maryland
35. Identities in Neighborhoods change over time:
Invasion and Succession:
new immigrants to a city often move to areas occupied by older
immigrant groups.
36. Sense of Place
• We infuse places with
meaning and feeling, with
memories and emotions.
• Our sense of place becomes
part of our identity and our
identity affects the ways we
define and experience
place.
37. Ethnicity
• Ethnicity –
a constructed
identity that is tied
to a place … it is
often considered
“natural” because it
implies ancient
relations among
people over time.
38. Ethnic Patterns & Processes
• Ethnicity is NOT the same as
race, but it is as important.
• It is culture, NOT race, that
dominates the world’s patterns
today
• Ethnicity is more difficult to
define
– Shared cultural traits
– Common history
– Treasured cultural landscapes
– Perceived threat to language or
religion
39. Ethnic Mosaics
• Ethnic comes from the
Greek word for people or
nation “ethnos”
• Ethnic often used to
describe a neighborhood or
a cuisine.
• Ethnic enclaves are
common in urban areas;
“China Town,” “Little
Italy,” or “Little Mexico.”
• Racial or ethnic identity
often a matter of self “Welcome to
perception. Little Havana”
40. Ethnicities in Chicago
Fig. 7-5: African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, and European
Americans are clustered in different areas of the city.
41. Cultural Revival & Linkage
• Ethnic dispersal takes place-yet links to the old
neighborhood or homeland remain. This linkage is aided
by modern media & communication.
• African-Americans demonstrated against South African
apartheid.
• Irish-Americans sent money to support the I.R.A. in its
struggle against Britain.
42. Hispanic Americans in the U.S.
Fig. 7-2: The highest percentages of Hispanic Americans are in the southwest and
in northern cities.
43. African Americans in the U.S.
Fig. 7-1: The highest percentages of African Americans are in the rural South and in
northern cities.
44. Native Americans in the U.S.
Fig. 7-4: The highest percentages of Native Americans are in parts of the plains,
the southwest, and Alaska.
45. How does a place change when the people who live there
change?
46. Sexuality and Space
Where people
with a shared
identity
cluster, how
do they create
a space for
themselves?
47. Power
Relationships
• Power Relationships
assumptions and
structures about who
is in control, who
has power over
others.
Through power
relationships, people
create places where
they limit the access
of other peoples
Belfast, Northern Ireland
48. How do Power Relationships factor into
How People are Counted?
The U.S. Census undercounts:
- minority populations
- the homeless
The Gross National Income (GNI)
does not count:
- unpaid work of women in the household
- work done by rural women in poorer countries
49. • Ethnic Groups in Los
Angeles
• Barrioization – when
the population of a
neighborhood changes
over largely to
Hispanics.
• cultural landscapes
change to reflect
changing populations
• strife is usually tied to
economic change
