Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- I Basic Concepts
- II Applications
- 5 The Upper Class and the Elite
- 6 The Middle Class and Workers
- 7 The Working Poor and the Underclass
- 8 Social Mobility
- 9 Education and Inequality
- 10 Women and Their Changing Positions
- 11 Race and Ethnicity
- 12 Culture
- 13 Inequality across the Globe
- 14 Public Policy and Social Stratification
- Index
- References
10 - Women and Their Changing Positions
from II - Applications
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- I Basic Concepts
- II Applications
- 5 The Upper Class and the Elite
- 6 The Middle Class and Workers
- 7 The Working Poor and the Underclass
- 8 Social Mobility
- 9 Education and Inequality
- 10 Women and Their Changing Positions
- 11 Race and Ethnicity
- 12 Culture
- 13 Inequality across the Globe
- 14 Public Policy and Social Stratification
- Index
- References
Summary
Is There a Difference between Sex and Gender?
Before we discuss the sociology of sex stratification, we first must address the definitions of sex and gender. Some might ask, “Are the two not the same? There are two sexes and men are masculine and women are feminine, right?” This common perception fails to acknowledge the complexities associated with both sex and gender.
The birth of a child is most often a glorious occasion. Modern technology provides the opportunity to know the sex of the child before it is born, allowing family members to adorn the world of the newborn child in pink or blue. We take for granted that children are born either a boy or a girl, that there are only two possible sex categories. It seems simple: According to modern biology, a child is born with two sex chromosomes. If the chromosomes are XX, the child is female; if they are XY, the child is male – but what about babies that are born with a different chromosomal composition?
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- InequalityA Contemporary Approach to Race, Class, and Gender, pp. 381 - 416Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2012