Deck 11: Gender Stratification

Question 1

Murdock s study of preliterate societies found that females were usually engaged in:

A) clearing land for farming.
B) gathering food.
C) trapping.
D) stone working.
E) hunting as men farmed.

Answer 1

B

Question 2

According to the functionalist model of the modern family, males are expected to be:

A) dominant.
B) passive.
C) nurturing.
D) loving.
E) thoughtful.

Answer 2

A

Question 3

Patriarchal ideology:

A) affirms sexual equality.
B) states women are superior to men.
C) declares inherent male superiority.
D) is used to support the women s movement.
E) seeks to affirm the fundamental rights of both males and females.

Answer 3

C

Question 4

Sociobiologists take the position that social behavior in people:

A) is the same as that of animals.
B) is the same as that of other primates.
C) has a genetic basis.
D) is inherently aggressive.
E) is conditioned through reinforcement.

Question 5

Which term refers to the social, psychological, and cultural attributes of men and women?

A) sex
B) gender
C) androgyny
D) socialization
E) culture

Question 6

What are the findings regarding heart attacks and gender?

A) Men are more likely to suffer heart attacks.
B) More women than men die each year from heart disease.
C) Among those who survive a heart attack, more women die in the next year compared with men.
D) all of the above
E) none of the above

Question 7

What did Comte, the founder of modern sociology, write about women?

A) Women are the mental and physical inferiors of men.
B) Women are inferior to men in the realms of emotion, love, and morality.
C) Sexual equality would be dangerous to women.
D) Progress would result from confining women increasingly to the home.
E) all of the above

Question 8

Functionalists argue that the family functions best when:

A) the father assumes the instrumental role and the mother the expressive role.
B) each parent performs relatively similar roles.
C) the father assumes both the instrumental and expressive roles.
D) the mother assumes the instrumental role and the father the expressive role.
E) fathers are away from the home functioning in the economic-provider role.

Question 9

In traditional India, women are cut off from the outside world because they:

A) are considered strongly erotic and therefore threatening.
B) are considered to be morally superior.
C) are perceived to be emotionally inferior and incapable of handling public life.
D) have no place in the Hindu religion and therefore cannot participate in society.
E) all of the above

Question 10

A patriarchal ideology is:

A) the study of powerful males in past societies.
B) the belief that there are differences in the social behavior of men and women.
C) an attempt to find a genetic basis for human behavior.
D) the belief that men are superior to women and should control all aspects of society.
E) a genetic program in the human species which influences gender roles.

Question 11

_________ is much more common among women than men.

A) Alzheimer s disease
B) Depression
C) Osteoporosis
D) all of the above
E) none of the above

Question 12

Critics of the functionalist view of gender argue that:

A) instrumental roles are not necessary in a family.
B) expressive roles are far more important to a group than was previously thought.
C) cross-cultural studies show that gender stratification is not inevitable.
D) gender roles in modern industrial society are equal.
E) gender roles are always equal in preliterate societies.

Question 13

In her pioneering research, Margaret Mead found that:

A) male and female behavior varied only slightly among tribal groups.
B) gender differences in the New Guinea were identical to those in the U.S.
C) primitive tribes had gender identities that resembled primates.
D) gender differences were largely the result of biology.
E) male and female behavior varied greatly due to differing cultural expectations.

Question 14

Ethologists study:

A) human sexual behavior.
B) abnormal human behavior.
C) animal behavior.
D) sexual behavior in animals.
E) early cultural artifacts.

Question 15

Most sociologists agree that:

A) culture is central in shaping gender roles, but only in preliterate societies.
B) biological factors have some influence, but cultural factors are more important determinants of gender roles.
C) biological factors are influential in determining gender roles, but only in industrial or complex societies.
D) biological factors only explain differences between men and women with regard to aggression and disease.
E) there is no difference between the influences of culture or biology on the development of gender roles, as they are unpredictable.

Question 16

According to conflict theorists:

A) males and females are equally exploited by the economic structure.
B) males have greater control over key resources than females.
C) as long as men benefit from gender inequality, they have little incentive to change it.
D) there is no possibility that there will ever be gender-role equality.
E) both b and c

Question 17

Which of the following is true of the American medical community s historical treatment of women?

A) Medical schools taught about disease and treatment almost exclusively in terms of a male model.
B) Few women were included in clinical trials of health interventions.
C) Diseases affecting primarily women received a smaller research budget.
D) all of the above
E) none of the above

Question 18

Critics of sociobiology assert that:

A) cultural factors have to be accounted for among nonhuman primates.
B) sex differences have no biological basis.
C) gender differences do not exist among nonhuman primates.
D) it is not valid to generalize from animal to human behavior.
E) none of the above

Question 19

Functionalists argue that:

A) the division of labor between men and women is efficient in preindustrial societies.
B) women have to look after children because men are out making a living.
C) men are dependent on women for food.
D) men and women should be rewarded equally.
E) women are inherently more adept at raising children compared to men.

Question 20

Gender is best understood as what type of status?

A) achieved
B) ascribed
C) ideal
D) peripheral
E) sexual

Question 21

In which areas do women outnumber men?

A) the number awarded bachelor s degrees
B) the number awarded masters degrees
C) the number awarded law degrees
D) both a and b
E) a, b, and c

Question 22

On the average, women with college degrees earn:

A) more than men with college degrees.
B) about the same as men with college degrees.
C) only slightly more than men with high school diplomas.
D) about the same as women with high school diplomas.
E) substantially less than men with college diplomas.

Question 23

Today, approximately what percent of all American women are in the paid labor force?

A) 20%
B) 33%
C) 45%
D) 60%
E) 75%

Question 24

Compared with working men, working women:

A) consistently earn less.
B) are less likely to be in unions.
C) are more likely to occupy low-paying jobs.
D) all of the above
E) none of the above

Question 25

If men own and control more private property than women, the result is that:

A) men will politically and socially dominate women.
B) men will be poorer because women must be supported by men.
C) women will develop political power through their traditional roles.
D) women will pursue education as an alternative to owning property.
E) men will leave property to women over time leading to greater equality.

Question 26

What factor does a conflict theorist see as the basis for gender inequality?

A) biology
B) economics
C) politics
D) psychology
E) environment

Question 27

Which of the following is a profession dominated by women?

A) elementary school teachers
B) nurses
C) receptionists
D) all of the above
E) none of the above

Question 28

Women earn less than men in:

A) the medical field.
B) technical fields.
C) the legal field.
D) management.
E) almost every occupation.

Question 29

In adolescent socialization, boys are:

A) encouraged to compete and prepared for occupational roles.
B) almost missing from the bottom of test scorers.
C) taught it is okay to be tentative about the future.
D) taught not to worry about the division of labor in their homes.

Question 30

The lifelong process whereby people learn the values, attitudes, motivations, and behavior considered appropriate for each sex in their culture is known as:

A) gender-role socialization.
B) cultural socialization.
C) gender identification.
D) sex-role determination.
E) sexual processing.

Question 31

Engels stated that:

A) hunting and gathering societies had the most gender inequality.
B) capitalist societies were more egalitarian than other societies.
C) gender inequality had lessened under capitalism.
D) only socialism could eliminate gender inequality.
E) all of the above

Question 32

In traditional Hinduism in India:

A) a woman could not inherit property.
B) property acquired by the wife belonged to the husband.
C) woman would be banished if she had no children within eight years of marriage.
D) a woman would be repudiated if all of her children were girls.
E) all of the above

Question 33

According to Erik Erikson, the most important task in adolescent socialization is:

A) becoming committed to an occupation.
B) developing trust in others.
C) establishing a sense of identity.
D) becoming assertive.

Question 34

Traditionally, adolescent girls have been rewarded for their:

A) career goals.
B) marriage goals.
C) religious beliefs.
D) athletic prowess.

Question 35

Social psychologist Erik Erikson argued that in Western society it is more difficult for girls than boys to:

A) achieve a positive identity.
B) learn to moderate their innate aggression.
C) learn to be nurturing.
D) develop behaviors to attract a suitable mate.

Question 36

The main cause of medical science dedicating more equal study to women s issues is:

A) women physicians successfully pursuing more research about their own gender.
B) changes in federal law making it illegal to exclude women from medical research.
C) private foundations providing more money for research about women s health.
D) women becoming a huge market for the health care industries, which need good science.
E) popular television shows calling for activist protest over the lack of research dedicated to women as subjects.

Question 37

Which of the following is NOT one of the ways women experience discrimination in the business world?

A) During the hiring process, women are given jobs with lower occupational prestige than men with equivalent qualifications.
B) Women receive less pay than men for equivalent work.
C) Women are fired more often than men.
D) Women find it more difficult than men to advance up the career ladder.
E) Women are positively sanctioned for motherhood.

Question 38

Jobs dominated by women emphasize which cultural behavior?

A) risk taking
B) nurturance
C) competitiveness
D) mathematical expertise
E) executive decision making

Question 39

Which of the following is NOT true of the way women use language, according to the research of Deborah Tannen?

A) Women use language to create intimacy.
B) Women use language to establish connections with others.
C) Women are acutely aware of the status differences implied in the speaking styles.
D) Women use conversation to share mutual understandings about their everyday problems.
E) These are all ways in which women use language, according to Tannen.

Question 40

Research indicates that a core gender identity seems to be established:

A) at birth.
B) within the first year of life.
C) by the second or third year.
D) at puberty.
E) within the first few weeks a child is with adults.

Question 41

Gender refers to the physical and biological differences between men and women.

Question 42

Sex roles are ascribed, while gender roles are primarily achieved.

Question 43

While women suffer from a greater range of illnesses than men, men are much more likely to die or suffer serious disability from the illnesses they get.

Question 44

Despite the progress women have made entering into the labor market, two professional positions that women still dominate are relatively low-paying nursing and elementary-school teaching.

Question 45

According to Deborah Tannen, men are equally comfortable with public and private language.

Question 46

Ethology is the scientific study of the genetic sources of human behavior.

Question 47

If Frankie was mistakenly classified as male at birth and was socialized as a male, it would be a relatively easy task to re-socialize Frankie as female.

Question 48

Men and women differ in how well they need to know the person before having sex. Women prefer to know the partner longer than men prefer to know the partner.

Question 49

Critics of sociobiology argue that gender identities are influenced much more powerfully by cultural learning than by the imprint of biology.

Question 50

According to Deborah Tannen, women use language primarily to create connections with others, whereas men use language mainly to convey information.

Question 51

People often pay attention to information contributed by a man but ignore the identical information presented by a woman.

Question 52

Despite the fact that men are reported to seek sex more than women, research suggests that women actually expect a greater number of sexual partners than men throughout their lifetime.

Question 53

Research by Deborah Tannen concluded that since female talk was nicer than men s, males should adopt a more feminine talk style.

Question 54

Sociobiologists believe that much of human social behavior is genetically determined.

Question 55

In a recent study, when asked the question, Would you go to bed with me tonight? 75% of the male subjects said yes, while the remaining 25% asked for a rain check as they had to meet their girlfriend.

Question 56

Men react more slowly but more intensely to stress than women.

Question 57

While females outlive males in the United States, they do not do so elsewhere in the world.

Question 58

Despite progress, women still dominate low-paying fields.

Question 59

According to traditional Islam, a woman can improve her status by inheriting her husband s property at his death and passing it on to his children.

Question 60

With few exceptions, men are sick more often than women.

Question 61

Most sociologists believe the way people are socialized has a greater effect on their gender identities than do biological factors.

Question 62

What is the relationship between patriarchal ideology and social organization? How has this impacted relationships between men and women? Provide examples. Can you extent these example to your own experience at worship, work, or school?

Question 63

Describe at least two ways in which males and females are socialized differently in childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. How do these patterns in socialization have effects on the society?

Question 64

In the Western world, patriarchal ideology relies on the Judeo-Christian version of the origins and proper roles of men and women.

Question 65

Men s responses to stress put greater pressure on the blood vessels and the heart than women s responses.

Question 66

Women s status appears to be lowest in those societies that firmly differentiate between a private domestic sphere and a public sphere of power and authority.

Question 67

Contrast and compare the functionalist and conflict explanations of gender inequality. Which one better explains women s role within the family? within the economy? Could you use both perspectives in the same analysis? Explain your reasoning.

Question 68

Engels argued that men dominate women in capitalist societies because they control private property.

Question 69

Women lose estrogen after menopause, while men continue to produce estrogen that helps brain function.

Question 70

The greatest threat to female health worldwide is gender-based violence.

Question 71

The current view among scientists is that people are not gender-neutral at birth and are predisposed to be male or female.

Question 72

The work of Margaret Mead is in large part responsible for recognizing the impact of culture on gender identity.

Question 73

Nordic countries have no paid maternity leave time like in the United States, but they achieve high gender equality.

Question 74

Research shows that the division of labor by sex occurs in all known societies.

Question 75

Summarize the factual information from the textbook about education differences between men and women. Will these patterns reshape American society? If so, how? Is the culture more conservative than the educational system? Assess potential and real changes in the society related to gender differences in education.

Question 76

Professions like elementary school teachers used to be predominately female careers, but are now dominated by men.

Question 77

More boys attend special education classes.

Question 78

Generally in the workplace, women who adopt a more subordinate manner exert more influence than women who adopt an assertive manner.

Question 79

More females graduate from undergraduate colleges and universities than do males.

Question 80

Choose three differences between men and women and contrast biological and sociological explanations for each one. Discuss the social ramifications of each argument.