| affirmative action | A set of public policies, plus initiatives, in both the public and private sectors that are designed to help eliminate past and present discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. Efforts are made to increase the numbers of qualified applicants to various positions so that formerly excluded people have a fair chance in seeking employment or participating in educational programs. Affirmative action includes giving hiring preference to white women or people of color over equally qualified white men. It does not include the hiring of under-qualified individuals, and it has typically involved quotas only when mandated by a court in order to redress gross past discrimination. Several courts are addressing the legality of affirmative action, and its future role is yet to be determined. [See Reading 50.]
|
 |
|
|
| androgynous/androgyny | The quality of possessing both masculine and feminine traits and/or exhibiting behaviors that were traditionally considered as only either masculine or feminine.
|
|
|
|
| bisexuality | Attraction to people of either sex. [See Reading 37]
|
|
|
|
| colorism | The tendency within a group to privilege lighter-skinned individuals. This includes incorporation of notions of white superiority into communities of color via prejudice against darker-skinned individuals.
|
|
|
|
| compulsory heterosexuality | The cultural mandate that people be heterosexual, and the assumed superiority and normality of heterosexuality; also referred to as heterosexism. Many believe that this mandate limits opportunities for both heterosexual and gay/lesbian/bisexual individuals to express their sexuality freely.
|
|
|
|
| Equal Rights Amendment | The proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would guarantee equal rights for women in all areas of life. First introduced in 1923, it was finally passed by Congress in 1972 and was sent to the states for ratification. It was passed by only 36 (of the needed 39) states by the ratification deadline in 1982, so it failed to become law.
|
|
|
|
| feminism | A handy definition of feminism emerged in the early days of the second wave of the women's movement: Feminism is the "radical" notion that women are human. This notion has not yet been fully embraced in the United States, as is illustrated by the failure to pass the Equality Rights Amendment, as well as by the high rates of violence against women, wage discrimination, etc. [See also Equal Rights Amendment and women's rights movement.]
|
|
|
|
| gender | The expectations for male and female behavior in the social contexts in which a person lives.
|
|
|
|
| gender-identity disorder | The diagnosis applied to a person who behaves too much like members of the gender to which they have not been assigned, or to a person who identifies as a member of the other sex. When the American Psychiatric Association eliminated homosexuality as an illness, gender identity disorder was added as a new diagnosis. Thus, it is no longer an "illness" to be gay or lesbian or bisexual, so long as you act like the gender to which you have been assigned. Members of the transgender movement are working politically to have this diagnosis eliminated in order to destigmatize and invite a wide range of gender expressions, however atypical they may be.
|
|
|
|
| gender socialization | Patterns of behavior taught to children and adults in order to help them learn to behave as acceptable females or males. It begins at birth via naming, clothing, and treatment of the infant, and it continues to be taught and reinforced throughout life within most social institutions. [See also sex and social construction of gender.]
|
|
|
|
| hegemonic masculinity | The dominant, white, heterosexual, patriarchal, privileged masculinity that controls many aspects of people's lives. It includes a tough, take-charge, don't-feel image of masculinity that frequently dominates male socialization even when other forms of masculinity are present.
|
|
|
|
| heterosexism | See compulsory heterosexuality.
|
|
|
|
| heterosexuality | Attraction to people of the opposite sex.
|
|
|
|
| homophobia | Fear of, hatred toward, or prejudice/discrimination against people who identify as gay, lesbian, or bisexual. In some contexts, it is also used to refer to men's fear of judgment or humiliation by other men even when sex per se is not a factor in the interaction.
|
|
|
|
| homosexuality/lesbianism | Attraction to people of the same sex.
|
|
|
|
| intersecting identities | No one lives with simply one identity. Everyone has an array of identities that intersect within her or him; some identities are privileged, others oppressed. Thus, a person might be white, male, economically comfortable, and disabled. Another might be able-bodied, female, bisexual, and Asian American.
|
|
|
|
| intersex | A sex that lies somewhere on the continuum between female and male. This occurs approximately once in every 1,500 - 2,000 births. Most intersex infants are reassigned female; such reassignment is often accompanied by genital reconstruction surgery.
|
|
|
|
| Islam/Muslim | The original meaning of "Islam" is the acceptance of a view or a condition which previously was not accepted. In the language of the Holy Quran, Islam means the readiness of a person to take orders from God and to follow them. "Muslim" is a word taken from the word Islam. It applies to the person who is ready to take orders from God and follow them.
|
|
|
|
| men's liberation | A philosophy and a social movement designed to liberate men from oppressive aspects of male gender socialization; a complement to women's liberation.
|
|
|
|
| men's movements | Several men's movements are active in the United States today. Some are focused on feminism; others not. Examples include the pro-feminist National Organization for Men Against Sexism, whose goals include the equality and liberation of all oppressed people; the mythopoetic men's movement, designed to work toward liberating men from oppressive and restricting aspects of male gender socialization and facilitating male bonding; the Christian men's movement (e.g., Promisekeepers), which encourages men to take responsibility for their families in a traditionally male-dominant way; and the Men's Rights Movement, which is very critical of feminism, being convinced that women's liberation limits men's rights.
|
|
|
|
| men's studies | The field of study that focuses on men's experiences as men and that challenges existing concepts of gender. It complements women's studies.
|
|
|
|
| metrosexual | An urban male with a strong aesthetic sense who spends a great deal of time and money on his appearance and lifestyle.
|
|
|
|
| multiracial feminism | An approach to feminism developed by women of color that incorporates the wide range of women's and men's experiences, acknowledges intersecting identities of privilege and oppression, explores the structural sources of diversity and oppression, and leads to multiple understandings of what it means to be a woman or a man in various racial, ethnic, and class contexts. Multiracial feminism assumes that generalizing from one cultural group to another is likely to be inaccurate. [See Reading 8.]
|
|
|
|
| patriarchy | A social system in which the father is the head of the family and men have authority over women and children. A patriarchy can also include a family, community, or society based on this system or governed by men.
A social structure in which women are systematically subjected to sex discrimination and sexual oppression in various ways - including rape, incest, and other violence; limited literacy or education; blocked access to political participation and power; limited economic resources (e.g., basic housing, health care, and food); forced marriage; lack of reproductive rights or freedom; compulsory heterosexuality; and genital mutilation. A movement arguing for the elimination of these oppressions is struggling to define women's rights as human rights. [See reading 9]
|
|
|
|
| privilege | Obvious or subtle advantage. Those with privilege are often unaware of how they enjoy it and/or how they use it to their advantage. Possessing high-status identities such as whiteness, substantial income/wealth, or a healthy, well-functioning mind and body is often treated as "normal," while absence of such identities is considered abnormal, deviant, or insufficient. [See Reading 6]
|
|
|
|
| queer | A term used for a wide range of variation in sexual orientation and gender identity. It encompasses people who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender. [See also transgender and sexual orientation as well as Readings 15 and 16.]
|
|
|
|
| reconstruction of knowledge | A phrase used by philosopher Elizabeth Minnich and others to describe the need to rebuild knowledge systems in order to incorporate a wider range of human experience and to eliminate faulty logic when describing that experience. For example, the assumptions that men's experiences apply to women or that white women's experiences apply to women of color are errors that need correction.
|
|
|
|
| second shift/double day | The many hours of work that women do at home following a day of paid labor. Most women spend considerably more time performing housework and childcare than men do.
|
|
|
|
| sex | Physical attributes (e.g., chromosomes, hormones, genital appearance) that determine whether infants are assigned male or female at birth. [See also gender and intersex.]
|
|
|
|
| sex discrimination | See sex segregation.
|
|
|
|
| sex roles | See social construction of gender.
|
|
|
|
| sex segregation | The separation of women and men in various contexts - on playgrounds, in schools, in religious institutions, in workplaces, etc. This is frequently caused by sex discrimination in which women are denied access to traditionally male spaces. Their lack of access to high-paying, traditionally male jobs explains women's lower incomes in many situations.
|
|
|
|
| sexual harassment | Unwanted sexual attention of various kinds: demand for sexual favors in exchange for promotions or admission to educational or occupational settings; hostile or offensive atmosphere characterized by sexualized comments, objects, or images. Sexual harassment is considered a form of sex discrimination, although same-sex sexual harassment has also been found unacceptable by the Supreme Court. Sexual harassment does not include mutually acceptable flirting, unless the latter is offensive to a third party. Unlike most other kinds of discrimination, it is victim-defined - thus, a behavior defined as unwanted by one person might be defined as acceptable by another.
|
|
|
|
| sexual orientation | Sexual orientation refers generally to the gender of people to whom one is sexually attracted. Although, typically, this encompasses heterosexuality (attraction to people of the opposite sex), bisexuality (attraction to people of either sex), or homosexuality/lesbianism (attraction to people of the same sex), these terms can become confusing in the context of transgender issues. Thus, is a man who is married to a woman and who dates a male transvestite on the side straight or bisexual? A heterosexual man who becomes a woman and is still attracted to women is labeled a lesbian. Has his/her sexual orientation really changed? In Texas, a transsexual man who became a woman was allowed to marry her lesbian partner because she is genetically male even though she identifies as female. [See also transgender.]
|
|
|
|
| social construction of gender | A process by which gender differences are taught and reinforced in social interaction within social institutions (e.g., the family, schools, religious settings, workplaces, etc.). Thus, gender goes well beyond the simple learning of sex roles, embedded as it is in every aspect of social life. Male superiority characterizes most aspects of the institutions involved in the social construction of gender.
|
|
|
|
| sociological imagination | The possession of a sociological imagination allows a person to make sense of her or his life in the context of larger social and historical dynamics. This includes the ability to distinguish between difficulties that lie in the realm of the individual and his or her family (personal troubles) and difficulties that emerge from the larger social context (public issues). Solutions to problems can emerge once individuals and groups are able to understand the sources of their difficulties. [See also The personal is political.]
|
|
|
|
| Temporary Assistance for Needy Families | (TANF) The 1996 replacement for Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), the old version of welfare. For most recipients, this has meant the imposition of time limits and work requirements.
|
|
|
|
| The personal is political. | This phrase emerged in the beginning of the second wave of the feminist movement in the early 1970s and refers to the fact that most aspects of social interaction have a link to larger political and social issues. [See also the sociological imagination and women's rights movement.]
|
|
|
|
| Title VII | Title VII of the 1964 federal Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination in employment on the basis of race, religion, sex, or national origin. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) was established with the passage of Title VII and given the mandate to investigate discrimination complaints.
|
|
|
|
| Title IX | Title IX is part of the federal Education Codes passed in 1972; it guarantees equal access to educational programs, including athletics.
|
|
|
|
| transgender | An umbrella term that encompasses any transgression of the expectations for a particular gender. It includes masculine women, feminine men, women or men who identify as a gender different from the one in which they were raised, transsexuals, transvestites, intersexuals, etc. [See also trans liberation as well as Reading 66.]
|
|
|
|
| trans liberation | A term coined by Leslie Feinberg to describe the movement to transcend gender barriers in the interest of expressing the rich array of human identity and experience that can exist when people are free from gender rules. [See also transgender.]
|
|
|
|
| transsexual | A person who becomes the other sex. Frequently this involves hormone treatment, surgery, and/or hair removal, along with dressing as the other gender and taking on a new name and identity. [See also sexual orientation.]
|
|
|
|
| white privilege | The unearned privilege that accompanies having white skin in the United States and many other Eurocentric contexts. Many white people, raised to define whiteness as "normal," are not fully conscious of the comfort and ease that accompany being white.
|
|
|
|
| women's rights movement | The movement for women's equality has been characterized by three waves of activity. The first wave began in 1848 and ultimately focused on the struggle for the vote, which was attained in 1920 after 72 years of work. The second wave, known more commonly as the women's liberation movement, began in the 1960s and early 1970s and continued into the 1990s. It was characterized by individual and collective empowerment strategies, many of which continue today. These strategies include the development of anti-discrimination legislation and policy focusing especially on abortion rights, prevention of violence against women, gender equality in employment and education, policies against sexual harassment, etc. (see also Title VII; Title IX; affirmative action; sexual harassment); conscious-raising groups designed to help women empower themselves in their personal lives and understand how forces in the wider social order affect individual lives (see also The personal is political.); the growth of large women's organizations such as the National Organization for Women, the National Women's Studies Association, the National Women's Health Network, the Black Women's Health Network, the National Welfare Rights Organization, and the Feminist Majority Foundation, among others; the development of a network of services for women including rape crisis centers, health centers (e.g., birth control, family planning, and abortion services), shelters for battered women, childcare centers, women's newspapers, women's bookstores, feminist counseling centers, and multipurpose women's centers; the growth of women's studies departments in colleges and universities; increased awareness of the situations of women worldwide; and the increasing involvement of women in politics and political office. The third wave began in the 1990s, led by young feminists involved in publishing feminist books and magazines addressing the needs of girls and young women, and in mobilizing young activists to fight inequality based on age, gender, sexual orientation, economic status, or level of education. The Third Wave Foundation had about 5,000 members in 2002 (www.thirdwavefoundation.org).
|
|
|
|
| women's studies | An interdisciplinary field of study focusing on women's experiences. Since its beginning, it has focused on analyzing patriarchy and women's limited power worldwide; bringing women's voices into areas of knowledge where they were previously absent; building theoretical explanations for women's lower status in most of the world; and working actively for the empowerment of all women and for their ultimate equality as human beings. Increasing attention to all kinds of women across differences of age, social class, race, culture, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, and ability has helped scholars and students to better understand the experiences of women around the globe. [See also multiracial feminism.]
|
2006 McGraw-Hill Higher Education