Four Theories Of Gender Analysis

The four theories of gender that Risman describes are gendered selves, structure versus personality, doing gender, and gender as structure. The first one that she discusses is gendered selves. This theory believes that gender is based on one’s biology or socialization. Risman also discusses this through the mention of sociobiology, which studies the environment and biology and the effects they have on society (293). In the second theory, she discusses structure versus personality, which is that men and women are different due to their occupations that are different as well. The third theory Risman writes about is doing gender. In this theory, she relates to West and Zimmerman, and that within interactions one will typically conform to the norms. The last one mentioned is gender as structure. She believes that gender is a structure which every aspect of society faces consequences. Furthermore, the three consequences that Risman believes society faces through this theory are at the individual level, the interactional level, and then at the institutional level …show more content…
Doing so, we can explain this scenario. The first level in this structure is the individual level, which is related to gendered selves. Tom acted this way towards Betsy because growing up and likely throughout his life, women answered phones or better put, were secretary like, so it was what he knew. The second level is the interactional level, which is related to doing gender. Betsy easily conforms to society’s norms when answering the call. The third and final one is institutional, which is like structure versus personality. As Betsy mentions this is typical of how men in “High Tech Corporation treat women.”, she is not incorrect (Martin 2003 pg. 46). While they have the same job, she is expected to go the extra mile to answer the