West And Zimmerman Gender

Like race, gender is an overarching classification system that society uses to organize its members that can vary across culture and time (West and Zimmerman). Rather than being a discrete role or variable, West and Zimmerman describe gender as a serious of behaviours and interactions that reinforce or are in opposition to sex categorization, which in western cultures is made up of the “essential” distinctions between male and female (West and Zimmerman). Although gender is an arbitrary social construct, society as a whole function under the assumption “of the fact that men are men and women are women-a division perceived to be natural and rooted in biology” (W & Z p.328). These perceived differences have allowed society to divide “labor into …show more content…
Throughout history and up to the modern time, women’s labor has been regulated to unpaid, domestic housework and low-skill/low-paid jobs that are typically under-appreciated and devalued by society (Class discussion). Collins explains how working class women, of both European and African descent, “rely on common sense and intuition” as a form of knowing and understanding the world, as opposed to men who rely more so on education and higher authorities (which are typically male-dominated fields) (Collins). Our society values higher authority and education more highly than it does common sense and intuition and thus the “ways of knowing” for men is valued more than for working class women (Collins). Essentially, while necessary for society to function, the way that labor has been divided between the “genders” has regulated women into historically weaker economic position compared to men. This created economic inequality between men and women that helped to foster women’s reliance on a relationship with men. In more modern times, economic inequality “between the genders” has lessened as women are freer in variety of roles society deems is acceptable for them to