Chapter 8

1. Chapter 8 Gender, Age, and Health

2. Gender and society • Sex • Male or Female • Biology • Gender is used by sociologists to describe the cultural, psychological, and social traits associated with a biological sex • These traits are either masculine or feminine

3. Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus • How much of the differentiation of the genders is based on biology? Society? • Are differences learned or are they inborn? • Are differences based on biology?

4. Biology and plumbing • It used to be theorized that males will naturally aggressive and females were naturally docile (maternal instinct) • What we know of the biological role • Chromosomes • Each human has 23 pairs • Sex chromosome determines male or female • XX for Female • XY for Male • Father determines the sex • Hormones • Chemical substances in the body that stimulate or inhibit chemical processes • Female hormones are estrogen and progesterone • Male hormones are testosterone and androgen • Hormones influence behavior, they do not determine behavior

5. Cultural and Psychological Differences • Sociologists tend to side with the belief that social influences tend to play a far greater role in determining gender • All societies have norms that determine how genders are supposed to act • Gender roles are the particular attitudes and behaviors a society establishes for men and women

6. The New Guinea Study by Anthropologist Margaret Mead • Mead lived with three groups in New Guinea • Arapesh, Tchambuli, and Mundugumor • Arapesh had considerate and loving men and women • Both were responsible for care of children and hunting • Mundugumor men and women were violent toward each other • Tchambuli women were dominant over men and provided for their families • Men provided child care and were emotional • Matrilineal society • Female kinship descent for issues of inheritance and other important factors are based upon the female • From this study, Mead concluded that masculine and feminine roles were taught by culture and not inherited

7. Not a good stereo • Stereotypes are oversimplified often exaggerated images • Boys • Play rough and tumble sports (and like sports, too) • Are expected to be good at math • Girls • Be dainty and play with dolls • Opposite of a “Tom-boy” • Be good at reading • Women are supposed to marry and quit their jobs to raise children • When men do it, they are called “Mr. Mom” • Men aren’t supposed to care nearly as much about their appearance as women • Metro-sexuals • Girls have dolls, boys have “action-figures” and intermingling of these is strictly forbidden • Blue is a boy’s color and pink is a girl’s color • When it comes to socialization, school, family, and friends play a huge role

8. Basis for gender inequalities • May be based on physical strength • May be based on the idea that women feed newborns • Researchers Martin and Voorhies suggest that the decline of gender equality began when societies became more agrarian • Plowing based on strength

9. The economy and gender roles • Women entering the labor force due to World War II • 1980s came along • Social expectations of material goods and higher education were out of the range of families where one person was employed • Women also sought self-fulfillment • Attitudes changed about women who worked • Feminism • Belief that the sexes should be equal in society, politics, and economic opportunity • “Feminism is the radical notion that women are people.” • Cheris Kramarae and Paula Treichler

10. Inequalities still exist • Sexism • Belief that one sex is superior to others • Pink collar jobs • Pink-collar job is one term used to describe low-status, low-paying, female-dominated occupations like secretaries, salesclerks, and food servers. “Because I am a woman, I must make unusual efforts to succeed.  If I fail, no one will say, ‘She doesn't have what it takes.’  They will say, ‘Women don't have what it takes.’“  Clare Boothe Luce

11. Print ads from the past

26. Misogyny • Hatred, dislike, or mistrust of women

27. Misogynists?

28. Changes • Women’s Suffrage Movement • Equal Rights Amendment • Marriage • Customs often reinforce inequalities between the sexes • Changes in culture provide for more equality in marriage • Hyphenated names for men, too

29. Women in the Workplace • Most women have to work in a two-parent household due to economic reasons • It is still uncommon to see • Men as teachers, secretaries, nurses • Females as engineers or M.D.s

30. Women in Politics

31. There are 18 US Senators who are women There are 92 members of the US House that are women

32. Age and Society

33. A matter of life and death • Birth rate is the number of live births divided by the population • Death rate is the relationship of the number of deaths to the total population • In order to understand what these numbers mean, an analysis of the number compared to other countries is required • Life expectancy is the average number of years a person can be expected to live

34. Highest Life Expectancy • Macau – 84.3 years

35. Lowest Life Expectancy • Angola – 38.2 years

36. The United States – 78.1 years • Forty-ninth in the world

37. Age groups • Training years • Birth to teens • Learning skills • Relatively low status • The productive years • Late teens until 65 • Raising families and obtaining work • Highest achievable status during this time • Retirement years • 65 years of age • Status declines constantly due to the fact that their contribution to society seems to diminish • Not universally true (Asian cultures) • Baby boom generation occurred from 1946-1964

38. Attitudes about old-age • Ageism • Prejudice and discrimination against older persons • Reinforced by the media • Cranky persons who • Can’t drive • Speak with sentences “When I was your age” • Always complain • Have an unusually difficult time reading things • Use words like “dear” and “sonny”

39. The Subculture of the Elderly • Fixed incomes • Automatically budgeted • Have trouble paying certain expenses • There are more women than men • Many live alone without emotional support • Clustering in certain areas • Florida, but there are other areas

40. Age-based inequality • In employment • You cannot fire someone due to age, but you may lay off older workers if economic reasons are in place • If you are over fifty, there is a distinct disadvantage to find work • Healthcare • Medicare works for persons above 65, but it does not cover all expenses • Prescriptions, dental, vision

41. Health and Society

42. Disease Control • Infectious diseases are spreading • Tuberculosis, malaria, and cholera have reemerged since 1973 • HIV is running rampant in Africa • Since 1973, new illnesses, such as Ebola, Hepatitis C, and HIV have emerged

43. Health Care Health care expenditures by percentage of Gross Domestic Product

44. Quality of Health CareAs ranked by the World Health Organization 1 France 2 Italy 3 San Marino 4 Andorra 5 Malta 6 Singapore 7 Spain 8 Oman 9 Austria 10 Japan • The United States is Thirty-seventh

45. So why is this stuff so expensive? • New equipment (see your notes in Psych) • Breakthroughs in surgery • Fear of malpractice suits • Patients and doctors with an “insurance will pay for it” attitude • Health service charges patients don’t understand • Unreasonable profit expectations • Preexisting conditions

46. Access to healthcare • Your parents probably get health insurance through their work • True for a majority of American children • If not, the may purchase it individually • About 52 million Americans are uninsured • Free clinics and churches do provide basic access to healthcare in some cases • Medicare and Medicaid for those who are older or poor • Some states have SCHIP laws • The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 requires that all businesses conform with laws that allow for equal access for all persons with disabilities • Wheelchair access, Braille, free TDD for phones

47. So, how do we fix it? • Tort reform • Capping damages • Single payer • Single-payer is a term used to describe a type of financing system. • It refers to one entity acting as administrator, or “payer.” • In the case of health care, a single-payer system would be setup such that one entity—a government run organization—would collect all health care fees, and pay out all health care costs • Increase payroll taxes for Medicare and Medicaid

48. HR-3962 Affordable Health Care for America Act • What it does • Small businesses will get tax credits for offering health insurance • Seniors get drug benefits • High-risk patients can purchase health insurance in a high risk pool • Children CANNOT be denied health insurance for any reason • Children can also stay on their parents insurance until they are 26 • Patients cannot be dropped from their health insurance due to illness • Insurance companies cannot place lifetime limits on coverage • Insurance companies are required to spend 80-85% of premium money on medical care • Medicare patients get no cost preventative care • January 1, 2014 • No insurance company can ban any person for a pre-existing condition • Annual limits on benefits end