Deck 14: Gender 

Question 1

Recent cross-cultural studies of gender roles demonstrate that

A) the relative status of women is variable, depending on such factors as the type of subsistence strategy employed, the importance of warfare, and the prevalence of a domestic-public dichotomy.
B) changes in the gender roles of men and women are usually associated with social decay and anarchy.
C) the gender roles of men and women are largely determined by their biological capabilities-relative strength, endurance, intelligence, and so on.
D) foraging, horticultural, pastoral, and industrial societies all have similar attitudes toward sex but different attitudes toward gender.
E) women are subservient in nearly all societies, because their subsistence activities contribute much less to the total diet than do those of men.

Answer 1

the relative status of women is variable, depending on such factors as the type of subsistence strategy employed, the importance of warfare, and the prevalence of a domestic-public dichotomy.

Question 2

The tasks and activities that a culture assigns to each sex are known as

A) sexual ascribed status.
B) sex roles.
C) gender roles.
D) gender stereotypes.
E) the prestige coefficient.

Answer 2

gender roles.

Question 3

If a patriarchy is a political system ruled by men, what would a matriarchy be-a political system ruled by women? Anthropologist Peggy Reeves Sanday, who investigated these questions among the Minangkabau of West Sumatra, found that

A) women in matriarchies see their male counterparts as being inferior.
B) the Minangkabau matriarchy is not the equivalent of female rule because of their belief that decision making should be by consensus.
C) true matriarchies do not exist.
D) women of newer generations are experimenting with new ideas of gender roles.
E) although Minangkabau women play a central role in their culture's social, economic, and ceremonial life, they are still regarded as having lower status than men.

Answer 3

the Minangkabau matriarchy is not the equivalent of female rule because of their belief that decision making should be by consensus.

Question 4

Which of the following statements about groups with the patrilineal-patrilocal complex is FALSE?

A) Their land and prestige are passed through the females.
B) They often practice polygyny and have patterns of intervillage raiding.
C) They are sometimes characterized by a view that females are dangerous and polluting.
D) They have their prestige goods under male control.
E) They have strongly developed private-public dichotomies.

Question 5

This chapter's discussion on recurrent gender patterns stresses that

A) it is the role of industrialized nations to correct patterns that are immoral.
B) the United Nations should become more involved in reversing these patterns.
C) exceptions to cross-cultural generalizations may involve societies or individuals.
D) these patterns are universals rather than generalities.
E) these generalities are based on bad data, because the studies did not use randomized sampling.

Question 6

When compared to other kinds of societies, all the following are true about foragers EXCEPT that

A) sexual promiscuity is most common and routinely punished.
B) when gathering is prominent, gender status tends to be more equal.
C) the rights, activities, and spheres of influence of men and women overlap the most.
D) hierarchy is least marked.
E) the public and private spheres are least separate.

Question 7

According to studies in the 1960s, why did young Etoro men and boys engage in homosexual relationships?

A) They did not understand biological reproduction, which is why they no longer exist.
B) Genetic drift created a population dominated by a homosexual gene.
C) The status of Etoro women was the highest in the world, in a status above and beyond males.
D) They believed it is necessary for boys to ingest semen in order to mature in a healthy way.
E) A warrior cult of older adult men vigorously enforced a monopoly on access to women.

Question 8

In which type of society would you expect women's status to be highest?

A) industrial states with high unemployment
B) societies where there is a great deal of population pressure
C) pastoralists
D) hunters and gatherers
E) agriculturalists

Question 9

The differences in male and female biology besides the contrasts in breasts and genitals are referred to as

A) sexual dimorphism.
B) sexual orientation.
C) gender stereotypes.
D) gender identity.
E) cisgender.

Question 10

Which of the following statements is FALSE?

A) Married couples are much more secure economically than single mothers.
B) The feminization of poverty is unique to the United States.
C) The feminization of poverty has serious consequences with regard to living standards.
D) Households headed by women tend to be poorer than those headed by men.
E) Among developed nations, the U.S. has the largest percentage of single-parent households.

Question 11

Why should the numbers from Kinsey's research be considered merely illustrative, rather than statistically accurate?

A) sample sizes that were too small
B) flaws in the statistical models used
C) incorrect assignment of causation
D) failure to account for variance in the target population
E) a reliance on nonrandom samples

Question 12

Among American working parents, which of the following is FALSE?

A) As her children get older, a woman is less likely to enter the labor force.
B) Ninety-four percent of married fathers with children under age 18 are in the labor force.
C) The median income of women working full time is about 80 percent that of a comparably employed male.
D) Women today fill more than half of all management and professional jobs.
E) About 69 percent of married mothers are in the labor force.

Question 13

Of the following factors, which is historically correlated with the shrinking of the female factory workforce in the United States?

A) voting rights for women
B) the women's rights movement
C) World War II
D) inflation
E) European immigration around 1900

Question 14

With the term sex, anthropologists are referring to biological differences. In contrast, they define gender as

A) the tasks and activities that a culture assigns to each sex.
B) the marked differences in male and female biology, which vary across cultures.
C) a political system ruled by men that defines the identity of women.
D) one's biological identity.
E) the cultural construction of whether one is female, male, or something else.

Question 15

Among societies exhibiting the patrilineal-patrilocal complex in highland Papua New Guinea,

A) women fear contacts, including sexual intercourse, with men.
B) household productivity is decreased by polygyny, because a man must provide for more than one wife.
C) women govern the extradomestic distribution of prestige items.
D) the population pressure on strategic resources is relaxed.
E) women remain the primary producers of subsistence crops.

Question 16

Ethnographic evidence has revealed that traditionally, Pawnee women worked wood, and among the Hidatsa, women made boats. Cases such as these suggest that

A) patterns of division of labor by gender are culturally general-not universal.
B) the division of labor by gender is a natural characteristic of human societies.
C) exceptions to cross-cultural generalization are actually the rule.
D) biology has nothing to do with gender roles.
E) anthropologists are overly optimistic about finding a society with perfect gender equality.

Question 17

Among the Agta of the Philippines, women not only gather, they also

A) cultivate small food plots inside village defenses.
B) are the tribal leaders.
C) fish, while carrying their babies with them.
D) hunt small animals and do some fishing.
E) are the primary warrior class, except when pregnant or breastfeeding.

Question 18

More than half the poor children living in the United States live in families that are

A) headed by men.
B) headed by women.
C) blended.
D) dichotomized.
E) patrifocal.

Question 19

The domestic-public dichotomy refers to the separation of

A) spheres of exchange.
B) home and the outside world.
C) secular and sacred domains.
D) the elite and commoners.
E) cooking and sleeping spaces in residential units.

Question 20

Which of the following is NOT among the four sexual orientations found throughout the world?

A) homosexuality
B) bisexuality
C) transsexuality
D) asexuality
E) heterosexuality

Question 21

Intersex, a group of conditions involving discrepancy between external genitals and internal genitals, can have a variety of chromosomal causes that create a sex-gender difference. Which of the following chromosomal anomalies identifies a person with the chromosomes of a woman and female internal anatomy, but with male external genitals?

A) Klinefelter's syndrome (XXY configuration)
B) XY intersex person
C) true gonadal intersex person
D) XX intersex person
E) Turner syndrome

Question 22

In the United States today, more than 40 percent of mothers are the primary or sole source of income in their homes.

Question 23

Across differing societies, women generally dominate the practice of subsistence labor.

Question 24

The specific roles assigned to each gender vary from culture to culture.

Question 25

The anthropological record confirms that gender diversity has existed in many societies and taken many forms, including eunuchs in Byzantium, the Zuni Two-Spirit, and virginal transvestites of North Albania.

Question 26

Gender roles are the instinctual behaviors that are the exclusive domain of each sex.

Question 27

Domestic violence against women is prevalent in patrilineal-patrilocal systems in which women are cut off from their supportive kin ties.

Question 28

In the United States, attitudes regarding the role of women in the workplace have varied according to economic needs.

Question 29

Transgender is a social category that

A) has no validity within the social sciences.
B) is entirely biologically constructed.
C) always contrasts biologically with "ordinary" males and females.
D) includes people whose gender identity has no apparent biological roots.
E) consists of only intersex people.

Question 30

Which of the following statements about the label "transgender" is accurate?

A) Just like the labels "masculine" and "feminine," "transgender" is an absolute and binary category.
B) Transgender only includes those whose gender identity has biological roots.
C) Feeling their previous gender assignment was incorrect, transgender individuals become female.
D) Transgender and intersex are both biologically based.
E) Transgender individuals may or may not contrast biologically with ordinary males and females.

Question 31

What is meant by the term feminization of poverty?

A) the popularity of feminist ideals among poor people
B) the view that only women care about issues of poverty
C) the increasing number of women among the poorest people
D) the view that conditions of poverty are emasculating
E) the recent campaign by feminists to work with the poor

Question 32

The reason there are more modern-day "Rosie the Riveters" is that modern industry is even more physically demanding than it was during World War II.

Question 33

Cross-culturally, women's roles tend to be focused on activities associated with the home, while men are more active in the public domain.

Question 34

Adding together men's and women's subsistence activities and their domestic work, men tend to work more hours than women do.

Question 35

Women in matrilineal societies tend to occupy elevated status positions.

Question 36

Cross-culturally, the subsistence contributions of men and women are roughly equal.

Question 37

Gender stratification tends to be extremely pronounced in patrilineal-patrilocal societies.

Question 38

Regarding sexual orientation, all of the following are true EXCEPT that

A) different types of sexual desires and experiences hold different meanings for individuals and groups.
B) there is conclusive scientific evidence that sexual orientation is genetically determined.
C) flexibility in sexual expression seems to be an aspect of our primate heritage, since both masturbation and same-sex sexual activity exist among chimpanzees and other primates.
D) culture always plays a role in molding individual sexual urges toward a collective norm, and these norms vary from culture to culture.
E) within a society, individuals will differ in the nature, range, and intensity of sexual interests and urges.

Question 39

In foraging societies, gender stratification was most marked when men contributed much more to the diet than women did.

Question 40

Based on research in the 1960s, which of the following statements about Etoro conceptions of heterosexual intercourse is FALSE?

A) It was permitted to take place only in the couple's residence.
B) It was thought to sap a man's vitality.
C) Women who wanted too much heterosexual intercourse were viewed as witches.
D) Such sex was permitted only a hundred days a year.
E) It was seen as a necessary sacrifice that would eventually lead to a man's death.

Question 41

Flexibility in sexual expression seems to be an aspect of our primate heritage.

Question 42

Transgender and XX intersex are interchangeable terms referring to individuals with external genitals that are incompletely formed, ambiguous, or female.

Question 43

The feminization of poverty refers to the increasing representation of women (and their children) among America's poorest people.