Deck 5: Sex and Gender Inequality

Question 1

In the early agricultural U.S., women:

A) had the same legal and economic rights as men
B) were largely removed from the harsh realities of economic life
C) were involved in generating economic resources for the family
D) none of the above

Answer 1

were involved in generating economic resources for the family

Question 2

When women worked in the early textile mills:

A) working conditions were actually quite good
B) they were generally paid only about half of what men were paid
C) they were permitted to perform any job as long as they could prove they could do it
D) the emphasis was on training and employing them to become economically independent

Answer 2

they were generally paid only about half of what men were paid

Question 3

The suggestions for hiring of women that appeared in Transportation Magazine in 1943 included:

A) Choosing unmarried women because they are easier to control
B) Choosing thinner women because they can do more work
C) Getting a doctor to give the female employees a physical exam to uncover mental or physical weaknesses
D) Not putting pressure on any female employees to keep up her physical appearance because it will lower her confidence and make her less efficient.

Answer 3

Getting a doctor to give the female employees a physical exam to uncover mental or physical weaknesses

Question 4

Studies of the participation of women in the labor market show that:

A) women tend to be concentrated almost entirely in blue-collar occupations
B) men and women tend to have different levels of authority when in the same occupations
C) the rate of participation by both men and women has increased in recent decades
D) historically the occupational categories of women have remained the same

Question 5

Among the important factors behind the increased participation of women in the labor force is:

A) higher marital stability
B) greater need for dual incomes among families
C) the shift toward manufacturing in the economy
D) decreased possibilities for flexibile iwork schedules

Question 6

Women juggle home and work responsibilities by:

A) opting for contingency or part-time employment
B) having more children
C) choosing a standard work schedule
D) all of the above

Question 7

The decline in overall occupational sex segregation has been mainly:

A) in blue-collar rather than in white-collar positions.
B) among a broad range of occupations.
C) due to the decline of some traditionally female occupations.
D) because of shifts in technology and organizational structures.

Question 8

Which of the following is NOT a true statement regarding gender differences in occupation:

A) Women tend to be concentrated among sex-typed occupations such as teaching and nursing
B) Many of the occupations dominated by women also have greater protections than those afforded other positions
C) Female lawyers are less likely than men to become partners or practice in lucrative firms
D) Some research suggests that higher standards and expectations are placed on women compared to men in the same positions

Question 9

Sociologist Mary Romero (1992), who has served as a maid, suggests reforms involving:

A) lowering wages
B) lowering Social Security taxes
C) union busting
D) eliminating the idea that household work is women's work

Question 10

Within the same occupation, women:

A) are employed in the same kinds of organizations and economic sectors as men
B) tend to have equal authority and similar different job titles as men
C) make less money in their jobs than men do
D) with very high qualifications find it relatively easy to penetrate the authority hierarchy

Question 11

Among those employed in the U.S. as college professors:

A) women are more likely than men to be at research universities
B) women are just as likely as men to be among the tenured faculty
C) women are more likely than men to be employed at less prestigious institutions
D) men and women are equally likely to be in the same rank when they are equally productive

Question 12

Which of the following is NOT a prominent barrier that has prevented women from obtaining more well-paying occupations?

A) less access to training
B) less access to information about job openings
C) the tendency for coworkers or clients to prefer employees of the opposite sex
D) stereotyping, discrimination, and the consequent crowding of women into certain kinds of positions

Question 13

In terms of earnings and sex, which of the following is NOT a true statement?

A) In 2007, the median earnings for full-time working women was about 80 percent those of men across all major occupational groups.
B) Since 2000, wages among women have grown faster than those among men.
C) The differences between men and women are the same among Whites as they are among both Blacks and Hispanics.
D) In 2005, among hourly workers, women were more than twice as likely as men to receive a wage rate at or below the

Question 14

With respect to earnings discrepancies between American men and women:

A) men are more likely than women to make poverty-level earnings
B) the hourly-wage discrepancy declined in recent years
C) declines in the wages of men actually has increased the wage discrepancy between the sexes
D) the median yearly earnings for women working full-time, year-round, is almost the same as those of men

Question 15

The lower earnings of women is related to:

A) domestic and work pressures
B) higher earnings in those jobs which contain a high percentage of women
C) the relegation of women to higher authority positions
D) women being concentrated in unionized positions

Question 16

"Microinequities":

A) refer collectively to ways in which individuals are either singled out, or overlooked, ignored, or otherwise discounted on the basis of unchangeable characteristics such as sex, race, or age
B) generally take the form of different kinds of language, treatment, or behavior exhibited toward women on a regular basis
C) are often deeply rooted and seemingly unconscious
D) all of the above

Question 17

Which of the following is NOT an example of a microinequalty?

A) A great number of men are concerned about systemic male privilege and dominance.
B) The pronoun she is often used when speaking of occupations in which a majority of persons are women.
C) Traditionally, women have been expected to give up their last names and take their husbands'.
D) Women who are given diminutive versions of their father's first names.

Question 18

Studies of communication styles show that:

A) men talk less than women
B) subordinates speak more than leaders, regardless of sex
C) men interrupt women more often than women interrupt men
D) men use more qualifiers and are more hesitant in their language than women

Question 19

Within the list of subtle sex discriminations devised by Benokraitis and Feagin is the tendency
Among men to:

A) exaggerate the talents and abilities of women
B) be careful not to overburden women in their tasks
C) compliment women profusely when such women perform well
D) act in a chivalrous manner, which encourages treating women like children

Question 20

Ortner's cultural account of gender inequality proposes that:

A) historically men have been viewed as being closer to nature than women
B) women have more prestige than men because they can create life
C) nature is higher than culture
D) men assert their creativity through making durable, physical things, while women create only
"perishables"

Question 21

Which of the following does Chafetz see as the most important factor in directly accounting for sex stratification?

A) sexist ideology
B) population size
C) kinship structure
D) work organization

Question 22

According to Chafetz, sex stratification is likely to be greater when:

A) women cannot be easily replaced
B) a society traces lineage through the female line
C) women spend less time on childrearing activities
D) women do not contribute significantly to highly valued tasks

Question 23

Sanday's ecological theory ultimately traces the roots of male dominance to:

A) a sex-based division of labor
B) traditional gender role requirements
C) greater physical strength of men
D) an unfavorable and unstable environment

Question 24

According to Sanday, societies in which animals must be killed, in which death and destruction predominate, develop:

A) an inner orientation
B) an outer orientation
C) an affinity between women and nature
D) a close relationship between men and their children

Question 25

According to Engels, which of the following was NOT a feature of early human history?

A) people lived together communally
B) the work of men was considered more valuable than women's work
C) all resources were communally owned
D) women were full participants in society

Question 26

Engels traces sex inequality to:

A) the development of private property
B) the domestication of animals
C) the development of greater surplus
D) all of the above

Question 27

According to Vogel:

A) capitalism always suffers from women's lack of involvement in the economy
B) the higher status of men is a consequence of their greater physical strength
C) women's involvement in and relegation to domestic labor is the basic source of their subordination
D) husbands are not interested in trying to make it possible for their wives to stay comfortably at home rather than work outside the home

Question 28

Vogel contends that among the forms that patriarchy has taken under capitalism is:

A) women being purchased by men
B) the radical separation of home and work
C) the control of domesticated animals by men
D) women being used for their exchange value

Question 29

Socialist-feminist theories of sex inequality conclude that:

A) patriarchy and capitalism as incompatible with each other
B) the domestic division of labor has little to do with gender inequality
C) work in the home is seen as alienating
D) the sexual hierarchy and economic exploitation must both be taken into account to
Understand women's oppression

Question 30

Theories of patriarchy propose that:

A) patriarchy develops as a result of capitalism
B) under capitalism, the culture consists largely of the ideas and values sanctioned by women
C) the roots of patriarchy are tied to the reproductive function of women and resulting division of labor
D) the private sphere is associated with the male

Question 31

Multiracial feminist theorists posit that:

A) race, gender, and class intersect to create unique experiences and opportunities for all groups
B) workplace inequality is independent of race and class
C) poor black women and poor white women have very similar experiences
D) although their problems differ, the solution to each group's domination is the same

Question 32

"Honor killings" against women are:

A) most often found in North American nations
B) not really a form of discrimination against them
C) just as severely punished as are killings of men
D) most often carried out because of alleged disobedience or sexual indiscretions on the part of women in the family

Question 33

In a Kenyan village, a group of women have tried to escape the widespread oppression they have faced from their husbands and men in general by:

A) going to war with men
B) appealing to the courts for their rights
C) creating a village composed almost entirely of women
D) migrating to the United States

Question 34

Among the economic costs of globalization on women is:

A) decreased labor exploitation
B) economic marginalization
C) masculinization of poverty
D) none of the above

Question 35

In the U.S. agricultural, preindustrial society, women were hardly involved in production and were mostly only homemakers.

Question 36

While poor women in the early agricultural U.S. were like slaves or servants to their husbands, rich women were relatively equal to their husbands.

Question 37

In 1900, a much greater proportion of Black than native White women were employed as breadwinners.

Question 38

In 1900, women made up over 70 percent of the teachers and professors in colleges.

Question 39

In 2005, 95 percent all working husbands earned more than their working wives.

Question 40

The economic contributions of wives are especially noticeable among upper-income families because their incomes make much more of an impact.

Question 41

Wives' earnings in upper-income families have reduced the degree of income inequality between families.

Question 42

When wives earn more than their husbands, husbands tend to increase their level of housework.

Question 43

Mothers who work full-time value motherhood more than those who do not work.

Question 44

In general, men are more highly concentrated in white-collar and service occupations than women.

Question 45

The abuse and exploitation of nannies is a "dirty little secret" of middle and upper-class America.

Question 46

Because they are often difficult to get, women in positions of authority tend to stay in these positions for long periods of time.

Question 47

The peripheral sector is largely made up of small, less stable, local, nonunionized organizations that lack a clear career ladder, while the core consists of the larger, stable, multimarket, unionized organizations with
career systems.

Question 48

The number of businesses owned by women and their revenues has increased significantly since the 1970s.

Question 49

Among mothers, valuing motherhood and achievement in work are negatively related to each other.

Question 50

The increased presence of written rules, tasks, and procedures in an organization appears to have a positive effect on the number of women hired by the organization. (p.101)

Question 51

Lower motivation and work effort on the part of women appear to be significant factors in accounting for their lower wages. (p.102)

Question 52

In their study of the top 100 U.S. films in 2002, Lauzen and Dozier (2005) found that although men were more likely to be depicted in leadership positions, women were more likely to be the leading characters.

Question 53

In primary and secondary schools, females are more likely than males to be ignored by their teachers.

Question 54

Many of the differences in the communication patterns of men and women are related to differences in power rather than to the sex of the communicators.

Question 55

A recent study of college textbooks from several decades in the areas of human sexuality and marriage and the family concluded that the proportion of traditional photographs of women's roles had drastically changed by the 1990s.

Question 56

While the sex of an individual is seen as biological, gender is seen as a social or cultural construction.

Question 57

Expectations for attitudes and behaviors from members of each sex are basically the same around the world.

Question 58

According to Chafetz, the more the time women have to spend on child-rearing activities, the higher the degree of sex stratification will be.

Question 59

According to Sanday's ecological theory of male dominance, a society that depends equally on hunting and gathering is more likely to produce a sex-based division of labor.

Question 60

Sanday argued that Western colonialism gave women a higher status they held in traditional societies.

Question 61

Sanday argued that the increased complexity of technology led to the decline in women's status.

Question 62

Collins argues that men's primacy during warfare in a hostile environment is related to their dominance of women.

Question 63

Vogel contends that capitalism benefits from women's production of children.

Question 64

According to Vogel, "the social aspect of necessary labor" refers to labor done at the workplace that is needed for the renewal of the labor process.

Question 65

According to Engels, the domination of men over women in the nuclear family setting was the first instance of class domination and struggle in human history.

Question 66

Vogel contends that women's involvement in the reproductive process creates a dilemma for capitalists and an internal contradiction in the capitalist system.

Question 67

Vogel argues that in advanced capitalist societies, class is always more important than sex in determining differences between individuals.

Question 68

Socialist-feminist theorists contend that capitalism and patriarchy are independent of each other.

Question 69

One of the reasons for the high female suicide rate in China is that rural Chinese women are generally not considered as valuable or worthy as their male counterparts and are thought of as the property of males.

Question 70

A recent United Nations study of international gender inequality placed U.S. at the very top in terms of having a high level of gender equality.

Question 71

In none of the 50 countries in which men's and women's earnings have been analyzed are women's earnings equal to those of men.

Question 72

The impact of globalization is equally detrimental to men and women.

Question 73

Internationally, poverty and gender inequality are linked to the high prevalence of sex and slave trafficking: at least 700,000 victims are trafficked every year, many to the U.S.

Question 74

In the U.S., globalization has solidified the traditional division of labor between husbands and wives.

Question 75

Compare Chafetz's structural theory of sex stratification with Ortner's cultural theory of sex inequality. What are the principal
differences in their explanations? Are there any similarities?

Question 76

Describe the relative roles of capitalism and patriarchy in the development of sex inequality, and the manner in which socialist-
feminist theorists see their influence as being intertwined.

Question 77

What factors have perpetuated sex segregation and inequality in the labor force and account for women's distribution among occupations? What are some of the major barriers that have prevented women from obtaining more well-paying occupations?

Question 78

What are some of the microinequalities that women face and how have they contributed to gender inequality?

Question 79

Compare and contrast the cultural, social-structural, ecological, and capitalist/patriarchal theories on the origins of sex
inequality. What are the strengths and weaknesses of each perspective?

Question 80

In what ways has globalization impacted sex and gender inequality?