Deck 8: Institutions

Question 1

What would happen if sports were not organized by gender, but by ability instead?

A) We would see that women and men have equal ability and women would win as often as men.
B) We would see that women and men have such unequal abilities that they would still never compete against each other.
C) Beliefs in gender difference and inequality would not be routinely and ritualistically rehearsed through sport.
D) Competitions would no longer be fair.

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Sanitation-the provision of toilets and the elimination of personal waste-is an institution because

A) it involves a hierarchy of employees who are promoted according to a bureaucratic scaffolding.
B) the details of how we manage sanitation are dictated by the federal government.
C) it is found, in one form or another, throughout the world.
D) it solves a social problem that cannot easily be fixed by individuals working alone.

Answer 2

C

Question 3

The predominance of African American male athletes in professional basketball is an example used to indicate

A) superiority of their masculine physical achievement.
B) how institutions like sports change in response to shifts in the broader social structure.
C) racial discrimination in other sports.
D) the differences in aesthetic expectations for African and American male athletes.

Answer 3

B

Question 4

Victorian gender ideology held that women were

A) in need of medical attention rather than restrooms to cure feminine maladies.
B) more fragile than men and less suited to working for pay.
C) in a position to withstand more physical strain than men so long as they were in the home.
D) more loyal to their work than men in a factory.

Question 5

The definition of norms is

A) the sets of institutions within which we live our lives.
B) the social organization of gender relations in the society.
C) explicitly codified expectations, often written down with stated consequences for deviance.
D) beliefs and practices that are widely followed and culturally approved.

Question 6

Gendered institutional practices are

A) based on many people's independent ideas about gender.
B) natural and inevitable.
C) governed by feminist ideas in the United States.
D) different across cultures and throughout time.

Question 7

According to sociologist Abigail Feder, women figure skaters who wear glittery leotards with short skirts perform

A) gender salience.
B) androcentrism.
C) emphatic sameness.
D) the feminine apologetic.

Question 8

Gendered institutions are interesting from a sociological point of view because

A) they help challenge the gender binary system.
B) they affirm and enforce gender difference and inequality.
C) they systematically work toward the goal of a free citizenry.
D) they fail to provide a framework which makes it possible for women to make rational decisions about their careers.

Question 9

Institutions are

A) organized arenas of production―like a factory or a stadium―that facilitates a socially desired outcome.
B) companies organized bureaucratically to make money by producing and selling a product.
C) social organizations, like Congress or a city's police force, aiming to govern the people.
D) persistent patterns of social interaction aimed at meeting the needs of a society that can't easily be met by individuals alone.

Question 10

The phrase gender salience refers to

A) the fact that gender consistently infiltrates each part of an institution.
B) the process of neutralizing gender in institutions.
C) the process of scientifically mapping gender in the social structure.
D) the relevance of gender across activities and spaces within an institution.

Question 11

Below is a list of roadblocks to building a gender-integrated bathroom for an academic department at New York University. Which one is directly related to a policy?

A) the need to spend extra time and money on a brand-new restroom design
B) the belief that men were messier than women
C) women's discomfort with potential for male nudity and a fear of meeting strange men in close quarters during off-hours
D) the fact that the idea had to be approved by the Department of Buildings

Question 12

All of the following statements are true, except

A) gender is an organizing principle that permeates our social institutions.
B) institutions are relatively easy to opt in and out of.
C) the ebb and flow of gender is a persistent feature of many institutions.
D) the gender binary is reflected in some of our institutions.

Question 13

What is common to elementary schools, bathrooms, and bodybuilding?

A) They are governed more with gender policies than gender norms.
B) They contribute toward diluting the matrix of domination.
C) They affirm gender difference.
D) They protect the idea that women are equal to men.

Question 14

Which statement is false?

A) The social structure is a source of constraint and opportunity for individuals.
B) Every individual has equal access to institutional resources.
C) Sets of institutions provide a relatively stable framework to society.
D) The social structure is the entire set of institutions within which we spend our lives.

Question 15

Which of the following statements is NOT true about sex-segregated sports?

A) They affirm the hierarchical gender binary.
B) They protect women from the idea that they are inferior athletes.
C) They protect men from losing face.
D) They help justify paying female athletes less than male ones.

Question 16

Education is a gendered institution because

A) it involves organizations and social norms that persist over time.
B) it guides boys and girls into different social spaces.
C) it helps in maintaining a healthy sex ratio in society.
D) it is vital in nurturing men and women as responsible citizens.

Question 17

Which of the following is NOT a feature of social institutions?

A) They differ in the nature and intensity of enforcement of norms and policies.
B) They shape our overall social structure.
C) They operate completely independently from each other.
D) They are instrumental in meeting needs of a society that can't easily be met by individuals alone.

Question 18

Which of the following is an example of an institution?

A) the Cleveland Browns
B) Wal-Mart
C) health care
D) the Academy Awards

Question 19

What does the statement, "the stronger women get, the more men love football" convey?

A) Sports place men and boys into a hierarchy of masculinity.
B) The symbolic link between the male spectator and the male athlete affirms men's supposed superiority over all women.
C) Sports is a culturewide male-bonding extravaganza that only strong women share.
D) Every economy benefits from the institutionalization of sport because modern men love it.

Question 20

While doing research on playgrounds in elementary schools, sociologist Barrie Thorne noticed that

A) teachers encouraged girls to play indoors and boys to play on playgrounds.
B) children were seated by gender in classrooms.
C) boys' social interactions were not influenced by gender, but girls' were.
D) gender was less salient in the classroom than on the playground.

Question 21

Wade and Ferree discuss the history of basketball in the United States, showing that it was dominated by Jewish men in the first half of the 1900s. How does the concept of institution help explain why African Americans eventually came to dominate professional basketball? Likewise, how does the concept explain why men's basketball continues to outshine women's basketball?

Question 22

A study of pay in professional golfing concluded that the primary rationale for vast differences in prize money was

A) institutional regulations.
B) gender.
C) differences in skill.
D) gender subordination.

Question 23

Institutional inertia makes social change difficult and yet we see a lot of social change in gender relations in many different social institutions. How do you explain this apparent contradiction? Discuss a few of the causal forces impelling change in a social institution of your own choosing.

Question 24

Wade and Ferree argue that gender is never the most logical way to organize a sport. Choose a sport that they do not discuss and consider their claim. Brainstorm a list of other variables on which athletes in this sport could reasonably be divided. Choose the one you think makes the most sense and play out the scenario. How do you think this sport would change? How would life change for the athletes? The fans? The sponsors? What ideology of gender, if any, would the sport now support?

Question 25

What is the relationship between policies and norms?

A) Norms are informal, unwritten rules; policies are formal, written rules.
B) Norms are formal, written rules; policies are informal, unwritten rules.
C) Both norms and policies are informal, unwritten rules, but policies have social consequences.
D) Both norms and policies are formal, written rules, but norms are enforced by peers and policies by authorities.

Question 26

The salience of gender in bathroom facilities varies. What is gender salience? Give some examples of how the salience of gender in bathroom facilities varies? In light of these observations, what conclusions can we draw about what purpose sex-segregated bathrooms serve?

Question 27

When it comes down to it, regardless of social construction and social pressure, don't we live in a society in which it's possible to just be an individual?

Question 28

The failure of efforts to install gender-neutral bathrooms in the Department of Social and Cultural Analysis at New York University is an illustration that indicates

A) the importance of winning support from transgender faculty staff members.
B) that gender-neutral bathrooms aren't a feasible option.
C) that changing institutions requires widespread support and compliance.
D) the impact of discriminatory behavior by the building commissioner.