May 16 : RS 7
Chapter 7: What a girl wants, what a girl needs: examining cultural change and ideas about gender
equality in relationship self-help
Advice books reflect and speak to the many cultural and structural changes
o Changing gender relations, social structures, and ideologies
Sociologist disagree about the nature of relationship advice books content and their impact on
Relationships have changed profoundly in the past half century
o Later marriage, cohabitation, more egalitarian (power/money), mixed ethnic and socio-
economic background, loss of cultural stigma surrounding divorce, increase single-
o Optimism concerning changes in intimate life, broader social changes, and their impact
on heterosexual relationships
o Partners should be seen as equals, endorse exploration of new relationship forms,
promote couples investments in ensuring womens sexual satisfaction and the need for
open and honest communication
o Encourage womens movement and financial independence, break away from tradition
o Cautionary tales of being burned
o Emphasize on the relationship of the self with self, promotion of womens self-love
above all relationship concerns, a vocabulary of dysfunction and pathology for framing
relationship challenges , caution to women vis--vis emotional investment in
relationships and greater sexual conservatism
o Stress that a willingness to get to know and love oneself better is a prerequisite to a
willingness to fall in love
o Women must be their own prince
Mid 1990s-late 2000s
o Promote egalitarian relationships but emphasize the need for distinctly feminine and
masculine personae within them
o Voice displeasure at outcomes of the feminist movement/perceived erosion of family
o Promote romance (chivalry and male leadership)
o Emphasize the importance of God, religion, and spirituality in intimate relations
o Bracket broader structural issues affecting intimate relations, and considerable tension
between authors insistence on men/womens formal equality and their belief that
men/women have different roles
o Men must be cheetah boy: leading, providing, protecting
o Women must be creatures unlike any other: hard to get, coy, nurturing
o The personal is political: even when books are ignoring social context, writing about
relationships in individualistic terms, they are still shaped by broader social forced
o Each cluster demonstrates tensions between progress/equality, tradition/inequality in
o Cluster 1: alternative lifestyle, fertility dropped, new social movements, mixed promotion
of continuity and change
o Cluster 2: coincided with reactionary neo-liberalism in NA, womens movement dropped,
womens work seen has necessity, HIV/AIDS appeared, in-vitro fertilization reduced
womens reliance on men o Cluster 3: political dominated by shift to the right, conservative views on the family were
promoted, resilience of religious culture, mainstream promotion for post-feminist
ideology, couples tried to move beyond traditional
o Advice books always reflect changes in macro-level social structure and ideology
May 16 : RS 10
Inequality and Stratification:
Inequality and stratification is the result of the unequal distribution of strategic resources.
The conditions of inequality are rarely random. They are socially constructed that are used to rank
individuals in society; known as traits.
o These traits can be biological or socially acquired, but these traits must be imbued with
cultural meaning to be ranked.
The Four articles in this Section cover issues of:
o 1. Pat Armstrong = distribution of material resources - neo-liberal policies increasingly
impoverishing some while enriching others
o 2. Jacqueline Kennelly = stratification of social power - the ability of those who are
empowered to control and shape the lives of those who lack power
o 3. Arlene Tigar McLaren and Sylvia Parusel = distribution of risk - traffic risks are
disproportionately experienced by lower-income and female parents
o 4. Carlo Fanelli and Justin Paulson = same theme as the 1st (Pat Armstrong)
Overall, this Part is a compilation of Critical Theorists because they are engaging the question
"Who benefits from the current social order?" = look to Chp. 9 in Points p. 248 for a summary of
o Pay equity = The term used in North America to refer to equal pay between men
"equal pay for equal value"
Is based on comparisons of work predominately done by women with work
predominately done by men. It does not challenge the wages paid for men's jobs
but does say that women's jobs should be paid on the same basis as men's jobs. It
assumes that legislation applied to all employers can create a level playing field.
This failure to challenge the assumed market determination of men's jobs has
been one reason some feminists have rejected pay equity strategies.
Key Point: -->Pay equity supports the continuing segregation of the labour force
that leaves women doing women's work at women's wages.
o Gender Wage Gap = A difference between a man and woman's fixed regular
payment earned for work or services, typically paid on a daily or weekly basis.
Based on the notion of need, improved women's wages because women are the
majority of those earning the lowest wages.
Minimum wage was introduced to address this, however it was not intended to
o historically, equal pay is focused on individuals where the responsibility is on the
individual to take the risk of complaining and, if successful, the reward of higher pay is
only given to that individual. The challenge was the intent of the employer had to be
proven where the employer was not being given "equal pay for equal value." o the challenge was to have gendered wage difference legally recognized as systemic
discrimination - discrimination that did not need proof of the employer's intent of
discrimination of pay by gender
o The main argument against Equal Pay is: it assumes that gendered division of
domestic life is natural and does not need equal pay of the "heavier" work of a man's job.
Where a women's "lighter" work of domestic cleaning does not merit the same pay as
men's work. Thus, it does not separate gender from the workplace. Equal pay laws
views the workplace and the individual together.
o One argument against Equal Pay = women choose to take low-paying jobs and part-time,
precarious employment due to a lack of need for money.
o In contrast: Pay Equity does separate gender from the workplace. Pay equity is
about the jobs NOT the individual.
o To achieve pay equity, the process can't be left to unions alone.
o Many women have entered self-employment in reaction to poor institutionalization of
o The privatization of many government services means women employees are no longer
protected by the equity legislation or unions.
o Pat Armstong calls for the expansion of the equity legislation into other forms of work
not covered by current legislation.
o Qualitative method of data collection that involves interactive discussion among a
small number of people.
o High profile, onetime events of a limited duration hosted by a city that receives
global media attention. Mega-events typically circulate among host cities rather than
recurring in the same city multiple times.
Zones of Prestige
o A culturally impressive institution or space that a city uses to boost its reputation
both nationally and globally.
o An area that the police have designated as out of bounds to particular youth who have
been banished by police for partaking in illegitimate (though not always criminal)
o Olyimpic games event in Vancover 2012 is an example of a mega-event.
o Its effects on some lower class local youth is an intensification of separation and
unequal spatial distribution.
o A Vancouver youth, Allison, described the displacement of access to one bar and the
strong presence of the police in the downtown. Allison