Women’s Psychology Unit 2

Unit Two: Power and Privilege ● Privilege: describes the social, economic, and/or political advantages that people enjoy because they are part of a specific group. ○ EXAMPLE: Dominant Group - Are seen as individuals ■ Subordinate Group - Are representing a group ● Conferred Dominance: one group is socially assumed to have more authority/power over another group. ○ EXAMPLE: Men are considered dominant; therefore, they are seen as more capable. ● Legitimizing Myths: attitudes, values, or beliefs that justify social hierarchies. ● Social identities: race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, social class, religion, etc. ● Social identity: a person’s sense of self based on their affiliations with different social groups (determines how we experience and express ourselves). ○ EXAMPLE: Social Characteristic- Age ■ Power- Adults ■ Less Power- Children ● Social Stratification: the idea that people are ranked in hierarchy (some people and groups have more power and status than others) ○ EXAMPLE: Being white, male, able-bodied, heterosexual, well educated, and middle-aged are all social categories that are deemed powerful. ● Invisibility: Dominant groups are considered normative so individuals with marginalized social characteristics are INVISIBLE. ○ EXAMPLE: White women in the second wave of feminism activism V.S black women doing the same thing ● Scapegoating: blame a group or person for things that aren’t their fault ○ EXAMPLE - This can happen if people point out someone's privileges that are invisible to them and they feel like they’re being criticized so they scapegoat others. ● Stereotype: a set of beliefs about the characteristics of a group that generalizes all members. ● Backlash Effects: when you violate gender stereotypes, you get social or economic penalties. ○ EXAMPLE: Women who act masculine get penalized ● Gender stereotypes can be influenced by racial/ethnic identity. ○ “Strong black woman”- Overlapping concepts of caregiving and strength where they are tough, strong, and communal ○ Asian women as submissive, sexy, and in need of rescuing (china doll stereotype) ● Gender Roles: behaviors within a culture that are considered acceptable for an individual’s perceived gender (could for stereotypes) ○ Men are considered AGENTIC (assertive and dominant) and women are considered COMMUNAL (warm and friendly) - This is seen as more applicable to white women than black women ○ FEMININE and MASCULINE ● Sexism: bias based on the belief that men are superior to women. ● Prejudice: negative attitude towards someone because of their perceived part in a group. ● Overt Sexism: unequal treatment of women that is easily identifiable (when people think of sexism, sexism is a form of prejudice this way). ○ EXAMPLE: Telling a girl at a job interview that companies don’t hire young women cause they tend to have babies, and then proceeding to not hire them. ● Discrimination: a form of prejudice that occurs when someone is treated unfairly because of membership in a group not as powerful as dominant group. ● Modern sexism: gender bias that is communicated in indirect ways (subtle discrimination). ○ EXAMPLE: Not getting a job because of her gender. It's so unnoticeable you think it's normal. ○ Explicit Bias - conscious and deliberate ○ Implicit Bias - occurs outside of conscious awareness and can be unintentionally direct towards a group ○ Denial of personal discrimination : acknowledges but says it never happened to them ● Benevolent sexism: suggests women should be treated differently from men because they are special and in need of protection. ○ EXAMPLE: “Women are pure and should be put on a pedestal.” ● Ambivalent Sexism: contemporary sexism includes two complementary components hostility and benevolence ○ Hostility Sexism: negative and derogatory beliefs about women. ■ EXAMPLE: “Women are unintelligent” ○ Punishing women for challenging traditional gender expectations ○ Rewards women for keeping the gender status quo (but traps women into expectations) ○ “Women are less than men because they need protection. ○ Paternalistic Chivalry: the idea that women should be protected (as long as they keep gender roles). ● Microaggressions ○ Gender microaggressions: everyday acts of sexism (intentional or not) that insult a person based on their gender. (Usually the result of stereotyping). ○ People don’t notice microaggressions taking place because it can be given with good intentions and people usually don’t see the prejudice. ○ When not addressed, self esteem, anger, and frustrations are increased. ● Bias in language ○ Words like “huMANkind” and “freshMAN” use man to represent everyone. ○ People = male bias ■ EXAMPLE: People think of males with gender neutral words like policeman and salesman ○ Animal = male bias ■ Refers to animals using male pronouns ○ “They” is gender neutral compared to binary pronouns (he/she) ○ Gender-fair language: Refers to all people with symmetrical linguistic forms to promote gender equality. ■ EXAMPLE: “they” and “first-year student” instead of freshman ○ Nicknames reflect femininity (ex. Babe, Angel) and masculinity (ex. Champ, Stud) ○ Women (of color) get referred to as Ms. instead of Doctor and Professor like their colleagues. ○ Degrading Language: slang words to degrade women. ■ “Slut, bitch, whore, dishwasher” compared to men (tool, wallets) are more negative ○ Slang words that are used to describe women are disproportionately sexualized. ○ Name shifting: strategy of using spouse’s name/surname in situations. ■ Shows ambivalent qualities in social pressures (deciding between personal identity v.s role of wife) ○ Women are more likely than men to use tentative speech forms such as hedges (ex: mostly), hesitations (ex: um), tag questions(ex: right?), and intensifiers(very). The reason for this is because women were taught to be polite and speak in ways that are unconfident and powerless.