Jump to content

Sex segregation: Difference between revisions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous editNext edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
No edit summary
m Reverted edits by Marshallsumter (talk) to last version by DJ Clayworth
Line 46: Line 46:


In many [[Eastern Catholic]] and [[Eastern Orthodox]] parishes, there is a sex segregation. This is not as common in the New World as it is in the Old World, especially in more rural areas where men will sit on the right (near Christ's icon) and women will sit on the left (near Mary's icon).
In many [[Eastern Catholic]] and [[Eastern Orthodox]] parishes, there is a sex segregation. This is not as common in the New World as it is in the Old World, especially in more rural areas where men will sit on the right (near Christ's icon) and women will sit on the left (near Mary's icon).

==Origin==

The [[San people]] of [[southern Africa]] are among the five populations with the highest measured levels of genetic diversity and may be the most basal branch of the phylogenetic tree comprising all living humans. The status of women is relatively equal.<ref name=Shostak>{{ cite book |author=Marjorie Shostak |year=1983 |title=Nisa: The Life and Words of a ?Kung Woman |location=New York |publisher=Vintage Books |page=13 }}</ref> Sex segregation appears to be limited. San women gather fruit, berries, tubers, bush onions and other plant materials for the band's consumption. San men traditionally hunt using poison [[arrow]]s and [[spear]]s in laborious, long excursions. [[Kudu]], [[antelope]], [[deer]], [[dikdik]], and [[African Buffalo|buffalo]] were important game animals. The San offer thanks to the animal's spirit after it has been killed. The liver is eaten only by men and hunters because it is thought to contain a poison unsafe for women.

Traditionally the San were an [[Egalitarianism|egalitarian]] society.<ref name=Shostak/> Although they did have hereditary chiefs, the chiefs' authority was limited, the San instead make decisions among themselves by [[consensus]].<ref name=Jenkins>{{ cite web |url=http://orvillejenkins.com/profiles/kung.html |title=The !Kung Bushmen }}</ref> In addition, the San economy was a [[gift economy]], based on giving each other gifts on a regular basis rather than on trading or purchasing goods and services.<ref name=Shostak/> A comprehensive study of major world economies has revealed that homicide, infant mortality, obesity, teenage pregnancies, emotional depression and prison population all correlate with higher social inequality.<ref name=SpiritLevel>{{ cite web |title= Inequality: The Mother of All Evils? | publisher= The Guardian |url=http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Guardian/documents/2009/03/13/inequality.pdf | accessdate=2010-01-16 }}</ref> Apparently, higher social inequality which includes sex segregation is of benefit for some to the expense or detriment of the many.

===Childhood development===

For the vast majority of children, there is coincidence of biological sex, social gender label, and psychological gender identity, which is sufficient to produce same-sex segregation.<ref name=Jacklin>{{ cite book |author=Maccoby EE, Jacklin CN |title=Gender segregation in childhood. In: ''Advances in child development and behavior'' |editor=Reese HW |volume=20 |pages=239-87 |year=1987 |publisher=Academic Press |location=New York }}</ref> Sex segregation in children reflects social factors common to all members of the sex and is a group phenomenon resulting from gender identification and labeling, rather than to similarities in sex-typed activities.<ref name=Maccoby>{{ cite journal |author=Maccoby EE |title=Gender as a social category |journal=Dev Psychol. |month= |year=1988 |volume=24 |pages=755-65 }}</ref>

===Sex differences===
{{main|Sex differences in humans}}
A '''[[Sex differences in humans|sex difference]]''' is a distinction of biological and/or physiological characteristics typically associated with either males or females of a species in general. Quantitative differences are based on a gradient and involve different averages. For example, [[males]] are taller than [[females]] on average,<ref name=Gustafsson>{{cite journal | author=Gustafsson A, Lindenfors P | year=2004 | title=Human size evolution: no allometric relationship between male and female stature | journal=J Human Evol. | volume=47 | pages=253–66 | doi=10.1016/j.jhevol.2004.07.004 }}</ref> but an individual female may be taller than an individual male. Sex differences usually describe differences which clearly represent a binary male/female split, such as [[human reproduction]]. Though some sex differences are controversial, they are not to be confused with [[Sexism|sexist]] [[stereotype]]s.

When employers' assumptions about the sexes lead them to assign individual men and women to different jobs, they are discriminating and sex segregating on the basis of [[Sex differences in humans|sex differences]] and [[Sexism|sexist]] [[stereotype]]s.<ref name=Reskin>{{ cite journal |author=Reskin B |title=Sex segregation in the workplace |journal=Annu Rev Sociol. |month=Aug |year=1993 |volume=19 |issue= |pages=241-70 |doi=10.1146/annurev.so.19.080193.001325 |url=http://arjournals.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.so.19.080193.001325 }}</ref> In the [[United States]], occupational sex segregation has declined since 1970, but most workers remain in sex segregated jobs.<ref name=Reskin/> National institutions that promote investments in gender-biased skills are a mechanism that perpetuates sex segregation.<ref name=Estevez>{{ cite journal |author=Estevez-Abe M |title=Gender bias in skills and social policies: the varieties of capitalism perspective on sex segregation |journal=Soc Pol. |volume=12 |issue=2 |year=2005 |pages=180-215 |doi=10.1093/sp/jxi011 |url=http://sp.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/12/2/180 }}</ref>

"One of the most robust findings of evolutionary psychology is that the human mind is sexually dimorphic, with the sexes differing, on average, in a variety of temperamental and cognitive traits. Sex differences in such traits might plausibly be expected to have a substantial effect on social behavior and social patterns. One social domain in which these differences may play out with substantial force is the workplace".<ref name=Browne>{{ cite journal |author=Browne KR |title=Evolved sex differences and occupational segregation |journal=J Organiz Behav. |month= |year=2006 |volume=27 |issue= |pages=143-62 |url=http://faculty.law.wayne.edu/Browne/Documents/Articles/Evolved%20Sex%20Differences%20and%20Occupational%20Segregation_Browne.pdf |doi=10.1002/job.349 }}</ref> "Students of occupational behavior have long understood that people tend to gravitate toward, and succeed at, jobs for which they have the skills and ability and that provide them with the satisfactions that they desire."<ref name=Browne/>

The female role in gestation and lactation is of ancient origin dating back to the dawn of mammals, whereas men who achieve positions of power tend to have access to more females and leave behind more offspring than other men.<ref name=Browne/> Among mammals, the demands of gestation (nine months in humans) and lactation (up to a year or two) mean that females necessarily invest more in their offspring initially. Mammalian males can increase their reproductive success through mating with other females, especially during an impregnated female's periods of gestation and lactation. Other males pursue the same strategy, thereby competing among themselves through contests of raw physical power or through skill at forming male coalitions (thereby reducing competition for females by sex segregating other males from females).<ref name=Browne/> Human males can provide post-conception investment such that female mate choice is driven by genetic endowment and his ability and willingness to invest in her and her offspring.<ref name=Trivers>{{ cite book |author=Trivers RL |year=1985 |title=Social Evolution |publisher=Benjamin/Cummings |location=Menlo Park, CA }}</ref>

Because two groups exhibiting average differences in talents and tastes would be expected to make different workplace choices due to selective pressures that have been operating on the two sexes for millions of years, men and women would be unlikely to act interchangeably in a labor market that emphasizes gender-biased skills.<ref name=Browne/> Men who achieve positions of power tend to have access to more females and leave behind more offspring than other men when variations away from [[egalitarianism]], such as that of the [[San people]],
are perpetrated on society. Preference for selective traits (e.g., achieving positions of power) may be advantageous in geographically isolated situations but tend to increase species vulnerability to extinction when that isolation is lost.

===Supply side origins===
{{main|Supply-side economics}}
Supply-side explanations of occupational sex segregation look to individual characteristics of workers, such as values, aspirations, and roles, for the origin for occupational outcomes.<ref name=Okamoto>{{ cite journal |author=Okamoto D, England P |title=Is there a supply side to occupational sex segregation? |journal=Sociol Perspect. |month=Winter |year=1999 |volume=42 |issue=4 |pages=557-82 |url=http://www.jstor.org/pss/1389574 }}</ref>

For individuals with early plans for employment intermittency or more actual breaks in employment, there is no tendency to work in predominantly female occupations, contrary to [[Human capital|human capital theory]].<ref name=Okamoto/> Women who choose occupations when anticipating breaks in employment probably do not choose the occupation because of lower wage penalties for time out of the labor force.<ref name=Okamoto/>

White and Latina mothers sacrifice some pay generally for "mother-friendly" features of jobs, in agreement with the [[Compensating differential|theory of compensating differentials]], but the opposite is true for African-American mothers.<ref name=Okamoto/>

Women aspiring to or expecting to work in predominantly female jobs are in more heavily female jobs fourteen years later, consistent with [[Socialization#Gender socialization and gender roles|gender socialization]].<ref name=Okamoto/> For women (but not men), more liberal gender role attitudes predict working in a more sex-typical occupation.<ref name=Okamoto/> For men (but not women), having had either a father or mother who worked in a female occupation predicts working in a more heavily female occupation.<ref name=Okamoto/> On average in 1993, women worked in occupations that were 65 percent female while men worked in occupations that were 27 percent female.<ref name=Okamoto/> 60 percent of men and women in 1980 would have to change occupations to achieve full integration.<ref name=Blau>{{ cite journal |author=Blau |year=1988 }}</ref>

===Wage differentials===

A number of researchers have commented that female-male wage differentials are very small for single persons and that married persons account for almost all of the observed female-male wage differential.

===Socio-spatial symbolism===

Within the people of the [[Lacandon Jungle]], the [[Sun]] and its related attributes (heat, height, right-handedness, and light) are associated with men.<ref name=McGee>{{ cite journal |author=McGee RJ, Gonzaléz B |title=Economics, women, and work in the Lacandon jungle |journal=Frontiers: J Women Studies. |month= |year=1999 |volume=20 |issue=2 |pages=175-89 |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/3347023 }}</ref> Thus, men sit on the right side of a fire and women sit on the left.<ref name=McGee/> Further, men sit on stools placing themselves higher than women who sit on the Earth, which is considered feminine.<ref name=McGee/>
{{Seealso|Anuta}}
The head of the [[Anuta]]n church, the [[catechist]], speaks from a [[pulpit]] in front (the eastern end) of the [[church]], while the [[congregation]] sits facing him.<ref name=Feinberg>{{ cite journal |author=Feinberg R |title=Socio-spatial symbolism and the logic of rank on two Polynesian outliers |journal=Ethnology. |month=Jul |year=1988 |volume=27 |issue=3 |pages=291-310 |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/3773522 }}</ref> The men sit on the right side of the central aisle, and the women sit on the left.<ref name=Feinberg/> [[Polynesian]] cultures represent variations on a set of common themes; i.e., [[social relation]]s are expressed in spatial terms and represented as an elaborately articulated, hierarchically ordered set of binary oppositions: right to left, front to back, east to west, high to low, and seaward to inland.<ref name=Feinberg/> The cosmological order underlying Polynesian notions of aristocracy apparently originating from high volcanic islands is compromised by spatial ambiguities when living on an atoll consisting of a ring of islets, and the hierarchical social order becomes insupportable leading to a more egalitarian basis for social relations.<ref name=Feinberg/>

Among the [[Daasanach]] of southwestern [[Ethiopia]], in the space for coffee drinking, men sit on the left side and women sit on the right.<ref name=Sagawa>{{ cite journal |author=Sagawa T |title=Wives' domestic and political activities at home: the space of coffee drinking among the Daasanetch of southwestern Ethiopia |journal=African Study Monographs |month=Jul |year=2006 |volume=27 |issue=2 |pages=63-86 |url=http://jambo.africa.kyoto-u.ac.jp/kiroku/asm_normal/abstracts/pdf/27-2/sagawa.pdf }}</ref> As with other pastoral societies in East Africa, the Daasanach tend to consider livestock and [[pastorlism]] in relation to men, and crops and [[agriculture]] in relation to women.<ref name=Sagawa/>

In [[Oceania]] from the perspective of the chiefs, the men sit on the left-hand side of the house, while the women sit on the right.<ref name=Lichtenberk>{{ cite journal |author=Lichtenberk F |title=Representing space in Oceania: culture in language and mind |journal=Oceanic Linguitics. |month= |year=2004 |volume=43 |pages= |url=http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&se=gglsc&d=5006660180 }}</ref>


== See also ==
== See also ==
Line 115: Line 68:
{{Segregation by type}}
{{Segregation by type}}


[[Category:Sex segregation]]
[[Category:Sexism]]
[[Category:Sexism]]
[[Category:Islam-related controversies]]
[[Category:Islam-related controversies]]

Revision as of 14:00, 22 March 2010

Part of a series on
Discrimination
Forms
Attributes
Social
Religious
Ethnic/national
Manifestations
Policies
Countermeasures
Related topics

Sex segregation is the separation of people according to their gender.

The pejorative term gender apartheid (or sexual apartheid) has been applied to segregation of people by gender, implying that it is sexual discrimination. In some circumstances, gender segregation is a controversial policy, with critics contending that in most or all circumstances it is a violation of human rights, and supporters arguing that it is necessary to maintain decency, sacredness, modesty, female safety[1] or the family unit.

Public facilities

In the interest of modesty, public toilets, public showers, dormitories, changing rooms, prisons and other areas are usually sex segregated. On the other hand, resorts, beaches, and other places used for the purpose of naturism are seldom segregated, nor are figure drawing classes at colleges and universities.

In some countries, trains have designated women-only passenger cars.

Sports

Sports are usually segregated on a gender basis. Some sports that do not rely on physical contact, such as bowling or golf, may have separate sporting events. In archery, though, it is normal for both sexes and all ages to shoot alongside each other: in a handicap tournament they will, in fact, be competing against each other.

To cater to the religious requirements of various faiths, and for other preference reasons, sometimes separation is achieved by allocating times or facilities for the exclusive use of one gender, usually of women. This is sometimes done with public saunas, swimming pools and gymnasiums.

Many countries now have laws outlawing discrimination on the basis of sex, and regard the refusal to provide facilities on an equal basis to both men and women as sexual discrimination, but exceptions are usually permitted.

Education

For religious or other cultural reasons, schools might be segregated on a gender basis. There have been studies conducted to analyse whether single-sex schools or co-ed schools produce better educational outcomes, but each has its advocates and critics. Even in co-ed schools, certain classes, such as sex education, are sometimes segregated on the basis of gender. On the other hand, even in single-sex schools the teaching staff usually are both men and women. Some schools decide to segregate students only in core subjects this is called parallel education.

New research in Israel shows that both boys' and girls' performance can increase at school with a higher ratio of girls to boys in the classroom. [2]

In Louisiana following the forced race integration of public schools, the schools were segregated by sex. St. Bernard and Jefferson Parishes (surrounding New Orleans) instituted sex segregation to reduce the likelihood of black and white students dating. The last year of sex segregation in Jefferson Parish public schools was 1975.

Female safety

Some sex segregation occurs for reasons of female safety. For example a refuge for 'battered mothers or wives' may refuse to admit men, even those who are themselves the victims of domestic violence, both to prevent access by those who might commit or threaten violence to women or because women who have been subjected to abuse by a male might feel threatened by the presence of any man[citation needed].

Religion

Islam

Further information: Sex segregation in Islam, Purdah, and Awrah

Islam discourages social interaction between unmarried strange men and women. Sex segregation is strictly enforced in some Islamic countries by religious police.[3][4]

In the Muslim world, preventing women from being seen by men is closely linked to the concept of Namus.[5][6] Namus is an ethical category, a virtue, in Middle Eastern Muslim patriarchal character. It is a strongly gender-specific category of relations within a family described in terms of honor, attention, respect/respectability, and modesty. The term is often translated as "honor".[5][7]

Judaism

Orthodox Jewish synagogues have separate men's and women's sections, typically separated by a wall or curtain called a mechitza.[8]

In Israel there are a few buses, serving ultra-orthodox Jewish neighbourhoods of Jerusalem, which are segregated by sex, with either men or women sitting in the front and either men or women sitting in the back of the bus.[9]

Christianity

In many Eastern Catholic and Eastern Orthodox parishes, there is a sex segregation. This is not as common in the New World as it is in the Old World, especially in more rural areas where men will sit on the right (near Christ's icon) and women will sit on the left (near Mary's icon).

See also

References

  1. ^ Amnesty International includes segregated toilets among the measures to ensure the safety of girls/boys in schools. Six steps to stop violence against schoolgirls, Document ACT 77/008/2007, November 2007.
  2. ^ "Keep Boys and Girls Together, New Research Suggests"
  3. ^ SAUDI ARABIA Catholic priest arrested and expelled from Riyadh - Asia News
  4. ^ BBC NEWS | Middle East | Saudi minister rebukes religious police
  5. ^ a b Werner Schiffauer, "Die Gewalt der Ehre. Erklärungen zu einem deutsch-türkischen Sexualkonflikt." ("The Force of the Honour"), Suhrkamp: Frankfurt am Main, 1983. ISBN 3-518-37394-3.
  6. ^ Dilek Cindoglu, "Virginity tests and artificial virginity in modern Turkish medicine," pp. 215–228, in Women and sexuality in Muslim societies, P. Ýlkkaracan (Ed.), Women for Women’s Human Rights, Istanbul, 2000.
  7. ^ Dilek Cindoglu, "Virginity tests and artificial virginity in modern Turkish medicine," pp. 215–228, in Women and sexuality in Muslim societies, P. Ýlkkaracan (Ed.), Women for Women’s Human Rights, Istanbul, 2000.
  8. ^ "Synagogues, Shuls and Temples". jewfaq.org. Retrieved 2007-02-25.
  9. ^ Katya Alder, "Israel's 'modesty buses' draw fire", BBC News, 24 April 2007
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sex_segregation&oldid=351359243"