Group Work on Sex and Gender Distinction

Break up into small groups.  Have at least one member of your group (1) prepare a summary of your group's discussion and (2) include a list of your group's members. If you are doing this as a student in the fall, 2020, section of the course and were not able to attend class the day we did this group work, If you were not present in class for this exercise, you may complete it (in less than 2 pages) as a typed assignment and submit your answers through the Canvas inbox or email to Kagan@lemoyne.edu.

(In your responses, please remember to change names and details to protect privacy.)

1. Review the standard distinction between sex and gender. Have your group come up with 3 or 4 examples of human concerns, expectations or characteristics which are determined by sex (e.g., a biological male is unlikely to be concerned about dying while giving birth to a child).

2. Have your group come up with 3 or 4 examples of human concerns, expectations or characteristics which seem to be a function of gender roles (e.g., a woman might be concerned about finding pumps to wear for a job interview as an accountant at a conservative accounting firm).

3. Have your group come up with 3 or 4 examples of human concerns, expectations or characteristics which are apparently related to issues of sex and gender, but the example seems to be a function of both, or it's not clear which it's an example of (e.g., women are less likely to be in prison for committing violent crimes).

4. Have any of your group's examples changed in the past? How so? Do you expect that any of your group's examples are immune to change, given social changes and the rise of new technologies? Why or why not?

5. What opportunities for human greatness, if any, does gender categorization offer? What opportunities does it limit? Can you think of any examples from the works we've read so far?

6.  Has someone you know well been challenged by gender expectations that interfered with accomplishing an important task or making progress to an important goal?  What happened?   (Please change names, etc., as needed to preserve privacy.)

Michael Kagan, Le Moyne College 
February 26, 2003; last revised November 1, 2020


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