Why Do Women Occupy The Subordinate Position In The Sex/Gender System

Question One: Why do Women Occupy the Subordinate Position in the Sex/Gender System?

Gender inequalities between males and females have been existent since time began. In the Bible, these gender inequalities are evident with Eve (woman) causing the fall of man and the distancing from our “Father” and our banishment from Paradise, the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:7). Not only that, the very creation of Eve, being of Adam and Adam being of God, highlights that women are seen as an afterthought in creation. This brief essay will examine gender inequalities within our sex/gender system, but specifically on why women occupy subordinate roles.

As Aristotle and Garlen were mistaken to hold the idea that female organs are a lesser form of the male’s and therefore, women are lesser than men (Laquer 1990, 149). Freud also develops this notion of a phallic society and suggests that women are deficient because she lacks a penis and her whole psychological makeup is based on the struggle to make up for this deficiency (Wearing 1995, 4), thus, the beginning of gender differences.

Parsons and Bales (1955) place a more sociological explanation and justification for such gender difference. For example, gender roles within the family. Women (the mother) are the primary caregiver and socialiser in the early months, due to her close association with breastfeeding and care of the infant. Thus, the newborn learns from the mother interpersonal relationships, manners and expressive reactions. For girls, these aspects predominate for the rest of their lives as they fulfil the roles of nurturing, caring, expressive roles of society. Then, in later life, when women join the work force, their jobs are merely an extension from their role in the home and society (Wearing, 1995, 6).

Men on the other hand (the father), are more involved later on in the growth of the child. The child learns from their father, skills necessary to obtain leadership roles within society. In order to become men, boys must no longer identify with their mother (nurturing and caring) and adopt the male mode more suited to the competitive world of sport, business and politics (Wearing 1995, 6).

Parsons characterizes the woman’s role in the family as �expressive’, meaning she provides warmth, security and emotional support. This is essential for the effective socialization of the young. It is then only a short step away from applying these qualities to her young to applying them also to her husband. For the family to operate efficiciently, Parsons (1955, 3-33) argues that there must be a clear-cut sexual division of labour. The male (as the breadwinner) in this instrumental role, and women occupying the expressive role offering love, compassion and understanding for her husband upon his return from the high-stress, competitive work place. These traits, Parson argues, compliment each other to promote family solidarity (Parsons 1955, 3-33).

Due to the patriarchal lens placed over society, women are unaware of their subordination. It has been entrenched in their morals since birth that they are inferior to men. Michael Levin (1987), a controversial philosopher and known for his critique on certain strands of feminism, argues that women choose to be subordinate. Levin believes that if women made uncoordinated individual choices they would inevitably choose to work in lower paid jobs or maybe not even work at all (Levin