Sex refers to biological differences; chromosomes, hormonal profiles, internal and external sex organs.

Gender describes the characteristics that a society or culture delineates as masculine or feminine. Gender roles are socially constructed, meaning that society and culture create the roles, and that these roles are what is generally considered ideal or appropriate behaviour for a person of that specific gender. The normative ideal of masculinity that men are supposed to strive to achieve, and which both men and women participate in sustaining. Masculinity is associated with traits of aggressiveness, control, strength, drive, ambition, and not valuing women Based on womens compliance with their subordination to men and is oriented to obliging mens interests and desires. Femininity is associated with traits of supportiveness, enthusiasm, and sexual attractiveness. Transgender: An umbrella term for a range of individuals who do not fit normative constructions of sex and gender. Individuals who are transgender are the gender they identify themselves as being. Does not imply any specific form of sexual orientation. Transsexual: Individuals who undergo sex reassignment, which can include facial reconstruction surgeries, genital reassignment surgery, and hormone treatments. Were born into one gender but identify psychologically and emotionally with the other. Transvestite: Individuals who engage in cross-dressing (publicly, privately, or both), but do not necessarily identify as another gender. Gender is reproduced in 3 main social institutions. 1) The Family: a) Material Consumption: Gender expectations and interactions begin at birth, based on the colour allocated to boys (blue) and girls (pink) for clothing, toys, accessories, and even the nursery b) Parent-child Interactions: Parents respond more quickly to the cries of baby girls than boys, and are more affectionate to baby girls than boys. c) Child-Rearing Practices: Parents spend more time talking with little girls than boys, and punishing little boys more than girls. d) Parents Assignments of Household Tasks: Boys are assigned to do physical chores (taking out garbage, shoveling the snow, etc.), and girls are assigned to do domestic chores (doing dishes , washing floors). 2) Education: a) Hierarchical Organization of Schools: Men are in more dominant positions (principal) and women in more subordinate positions (teachers or secretaries).

b) Student-Teacher Interactions: Both male and female teachers tend to interact more with boys in their classes than girls (boys are praised more for their performance- ie successful completion of tasks or intellectual quality. Girls are praised more for their behaviour, ie congenial, neat). c) Curricular Materials: Boys are often portrayed in course materials (textbooks) as the hero, whereas girls are often portrayed as the victim in need of help. Girls then learn that they are not as important as boys. 3) Mass Media: a) Television Shows: Women are increasingly being portrayed in leading roles on prime-time television, but they are usually white, young, heterosexual women, which reinforces normative images about gender, sexuality, and race. b) Television Commercials: Reproduce forms of masculinity and femininity (ads for childrens toys are gender based, and ads for adult individuals reinforce gender stereotypes). c) Talk Shows: Portray lower-class masculinities and femininities (men and women behaving badly according to middle-class standards). Also, these shows challenge the silence around what is and is not acceptable content surrounding sexuality (by bringing on transgendered people). 1) Functionalism: Men and women perform separate, distinct, specialized, and complementary roles to maintain cohesiveness within families and in wider society. a) Men perform an instrumental role: Through their paid labour in the public sphere, they provide the money for food, shelter, and other necessities. b) Women fulfill the expressive role: They provide emotional support and nurturance for all members of the family unit. 2) Conflict Theory: Gender affects ones control of, an access to, scarce resources, including power, wealth, and prestige. In patriarchal society, mens dominance over women results in this general inequality. 3) Symbolic Interactionism: Gender is created through social interaction, mainly through the mechanism of role-taking. People learn contrasting expectations about gender on the basis of their perceived sex. 4) Feminist Theory: Gender is a socially constructed concept that has significant and at times negative consequences for men and women, as they are not treated equally. Women experience conditions of subordination and oppression. Sexual Identity: Our sense of self as masculine or feminine, our knowledge of our bodies, our sexual histories, and our sexual orientations. Sexual Orientation: An individuals sexual attraction to a person of a particular sex. There are 5 main sexual orientations:

Heterosexism: The practice of holding up heterosexuality as the ideal and normal sexuality, rendering all other sexualities as abnormal or deviant. (homophobe) 4) Pansexuality: Romantic and sexual desire for people regardless of their biological sex or their gender identity- including both transgendered and transsexual individuals. 5) Asexuality: An absence of sexual desire. Race Majority: A definable category of people who are socially advantaged. The majority group uses its dominance to control the social system. Race Minority: A definable category of people who are socially disadvantaged. The minority group lacks social power: It is not the number of individuals in a given group. The minority group is definable. Race: Differences are largely evident in skin colour, hair texture, and facial features Racialization: The process of attributing complex characteristics to racial categories (such as intelligence or athletic ability). Internalized Racism: attributes associated with a racial categorization and internalize them as part of their identities. May result in identity confusion- people are torn between on the one hand wanting to belong, and on the other hand wanting to embrace their differences from the majority. (Yaphaet) Ethnicity: A multi-dimensional concept that includes ones minority and majority status, ancestry, language, and often religious affiliation. (Being Polish) Ethnic Group: A collection of people who identify with each other and share a common culture, art forms, language, music, traditions, and beliefs. Ecological Fallacy: Drawing conclusions about individual attributes from data gathered from an entire group. For example, all Chinese people are good at math. Exception Fallacy: Drawing conclusions about an entire group based on observations of individuals. (Assuming that all Black people are good at basketball.) Prejudice: A negative prejudgment about a person or group that is irrational, long-lasting, and not based on fact, and is not acted upon. There are 2 main types of prejudice: 1. Stereotype: A stable and sweeping generalization about a category of people. For example, all red heads are feisty. Racism: An ideology that maintains that one race is inherently superior to another. 2. Institutional discrimination-There are 2 forms: a) Direct institutional discrimination: When an institution employs policies or practices that are discriminatory against a person or group

b) Indirect institutional discrimination: When individuals are treated differently based on unlawful criterion, even though these actions were never intended to be discriminatory. For example, weight or size requirement to be a police officer. 1. Functionalist Theory: One positive outcome of people targeting other people who are different is that it draws the separate groups closer to their own group and this promotes social stability. 2. Conflict Theory: There are 3 main approaches: a) Dual Labour Market Theory: Asserts that modern societies have 2 distinct labour markets (primary labour market- secure and well paid positions, and secondary labour markets- insecure, temporary, and hourly wage positions). Members of minority groups are often found in the secondary labour market. b) Marxist Exploitation Theory: The assertion that the powerful economic elite promotes, and benefits from, prejudice and discrimination. The ruling class promotes prejudice and discrimination in order to divide workers sot that they cannot present a united front of opposition. c) Critical Race Theory: An interdisciplinary approach used to investigate the intersections of race, class, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality to explain prejudice and discrimination. 3. Symbolic Interactionist Theory: Claims that peoples attitudes and perceptions about minority groups are not innate but, rather, are learned as a required component of culture or an expression of class conflict. 4. Multiracial Feminist Theory: Investigates race, class, and gender and gives voice to women of colour who are alienated from traditional white feminism. Argues that prejudice and discrimination is the outcome of an entire system of inequality that diminishes both women and men. 1) Nuclear Family: An adult male, and adult female, and their offspring. 2) Extended Family: Multiple generations of adults living with their spouses and children. There are 5 main important aspects of families: Socializations 2) Emotional relationships 3) Residence 4) Economics 5) Sexuality and reproduction Marriage: In 2006, 68% of Canadian families were married couples, down from 83% in 1981. In 1968 The federal Divorce Act was enacted in Canada: During this time, approximately 55 of every 1000 marriages ended in divorce, a 255% increase. No Fault Legislation abolishing alimony, Child custody awards were changed (mother best suited),

Adopted the principle of divorce by mutual consent, making road to legal dissolution less complicated and confrontational Divorce: Having Children: Couples with children are more likely to have stable marriages than childless couples. a) children=human capital investment; b) caring for children=mutual dependence of parents; c) desire to maintain parent-child relationships; d) children, especially young=lots of work and commitment). 2. Socioeconomic Status: Couples where the husband has a high socio-economic status are more likely to have stable marriages than couples where the husband has a low socio-economic status. (women stay at home) Premarital Cohabitation: Couples who do not cohabit before marriage are more likely to have stable marriages than couples who do cohabit before marriage. (Dara) Homogamy- with similar personal characteristics, attitudes, and social backgrounds- are more likely to have stable marriages than couples who are heterogamous. (like-terms)
Functionalism: Family meets the needs of the larger society. In the family, it is most functional for men to take on the instrumental role- responsible for engaging in paid labour outside the home, and for women to take on the expressive role- responsible for engaging in emotional well-being of family members and socialization of children.

Conflict Theory: Family meets the needs of capitalism, and to serve ruling class interests. Inequalities in larger society are perpetuated inside families. Social Reproduction and the Family: Capitalism requires that after a day of work, workers be rejuvenated- and this is where families come in. At home workers are fed, their clothes are laundered, and they are able to rest (workers needs are taken care of). Also, families are needed to produce the next generation of workers. Symbolic Interactionism: Family members behaviours are shaped by the familys in which they are socialized. Symbolic meanings vary from one family to the next, and may even vary among members of the same family unit. 4. Feminist Theory: Families remain primary sites for the continued subordination of women. No one family form is inherently natural or functional. Rather, feminist theorists argue that family forms are specific to both time and place. Crime: Behaviours and actions that require social control and social intervention, codified in law.

Deviance: Actions that VIOLATE social norms, and that may or may not be against the law. 2 Types of Social Control: 1) Informal Social Control: Occurs through our social interactions, and includes the ways we attempt to both communicate and enforce standards of appropriate behaviour. 2) Formal Social Control: Occurs when informal social controls are not effective. Occurs when the state imposes formalized mechanisms to enforce standards of appropriate behaviour through the law and the criminal justice system Moral Panic: Media attention and creation of a supposed social problem by presenting false, distorted, or exaggerated information (Arabs). Fear of crime more prevalent than being a victim. Fear-Gender Paradox: The phenomenon whereby women experience higher rates of fear of being victimized even though men are more likely to be victims of crime. Strain Theory: Robert Merton (1938) stated that people experience strain when culturally defined goals cannot be met through socially approved means. Lower classes are more likely to feel strain. Typology of social adaptations (5 social goals and means to achieve them): 1) Conformity: Accepts social goals and has legitimate means to achieve them. 2) Innovation: Accepts social goals but does not have legitimate means to achieve them (criminal behaviour) 3) Ritualism: Reduces the importance of social goals. 4) Retreatist: Rejects social goals and rejects legitimate means to achieve them. 5) Rebellion: Creates alternative set of social goals and means, thus replacing conventional ones. Illegitimate Opportunity Theory: Richard Cloward and Lloyd Ohlin (1960) stated that lower classes are more likely to feel strain but illegitimate opportunities are not always equally accessible to all lower classes. Therefore, individuals are constrained by available opportunities. Conflict Theory: Crime is the product of class struggle, and therefore situate and explain crime within economic and social context. Focuses on the role that government plays in producing criminogenic environments. Criminogenic Environments: An environment that, as a result of laws that privilege certain groups, produces crime or criminality.