Living Legends and Full Agency

Chapter 10 On Gender and Citizenship

On Gender

In many ways, gender has served as a proxy, if not the defining yardstick, for women’s treatment as a collective in American society. Gender is a status characteristic (Ridge and Correll 2004). In the workplace, gender is a determinant of the behaviors and expectations of individuals. For example, because men on the one hand are perceived as fathers and protectors, this dual role is self-reinforcing (Deutsch and Saxton 1998) and increases their asymmetric status in society. Women on the other hand, and by extension motherhood, another status characteristic, lose status in competence and worth even as their role as mothers is valued by society, yet their worth as mothers is devalued in the workplace ...