Learning Objectives

  1. Differentiate between sex, gender, and sexuality, and illustrate the ways in which gender is culturally constructed.
  2. Analyze the role of ideology in the construction of gender, and give examples of the ways in which female sexuality is controlled and men prove themselves.
  3. Describe variability in gender roles and sexual behavior.
  4. Summarize different theories offered to explain the existence of gender hierarchies.
  5. Compare and contrast the gender relations typical of foraging, horticultural, pastoral, and agricultural societies.
  6. Assess the changes in our understanding of gender in the past decades, and relate them to changes in family and economy.