Class 9-30-10 Biology/Sociobuiology, Gender Heirarchy, and Labor

      During this class period we talked about a few different aspects of gender.  We talked about many biological aspects of what it means to be male and female.  Some things we talked about were:  Fitness, Parental Investment, Evangelical Conservation, and Behavior. 
     In the sense of Fitness we talked about the aspects of sperm and egg and how most men can have hundreds of offspring, if they so choose, and how most women can only have as many children as they do eggs, or as many as time and conditions, permit.  In the sense of Parental Investment we talked about the amount of time and energy each parent is generally required to their offspring.  Men have to invest less time in each of their offspring,  whereas woman, for the most part,  have to provide more time and resources for each one of their offspring.  When talking about Evangelical Conservation we came to the conclusion that most women feel they need a man to provide for them, which generally leads to marriage.  Lastly we talked about what causes certain behaviors in males and females.  We talked about things such as nature vs. nurture, evolution, hormones, and physiological brain measure to evaluate why men an women behave the ways in which they do.


Legal documentation is required for the passing of property and assets.

    Another one of the main topics we covered was about Gender Hierarchy.  We talked about how hundreds of years ago communities would help care for all the children in that particular community and share resources among them.  However, now this is usually not the case.   Now parents want to be able to pass things down to their offspring such as property which means there is no more sharing of resources and taking care of one another in a communal sense.  The legitimacy of children has evolved to be something we have come to expect in our culture.

   Lastly we talked about the roles of males and females in relation to labor.  In regards to physical labor we talked about how men are the ones who are usually doing the more rigorous and labor-induced jobs.  For example, this past week while Moore Street was being paved and we all had to manage to get around it and to class on time, it was easy to see where the division of labor was.  The men were the ones running the machines and the women were the ones turning the street signs.  In regards to the psychological aspects of labor we talked about how women are more perceived as being the creative type, whereas men are seen as the more logical type.  This could have an impact on who receives a certain job position of the other.  We also talked about how men generally make more money than females who are holding the same positions.  Women generally reach a glass ceiling and can't receive any higher wages.

Phew. That's enough for now.  Until Next Time.