Sociology of gender

Sociology of gender is a prominent subfield of sociology. Social interaction directly correlated with sociology regarding social structure. One of the most important social structures is status. This is determined based on position that an individual possesses which effects how they will be treated by society. One of the most important statuses an individual claims is gender. Public discourse and the academic literature generally use the term gender for the perceived or projected (self-identified) masculinity or femininity of a person. The term gender role was coined by John Money in a seminal 1955 paper where he defined it as "all those things that a person says or does to disclose himself or herself as having the status of boy or man, girl or woman." According to American gender theorist Judith Butler, a person's gender is complex, encompassing countless characteristics of appearance, speech, movement and other factors not solely limited to biological sex. Societies tend to have binary gender systems in which everyone is categorized as male or female. Some societies include a third gender role; for instance, the Native American Two-Spirit people and the Hijras of India. There is debate over the extent to which gender is a social construct or a biological construct. Feminist theory and Feminist sociology In the 1960s and 1970s, the women's movement started the momentum that led to the formation of feminist theory. One of the publications that launched this movement was Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique. This book described how women were expected to be fulfilled throughout their housework, immediately resonated with many women as it became a bestseller, and a movement was ignited. During this movement, also known as the women's rights movement or women's liberation movement, women fought for equal rights, and more personal freedom in all aspects of life such as politics, work, family and sexuality. In June 1966, the National Organization for Women (NOW) was created by women's rights activists Betty Friedan, Pauli Murray, Shirley Chisholm, and Muriel Fox to advocate political and social equality for women.