Gender and age

Which of the following is true regarding poverty among elderly Americans?

• Elderly Americans are economically worse off than they were four decades ago.
• The income gap between the wealthy elderly and the elderly poor is small.
• Elderly women have a lower rate of poverty than elderly men.
• The poverty rate for racial and ethnic minority elderly is higher than the poverty rate for whites.

Why do sociologists regard the elderly as a minority group?

• because many older Americans are minorities
• so that they can receive help from the government
• because there are fewer older people
• to expose stereotyping and discrimination

In the 1800s, some schools had rules that female teachers had to be unmarried because most people believed that married women should stay home and take care of their families. However, no such rules applied to men in their work. This is an example of

• biological determinism.
• feminization of poverty
• sexism.
• gender identity.

About 85% of corporate secretaries are female. This is an example of

• gender identity.
• biological determinism.
• de jure sexism.
• occupational sex segregation.

How does sex differ from gender?

• Sex is shaped by culture.
• Gender is a biological concept.
• Cultural patterns are part of gender.
• Behavior is determined by sex alone.

Symbolic interactionists understand ageism as

• a competition for resources.
• a struggle for power
• the socialization of stereotypes.
• the result of industrialization.

How do symbolic interactionists explain ageism?

• Ageism is the result of competition over scarce resources.
• Children learn negative attitudes about the elderly in the same way that they learn other prejudices.
• Elderly people are not valued in technological society because their skills are outdated.
• Ageism exists because society has more workers than there are jobs to fill.

Gender identity is awareness of being masculine or feminine based on

• being male or female.
• social and cultural patterns.
• genetic differences.
• biological facts.

The majority of women

• do not work outside the home.
• with small children do not work outside the home.
• earn 95 cents for every dollar men earn.
• physicians and lawyers do not suffer from the earnings gap.

Functionalists explain the loss of status among older people as a consequence of

• discrimination.
• class struggle
• industrialization.
• socialization.