Pinker Gender Chapter Summary

Pinker explains the role of gender discrimination and the nature vs. nurture debate. Gender discriminations has been roughly abated but there are still some discrepancies that exist between females and males when they are considered for a job opening or for salaries. The nature vs. nurture debate has long been touted as an important milestone in figuring out, what truly shapes children and how parenting affects their personalities and inclinations. The feminist movements have shaped the American ideologies of how women are perceived at home and at the workplace, as well as the differences that cause the gender gap. Children are not so much as only impacted by parenting style, but are more impacted by their peers via socialization and fitting in with likeminded individuals.

Pinker starts off the chapter by defining equality as the principle in which people are not judged by the traits of their group. Pinker explains Sommers two beliefs of feminism, equity feminism and gender feminism. Equity feminism in contrast to gender feminism opposes sex discriminations and other forms inequality the prevents women the same rights as men. Gender feminism focuses on the fact that women are entrenched in a system where men are dominant and bi-sexual children are either male or female. Pinker addresses the evolutionary aspect of the male and female dichotomy in which origination started in Africa and evolution occurred as a group rather than with sex determining characteristics. Men are more dominant, more competitive, violent and are the hunters and gatherers. Women are explained as more domestic where they provide the most parental care, and provide the necessary nutrition to the