Republic of the Philippines

ZAMBOANGA CITY STATE POLYTECHNIC COLLEGE

Region IX, Zamboanga Peninsula
R.T. Lim Blvd., Zamboanga City

GENDER AND SOCIETY

MODULE II
Course Code: GE Elective 3
Course Description: Gender and Society
Date Developed: July 2020 Date Revised:
Document No: ZCSPC-LM2020 Issued by: ZCSPC - CTE
Prepared by:
ATTY. MARIE CHRISTELLE T. RUBIO
email: [email protected] call/message: 09177167783
Mon-Fri – 10:00-11:00 A.M.
Reviewed by:

Recommending Approval: Dr. JUDITH M. MAGHANOY

Approved by: Dr. ELIZABETH JANE P. SEBASTIAN

VISION MISSION INSTITUTIONAL CORE VALUES

ZCSPC as the leading Provide effective and OUTCOMES Love of God,
provider of globally efficient services through Globally competitive Social Responsibility,
competitive human advance technological graduates who can Commitment/
resources. studies and researches for perform advanced Dedication to the
the empowerment of the technological competencies Service, and
nation’s human resources. in their field of Accountability
specialization.
 INTRODUCTION
Welcome to Zamboanga City State
Polytechnic College, the premier higher education
institution in Zamboanga Peninsula, one of the
Centers of Development in Teacher Education
Institutions in the country and an ISO accredited
institution as recognized by the Commission on
Higher Education. It is our pride and honor, that
you choose ZCSPC as your school of choice.

With the current situation under a NEW NORMAL condition due to COVID19
Pandemic, our school is now trying to find ways and means to provide accessible and
quality tertiary education. It is for this reason that the administration has decided to offer
flexible learning education using two modalities: Blended and Distance Learning
education. In as much as we limit that actual and physical face-to-face mode of delivery,
each college has decided to come up with printed module to cater those students who
cannot avail online learning modalities.

This module has been prepared to guide you in your learning journey with the use
of the Guided and Self-directed learning activities prescribed to finish your course. Each
module includes reading materials that have been chosen to help you understand the
ideas and concepts introduced by the module.

For this semester, your class in Gender and Society focuses on basic
understanding of gender issues and concerns in our ever-evolving society. Exercises
and assessments of learning activities are provided to test your comprehension and
apply the concepts that you have learned from this module. After accomplishing all
modules, you are expected to do the following:

• Demonstrate understanding of learning environments that promote

fairness, respect, and care to encourage learning
• Demonstrate an understanding of knowledge of learning environments that
are responsive to community contexts

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 • Demonstrate content knowledge and its application within and/or across
curriculum teaching areas
• Demonstrate understanding of supportive learning environments that
nurture and inspire learner participation; and
• Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of differentiated teaching to
suit the learner’s gender, needs, strengths, interests, and experiences.

HOW TO USE THIS MODULE

This is a self-study module particularly designed to help you study with little or no
intervention from your teacher. Please follow very carefully the instructions on how to
use this module so you can fully benefit from it.

• The lessons on this module is logically organized. Every lesson is connected to

the next and necessary for a better understanding of the next topic. Hence,
please do not skip a page. Read every page of this module and do every task
that is asked of you.

• Read the Table of Contents so that you will have a good grasp of the entire
course. Having an overview of what you are about to study will help you see
the interrelationships of the concepts or knowledge that you are about to learn.

• Every lesson or unit begins with the learning objectives. The objectives are the
target skills or knowledge that you must be able to gain or perform after
studying the entire lesson/unit.

• Take the post test, activity or practice exercise given at the end of the lesson or
unit. Do this only when you have thoroughly read the entire lesson or unit. When
answering every activity, test, or exercise, please answer them honestly without
looking at the answer key. They answer key is given to you for you to check your
own progress and monitor your own understanding of the lesson. The knowledge
you will gain depends on how much effort and honesty you put into your work.

• Please pay attention to the Study Schedule on page 4. This will guide you and
make sure that you do not lag behind. Lagging behind will result to cramming
and eventually affects your understanding of the lesson.

• Know what it takes to pass the course. Please refer to the Evaluation and
Grading System on page 5 and 6 respectively.

• If you encounter difficult words which are not found in the Glossary page of this
module, take some time to locate the meaning of these words in a dictionary.
You will fully understand your lesson if you exert extra effort in understanding it.
There is no room for laziness and complacency. College students are expected
to be independent learners.

• If there is anything in the lesson which you need clarifications on, do not
hesitate to contact your instructor or professor at the appropriate time.

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 • You will be evaluated by your instructor or professor to check how much
knowledge and skills you have gained. The result of this evaluation will form a
big chunk of your grade. So please do well and do not waste time.

• Remember that you are the learner. Do not let other people do any of the tasks
on your behalf. Doing so is a form of cheating which will not benefit you but will
only put you at a disadvantage in the long run. Remember that cheating in your
school works is a form of deception. You are not fooling anyone but yourself.

• Lastly, as ZCSPians you must always be guided by our core values; Love of
God; Social Responsibility; Commitment/ Dedication to the Service; and
Accountability.

STUDY SCHEDULE
Week Topic Activities
Week 1 Preliminaries, Introduction, • Reflection (Write your thoughts on
Syllabus Orientation, VMG and how you, as a student, can help
Core Values Discussion realize the vision, mission, goals,
and objectives of the school.)
Week 2 • What is sex, gender and sexual • Categorization
orientation? • Drawing Implications
• How does society view gender • Comparing and Contrasting
and sexuality through time?
Week 3 • What does psychosocial mean? • Brief-Answer Essay
• What are the psychosocial • Self-Assessment
dimensions of gender and • Reflection
sexuality?
Week 4 • Social Construction of Sexuality • Brief-Answer Essay
• Sexuality and Social Change • Drawing Connections
• Comparing
Week 5 Sexuality and Procreation • Short Answer Essay
• Essay
Week 6 Sexual Inequalities • Table: Inequalities and Their
Consequences
• Enumeration
Week 7 Stereotype, Prejudices and • Categorization
Discrimination • Essay
Week 8 The LGBT • Table: History of LGBTQ
• Essay
• Matching Type: Self-Assessment
Week 9 Gender-Based Violence Table Matrix

Week 10 Laws Promoting Gender Equality Matrix Making on Different Laws

highlighting important provisions
Week 11 RA 9262 (Anti-Violence against Categorization / Table Matrix
Women and their Children Act)

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 Week 12 Laws and Policies on Violence Table Matrix on Laws Promulgated
and Discrimination of the to address violence and
Members of the LGBTQ discrimination against LGBTQ
Community

Week 13 Sexual Harassment Table Matrix

Week 14 Gender Inequality in Marriage Essay

and Criminal Laws
Week 15 RA 10354 – Responsible Table Matrix
Parenthood and Productive
Health Act of 2012 (The RH Law)
Week 16- Cross-Cutting Issues in Gender Essay (Gender Issue in the
17 and Sexuality Classroom)
Week 18 Summative Exam

Note: The activities listed on the third column are subject to change.

EVALUATION

To pass the course, you must:

✓obtain a final grade of at least 75% or 3.0

✓ complete all tasks and requirements required under this module. Non-completion may
result to a grade of INC.
✓ submit this module on schedule. Non-submission may result to a failing or INC grade.
Evaluative Assessment Activities

A. Self-Check Quizzes

The quizzes contained in this module are meant to measure your own
understanding of the lesson. Answer Keys are provided for you to assess or
evaluate yourself. Do not cheat by looking at the answer keys. Remember that
your learning depends much on how honest you do your work. These self-check
quizzes or exercises will NOT form part of your grade but not answering or
completing them will give you an INC grade.

B. Essays

The essays contained in this module must be answered completely. This will be
graded and will form a small part of your grade. Remember to always practice
intellectual honesty. Do not plagiarize other people’s work. It means NOT copying
the answers of other people and NOT copying answers from the internet. Also,
please do not let others answer the questions on your behalf.

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 C. Summative Exams

A big chunk of your grade comes from the summative exams. These are exams
that may or may not be contained in your module and which answer keys are not
provided in the module.

GRADING SYSTEM

NO. CRITERIA PERCENTAGE (%)

1 Submission of Portfolio 20
2 Learning Outcome Validation 40
3. Summative Assessment 40
Total 100%

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction 2
How to Use this Module 3
Study Schedule 4
Evaluation 5
Grading System 6
Module II
Week 5 Lesson 1 Sexuality and Procreation 8
Week 6 Lesson 2 Sexual Inequality 14
Week 7 Lesson 3 Stereotype, Prejudices and Discrimination 21
Week 8 Lesson 4 The LGBT 27
Key Terms 37
Answer Key 39
References 40
About the Teacher 41

Note: Module III will be released upon completion and submission of this Module (Module II)

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 MODULE II
Lesson 1
Sexuality and Procreation
INTENDED LEARNING OUTCOMES

After studying this module, you are expected to:

✓ Determine the double standard treatment of society between male
and female when it comes to procreation
✓ Express one’s stand with regards to the issue of inequalities
✓Explain
general
how the use of birth control benefit women and the family in

For most couples in our country, birth control is

almost always the responsibility of the wife. What are
your thoughts about this? Whose responsibility is birth
control and why? Write your thoughts below:
______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

As mentioned above, birth control is almost always the

responsibility of a woman or the wife among married couples.
In fact, it is a common notion that birth control is almost
exclusively a responsibility of the woman. How did this notion
come about? Why is there a consensus in the society that it
is the woman who must take on the responsibility of birth
control and not the men?

The biological differences between man and woman has something to do with
this. The woman conceives while the man does not. Hence, for the woman to avoid this
consequence, she deems it necessary to take on the responsibility of birth control. This
allows women to avoid the risk of getting pregnant. However, as a result, a double
standard has existed in our society wherein women are perceived to exclusively hold the
responsibility of birth control while men do not.

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 Do you see how our sexuality is integrated to our social relations? A woman’s
ability to conceive is extended beyond its physiological function to areas of social
behavior as well as politics and other aspects of life. This is true among men also.

Women and Birth Control

The practice of birth control or contraception may not be acceptable to some

religious and cultural groups. But for others, it is a means of improving the quality of life.
Read an excerpt of an article below to learn about how birth control affected women’s
lives.
An excerpt from Sex and Reproduction: An Evolving Relationship
(https://academic.oup.com/humupd/article/16/1/96/705754)

The importance of controlling fertility as a means to improve the

quality of life of people in general and of women in particular was clearly
understood well before effective methods became available and population
explosion made some form of birth control mandatory. Indeed, besides
Malthus (1798), a separation between sex and reproduction were advocated
also by Freud (1898).

Purdy (2008) recently pointed out that sexuality focused on

reproduction must have frustrated women throughout human history. She
believes that it is hardly plausible that women ever lived full happy lives in
societies in which their need for sexual satisfaction, their interest in avoiding
pain and suffering, and their desire for control over their bodies and lives
were routinely ignored. Particularly important, in her view, would have been
the attempt to maintain at least the degree of bodily integrity necessary for
ensuring healthy intervals between pregnancies. If this is true, then the
moment men and women were able to separate with fairly high accuracy the
‘reproductive’ from the ‘non-conceptive’ aspects of reproduction, a real
sexual revolution took place.

The first consequence of the new situation was a successful challenge

to male supremacy, because the final drive for equality of sexes had to start
from the biological phenomenon that caused it in the first place: the difference
in reproductive strategies between men and women. To achieve a society of
‘equals’, women had to harmonize their role as mothers with all the other
roles they claimed for themselves (Benagiano et al., 2007).

It is important to stress that this new reality benefited every member of

a family: properly spacing children improved their survival, since both short
and long intervals between pregnancies are associated with an increased risk
of adverse perinatal outcomes (World Health Organisation, 2005).

Obviously, the contraceptive revolution could not have gone

unchallenged: the idea that evolution, a natural and inevitable phenomenon,
moved sexuality away from a condition where non-procreative coital activity

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 was considered a simple by-product with even negative connotations, has
been resisted by the advocates of traditional values.

Within Christianity, reactions were much diversified: protestant

Churches at first had a critical attitude, but later generally accepted and
approved birth spacing through contraception, whereas the Roman Catholic
Church remained adamantly opposed to modern contraceptive technology.
For details of Christian and Catholic positions on fertility regulation see
Benagiano and Mori (2009).

Islam took, from the beginning, a positive position: the vast majority of
Scholars studying family planning have justified it on the basis that Islam is a
religion of moderation and have invoked the principles of ‘liberty’ or
‘permissibility’—that is, the idea that everything is permissible unless explicitly
designated otherwise in Holy Quran or in the Prophet's tradition (Sunnah)
(Roudi-Fahimi, 2004). Indeed, Islam addresses itself to reason and keeps in
harmony with man's natural character and never seeks to impose undue
burdens and intolerable restrictions (Omran, 1992).

How well did you understand the article?

Check your understanding of the article above by answering the self-assessment

quiz below.
1. Birth control is being used to ____.
a. separate between procreation and sexuality.
b. improve the quality of life.
c. to ensure healthy intervals between pregnancies.
d. all of the above

2. What does separation between sex and reproduction mean?

a. The freedom to enjoy sex without the fear of conceiving.
b. Being able to satisfy sexual needs without the goal of procreating.
c. To make possible the separation between sexual pleasure and procreation.
d. All of the above

3. A sentence in the article above stated: “She believes that it is hardly plausible
that women ever lived full happy lives in societies in which their need for sexual
satisfaction, their interest in avoiding pain and suffering, and their desire for
control over their bodies and lives were routinely ignored.”

Which of the following statement states the same as above?

a. Women before probably did not live a fully happy life because some of
their needs were being ignored.
b. Women in the past lived a happy and satisfying life because they were
not forced to use contraceptives.
c. Women in the past were given a choice whether to use contraceptives or not.
d. Women were discriminated because they were perceived to be only capable
of household chores.

4. Why do you think women needs were ignored?

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 a. Because of the perception that women’s role in society is to procreate,
thus, they must bear children and attend to them and the entire household.
b. Because their husbands did not listen to them.
c. Because women did not have the freedom to choose what to do with
their bodies.
d. Because none of the women spoke about their problems and concerns.

5. What does sexual revolution refer to?

a. The use of birth control
b. The separation between ‘reproductive’ from the ‘non-conceptive’ aspects of
reproduction
c. A only
d. A and B

6. According to the article, how does the sexual revolution benefit every member
of the family?
a. Proper spacing of children that improved survival.
b. Decrease pregnancy risks among mothers.
c. The wife can satisfy sexual needs without the fear of pregnancy.
d. All of the above

7. TRUE or FALSE. There were no issues, controversy or resistance of the

contraceptive revolution of the use of birth control.

8. Which religion or group remains opposed to the idea of modern contraception?

a. Protestants b. Catholics c. Islam d. none

How much did you score? Check the answer key provided on page 34 to know
how much you’ve understood the article. If you get less than 6, I suggest that you re-
read the article for a better understanding of the text.

Birth Control and its Ramifications in our Society

How do you think birth control affected women and the society in general?
How are the churches or religious group reacting to it?
You have read in the previous pages that not all religious groups agree to modern or
artificial birth control or contraception. Why do you think some religions oppose to it?
Read an excerpt below from an article entitled “The Catholic Church and the Birth
Control” taken from https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/pill-catholic-church-and-
birth-control/.

On New Year's Eve 1930, the Roman Catholic Church officially

banned any "artificial" means of birth control. Condoms, diaphragms
and cervical caps were defined as artificial, since they blocked the
natural journey of sperm during intercourse. Douches, suppositories
and spermicides all killed or impeded sperm, and were banned as well.
According to Church doctrine, tampering with the "male seed" was
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 tantamount to murder. A common admonition on the subject at the time
was "so many conceptions prevented, so many homicides." To interfere
with God's will was a mortal sin and grounds for excommunication.

As you can see, sexual activity has always been controlled by many forces in
society including religion. The Catholic church opposes it for the reason stated above.
However, most states or countries advocate population control for some political and
economic reasons. Some women, on the other hand, wanted more control of their
bodies thus, they fight for their rights such as the right to self-determination, right to
choose whether or not to have children, right to determine how many children to have
and to whom she should bear children with.
You have probably realized now that the issue on birth control is a complicated
matter. Some women would like to faithfully abide by their church teachings but at the
same time they are afraid of not being able to properly care and feed for their child or not
being able to properly take care of their own bodies.
All women are greatly affected with any regulation or control on their sexuality but
the poor women, who do not have access to information, knowledge, and resources, are
the ones greatly and negatively affected.

Activity 1 – Short Answer Essay. Express your

agreement or disagreement to the following statements
then briefly explain your answer. Begin your answer with
“I agree” or “I disagree” followed by your brief explanation.

1. As a benefit of contraceptives, more and more women can be seen in the

workforce nowadays.
_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

2. There is inequality between men and women when it comes to procreation.

_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________
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 3. The right to determine how many children a mother should have rests with the
state or with one’s religion.
_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

4. The main purpose of sex is for procreation and that couples who engaged with it
must be willing to accept the potential creation of another life.
_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

5. The issue on birth control is also influenced by political and economic factors.

_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

Activity 2 – Essay. In your own opinion, who should hold the responsibility of birth
control? The wife or the husband? Please support your answer.

_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________