Gender Privilege
Gender privilege – a system of socially produced advantages, rights, opportunities, or forms of recognition that are granted to individuals because they are perceived as belonging to a particular sex or gender category. Access to these advantages may vary depending on the extent to which a person conforms to the dominant gender norms of a given society, including expectations about masculinity, femininity, gender expression, and appropriate social roles.
Gender privilege does not operate in the same way for all people. It may create structural benefits for some groups while also reinforcing restrictive norms that harm those who are expected to embody them. Its effects can be seen, for example, in gendered inequalities in pay and career advancement, unequal distribution of authority and care work, social expectations concerning “proper” femininity or masculinity, and gendered patterns of vulnerability, including men’s increased exposure to certain forms of risk, violence, and external causes of death.
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