Society's Benefits to Certain Groups Introduction Various approaches in sociology stress the authority of society over the individual. They are sometimes called social systems or structuralist approaches. From this perspective, the individual is largely managed by society. Society has made us into what we are because of the expectations and pressures of the social groups we belong to. Society formulates everyone, enduring our thoughts and directing our actions. We are socialised in terms of the culture of society, our behaviour is shaped by the social structure, we are kept in line by means of social control, and we discover roles, norms and values and act accordingly consequently. Other approaches in society stress the capability of individuals to direct their own actions. They are sometimes called social action or interpretivist approaches. From this viewpoint, individuals actively create their own social world. They give significance to social situations, infer the behaviour of others, and they take action on the source of these meanings and interpretations. Social action approaches do not essentially deny the existence of roles, norms and values. On the other hand, they tend to see them as reasonable guidelines rather than unreasonable directives. Convenient Consensus approaches see agreement or consensus as the foundation if social life. Without it, society would disintegrate into disorder with its members being powerless to agree on rules and norms of behaviour. Consensus provides the foundation for cooperation and social unity. Value consensus provides an agreement of interests in society. Conflict... ... middle of paper ... ... inequality which benefits men at the expense of women. Patriarchy is the system of gender inequality which tends to permeate the whole of society- it is not simply limited to occupational roles. For example, it may be reflected in religious beliefs which see men as superior to women, or in marriage vows which state that the duty of a wife is to serve her husband. The term patriarchy is used to describe a social system based on gender inequality. It describes a system in which male dominance is present in peoples working and family lives, and is reflected in social norms and values, roles and institutions.In this sense, patriarchy has been defined as ' the combination of economic and cultural systems which ensures male supremacy'-therefore feminist believe society is male dominating and women have no authority.
Patriarchy describes the structuring of society on the basis of family units, in which fathers have primary responsibility for the welfare of these units. In some cultures slaves were included as part of such households. The concept of patriarchy is often used, by extension, to refer to the expectation that men take primary responsibility for the welfare of the community as a whole, acting as representatives via public office (in anthropology and feminism, for example).
Society is defined as being “an enduring and cooperating social group whose members have developed organized patterns of relationships through interaction with one another” (merriam-webster). The relationship between men and women has played a large role in its culture; “gender hierarchy has been the implicit operating model for understanding … past societies.” (Stokett). As stated, gender hierarchy defines the relationship between the genders as unbalanced in respect to each other, typically placing men as the dominant gender compared to the roles females play. Although often seen as inferior; women have played a prominent role in defining cultures; such is the case for Maya, Inca, and Aztec societies.
Society in general has a way of assigning men and women with individual roles that need to be complied with. To clarify, in the 1950s and 1960s, American women were required to maintain their homes while raising their children and making sure the husbands were happy. On the other hand, American men had to provide for the family and protect them. Displaying characteristics not parallel to one’s gender is rarely unobserved and almost always has negative consequences because society seeks to maintain order. In reality, the people cannot conform to society’s “norms” because people have the right to be independent of society, yet be a part of it without sacrifice. An example would be how American society views masculinity as a man who is strong,
Gender has played specific roles in societies all over the place. Men are usually seen as the dominant gender and therefore appear to be more important to society but women still have an important role. It was not that long ago that women did not have many rights or play an important role at all. In America, laws were put in place to make men and women equal and today many women have filled jobs thought of as a man’s job but there is still a common thought of women being less important in society than men. Before deciding if a woman’s role in society is complimentary or not, the role of all humans must be examined. A woman could appear to have a terrible role but maybe that’s because everybody has a terrible role in that type of society. Same
The major way through which sexism and heterosexism shape social welfare policy is by generating issues that need to be protected or helping in identification of needs to be met. These issues and needs in turn become the backbone through which social policy are formulated in order to enhance the well-being of every individual and group in the society for better functioning of societal members.
It is assumed that our lives and the lives of our families could ultimately be at risk without the regulation and authority of our government. The same government which protects us, also damages us, and others from countries around us. It is more than apparent that in our world suffering does exist. However, outlining suffering goes beyond the physical pain. To a degree there is a level of suffering that most of us (U.S. Citizens) can never relate to. There is a suffering unbeknownst to us; because we have never been subjected to it by our governments and institutions. We are a free people, entrusted to ourselves that we have the capacity to take care of ourselves and our own. Others aren’t so lucky.
The principle which regulates the existing social relations between the two sexes--the legal subordination of one sex to the other--is wrong in itself, and now one of the chief hindrances to human improvement; admitting no power or privilege on the one side, nor disability on the other. (1156)
In “Gender as a Social Structure: Theory Wrestling with Activism”, the author Barbara Risman explains her theory to readers about how gender should be thought of as a social structure. Thinking of it as such would allow people to examine how gender is ingrained in almost every part of society, thus putting gender on an equal level of importance with economics and politics. In society, gender dictates many of the opportunities and limitations that an individual may face in his or her lifetime. Barbara Risman points out the three aspects of the gender structure that happen at an individual, interactional, and institutional level (Risman, pg. 446). First, gender contributes to how a person will develop themselves in life. This is the “individual level”. At an interactional level, men and women face different expectations that are set by society. The individual and interactional level are linked because sometimes, changes to one level can affect the other. The third level, the institutional level, notes that gender is affected by laws, rules, and organizational practices that dictate what
While being a minority there is one mantra one must come to know: “be twice as good”. Most parents teach their kids to be their best but, when you are a minority this is not the case. You are taught to be twice as good; twice as smart, twice as dependable, twice as talented. As a minority in America, one must work twice as hard just to get half as far as our caucasian peers because the playing field is in this country is still not equal. Michelle Obama said, “The road ahead is not going to be easy. It never is, especially for folks like you and me. Because while we’ve come so far, the truth is that those age-old problems are stubborn and they haven’t fully gone away.”
Before the beginning of the women's rights movements in the late 19th century patriarchy, or a society dominated by males, was the norm in America. Men used sex and marriage to objectify and suppress women in order to maintain a society controlled strictly by males. The foundation of patriarchy was rooted deeply in the marital roles of men and women, one dominant, and the other submissive. Sex and marriage served as a mechanisms to shape the images of men and women in society. The system of patriarchy fed into itself to keep it going generation after generation.
Gender stratification is the cuts across all aspects of social life and social classes. It refers to the inequality distribution of wealth, power and privilege between men and women at the basis of their sex. The world has been divided and organized by gender, which are the behavioural differences between men and women that are culturally learnt (Appelbaum & Chambliss, 1997:218). The society is in fact historically shaped by males and the issue regarding the fact has been publicly reverberating through society for decades and now is still a debatably hot topic. Men and women have different roles and these sex roles, defined to be the set of behaviour’s and characteristics that are standard for each gender in a society (Singleton, 1987) are deemed to be proper in the eyes of the society. They are as a matter of fact proper but as time move on, the mind-set of women changes as well, women also want to move on. However the institutional stratification by the society has become more insidious that the stereotypical roles have created a huge barrier between men and women. These barriers has affected women in many aspects such as minimizing their access on a more superior position in workforce organization, limits their ownership of property and discriminates them from receiving better attention and care.
Do we truly understand how the meaning to equality among men and women affect society. Jobs, health, and education are affected by what transpires from the meaning to gender equality. Throughout history equality has been debated. Equality is defined as getting respect and giving respect regardless of gender or culture through fair treatment and maximized happiness. Balance and harmony are developed from the application of ethical theories to aid society in defining the meaning to gender equality rather than debating the issue. Therefore, defining gender equality should be the role of society by utilizing ethical theories. The theories can be consequentialist or nonconsequentialist acts that develop and maintain good morality and ethical
society. The importance of having significant role of women in the society is recognized by men also.
A gender role attitude is an individual’s interpretation and expectation on how a woman or man should behave. These assumptions create a socially accepted “norm” about each gender. In various lectures, we examined three common gender role ideologies; traditional, egalitarian, and transitional. A traditional gender role would fit into society’s fundamental outlook on a household. An individual holding this view would believe that men should work and earn money for the family, while women stay at home to do house work and take care of the kids. An egalitarian position believes that both women and men should equally distribute responsibility throughout every situation they are faced with. This would include dividing duties up evenly despite what type it is (more strenuous chores vs. easy chores). A transitional approach combines the traditional and egalitarian approaches together. A couple who practices this attitude would split up the tasks equally but in a way that still views men as holding the majority of the “household” power. For example, women would do the dishes and clean the house while men would cut the lawn and fix the car because those jobs are “more difficult”.
Patriarchy is a social system in which families and societies are dominated by males as primary authority figures. Due to patriarchy, females have been disadvantaged in many aspects of life including employment, family life, crime, health, education and media. This has led sociologists to try and find out what causes gender inequality. Feminists would agree that patriarchy is the main cause of gender inequality, however, there are different strands of feminism and these different strands have different views. There are also other theorists, such as functionalists, Weberians and postmodernists who offer different views as to the causes of gender inequality.