Society's Benefits to Certain Groups

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...

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... 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.