Gender Inequality In Sociology

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Recommended: Symbolic interactionism and its application

It is no secret that in history women have been generally looked down upon, in the United States women were not allowed to own property (seeing as they were already considered such), vote, or sign legal contracts (Henslin 2011). Of course, over time women have gained more rights and have worked towards an equal footing with their opposite sex shown with the rise of feminism. This, of course, doesn 't mean that the footing is equal. Being a woman still comes with negative connotations seen in casual sexist sayings such as: "you throw like a girl", "she 's just PMSing", and "do not be such a drama queen" all meant to demean and portray females in a negative light. It 's these types of comments that illustrate why girls can typically be too "mean" to each other. Internalized misogyny perpetuated through negative female stereotypes creates a competitive attitude between females. The sociological concept that best fits this hypothesis is symbolic interactionism, the textbook definition being "a theoretical perspective in which society is viewed as composed of symbols that …show more content…

Essentials of Sociology is a textbook written by James Henslin that covers a range of sociological topics and perspectives. The portion of the text that I will be using discusses gender inequality, both globally and in the United States, with the use of the history of gender inequality as well as some of what gender inequality looks like today in fields such as healthcare and education. Psychology is a textbook written by Sandra Hockenbury, Susan Nolan, and Don Hockenbury that covers a range of topics pertaining to psychological theory, the different perspectives on it, the application of psychology in other fields, as well as the history of psychology. The section that I will be pulling from discusses gender stereotypes, as well as gender roles and how they are applied to each

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