Society's Benefits to Certain Groups

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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.

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