According to Holmes, Hughes, and Julian (2012) “at its most ambitious, sociology attempts to understand human societies from a wholistic point of view – what they are composed of, how they are reproduced over time and how they might differ from other societies”. Viewing society in this context, allows sociologists to understand the foundation of a society; and the motivations / values that underpin its function. Social phenomena, such as ‘sex, gender, and sexuality’ and their respective dominating themes [and inequalities] shape society as a whole. Throughout the following paragraphs, you will be presented with evidence to support sociology’s role in understanding important social phenomena, I primarily focus on gender and some of its widely known inequalities.
Karl Marx, one of the prominent social thinkers of the 19th century, based his theoretical thinking on inequality and social reproduction (Holmes et al, 2012) – most evident in his interpretation of capitalism. Whilst we primarily associate capitalism with social class; gender inequality – particularly in the working world – is intrinsically linked with capitalism and the systemic culture associated with it. Acker (1990) supports this link by arguing that “class is constructed through gender and that class relations are always gendered. The structure of the labour market, relations in the workplace, the control of the work process, and the underlying wage relation are always affected by symbols of gender, processes of gender identity, and the material inequalities between women and men.”
In Acker's (1990) findings on gendering patterns in the divisions of labour, it is noted that “men are almost always in the highest positions of organizational power.” Further to this, a...
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..., Australia, January 2013 (retrieved 20 March 2014)
Holmes, Hughes, and Julian, (2012) – Australian Sociology: A Changing Society, Chapter 1, 2, 5 (retrieved 19, 20 March 2014)
Martin, P. Y. (2004), Gender as Social Institution, (i) Social Forces, June 2004, 82(4):1249-1273 (retrieved 17 March 2014)
Meyer. L. (2003) - Economic Globalization and Women's Status in the Labor Market: A Cross-National Investigation of Occupational Sex Segregation and Inequality (retrieved 17 March 2014)
Thelwall, M (2008), Social Networks, Gender and Friending: An Analysis of MySpace Member Profiles (i) J.Am.Soc.Inf.Sci., 59:121-1330. doi:10:1002/asi.20835 (retrieved 18 March 2014)
Vaux, A. (1985), Variations in Social Support Associated with Gender, Ethnicity, and Age. (i) Journal of Social Issues, 41: 89-110. doi:10.1111/j. 1540 - 4560. 1985. tb01118. x (retrieved 17 March 2014)
Positions of Power: How Female Ambition is Shaped by J.D. Nordell of Slate Magazine details the female disposition in the workplace. Nordell writes, “...women account for 35 percent of MBAs but only 2 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs. Women now make up 16 percent of congressional seats - and 0 percent of U.S. presidents…” (Nordell). The statistics provided above show an obvious discrepancy in the amount of influence women have in the workplace. A popular theory is that this discrepancy is caused by the influence of gender roles on the workplace - men are not taking women as seriously in the workplace. Females’ introduction into the major economy is still a relatively new concept, and the underlying archaic gender role that women should tend to the house and children is preventing women from being taken seriously by the men of the business world, and thus constraining their performance in the economy. This is further supported by the case of Ben Barres: “Recently, the transsexual neuroscientist Ben Barres, who has worked as both a woman and a man in science, noted that he is treated with more respect and interrupted less frequently now that he is a man” (Nordell). This further elaborates on the phenomenon that women are taken less seriously in the workplace. Considering the excerpts from Positions of Power: How Female Ambition is Shaped, it is easy
In the article “Sex Segregation at Work: Persistence and Change” by Anastasia Prokos explores ideas around the challenges and reasons of sex segregation in the work place. She argues that even though the United States has made several steps in the right direction throughout our history, there is still “… women and men in the contemporary United States continue to be concentrated in different occupations, jobs, and industries” (Prokos 564). She is presenting this as a social problem that leads to stereotypes, discrimination, and unequal pay.
In Devor’s article, “Becoming Members of Society: Learning the social Meanings of Gender” one can better understand how society has a big impact on how gender is perceived. Understanding
Sociology cannot be clearly explained as there are many different theories and theorists; so far none of them have been defined as a correct answer. Although with all this information of theories and theorists sociology is relatively explained as agreed philosophies that delivers a reason for human society. Sociological theories are like most other theories, they are selective, and there is no quantity of theory to explain everything or define the infinite amount of information that exist or comprehend the methods of observing reality. Sociological theories vary and can be linked to each other according to various criteria. The two main perspectives of sociology are the micro sociological approach and the macro sociological approach. The micro sociological approach is based more on the persons being capable of their own independent thoughts feelings and behaviour; therefor society is built through their interactions amongst each other and the significances they attach to them. This approach is defined using Social Action Theory and Symbolic Interactionism. The Macro Sociological approach is on a much bigger scale and consists of a person being born into a current society which will then shape their behaviour. It centres on the organisations, values and the culture of that particular society and how it impacts an individual and their role in life. This approach is made clearer using Functionalism, Feminist and Conflict Theories.
“The Social Construction of Gender” talks about gender as a concept created by society. In it, the author explains why society felt the need to create gender as a social institution and how gender is embedded into everyday life. The labeling of people as male or female is used by societies as a way of deciding who takes over which responsibilities and who does which tasks. The author of the article concludes that gender and gender inequality is created by society
Faris, Robert E.L., and William Form. "Sociology." Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 6 Mar. 2014.
Iversen, Torben and Frances Rosenbluth. Women, Work, and Power: The Political Economy of Gender Inequality. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010. Kindle E-Book.
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
Germov, Poole, 2011, Public Sociology – An introduction to Australian society, 2nd edn, Allen & Unwin, Australia
The term ‘gender’ was coined by John Money in 1955: “Gender is used to signify all those things that a person says or does to disclose himself/herself as having the status of a boy or man, girl or woman, respectively” (Coleman and Money, 1991, 13). In sociological terms, gender is a division between men and women which is clear in society throughout the past - for example, in Ancient Egypt with the idea that there was little point in teaching women to read and write. Gender inequalities can be seen throughout many different aspects of our daily lives – from the gender pay gap, to gender discrimination in television adverts.
Kendal, Diana. "Sex and Gender." Sociology in Our Times 3.Ed. Joanna Cotton. Scarborough: Nelson Thomson, 2004. 339-367
Parcheta, N., Kaifi, B., & Khanfar, N. (2013). Gender Inequality in the Workforce: A Human Resource Management Quandary. Journal of Business Studies Quarterly, 4(3), 240-248.
Historically, males and females normally assume different kinds of jobs with varying wages in the workplace. These apparent disparities are widely recognized and experienced across the globe, and the most general justification for these differences is that they are the direct outcomes of discrimination or traditional gender beliefs—that women are the caregivers and men are the earners. However, at the turn of the new century women have revolutionized their roles in the labor market. Specifically in industrialized societies, the social and economic position of women has shifted. Despite of the improving participation of women in the labor force and their ameliorating proficiency and qualifications, the labor force is still not so favorable to women. The opportunities available for women in the market are not as diverse as those presented to men. Still, the construct of gender ideology influences how employers undertake economic decisions, and that is why companies still have jobs labelled as “men’s work” and occupations categorized as “women’s work.” Indeed, the pervasiveness of gender differences in labor markets is undeniably true, specifically with respect to salary gap between men and women, occupational gender segregation of men and women, and the challenge that women face in terms of juggling their time and attention between their career and family life.
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.
It can be concluded that women are treated in terms of stereotyped impressions of being the lowest class and greater evidence can be found that there are large disparities between the women and the men 's class. It can be seen that women are more likely to play casual roles as they are most likely to take seasonal and part time work so that they can work according to their needs. They are hampered from progressing upward into the organizations as they face problems like lack of health insurance, sexual harassments, lower wage rates, gender biases and attitudes of negative behavior. However, this wouldn’t have hampered the participation of the women in the work force and they continue to increase their efforts which is highly evident in the occupational and job ratios of females in the industry.