‘Wrap Your Mind around the Theory’
Question: Why does gender stratification exist?
Introduction:
Throughout history, women have been regarded as of lesser value than men particularly in the public sphere. This is the result of gender stratification. Gender stratification refers to the issue of sexism, “or the belief that one sex is superior to the other” (Carl et al., 2012, p. 78). The theory that men are superior to women is essential to sexism. The negative consequences of sexism has led to the pursuit of successful careers by some women, normally considered as masculine, as something to avoid. Possible reasons for this could be they may be seen as less desirable as mothers or spouses in the private sphere.
The private sphere, known as the area of reproduction, includes everything domestic; washing, ironing, buying food, cooking, house maintenance, childcare etc. It is women who tend to be located in the sphere. The public sphere, known as the area of production, includes everything outside the home; education, politics, medicine, media, trades etc. It is men who tend to be located in this sphere. These areas signify the gender roles created to separate the sexes into the roles expected of them. Social and cultural conditioning (socialisation) is responsible for establishing male and female gender roles. The process of gender socialisation encourages traditional gender roles to be implemented in society which then reinforce and justify male dominance. Feminists believe that socialisation leads to gender inequalities as women are socialised into passive or subordinate roles and men into dominant ones. This essay will examine the views of functionalism, conflict theory and symbolic interactionism concerned with gender stratifica...
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...f that the gender division within society is working to the overall advantage of men. Equality for both genders is a goal that we as a society should strive to have more of, and I believe that men and women are extremely similar and have the same capacities, intelligence and the ability to think so gender divisions are a negative aspect of the way any society is run.
References
Carl, J., Baker, S., Robard, B., Scott, J., Hillman, W., & Lawrence, G. (2012). Think Sociology. Australia: Pearsons Australia.
Fiorentine, R. (1993). Theories of Gender Stratification: Assumptions, Evidence, and ''Agency'' and ''Equity'' Implications. Rationality and Society, 353. doi:10.1177/1043463193005003004
Lenski, G. (1966). Power and Privilege: A Theory of Social Stratification. NY: McGraw-Hill.
Schwab, K. B. (2013). The Global Gender Gap Report. Switzerland: World Economic Forum.
All people are forced to see themselves as society has shaped them, both male and female. Although progress for gender impartiality has been made, it can still be said that societal maxims enforce the incorrect notion that women are inferior to men. In matters of economics, women are offered far fewer employment opportunities, and I believe that this can be validated by the fact that many women have been conditioned to "marry well and let him...
Brym, Robert J., and John Lie. Sociology: Pop Culture to Social Structure. Australia: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2013. Print.
Gender stereotyping is when beliefs concerning the characteristics of both women and men that contain both good and bad traits. Gender stereotyping affects both men and women but usually targets the woman more harshly (Cooks & Cusack, 2011, p.1). Gender is something that is very unique and a very interesting topic. “It has obvious links to the real world, first in the connection between many grammatical gender systems and biological size, which underpin particular gender systems and also have external correlates”(Corbett, 2013). For an example gender-based violence against women is widely recognized as a critical concern for women in all part of the world (Cooks & Cusack, 2011, p.28). Now day’s women are underrepresented in the business world today, 16 percent of corporate officers in the U.S are women and 1 percent of all of the CEO positions in the Fortune 500 companies (Baron & Branscombe, 2012). In the workplace there are glass ceilings that are barriers based off of attitudinal and organizational bias that prevent qualified women from making it to the supervisory positions. As time elapsed that generation of women like that no longer existed. Women starting taking job positions and having supervisory positions in the workplace. It was no longer the thing that women would not work when they got older. Males also have a stereotype of being strong and being the head of the household in a family. “Masculine gender markers
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
Ever since the women’s suffrage movement of the 1920s, there has been a push for eliminating sexism and providing equality between men and women, especially in the workplace. The United States, along with most of the world, has made great strides in gender equality since then. Women can vote, and have careers, and men are able to stay home with the children if they choose to. But are the sexes really equal now? There are three common answers to this question. Some say yes, while the most common answer is no. The debate does not end there, however. It is typically assumed gender inequality is oppressing women and limiting their rights. Regardless, there are those who say the system is harming men instead. So, if gender inequality still exists,
Murray, Jane Lothian, Linden, Rick and Kendall, Diane. (2011). SOCIOLOGY IN OUR TIMES, Fifth Canadian Edition by Nelson Education Limited, Published by Thomson Wadsworth, USA.
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.
If one takes a closer look at the issues surrounding the differences between the male and female roles in the workforce and in education, one will notice that women tend to be one step below men on the "status" or "importance" ladder.
This becomes a major problem when it comes to occupation. Theres is a phenomenon around the world known as occupational isolation, which is the segregation of jobs due to gender. Often, there are occupation which are target the male gender and others the female gender. Female are not considered for male jobs, such as prosecutors or front-line police officer. Women compete for jobs that pay less than their male counterparts. The perception is that a woman’s best occupation is being a housewife, and there is a generalization that her attitude at home will transfer to her work place. This is why women are being paid lower rates while men fight over high income jobs. When such segregation maintains itself, it leads to women becoming less progressive, while male continue to develop and acquire new skills, which leads to higher social life status and position. A consensus has been created by society and globalization policies in most countries where a woman’s work has been devalued, which removes women from the contention of new job’s available. It is also well known the the female wage and development projects do not receive the same fund compared to women, which leaves women in the
Gender/Power is another contribution to gender inequality. Gender is a form of social control. The sociological significance of gender is that it is a device by which society controls its members. Gender/Power opens and closes access to power property and even prestige. Gender is inseparable from power and is defined by access to power. The statements "be a lady," or "be a man" are all based on culturally conceived ideas about gender. The images attached to labels such as feminine and masculine, not only guide our behavior, but they also serve the basis of power
[10] Kendall, Diana, et al. Sociology in Our Times. ITP Nelson and Co. Toronto, 1997. 126.
The opportunities available to 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. There is no denying that the salary of men is far more than that of women’s. In the Great Britain (and other parts of the globe), there are pieces of evidence which suggest that gendered practices of participation in the labor force still have significant impact on the economic security level that men and women develop over the course of their lives (Warren 606).
The roles women typically play in the family may not always be consistent with success in the occupational arena. Staying home to care for a sick child may conflict with an important meeting (Broman 1991:511). Sometimes there has to be a change of plans when it comes to the family. Most people believe that family comes first no matter what. Men 's engagement in paid work fulfills prescriptions of hegemonic masculinity by facilitating their ability to gain status in the public sphere. A man can judge his worth by the size of a paycheck (Thebaud 2010:335). Most research shows that women are more likely to be effected by the household and men are more likely to be effected by their job. Some people feel that the goal is to reach higher on the occupational
Society has set limits on gender roles with ideals such as male privilege and patriarchy. Patriarchy is the political structure to control womenbs thoughts on their sexuality, laboring, and place in society so...
Gender is an important aspect of our social life; it comprises of power relations, the division of labour, symbolic forms and emotional relations (Connel, 2000).