1301 sociology exam 2

absolute poverty

is previously defined as a condition in which people do not have the means to secure the most basic necessities of life—would be measured by comparing personal or household income or expenses with the cost of buying a given quantity of goods and services.

patriarchy

is reflected in the way that men may think of their position as men as a given, whereas women may deliberate on what their position in society should be.

gender socialization

is the aspect of socialization that contains specific messages and practices concerning the nature of being female or male in a specific group or society.

sex

is the biological and anatomical differences between females and males.

gender

is the culturally and socially constructed differences between females and males found in the meanings, beliefs, and practices associated with "femininity" and "masculinity"

second shift

is the domestic work that employed women perform at home after they complete their workday on the job.

income

is the economic gain derived from wages, salaries, income transfers, and ownership of property.

social stratification

is the hierarchical arrangement of large social groups based on their control of basic resources.

minimum wage

is the hourly rate that is the lowest amount an employer can legally pay its employees the federal minimum wage is $7.25

monogamous

is the practice or state of being married to one person at a time.

objectification

is the process whereby some people treat other individuals as if they were objects or things, not human beings.

education

is the social institution responsible for the systematic transmission of knowledge, skills, and cultural values within a formally organized structure.

intergenerational mobility

is the social movement experienced by family members from one generation to the next.

sexism

is the subordination of one sex, usually female, based on the assumed superiority of the other sex

global stratification

is the unequal distribution of wealth, power, and prestige on a global basis, resulting in people having vastly different lifestyles and life chances both within and among the nations of the world.

dual earner marriages

marriages in which both spouses are in the labor force

social mobility upward or downward

mobility is the movement of individuals or groups from one level in a stratification system to another so upward or downward.

expressive role

mother/ wife fulfills role such as running the household, caring for children, and meeting the emotional needs of family members.

functionalist perspective on social inequality

- explanation for social inequality is that all societies have important tasks that must be accomplished and certain positions that must be filled. Some positions are more important for the survival of society than others. The most important positions must be filled by the most qualified people, the positions that are the most important for society and that require scarce talent, extensive training, or both must be the most highly rewarded. The most highly rewarded positions should be those that are functionally unique (no other position can perform the same function) and on which other positions rely for expertise, direction, or financing.

symbolic interactionist perspective on social inequality

- focus on microlevel concerns and usually do not analyze larger structural factors that contribute to inequality and poverty. However, many significant insights on the effects of wealth and poverty on people's lives and social interactions can be derived from applying a symbolic interactionist approach. Using qualitative research methods and influenced by a symbolic interactionist approach, researchers have collected the personal narratives of people across all social classes, ranging from the wealthiest to the poorest people in the United States.

class system

is a type of stratification based on the ownership and control of resources and on the type of work that people do

living wage

is a wage high enough to maintain a normal standard of living

single parent families

Since 1970, there has been a significant increase in single-parent or one-parent households with children under age 18 because of divorce and births outside of marriage. In 2014, 24 percent of children lived in mother-only families, and 4 percent lived in father-only families, for a total of 28 percent of children in single-parent households. Seven percent of all children lived in the home of their grandparents, and in two-thirds of those families, one or both parents were also present (Child Trends Data Bank, 2015a). As shown in • Figure 11.12, the percentage of mother-only family groups continues to rise while the percentage of father-only family groups with children under age 18 remains consistently much lower. According to some researchers, the increase in the proportion of single-parent households tends to place children in situations where they experience a lower standard of living, receive less-effective parenting, experience less-cooperative co-parenting, are less emotionally close to both parents, and are subjected to more stressful events and circumstances than children who grow up in stable, two-parent families

secondary sex characteristics

are the physical traits other than reproductive organs that identify an individual's sex.

glass ceiling

an unofficially acknowledged barrier to advancement in a profession, especially affecting women and members of minorities.

occupations

are categories of jobs that involve similar activities at different work sites.

peripheral nations

are dependent on core nations for capital, have little or no industrialization, and have uneven patterns of urbanization.

core nations

are dominant capitalist centers characterized by high levels of industrialization and urbanization.

gender roles

are identified as the attitudes, behavior , and activities that are socially defined as appropriate for each sex and that are learned through the socialization process. For example, in U.S. society males are traditionally expected to demonstrate aggressiveness and toughness, whereas females are expected to be passive and nurturing.

semi-peripheral nations

are more developed than peripheral nations but less developed than core nations.

fictive kin

are persons who are not actually related by blood but who are accepted as family members.

primary sex characteristics

are the genitalia used in the reproductive process.

nuclear family

composed of one or two parents and their dependent children, all of whom live apart from other relatives. A traditional definition specifies that a... is made up of a "couple" and their dependent children; however, this definition became outdated when a substantial shift occurred in the family structure. A comparison of Census Bureau data from 1970 and 2015 shows that there has been a significant decline in the percentage of U.S. households comprising a married couple with their own children under eighteen years of age, so we will look at what some social analysts refer to as the contemporary, diverse family.

relative poverty

exists when people may be able to afford basic necessities but are still unable to maintain an average standard of living

matriarchal families

family structure is one in which authority is held by the eldest female—the mother

instrumental role

husband/ father meeting the family's economic needs, making important decisions, and providing leadership

conflict/ feminist prospectives on the family

include a focus on families as sources of conflict and social inequality, the key points being families both mirror and help perpetuate social inequalities based on class and gender, and the perspective on family problems being that family problems reflect social patterns of dominance and subordination.

official poverty line for a family of three

is $21,330

socioeconomic status

is a combined measure that attempts to classify individuals, families, or households in terms of factors such as income, occupation, and education to determine class location.

blended families

is a family consisting of a husband and wife, children from previous marriages, and children from the new marriage.

patriarchal families

is a family structure in which authority is held by the eldest male—usually the father.

extended family

is a family unit composed of relatives in addition to parents and children who live in the same household. So grandparents, uncles, aunts, or other relatives who live close to the parents and children, making it possible for family members to share resources.

patriarchy

is a hierarchical system of social organization in which cultural, political, and economic structures are controlled by men.

marriage

is a legally recognized and/or socially approved arrangement between two or more individuals that carries certain rights and obligations and usually involves sexual activity.

world systems theory

is a perspective that examines the role of capitalism, and particularly the transnational division of labor, in a truly global system held together by economic ties. According to world systems theory, the capitalist world economy is a global system divided into a hierarchy of three major types of nations—core, semiperipheral, and peripheral—in which upward or downward mobility is conditioned by the resources and obstacles that characterize the international system.

colonialism

is a practice of domination, which involves the subjugation of one people to another.

egaltarian family

is a structure in which both partners share power and authority equally.

serial monogamy

is a succession of marriages in which a person has several spouses over a lifetime but is legally married to only one person at a time

pay equity

or comparable worth is the belief that wages ought to reflect the worth of a job, not the gender or race of the worker. How can the comparable worth of different kinds of jobs be determined? One way is to compare the actual work of women's and men's jobs and see if there is a disparity in the salaries paid for each. To do this, analysts break a job into components—such as the education, training, and skills required; the extent of responsibility for others' work; and the working conditions— and then allocate points for each (Lorber, 2005). For ... to exist, men and women in occupations that receive the same number of points should be paid the same. However, pay equity exists in very few jobs. What are the prospects for the future? The Paycheck Fairness Act— proposed by the Obama administration in 2010, 2012, and 2014—that would have extended ... rules that apply to federal contractors to the entire U.S. workforce, while also making updates to the Equal Pay Act, was blocked from consideration by members of the U.S. Congress. So for the foreseeable future, women will continue to earn considerably less than men, even in similar occupational categories.

conflict perspective on social inequality

people with economic and political power are able to shape and distribute the rewards, resources, privileges, and opportunities in society for their own benefit. Conflict theorists do not believe that inequality serves as a motivating force for people; they argue that powerful individuals and groups use ideology to maintain their favored positions at the expense of others. Core values in the United States emphasize the importance of material possessions, hard work, individual initiative to get ahead, and behavior that supports the existing social structure. These same values support the prevailing resource-distribution system and contribute to social inequality.

absolute poverty

refers to a level of economic deprivation that exists when people do not have the means to secure the most basic necessities of life.

relative poverty

refers to a level of economic deprivation that exists when people may be able to afford basic necessities but are still unable to maintain an average standard of living.

gender-segregated work

refers to the concentration of women and men in different occupations, jobs, and places of work.

life chances

refers to the extent to which individuals have access to important societal resources such as food, clothing, shelter, education, and health care. According to sociologists, more-affluent people typically have better life chances than the less affluent; they have greater access to quality education, safe neighborhoods, high-quality nutrition and health care, police and private security protections, and an extensive array of other goods and services. In contrast, persons with low and poverty-level incomes tend to have limited access to these resources.

feminization of poverty

refers to the trend in which women are disproportionately represented among individuals living in poverty.

neocolonialism

refers to the unequal economic and power relations that currently exist between former colonies and former colonizing nations.

wealth

refers to the value of all of a person's or family's economic assets, including income, personal property, and income-producing property.

cohabitation

refers to two people who live together, and think of themselves as a couple, without being legally married

family

relationships in which people live together with commitment, form an economic unit and care for any young, and consider their identity to be significantly attached to the group.

dependency theory

states that global poverty can at least partially be attributed to the fact that the low-income countries have been exploited by the high-income countries. Analyzing events as part of a particular historical process—the expansion of global capitalism— ... see the greed of the rich countries as a source of increasing impoverishment of the poorer nations and their people. ...disputes the notion of the development approach, and modernization theory specifically, that economic growth is the key to meeting important human needs in societies. In contrast, the poorer nations are trapped in a cycle of structural dependency on the richer nations because of their need for infusions of foreign capital and external markets for their raw materials, making it impossible for the poorer nations to pursue their own economic and human development agendas

resources are valued in society

such as economic, social, and political power.

power

the ability of people or groups to achieve their goals despite opposition from others

pay gap

the disparity between women's and men's earnings

family of orientation

the family into which a person is born and in which early socialization usually takes place

family of procreation

the family that a person forms by having, adopting, or otherwise creating children

modernization theory

theory is a perspective that links global inequality to different levels of economic development and suggests that low-income economies can move to middle and high-income economies by achieving self-sustained economic growth. According to ..., the low-income, less-developed nations can improve their standard of living only with a period of intensive economic growth and accompanying changes in people's beliefs, values, and attitudes toward work.