Soc 101 Test 2
"Glass escalator"
- (Williams 1992) - Men who work in female-dominated professions do not face the same obstacles as women who work in male-dominated professions - Found that employers singled out male workers in traditionally female jobs (nurse, librarian, social worker, elementary school teacher) and promoted them to top administrative jobs in disproportionate numbers - Most beneficial and relevant to white men who hold stable middleclass jobs - Williams found that gay men and racial/ethnic minority men do not benefit to the same degree
The "Devoiced" Perspective
- As the technological pace of life accelerates people become increasingly isolated in their own worlds, interacting with electronic devices more so than with living breathing members of their communities - Some researchers have concluded that the substitution of email for face-to-face interaction has lead to a weakening of social ties and disruption of techniques used in personal dialogue for avoiding conflict - Friedman and Currall (2003) concluded that online communication seems to allow more room for misinterpretation, confusion, and abuse than more traditional forms of communication
Co-presence
- Boden and Molotch (1994) argue that there is no substitute for face to face interaction - can provide incomparably rich information about how other people think and feel, and also about their sincerity - Eye contact, body language, facial expression, voice tone, "vibes"
Nonverbal Communication
- Communication between individuals based on facial expression and body movements rather than on verbal language.
Impression management
- Our desire to create and manipulate specific impressions in the minds of others - People do it to: achieve personal goals, present a consistent and positive view of our self to the world, conform to social norms
Secondary deviation
- Part of labeling theory - Thought of by Lemert - occurs when the individual accepts the label and sees themselves as deviant, and acts accordingly
Primary deviation
- Part of labeling theory - Thought of by Lemert - the initial act of transgression that cause others to label one as deviant
Roles
- The expected behaviors of people occupying particular social positions. - Concept originates in theater arts, referring to the parts that actors play in a stage production
Status
- The social honor or prestige that a particular group is accorded by other members of a society - Normally display distinct styles of life or lifestyles: patterns of behavior that members of a group follow. "It's a lifestyle" - Status privilege can be positive or negative
Rape culture
- an environment in which rape is prevalent and in which sexual violence against women is normalized and excused in the media and popular culture. - creates a society that disregards women's rights and safety - Is perpetuated by: • the use of misogynistic language • the objectification of women's bodies • the glamorization of sexual violence - Female victims of sexual assault are often victimized again by judges, community members, and a mass media that subtly or overtly holds women "responsible" for their sexual victimization
Formal sanctions
- are applied by a specific group or agency to ensure that a particular set of norms is followed • Ex: courts and prisons
Informal sanctions
- are less organized and more spontaneous reactions to nonconformity • Ex: teasing, shaming, ostracizing, name-calling, blacklisting
Differential association theory
- argues that we learn deviant behavior in precisely the same way that we learn conventional behavior: from primary contact groups such as peers, family, and social networks. - Accordingly, people become deviant when exposed to a higher level of deviant persons and influences as compared to conventional behavioral influences.
Sanctions
- modes of reward or punishment that reinforces socially expected forms of behavior - Can be positive or negative, formal or informal - Sanctions promote conformity and protect against nonconformity
Civil Inattention
- process whereby strangers who are in close proximity demonstrate that they are aware of one another, without imposing on each other - a recognition of the claims of others to a public space, and of their own personal boundaries.
Glass ceiling
- promotion barrier that prevents a woman's upward mobility within an organization - Particularly problematic in male-dominated professions and occupations (such as investment banking) - Women's progress is blocked not by virtue of innate ability or lack of basic qualifications but by lack of the sponsorship of powerful senior colleagues to articulate women's value to the organization or profession (Alvarez et al. 1996) • According to Cleveland (1996), college-educated white males in professional jobs identify potential leaders as people who are like them
Sex segregation
- refers to the concentration of men and women in different occupations - Sociologists view it as a cause of the gender gap in earnings
Backstage Behavior
- what we do when we are outside of the formal public gaze (or when we think we are outside of the formal public gaze) - Not the same as 'Off stage.' We often have a small team with whom we still interact, like housemates, partners, and family members, but with whom we observe different rules and customs from what is expected when we are on the front stage.
Sex in human society
Biological and anatomical differences that humans use to distinguish males from females
Crime
Deviant behavior that breaks a law
Symbolic Interactionist theories of deviance
Focus on how behaviors get defined as deviant and why only certain groups get labeled as deviant
The Compulsion of Proximity
People's need to interact with others in their presence
Response cries
Seemingly involuntary exclamations or interjections individuals make to 'save face' and communicate social competence: "oops", "ouch"
Gender typing
Women holding occupations of lower status and pay, such as secretarial and retail positions, and men holding jobs of higher status and pay, such as managerial and professional positions
Front Stage Behavior
what we do when we know that others are watching or aware of us.
Transgender
• A broadly encompassing term of many gender identities of those who do not identify or exclusively identify with their assigned sex at birth.
Bacha Posh
• A cultural practice in parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan, in which some families without sons will pick a daughter to live and behave as a boy • A bacha posh can more easily receive an education, work outside the home, even escort her sisters in public due to gendered social inequalities • A return to womanhood usually takes place when the child enters puberty (this generally orchestrated by the parents)
intersex
• A person possessing both male and female genitalia
Violence Against Women
• Abuse from intimate partners is the most prevalent type of violence against women • Nearly one-third of all women around the world have been abused in some way by intimate partners (World Health Organization 2013)
Functionalist theories of deviance: Durkheim
• According to Durkheim's notion of anomie in modern societies traditional norms and standards-e.g. modes of moral authority become undermined without being replaced by new ones • Anomie exists when there are no clear standards to guide behavior in a given area of social life • Durkheim believed that people in modern society were less constrained by moral authority than they were in premodern societies • Durkheim's framework helped to shift attention away from explanations that focused on the problems of individuals and more towards explanations that focused on social forces
Race and Mass Incarceration
• African Americans are incarcerated in state prisons at a rate that is 5.1 times the imprisonment of whites. In five states (Iowa, Minnesota, New Jersey, Vermont, and Wisconsin), the disparity is more than 10 to 1. • Latinos are incarcerated at 1.4 times the rate of whites.
Conflict theories of deviance
• Argue that individuals choose to engage in deviant behavior in response to unequal social systems which are seen as unfair. • Conceives deviance as consciously political in nature • Members of counter-cultural groups regarded as deviant engage in political acts that challenge the dominant social order • Concerned with strategically disruptive acts (civil disobedience, direct action) that aim to change the status quo • Particularly useful for examining social movements
Erving Goffman
• Canadian-American Sociologist at UC Berkeley • Symbolic Interactionist - Microsociology • Integrated theatrical metaphors in his research on the sociology of everyday life • Dramaturgy
Positive consent
• Communicating when you change the type or degree of sexual activity with phrases like "Is this OK?" • Explicitly agreeing to certain activities, either by saying "yes" or another affirmative statement, like "I'm open to trying." • Using clear physical cues to let the other person know you're comfortable taking things to the next level
Theory of Broken Windows
• Developed by Wilson and Kelling (1982) • Any sign of social disorder in a community, even the appearance of a broken window, encourages more serious crime. • Became the dominant approach to policing in the U.S. during the 1980s and 1990s • Has come under heavy attack as being racist and classist • encourages police to profile underprivileged communities and to target nonviolent small-time criminals • Very little evidence to support this theory
Women in the workplace
• Family responsibilities can create distinct work obstacles for women • Employers and colleagues may hold stereotypical ideas about women workers such as the belief that mothers are less committed to their careers • Found that mothers are 44 percent less likely to be hired than nonmothers who have the same work experience and qualifications • Non-mothers are offered significantly higher starting pay than equally qualified mothers for the same job (an average of $11,000 lower)
Black feminism
• Highlights multiple disadvantages of gender, class, and race that shape the experiences of nonwhite women • Rejects the idea of a single unified gender oppression that is experienced evenly by all women • Historically rooted in the experiences and problems of Black women
Gender
• Human social expectations about behaviors for members of different sexes (male and female in modern western society) • Refers less to the physical attributes distinguishing males and females and more to the socially formed traits of masculinity and femininity • One of the most complex and rapidly developing areas of sociology (our understanding of gender is constantly evolving)
Sex and Social Inequality
• In 2016, women working full time in the United States typically were paid just 80 percent of what men were paid, a gap of 20 percent • Women comprise only 5% of CEO positions in Fortune 500 companies • From 1994 to 2010, about 4 in 5 victims of intimate partner violence were female • Nearly 1 in 5 women have been raped in their life time (compare to 1 in 71 men)
Modern society and social interaction
• In modern society we are constantly interacting with people whom we may never see/meet • There is a concern that rapid advances communication technology (email, internet, e-commerce, social media) will only increase these tendencies toward indirect social interaction.
Cisgender
• Individuals whose gender identity matches his or her biological sex. • Derived from Latin prefix 'cis' which means "on the same side"
Gender Identity
• Is a mixture of social and biological traits • However, the way we come to understand gender is a profoundly social process, and even the limited biological dimensions of gender are socially conditioned in terms of expression, recognition, and development
Radical Feminism
• Links gender inequality to patriarchy: the systematic domination of females by males • Identify traditional family structures as a primary source of women's oppression • Argue that men exploit women by relying on their unpaid labor in the home and, as a social group, deny women access to positions of power and influence in society • Firestone (1970) argued that women could only be emancipated through the abolition of the traditional nuclear family and the power relations that characterize it • Views violence against women as central to sustaining male supremacy • Highlights the way that popular conceptions of feminine beauty and sexuality are often biased towards pleasing and entertaining men • Argues that women are objectified through media, fashion, and advertising
Functionalist theories of deviance: Merton
• Merton located the source of crime within the social structure of American society • American society (and some other industrialized societies) emphasizes material success through self-discipline and hard work • Leads to a belief that people who work hard can succeed regardless of their starting point in life: "The American Dream" • But is this really true? According to sociological research, NO this is not an objective truth. • Most disadvantaged populations have limited or no conventional opportunities for advancement, such as high quality education • Yet those who do not "succeed" are often condemned for their apparent inability to make material progress • This results in pressure to get ahead by any means necessary...legitimate or illegitimate.
Laws
• Norm-based rules defined by governments as mandatory principles that citizens and residents must follow • Backed by state power • According to Max Weber, the state is the "human community that (successfully) claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of violence within a given territory"
Racial disparities in policing
• Once stopped, during traffic stops, 3 times as many Black and Hispanic drivers were searched as white drivers (U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics)
Gender and Colonialism: North America
• Prior to European colonization, all indigenous North American communities recognized multiple genders and often held special honor for persons of "integrated genders" (3-5 gender categories) • This is part of the profoundly diverse cultural legacy of Native Americans that European invaders saught to eliminate • Two-Spirit: term invented by native activists in 1989 to encompass entire spectrum of gender and sexual expression represented in native communities • Navajo: Nádleehí (one who transforms) • Lakota: Winkté (male who lives as a female) • Such persons were seen as critical to maintaining the balance masculinity and femininity in the universe • Also had practical value in terms of being able to occupy traditional multiple gender roles in the service of the community
Liberal feminism
• Sees gender inequalities as rooted largely in social and cultural attitudes • Posits that gender inequality is produced by unequal access to civil rights and certain social resources, such as education and employment, based on sex • Focuses on establishing and protecting equal opportunities for women through changes in legislation that ensure that the rights of individuals are protected
Sexual or intimate consent
• Sexual consent is an agreement between participants to engage in sexual activity. • While consent doesn't have to be verbal, it must always be made clear, and verbally agreeing to different sexual activities can help both you and your partner(s) respect one another's boundaries.
'Internet enthusiast' perspective
• Social relations continue to thrive and might even be supported by frequent online communication • Online communication has many inherent advantages that cannot be claimed by more traditional forms of interaction such as telephone and face-to-face meetings • The emotional and communicative and subtleties and details revealed by the human voice can actually be harmful in socially unequal and discriminatory society • Voice may reveal age, gender, ethnicity, or other social position in ways that could be used to the speaker's disadvantage • Electronic communication can potentially mask these identifying markers • Social networking may actually enhance social integration and and friendships (Hampton et al. 2011) • For many people, online relationships can be quite meaningful
Norms
• Socially constructed rule of conduct that specify appropriate behavior in a given range of social situations • either prescribe a given type of behavior or forbid it • All human groups orient to norms of various kinds
Feminist theory
• Sociological perspective that emphasizes the centrality of gender in analyzing the social world and particularly the uniqueness of the experiences of women • is an umbrella term that includes a diverse array of theoretical and methodological perspectives • Includes different schools of thought
Intersectionality
• Sociological perspective that holds that multiple social group identity memberships can affect human lives in ways that are distinct from single group membership. • Example: Lived experience of a black woman may be quite distinct from that of a white woman or a black man. • Focuses on relationships between social identity markers (such as race, class, gender, sexuality, etc.) and interlocking systems of oppression (racism, classism/economic inequality, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, etc.) • See Patricia Hill Collins Black Feminist Thought
Mass Incarceration
• The U.S. imprisons more people per capita than any other country • Although U.S. accounts for only 4.3 percent of the world's population, it accounts for 22 percent of the world's prison population • 2.2 million people are currently incarcerated in the U.S. prison system • U.S. prison system maintenance costs $75 billion annually
Rape
• The forcing of nonconsensual vaginal, oral, or anal intercourse • Vast majority of rape is committed by men against women • Most rape is committed by family relatives, partners, or acquaintances • One in five women worldwide will be a victim of rape or attempted rape in their lifetime • The vast majority of rapes go unreported • In 2014 the U.S. Department of Justice estimated that over the previous 18 years nearly 100,000 women between the ages of 18 and 24 were victims of assault each year
Sexual harassment
• The making of unwanted sexual advances by one individual toward another, with which the first person persists even when it is clear that the other party is resistant - Recognition of sexual harassment and women's willingness to report it have increased significantly since the testimony of Anita Hill to Senate Judiciary committee during confirmation hearings for Clarence Thomas's 1991 nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court. - Despite increased awareness, "the great majority of women who are abused by behavior that fits legal definitions of sexual harassment—and who are traumatized by the experience—do not label what has happened to them as sexual harassment" (Paludi and Barickman, 1991)
Relative deprivation
• The recognition that one has less than their peers • Merton linked relative deprivation to deviant behavior • However, we have to be careful when we make the assumption that those from more disadvantaged communities necessarily want the same things as those in more privileged communities
Gender role socialization
• Through contact with primary and secondary agents of socialization, children are conditioned to internalize the dominant social norms and expectations that correspond with their physically assigned sex at birth. • While there are some biological dimensions to gender expression, gender differences are primarily culturally produced.
Dramaturgy
• Uses the metaphor of theater to explain human behavior. • individuals perform actions in everyday life as if they were performers on a stage • Frontstage, backstage and off-stage
Consent
• When you're engaging in sexual activity, consent is about communication. And it should happen every time. • Valid consent is freely and voluntarily given and all people in a sexual situation must feel that they are able to stop the sexual activity at any point. • Giving consent for one activity, one time, does not mean giving consent for increased or recurring sexual contact. • Having sex with someone in the past doesn't give that person permission to have sex with you again in the future. • You can withdraw consent at any point if you feel uncomfortable. • It's important to clearly communicate to your partner that you are no longer comfortable with this activity and wish to stop.
Gendered inequalities in global context
• Women now make up about 40 percent of the world's workforce • Despite substantive gains, women throughout the world still experience a "glass ceiling" that restrict their movement into top positions • Women remain in the poorest-paying industrial and service sector jobs in all countries
Why are so many Black Americans being incarcerated?
• policies and practices such as harsh sentences for drug-related crimes that disproportionately affect African-Americans • implicit racial biases that affect judges • structural disadvantages that affect African-Americans before they enter the criminal-justice system
Deviance
• refers to the violation of norms • modes of action that don't conform to the norms or values held by most members of a group or society • Like norms, deviance is socially constructed and culturally variable
Labeling theory
• suggests that people become "deviant" because certain labels are attached to their behavior by political authorities and others. • Assumes that no act is intrinsically criminal but may become criminal through the formulation of laws and their interpretation by police, courts and 'correctional' institutions
