SOC 1 Exam 3

Omi and Howard Winant

"race can be understood as a fundamental dimension of social organization and cultural meanings in the U.S.

Women's Movement Third wave

1980s and 90s, the third wave of feminism focused primarily on diversity. These feminist criticized the first two waves for concentrating on "women" as one category and marginalizing the concerns of women of color, lesbians, and working class women. Third wave feminist also concerned with rights of women in all countries and with environmental and animal rights

Shirlee Taylor Haizlip

A Los Angeles journalist who dug into her past history and found the burial of that fact that though she is white she has roots of being black. She was passing as white.

Assimulation

A minority group is absorbed into the dominant group: this process is the central idea behind america's melting pot. On the surface assimilation seems like a reasonable solution to the potential conflicts between different groups. If everyone belongs to the same group, if the society is largely homogenous, then conflict will decrease. Note: the process of assimilation is not always entered voluntarily. Sometimes members of a minority group may be forced to acquire new behaviors and forbidden to practice their own religion or speak their own language until these are all but forgotten.

Qualities of a minority group?

A minority group is denied the access to power and resources generally accorded to others in a dominant group. Members of a minority group are likely to perceive themselves as targets of collective discrimination. Membership in a minority group may serve as a kind of "master status" overriding any other status such as gender or age.

What is a minority?

A minority is commonly thought of as a group that's smaller in numbers than the dominant group. Thus, most americans would say that in the United States, whites are a majority while African Americans, Asians, Hispanic/Latinos, and Native Americans are minorities because whites outnumber each of these other groups.

What is a social institution?

A social institution is a collection of patterned social practices that are repeated continuously and regularly over time and supported by social norms.

What are special interest groups?

AKA Pressure groups are organizations formed expressly to raise and spend money in order to influence elected officials and public opinion.

Institutional discrimination: Lawrence Otis Graham

African American lawyer, found that he could not join a particular Connecticut country club as a member, rather he was welcome to serve drinks or run operations. This shows despite his Ivy league credentials he lived in a socially stratified society.

Family: Angela Davis

African American teens in particular see fewer opportunities for education and work, and choose motherhood instead. Davis believes that social policies aimed at punishing teenage mothers of color will be ineffective; only by attacking the racism inherent in the education system and the workforce will these teens be at less risk of becoming mothers.

What is race?

All humans, whatever racial categories they seem to inhabit, are 99.9% genetically identical. Race is a social category based on real or perceived biological differences between groups of people

What is Racism?

An ideology or set of beliefs about the superiority of one racial or ethnic group over another, provides this support: it is used to justify social arrangements between the dominant and minority groups. Racist beliefs are often rooted in the assumption that differences between groups are innate or biologically based.

Kara Smith

Argues that gender role socialization begins even before birth. Because the sex of the fetus now can be determined in utero, families may begin relating to new baby as either a girl or a boy far in advance of the baby's arrival.

Family: Kathryn Edin

Argues that low income women of all ethnicities see marriage as having few benefits. They feel that the men that they encounter as possible husbands will not offer the advantages that make the rewards of marriage worth the risk.

Men's movement factions- pro feminist movement

Belief that men should support feminism in the interest of fairness to women and because men's lives are also constrained by gender and sexism- and are enriched by the feminist social change.

Alfred Kinsey

Believed that people were not exclusively heterosexual or homosexual but could fall along a wide spectrum. Developed a scale to measure this spectrum based on the degree of sexual responsiveness people had to members of the same and opposite sex. thinks we can better understand sexual orientation not through simplistic categories but rather as a fluid continuum that can change over the course of a person's lifetime.

William Julius Wilson

Believes that openly racist government policies and individual racist attitudes were the driving forces behind the creation of a black underclass but that the underclass is now perpetuated by economic factors

Gender role socialization- media

Boys and girls learn that certain activities and attitudes are more appropriate for one gender than for the other.This starts at a young age and by kindergarten, girls know more television characters than real people.

Fredrick Engles

Capitalist benefitted from maintaining patriarchal families with women in the private sphere and men in the public workspace. Women do the work of replenishing the labor force.

Don't Ask, Don't Tell

DADT Signed into law in 1993, arose amidst existing military policies that required the discharge of gay military service members

Who are essentialist to gender?

Depending on their field of study, sociologist look at gender from different perspectives Essentialist see gender as immutable and biological , and gender identity- an individual's self definition of gender- as unambiguous. You are either male or female. Culture plays no role.

Dictatorship and Totalitarianism

Dictators do not gain power by election or succession but seizes power and becomes absolute ruler. Usually starts with a military coup. Totalitarianism seeks to control every aspect of it's citizen's lives public or private. Can utilize surveillance, and military power to keep citizens in line. Through propaganda it can further control it's people's belief.

What is Ethnicity?

Ethnicity is another social category that is applied to a group with a shared ancestry or cultural heritage

Feminism

Feminism is the belief in the social, political, and ecomonic equalities for all sexes and the social movements organized around that belief. Thus feminism is both a theoretical perspective and a social movement. Feminist concepts and goals are not static but are always focused on bringing about greater gender equality in a particular time and place.

What is Government?

Formal organized agency that exercises power and control in modern society

Media as the fourth estate

Fourth estate of government, the media renders checks and balances on power much like the three government branches

Functionalist approach to understanding race

Functionalism can best offer is an explanation of how prejudice and discrimination develop, by focusing on social solidarity and group cohesion. Groups have a tendency toward ethnocentrism, or the belief that one's own culture and way of life are right and normal. Functionalist contend that positive feelings about one's group are strong ties that bind people together. Cultural differences and lack of integration into the larger society on the part of minorities tend to feed fear and hostilities.

Two Macrosociological Perspectives of gender inequality - Functionalism.

Functionalist generally believe that there are still social roles better suited to one gender than the other and societies are more stable when norms are fulfilled by the appropriate sex. Females work in tandem with male role. Talcott Parsons, for example identified two complementary roles. Instrumental role; being task oriented. The other is expressive providing emotional support and nurturing. The functionalist view does not explain very well why gender relations are characterized by such inequality.

What is Gender?

Gender refers to the physical, behavioral, and personality traits that a group considers to be normal, natural, right, and good for it's male and female members. In other words they reflect what we think of as masculine or feminine. Gender, then, is something that is culturally transmitted or learned.

Who are the opinion leaders?

High profile people who interpret political information for us. What politicians say to the press is often scripted by spin doctors who can manipulate the rhetoric to give it a positive appearance designed to be catchy and compelling while not necessarily delivering much substance.

What is a Minority Group?

In 2005 Census Bureau reported that whites made up less than 45 percent of that state's population whereas other ethnic groups (Hispanic, African Americans, Asian Americans, Native Americans) when added together constituted a majority of 56 percentage California, then, is technically a majority minority state: whites are less than half the population but still remain the dominant group in terms of power. A Minority group are people who are recognized as belonging to a social category and who suffer from unequal treatment as a result of that status.

Types of discrimination?

Individual discrimination occurs when one person treats others unfairly because of their race or ethnicity. Institutional discrimination in contrast us usually more systematic and widespread, and occurs when institutions ( such as government, schools, and banks) practice discriminatory policies that affect whole groups of people.

Formal Definition of transgendered

Individual's sense of self and gender identity may differ from their physical sex.

Gender Inequality - Interactionist

Interactionist emphasize how gender is socially constructed and maintained in our everyday lives. According to interactionist, gender identity is so important to our social selves that we can barely interact with anyone without first determining that person's gender.

Embodied Data

Interactions with people online, those elements of identity that are generated through others perceptions of our physical traits. Such as speech patterns online.-Byron Burkhalter

What is authority?

Legitimate non coercive exercise of power.

What is prejudice?

Literally prejudgement is an inflexible attitude usually negative about a particular group of people and is rooted in generalization or stereotypes.

The men's movement

Male Liberationism of the need to free men from oppressive gender roles became more widespread in the late twentieth century. Influential studies pointed to evidence that men suffer from greater stress, poorer health, and a shorter life expectancy, and argued that these resulted from pressures to achieve success combined with an inability to express themselves.

Patriachy and Gender Inequality

Male domination, Division of labor where women handle activities within the secured homestead while men do things like gain resources

What is Power?

Max Weber defines power as the ability to get others to do one's bidding

Racial and cultural assimulation

Minority group members may lose their previous ethnic or racial identities either through racial assimilation, having children with the dominant group until the different races are completely mixed, or through cultural assimilation in which members learn the cultural practices of the dominant group. In some cases, both types of assimilation takes place at the same time.

What are political action committee?

Organizations designed to raise money to support the interest of a selected group or organization

Social Construction of Race

Our identity is constructed in the negotiation between what we project and what others recognize, Even Master Statuses such as race, gender, and age are negotiated in this way.

Double Conscious ?

Passing involves manufacturing or maintaining a new identity that is more beneficial than the one's real identity. Attributed to WEB Dubois

Gender role socialization- Peers

Peer groups are increasingly important agent of socialization. By the age of three, children develop a preference for the same sex playmates, a tendency that increases markedly as childhood progresses. Gender segregation is the result of inherent differences between men and women, there is little evidence to support the notion that same sex peer groups can help create gendered behavior.

Pluralism

Permits racial and ethnic variation within one society and encourages people to embrace diversity as a positive feature of society. Salad bowl vs melting pot. At the core of multiculturalism is tolerance of racial and ethnic differences.

What is Authoritarianism?

Political system that denies ordinary citizens representation by control over their own government. Thus, citizens have no sat in who rules them, what laws are made, or how those laws are enforced. eg. Dictatorship, Totalitarianism.

What is discrimination?

Prejudice often, though not always, leads to discrimination an action or behavior that results in the unequal treatment of individuals because of their membership to certain racial or ethnic groups.

What is Racial Passing?

Presenting yourself as a member of a different racial or ethnic group than the one you were born into

Civil Unions

Proposed as an alternative to gay marriage a form of legally recognized commitment that provides gay couples some of the benefits and protections of marriage.

C Wright mills -power

Proposed the theory of the power elite a relatively small number of influential who occupy the top positions within the major economic, political, and military institutions of the country/

What is Queer Theory?

Rejects the idea of a single gay, lesbian, bisexual heterosexual, or transgender identity, emphasizing instead the importance of differences. It asserts that being queer is about "possibilities, gaps, overlaps, dissonances and resonances"

Monarchy

Ruled by king or queen, sovereignty is vested to successive line of rules usually with a family. Monarchies can be divided into two categories: absolute and constitutional. Absolute monarchies typically have complete authority other their subjects, much like a dictator. Constitutional monarchs are royal figures whose powers are defined in a political charter and limited by a parliament or other governing body.

What is Sex?

Sex refers to an individual's membership in one of two categories- male or female. The distinctions between male and female are based on such biological factors such as chromosomes, hormones, and reproductive organs all of which make up the primary sex characteristics. However there are those who are intersex about 17/1000 and are a variant mix in chromosomes.

Stuart Hall

Sociologist who explained the social construction of race by recounting a conversation he had with his young son of a mixed marriage.Explains that it is not skin color that defines race.

Miliann Kang

Studied the work of immigrant women mostly from Korea in nail salons Kang argues that the femininity that is central to the beauty rituals is performed in salons is also racialized.

France Winddance Twine

Study of white women who have families with black men. As intimate partners with black men, white women effectively lose some of their whiteness-especially in the eyes of their white working class friends. This loss of whiteness is a form of punishment exacted by their ethnicity and class based communities but which is not meted out equally to white men who marry black women.

Defense of Marriage Act

Supreme court decision which roles that the section in the DOMA defining marriage between a man and a women is unconstitutional.

Women's movement - First Wave

The first wave began with a convention held in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848, organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott. Issued a Declaration of Sentiments stating generally that "all men and women are created equal" Stanton believed that in a democracy the right to vote was the fundamental right of which all other depended. Campaign to vote aka he woman's suffrage movement

Men's movement factions- men's right movement

The men's rights movement argues that because of feminism, men are actually discriminated against and even oppressed both in the legal arena and in everyday life. Suggest that a new kind of sexism by privileging women or by attempting to erase differences all together.

What is social learning?

The process of learning behavior and meanings through social interaction, babies respond to and internalize the expectation of others around them.

Gender role socialization

The subtle, pervasive process of becoming masculine or feminine-begins early and continues throughout our lives. It is accomplished primarily by the four major agents of socialization: families schools peers and media through other social institutions, such as religion, may also play a part in the process.

Internal Colonialism and Segregation

The term colonialism refers to a policy whereby a stronger nation takes control of a weaker nation in order to extend their stronger nations territory or to exploit the colony's resources for the stronger nations own enrichment Internal colonialism describes the exploitation of a minority group within the dominant group's own borders segregation the physical and legal separation of groups by race or ethnicity

Who rules america?

Two theories to that question: Pluralist theory of power and the idea of the power elite. Pluralist Model suggest that power is held by a variety of organizations and institutions each with its own resources and interest.

Stratification and Inequality

When a society categorizes people based on their race and ethnicity (and all societies do), it creates a system of social stratification. In the 19th century, biologists came up with a schema that grouped humans into three races: Negroid, Mongoloid, and Caucasoid. There are no pure races that the line between races are blurry rather than fixed.

Gender and Language

Words reflect cultural values and norms, particularly sexism. For instance positions of power and authority often directly emphasize the male gender in their very names. The english language also seems to assume that the default category for all human experience is male. Men dominate women in conversation and are more likely to interrupt women than they are to interrupt men. Women tend to be more concerned with keeping a conversation going rather than with controlling its direction.

Institutional discrimination: Ira Katzelson

Wrote When Affirmative Action Was White Points out how special government policies are meant to benefit whites such as the G.I. Bill of Rights. Consist of loans to buy houses etc though it works against people of color who are denied the loans because of so called inability to repay.

Healthcare

healthcare consumers must rely on insurance benefits provided through their employer or buy individual policies in order to meet their medical needs. The affordable healthcare act of 2010 was designed to address such inequalities by providing universal healthcare Minorities are also disproportionately exposed to the other factors that impact lifespan such as dangerous jobs and toxins in environment.

What does it mean to be disenfranchised?

stripped of voting rights either temporarily or premaritally.

Conflict approach to understanding race

Classic Marxist analyses of race , looks into the source of racism in capitalist hierarchies. Edna Bonacich argues that racism is partially driven by economic competition and the struggle over scarce resources. A split labor market is which one group of workers is routinely paid less than other groups.

Two Macrosociological Perspectives of gender inequality - Conflict Theory

Conflict theories take a different approach, Men have historically had access to most of society's material resources and privileges, and consequently they generally seek to maintain their dominant status. Conflict theorist see gender inequality in much of the same way as they see global inequality as a manifestation of exploitation. Conflict theorist point our that whether or not gender inequality is a product of class conflict, all men benefit from it in the short term. Zillah Eisenstein notes that men stand to lose a great deal if gender segregation disappears: they would have to do more unpaid work, or pay to have their homes kept up and children cared for.

Example of Situational Ethnicity

Dr.Ferris who moved to an area more populated with people who share the same heritage as her and she was praised for it.

Harold Garfinkel

One of the first studies to show how gender is based on interaction, conducted intensive interviews with "Agnes" a transsexual person born with male genital and raised a boy who was undergoing sex-reassignment treatment at UCLA medical center.

How do we display our racial and ethnic group membership? (symbolic ethnicity)(situational)

One way group membership is displayed is through symbolic ethnicity, enactments of ethnic identity that occur only on special occasions. eg (St. Patrick's Day) Situational ethnicity is when we deliberately assert our ethnicity in some situations while downplaying it in others. Situational ethnicity involves a kind of cost-benefit analysis that symbolic ethnicity does not: we need to appraise each situation to determine whether or not it favors our ethnicity

Women's Movement Second wave

Second wave took place in the 60-70s is associated with equal access to education and employment. Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique the establishment of the National Organization for Women an the emergence of women consciousness raising groups were key events in the second wave. Friedan was discovering that countless women were unhappy with the traditional roles they had been assigned, that the mystique of feminine fulfillment was no longer so fulfilling. So the second wave pushed for and achieved such reforms as equal opportunity laws, legislation against sexual harassment and martial rape, and a general increase in public awareness about gender discrimination

Gender role socialization- Schools

Teachers tend to favor boys in several ways. Boys receive more attention and more instructional time and are more likely to be called on in class. And boys are posed with more challenging questions or task, and are given more praise for the quality of their work. Boys are also however, more likely to make teachers angry by misbehaving and therefore to receive some form of punishment more often.

What is Human sexual dimorphism?

The belief that anatomy defines men and women, is now highly contested owning to the media's attention to cross-dressers, transsexuals, and the transgendered, who broaden our definitions of sex and gender

Feminization of poverty

The economic trend showing that women are more likely than men to live in poverty caused in part by the gendered gap in wages, the higher proportion of single mothers compared to single father, and the increasing costs of child care.

Who are the constructionist to gender?

They see gender as a social construction and acknowledge the possibility that male-female categories aren't the only way to classify individuals.

Patricia Williams

Thought to be white when she applied to buy a home but when marked african american she was denied because she would bring property values down.