Sociology Ch.9-13

What is the trend in gender inequality in politics?

A traditional division of gender roles- women as child care providers and homemakers, men as workers outside the home -used to keep women out of politics. Women continue to be underrepresented in politics, but the trend toward greater political equality is firmly in place.

Why are people prejudiced?

Prejudice is an attitude, and discrimination is an action. Like, other attitudes, prejudice is learned in association with others. Prejudice is so extensive that people can show prejudice against groups that don't even exist. Minorities also internalize the dominant norms, and some how show prejudice against their own group.

What is social stratification?

Social stratification refers to a hierarchy of privilege based on property, power, and prestige. Every society stratifies its members, and in every society, men-as-a-group dominate women-as-a-group.

How are the world's nations stratified?

There are three groups : the most industrialized, the industrialized and the least industrialized. This layering represents relative property, power, and prestige. The oil rich nations are an exception.

How do elites maintain stratification?

To maintain social class stratification within a nation, the ruling class adopts an ideology that justifies its current arrangements. It also controls information and uses technology. when all else fails, it turns to brute force.

Is the feminist movement new?

in what is called the "first wave" feminists made political demands for change in early 1900's and were met with hostility, even violence. The "second wave" began in the 1960's and continues today. An overlapping "third wave" is in process.

What forms does gender inequality take around the world?

its many variations in education, politics and pay. It also includes domination in the form of violence, including female circumcision.

How is the Horatio Alger myth functional for society?

the Horatio Alger myth- the belief that anyone can get ahead only he or she tries hard enough and encourages people to strive to get ahead. It also stabilizes society by deflecting blame for failure from society to the individual.

What heightens ethnic identity, and what is "ethnic work"?

A group's ethnic identity is heightened or reduced by its relative size, power, and physical characteristics, as well as the amount of discrimination it faces. Ethnic work is the process of constructing and maintaining an ethnic identity. For people without a firm ethnic identity, ethnic work is an attempt to recover their ethnic heritage. for those with strong ties to their culture of origin, ethnic work involves enhancing group distinctions.

How does gender inequality show up in the workplace?

All occupations show a gender gap in pay. For college graduates, the lifetime pay gap runs close to a million dollars in favor of men. Sexual harassment also continues to be a reality of the workplace.

Strains in the Global System? - What strains are showing up in global stratification?

All stratification systems have contradictions that threaten to erupt, forcing the system to change. Currently, capitalism is in crisis, and we seem to be experiencing a global shift in economic (and, ultimately, political) power from the West to the East

What are the major patterns of minority and dominant group relations?

Beginning with the least humane, they are genocide, population transfer, internal colonialism, segregation, assimilation, and multiculturalism (pluralism)

What models are used to portray the social classes?

Erik Wright developed a four-class model based on Marx: (1) capitalists (owners of large businesses), (2) petty bourgeoise (small business owners), (3) managers, and (4) workers. Kahl and Gilbert developed a six class model based on Weber. At the top is the capitalist class. In the descending order are the upper-middle class, the lower-middle class, the working class, the working poor, and the underclass.

What are the four major systems of social stratification ?

Four major stratification systems are slavery, caste, estate, and class.

How does occupational prestige differ around the world?

From country to country, people rank occupational prestige similarly. Globally, the occupations that bring greater prestige are those that pay more, require more education and abstract thought, and offer greater independence.

What are the major racial-ethnic groups in the United States?

From largest to smallest, the major groups are European Americans, Latinos, African Americans, Asian Americans, and Native Americans.

How is retirement functional perceptions for society?

Functionalists focus on how the withdrawal of the elderly from positions of responsibility benefits society. Disengagement theory examines retirement as a device for ensuring that a society's portions of responsibility are passed smoothly from one generation to the next. Activity theory examines how people's activities after retirement help them adjust to their new life stage. Continuity theory focuses on how people adjust to growing old by continuing their roles and coping techniques.

What Determines Social Class?

Karl Marx argued that a single factor determines social class: If you own the means of production, you belong to the bourgeoise; if you do not, you are none of the proletariat. Max Weber argued that three elements determine social class: property, power, and prestige.

Is gender stratification universal?

George Murdock surveyed information on tribal societies and found that all of them have sex-linked activities and give a greater prestige to male activities. Patriarchy, or male dominance, appears to be universal. Besides work, male dominance is seen in education, politics, and everyday life

How might changes in gender roles and stereotypes affect our lives?

In the U.S., women are increasingly involved in the decision making processes of our social institutions. Men, too, are reexamining their traditional roles. New ideas of gender are developing, allowing both males and females to pursue more individual, less stereotypical interests.

How is race both reality and a myth?

In the sense that different groups inherit distinctive physical traits, race is reality. There is no agreement regarding what makes up a particular race, however, or even how many races there are. Un the sense of one race being superior to another and of there being pure races, race is a myth. The idea of race is powerful, shaping basic relationships among people.

How do individual and institutional discrimination differ?

Individual discrimination is the negative treatment of one person by another, while institutional discrimination is negative treatment that is built into social institutions. Institutional discrimination can occur without the awareness of either those who do the discriminating or those who are discriminated against. Discrimination in health care is one example.

What are some issues in racial-ethnic relations and characteristics of minority groups?

Latinos are. divided by social class and country of origin. African Americans are increasingly divided into middle and lower classes, with two sharply contrasting worlds of experience. On many measures, Asian Americans are better off than white Americans, but their well-being varies with country of origin. For Native Americans , the primary issues are poverty, nationhood, and settling treaty obligations. The overarching issue for minorities is overcoming discrimination.

How does culture affect the way we experience death and dying?

Like old age, death is much meow than a biological event. Industrialization brought with it modern medicine, hospitals-and dying in formal setting surrounded by strangers. Kubler-Ross identified five stages in the dying process, which, though insightful, do not characterize all people. Hospice care is designed to overcome the negative aspects of dying in hospitals. The suicide rate of the elderly is sole that of adolescents.

What are minority and dominant groups?

Minority groups are people who are singled out for unequal treatment by members of the dominant group, the group with more power and privilege. Minorities originate with migration or the expansion of political boundaries.

What is meant by the term social class?

Most sociologists have adopted Weber's definition of social class: a large group of people who rank closely to one another in terms of property (wealth), power, and prestige. Wealth-Consisting of the value of property and income-is concentrated in the upper classes. From the 1930's to the 1970's, the trend in the distribution of wealth in the U.S. was toward greater inequality. Power is the ability to get your way even though others resist.

How are the elderly treated around the world?

No single set of attitudes, beliefs, or policies regarding the aged characterizes the world 's nations. Rather , they vary from exclusion and killing to integration and honor. the global trend is for more people to live longer.

What does the social construction of aging mean?

Nothing on the nature of aging produces any particular set of attitudes. Rather, attitudes toward the elderly are rooted in culture and differ from one social group to another.

How do psychologists explain prejudice?

Psychological theories of prejudice stress the authoritarian personality and frustration displaced toward scapegoats.

How do race and ethnicity differ?

Race refers to inherited biological characteristics, ethnicity to cultural ones. Members of ethnic groups identify with one another on the basis of common ancestry and cultural heritage.

How do sex and gender differ?

Sex refers to biological distinctions between males and females. It consists of both primary and secondary sex characteristics. Gender, in contrast is what a society considers proper behaviors and attitudes for its male and females members. Sex physically distinguishes males and females; gender refers to what people call "masculine" and feminine".

How do the younger and the elderly compete for scarce resources?

Social Security legislation is an example of one generation making demands on another generation for limited resources. As the number of retired people grows, there are relatively fewer workers to support them. The Social Security Trust Fund may be viewed as gigantic fraud perpetrated by the power elite on the nation's workers. Organizations such as the Gray Panthers and the AARP watch out for the interests of the elderly.

How does social class affect people's lives?

Social class leaves no aspect of life untouched. It affects our chances of dying early, becoming ill, receiving good health care, and getting divorced. Social class membership also affects child rearing, educational attainment, religious affiliation, political participation, the crimes people commit, and their contact with the criminal justice system.

How do sociologists explain prejudice?

Sociological theories focus on how different social environments increase or decrease prejudice. Functionalists stress the benefits and costs that come from discrimination. Conflict theorists look at how the groups in power exploit racial-ethnic divisions in order to control workers and maintain power. Symbolic interactionists stress how labels create selective perception and self-fulfilling prophecies.

What is meant by the term status inconsistency?

Status is social position. Most people are status consistent; that is, they rank high or low on all three dimensions of social class. People who rank higher on some dimensions than on others are status inconsistent. the frustrations of status inconsistency tend to produce political radicalism.

What is gender stratification?

The term gender stratification refers to unequal access to property, and prestige on the basis of sex. Each society establishes a structure that, on the basis of sex and gender, opens and closes doors to its privileges.

What are three types of social mobility?

The term intergenerational mobility refers to changes in social class from one generation to the next. Structural mobility refers to changes in society that lead large numbers of people to change their social class. Exchange mobility is the movement of large numbers of people from one social class to another, with the net result that the relative proportions of the population in the classes remain about the same.

What factors influence perceptions of aging?

Symbolic interactionist stress that aging is socially constructed. That is, no age has any particular built-in meaning; rather, we use cultural cues to define age. Four factors influence when people label themselves as "old": biological changes, biographical events, gender age , and cultural timetables. Cross-cultural comparisons demonstrate how culture shapes the ways that people experience aging. Ageism, negative reactions to the elderly, is based on stereotypes.

why do the behaviors of males and females differ?

The "nature versus nurture" debate refers to whether differences in the behaviors of males and females are caused by inherited (biological) or learned (cultural) characteristics. Almost all sociologists take the side of nurture. In recent years, however, sociologists have begun to cautiously open the door to biology.

How are technological developments influencing the aged?

The huge number of elderly who are in good health is leading to creative aging, a new view of old age as a time of creativity and personal development. Technological breakthroughs may stretch the human life span to 100 or even 200 years. If so, on consequence will be the difficulty of supporting people for such a lengthy retirement.

What main issues dominate U.S. racial-ethnic relations?

The main issues are immigration, affirmative action, and how to develop a true multicultural society. We can expect racism to decline.

How did the World's nations become stratified?

The main theories that seek to account for global stratification are colonialism, world system theory, and the cultural poverty.

Comparative Social Stratification -What are key characteristics of stratification systems in other nations?

The most striking features of the British class system are speech and education. In Britain, accent reveals social class, and almost all of the elite attend private schools. In the former Soviet Union, communism was supposed to be abolish class distinctions. Instead, it ushered in a different set of classes.

How did females become a minority group?

The origin of discrimination against females is lost in history but primary theory of how females became a minority group in their own societies focuses on the physical limitations imposed by childbirth.

What does the phrase "graying of America" mean?

The phrase graying of America refers to the growing percentage of Americans who reach old age. The costs of Social Security and health care for elderly have become major social issues.

Who are the poor?

The poverty line, although it has serious consequences, is arbitrary. Poverty is unequally distributed in the United States. Racial-ethnic minorities (except Asian Americans), children, households headed by women, and rural Americans are more likely than others to be poor. The poverty rate of the elderly is much less than that of the general population.

Maintaining Global Stratification -how do elites maintain global stratification?

There are two basic explanations fo why the world's countries remain stratified. Neocolonialism is the ongoing dominance of the Least Industrialized Nations by the Most Industrialized Nations. The second explanation points to the influence of multinational corporations. The new technology gives further advantage to the Most Industrialized Nations.

Why are people poor?

They dynamics of poverty (huge numbers moving into and out of poverty> indicate that the culture of poverty is not generally true. Rather than looking at the characteristics of individuals as the cause of poverty, sociologists stress the structural features of society, such as employment opportunities. There also are poverty triggers. Sociologists generally conclude that life orientations are a consequence, not the cause, of people's position in the social class structure.

Why is Social Stratification Universal?

To explain why stratification is universal, functionalist Kingsley Davis and Wilbert Moore argued that to attract the most capable people to fill its important positions, society must offer them greater rewards. Melvin Tumin said that if this view were correct, society would be a meritocracy , with positions awarded on the basis of merit. Gaetano Mosca argued that stratification is inevitable because every society must have leadership, which by definition, means inequality. Conflict theorists argue that stratification is the outcome of an elite emerging as groups struggle for limited resources. Gerhard Lenski suggested a synthesis between the functionalist and conflict perspectives.

What is meant by a three-tier society?

Trends indicate an alarming future. In the top tier of a three-tier society will live a wealthy ruling elite. In the middle tier will be well -compensated people who serve this elite. At the bottom tier will blend large underclass considered dangerous to society. It will be kept under control by welfare, entertainment, drugs, and a militarized police force.

What are some of the problems that today's elderly face?

Women are more likely to live alone and to be poor. At any one time, about 3 percent of the elderly live in nursing homes. Nursing homes are understaffed and patient neglect is common. Those most likely to abuse the elderly are members members of their own families. Poverty in old age, greatly reduced through government programs, reflects the gender and racial-ethnic patterns of poverty in the general society.