SOCY 101 - Chaps. 7-9

Research on beauty and inequality (Sidney Katz)

"If you're beautiful, without effort you attract hordes of friends and lovers. You are given higher grades than your smarter but less appealing classmates. You compete successfully for jobs against men or women who are better qualified but less alluring. Promotions and pay raises come your way more easily. You are able to go into a bank or store and cash a check with far less hassle than a plain Jane or John. And these are only a few of the many advantages enjoyed by those with a ravishing face and body"

Robert Merton's typology

(Pg. 357) Shows the types of bigotry we have in society and each category shows if they're prejudiced and discriminate, prejudiced and don't discriminate or not prejudiced at all

Intergenerational Mobility

- "Though some upward mobility can be attributed to the superior work ethics of individual men and women, a lot of mobility is due to structural changes in the labor force...most of the [upward] mobility consists of small steps between adjacent strata rather than big jumps from the bottom to the top." - Starting up rich and your children end up poor - Several generations - Think of: international (between countries)... so _____generational is between generations

Standards of equality

- Equality of opportunity: the idea that everyone has an equal chance to achieve wealth, social prestige, and power b/c the rules of the game, so to speak, are the same for everyone. Existing inequality is fair. Rousseau's idea. - Equality of condition: the idea that everyone should have an equal starting point. Ex: Affirmative Action - preferential selection to increase the representation of women and minorities in areas of employment, education, and business from which they have historically been excluded (college admissions office selects some applicants who haven't faced an even playing field) - Equality of outcome: the idea that each player must end up with the same amount regardless of the fairness of the "game". A Marxist ideology Also, the idea that everyone contributes to society and the economy according to what they do best. EX: someone naturally gifted at math might become an engineer or mathematician, whereas someone better at physical work might build infrastructure. Median income is everyone's income regardless on occupation/position

Types of Discrimination

- Personal: is an attack on minority group members by an individual or group, ranging from social slights and insults to members. - Legal: takes place when minority group members are denied lawful access to public institutions, jobs, housing, and social rewards. - Institutional: is the unequal treatment of a group that is deeply embedded in social institutions. - Our institutions are family, work , school, mass media, government, peers.

Ethnicity

- Refers to a group's culture, identity, such as values, beliefs, behaviors, and customs. Ex: Hispanics and Jews

Nationality

- Refers to continent, region, or country. Ex: Indian, German, American, South African, etc - the status of belonging to a particular nation

Intragenerational Mobility

- Start off poor and end up rich - One generation

social construction of race

- Thesis: race is a ______ ______________ that is invented by human beings; it varies by cultures and changes with the times. Ex: one drop rule vs. self-discrimination - race is not static (not biological). It differs by culture and changes over time - race is ambigious. Ex: Irish and Scottish.

Symbolic Interactionism

- a micro-level theory in which shared meanings, orientations, and assumptions form the basic motivations behind people's actions - Ex: people stop when they see a red light.

Meritocracy

- a society (or system) where status and mobility (or advancement) are based on individual attributes, ability and achievement. - For example, if one were to get a heart transplant, one would want the most knowledgable heart surgeon with the most dexterous hands.

Second Shift

- refer to the responsibilities of childcare and housework born disproportionately by women, in addition to their paid labor. - The book and the sociological principle assert that even though Mom and Dad both have careers, it's usually Mom who also works the second shift at home, too. The _______ _________ includes the work performed at home, in addition to the work performed in the professional sector. - how traditional gender roles still exist today

biological definition of race

- refers to the phenotypical characteristics, such as skin color, hair texture, shape of eyes and other facial features

Conflict Theory

- the idea that ________ between competing interests is the basic, animating force of social change and society in general - _________ between two or more parties; there will always be issues

Functionalism

- the theory that various social institutions and processes in society exist to serve some important (or necessary) function to keep society running - follows the idea that everything that happens in society happens for a reason; idea that our entire society was once perfect and social change occurs when one of the social institutions in that society get damaged.

Ethnic Group

A community or population made up of people who share a common cultural background or descent. read pg 337-343

Stereotype

A generalized belief about a group of people

Race

A group of people who share a set of characteristics but not always a physical ones. They are said to share a common bloodline.

Privilege

A special favor, right, or advantage given to a person or group.

Major Systems of Stratification

Estate: a politically based system of _____________ characterized by limited social mobility. Caste: a religion-based system of ________________ characterized by no social mobility Class: An economically based hierarchical system characterized by cohesive, oppositional groups and somewhat loose social mobility.

Chapter 8

Gender

Main points from "Be a Man"

How masculinity and feminity go hand in hand - masculinity ultimately damages emotional development of men

Microaggressions

Interaction between different races devaluing the other - minor instances of prejudiced behavior Im portant because it brings anxiety when you're trying to interact with people from different backgrounds - could be hate crime or the use of slurs or saying stereotypical things (saying the n word)

Eugenics

Means: "well-born", a pseudoscience that controlling the fertility of populations could influence inheritable traits passed on from generation to generation EX: everything from criminality and feeblemindedness to disease and intelligence could be traced through bloodlines and selectively bred out of or into populations

Main points from "Miss Representation"

Media influences - How it affects the political sphere Women are seen as sex objects, submissive to men. Media socializes men to think a woman's physical appearance is the most important.

Chapter 9

Race

Immigration and Race

Race can be a factor that influence immigration policies - There are a lot of illegal immigrants from various races, not only Mexicans or Arabs EX: Mexican wall; travel bans

White Privilege

Rights or immunities granted as a particular benefit or favor for being White.

Chapter 7

Stratification

Main Points from "Race: The Power of an Illusion

Superficial differences like skin color and hair are not based on - Race differs in certain societies - Race depends on the society that you're and the people

Racism

The belief that members of separate races possess different and unequal traits

Gender as a social construct

The idea that gender difference is socially constructed is an academic construct present in feminist, philosophical and sociological theories about gender, and documents written by the World Health Organization (WHO). According to this view, society and culture create gender roles, and these roles are prescribed as ideal or appropriate behavior for a person of that specific sex.

Color Blind Racism

The use of the principle of race neutrality to defend a racially unequal status quo

Income Inequality

Women make less than men because of stereotypes; minorities make less because of unequal opportunity

Wealth

a family's or individual's net worth (total assets minus total debts)

Patriarchy

a nearly universal system involving the subordination of femininity to masculinity

Sexes

biological differences that distinguish males from females.

Gender Wage Gap

defined as the relative difference in the average gross hourly earnings of women and men within the economy as a whole. Women have lower income than men because of neg stereotypes against them. Women have Higher poverty rates than men due to individual discrimination. Institutional discrimination is the reason why women are underrepresented in government

Institutional Discrimination

mindset employers may have; ex. They may wonder if she is fertile and may want to have a child and may leave/ they may consider a woman as a burden but not a man as one.

Transgender

people who are born with typical male or female anatomies but feel as though they've been born into the "wrong body." EX: Travesti, _____________ prostitutes in Brazil

Weber's Three Dimensions of Class

pg 254: Class is independent and is not related to other people. Three dimensions- your education, the amount of property you own, inherited proprty i.e bussiness.

Global inequality

pg 266-270 The higher you are, the more unequal you are. The lower you are, the more equal you are.

Marx

provided a complex and profound analysis of the class system under capitalism. he defined classes in means of production, defined as the system by which goods are produced and distributed. 2 classes exist: the employing (capitalist/bougie) class: those who own the means of production and the working class or proletariat, those who sell their labor for wages Central aspect of analysis is exploitation -- caps taking more of the value of the work of laborers than they repay in wages.

Scapegoat

refers to a process by which a person or group is unfairly blamed for something that they didn't do and, as a result, the real source of the problem is either never seen or purposefully ignored. theory was developed as a way to see and analyze conflict between groups.

Gender Role

sets of behavioral norms assumed to accompany one's status as a male or female. Are fluid, changing, and context-specific

Ethnology

study of sociocultural differences and similarities

Power

the ability to carry out one's own will despite resistance.

Assimilation

the social process of absorbing one cultural group into harmony with another

Prestige

the value others assign to people and groups

Prejudice

thoughts and feelings about an ethnic or racial group

Racialization

used to describe the process of attributing complex characteristics (e.g., athletic abilities, intelligence) to racial categories.