Soc. of Families Ch. 3 & 4

The part of the economy in which workers have labor contracts and legal protections and employers are regulated

Formal sector

The social and cultural characteristics that distinguish women and men in a society

Gender

A hypothetical model that consists of the most significant characteristics, in extreme form, of a social phenomenon

Ideal type

How has the globalization of production affected family life in developed countries and in developing countries?

In developed countries such as the United States, the globalization of production has benefitted the college-educated, who are adopting a neo-traditional style of family life, while disadvantaging the less educated, for whom marriage is becoming less central to family life. In developing countries, globalization has had positive effects such as increased income and negative effects such as childcare problems, as more women have begun working for pay.

The part of the economy in which workers have to labor contracts, no legal protections, and no employer regulation

Informal sector

The theory that gender identification and behavior are based on the day-to-day behavior that reinforces gender distinctions

Interactionist approach (to gender differences)

An ordering of all persons in a society according to their degrees of economic resources, prestige, and privilege

Social class

ow have changes in the American economy since the 1970s affected families?

The restructuring of the U.S. economy since the 1970s has caused a shortage of well-paid semiskilled and skilled jobs that do not require a college education - the kind of jobs less-educated young men used to rely on to supper their wives and children - and has increased the importance of education. Since the 1970s, incomes have increased the most amount families headed by college graduates and the least among families headed by persons who did not graduate from high school.

The nine-month development of the fetus inside the mother's uterus

Gestation

A person who is born with ambiguous sexual organs

Intersexual

The resources and opportunities that people have to provide themselves with material goods and favorable living conditions

Life chances

How might fetal development affect the behavior of women and men?

There is some evidence that biological differences in the development of male and female fetuses could account for some of the gender differences in children's and adults' behavior. Studies have found a correlation between gender-typical behavior and exposure to hight levels of male sec hormones before birth. Biologically based differences only exist "on average"; individuals can show a wide range of behavior. And social influences such as parental upbringing and education an counteract biological predispositions.

A kinship structure in which the strongest bonds of support and caregiving occur amount a network of women, most of them relatives, who may live in more than one household

Women-centered kinship

Are fathers capable of nurturing children?

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Do you agree, as many feminist researchers do, that "connected knowing" is preferable to "separated knowing"?

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How has the growth of single-parent families affected the incomes of families with different levels of education?

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How has the role of education in the marriage market changed over the past several decades?

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Is "doing gender" in daily life -- the daily reinforcement of gendered behavior through social interaction -- strong enough to maintain the gender differences we see in society?

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Let us suppose for the moment that prenatal male hormone levels influences aggressive behavior. Would we then expect all boys to be aggressive and all girls be unaggressive?

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The newest medium to watch children and adolescents are exposed in site internet. Do frequently visited Web sites impart messages about women's and men's proper behavior?

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What advantages accrue to children with college-educated parents who engaged in "concerted cultivation" of them?

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What are the costs and benefits of the sharing networks commonly used by low-income families?

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What are the strengths and limitations of the four-class (upper, middle, working, lower) model of social status in the United States?

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What does the story of the two-spirit people teach us about sex and gender?

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What is a "status group" and how does it relate to the concept of social class?

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Why has gender changed more for women than for men?

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Why has the globalization of production affected workers without college educations more than the college educated?

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Why might a young woman with little education choose to have a child without marrying?

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Why might the pace of gender change have slowed?

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How do children learn how women and men are supposed to behave?

According to the socialization approach, young children learn stereotypical behavior from parents, peers,teachers, and the media. The emphasis in the approach is on conscious, social learning. In general, children are taught to think that boys an men are aggressive, competitive, and independent, whereas girls and women are less aggressive, more nurturing, and better at enabling and maintaining personal relationships. From these lessons, children mentally construct the concept of gender.

The tendency of people to marry others similar to themselves

Assortative marriage

The greater change in women's lives than in men's lives

Asymmetry (of gender change)

The theory that gender identification and behavior are based in part on people's innate biological differences

Biosocial approach (to gender differences)

The tendency for attitudes and values to change more slowly than the material circumstances that underlie them

Cultural lag

The extent to which some families obtain more income and wealth than do others

Family inequality

Families whose connection to the economy is so tenuous that they cannot reliably provide for a decent life

Lower-class families

Are gender differences built into the structure of society?

Many gender theorists argue that gender differences are built into the social structure in fundamental way like social class or race. Men tends to have material advantages which place them in positions in the social structure where they have power over women. People also use pervasive mental models, or cultural frames, of the characteristics of women and men that are built into the social structure. The cultural frames reinforce inequalities, such as the idea that men are more dominant and aggressive than women Even if the material advantages of men decline, the cultural frames can remain strong enough to reinforce gender differences.

The set of personal characteristics that society defines as being typical of men

Masculinity

Families whose connection to the economy provides them with a secure, comfortable income and allows them to live well above a subsistence level

Middle-class families

A style of family life centered on marriage but which may be preceded by cohabitation and in which wives work outside the home

Neo-traditional

A group of people how have roughly the same age and status as one another

Peer group

How have the family lives of people with college degrees diverged from the family lives of those with less education?

People with college educations are more likely to marry than are people with less education, although they marry at alter ages. Their marriages are less likely to end in divorce, and they are less likely to have a child outside of marriage. In general, people are more likely than in the past to marry someone with a similar level of education. The typical life course of people who obtain college degrees involves completing one's education, then marrying someone else who is a college graduate, and then having children. For a person who does not graduate from high school, the life course may involve having children well before marrying, having a restricted choice of marriage partners, and having a high risk of divorce if one does marry at all.

A growth of job opportunities at the top and bottom of the job market but a lessening of opportunities in the middle

Polarization (of the labor market)

Are there social class differences in kinship?

Poor and near-poor families are distinctive because many of them consist of single-parent units embedded in kin networks although these networks may be less prevalent that in the past. Theses networks share resources in order to ease the burdens of poverty. Nonpoor families consist mainly of two-parent household that are relatively independent of kin except for vertical ties to grandparents and grandchildren.

Are there social class differences in how parents raise children?

Poor and working-class parents tend to emphasize obedience and conformity in raising children, whereas middle-class parents are more likely to emphasize independence. As a result, sociologists suggest, poor ad working-class children are not as assertive with authority figures suck as teachers. They also show less self-direction and independent initiative. Middle-class children develop a sense that they are entitled to a rewarding life. These child-rearing children toward blue-collar and service work and to steer middle-class children toward professional and managerial work.

The biological characteristics that distinguish men and women

Sex

The fundamental set of positions that organize society as a whole

Social structure

The processes by which we learn the ways of a given society or social group so as to adequately participate in it

Socialization

The theory that gender identification and behavior are based on children's learning that they will be rewarded for the set of behaviors considered appropriate to their sec but not for those appropriate to the other sex

Socialization approach (to gender differences)

What factors determine the social class position of families?

Sociologists agree that income and wealth are important. In addition, they examine whether the worker belongs to a status group with shared levels of prestige, privilege, and lifestyle. Since many families have more than on earner, the social class position of families can be ambiguous. Therefore, the four social classes that are usually defined - upper, middle, working, and lower - should be considered as hypothetical models (ideal types). Recent trends suggest that it may be useful to use people's educational levels to define a set of three status groups.

Is there more than one kind of masculinity?

Sociologists suggest that the dominant kind of masculinity, with its aggressiveness, emotional detachment, and so forth, is socially constructed and is not the only kind of masculinity. They argue that many men can be nurturing caregivers to children, even though they may do the work of caring in a way that emphasizes physical activity, play, and autonomy more than mothers typically do.

How do sociologist distinguish between the concepts of "sex" and "gender"?

Sociologists use the term sex to refer to biologically based differences between women and men and gender to defter to differences that are social and cultural, and therefore constructed by society. Gender differences often reflect male combination over women. Nevertheless, in some instances social and biological influences on gender differences are difficult to disentangle.

How does everyday life reinforce gender differences?

Sociologists who take the interactionist approach believe that gender differences need continual reinforcement throughout life. In their view, gender differences are reproduces in daily interactions between women and men in settings such as the home and the workplace. Without being conscious of it, individuals do the work of maintaining gender differences.

A group of people who share a common style of life and often identity with each other

Status group

In Native American societies, men or women who dressed like, performed the duties of, and behaved like a member of the opposite sex

Two-spirit people

Families that have amassed wealth and privilege and that often have substantial prestige as well

Upper-calss families

Families whose income can reliably provide only for the minimum needs of what other people see as a decent life

Working-class families