Sociology - Exam #3

Gender Expression

- How we perform our gender. - How we show others our gender.

Salem Witch Trials

- 1692 - example of power in deviance construction. - Girls started exhibiting strange behavior such as temporary hearing and memory loss, screaming, convulsions, etc. The condition appeared to be contagious. - The girls were taken to physicians, who could not find a physical cause for the symptoms. One said that it must therefore be a spiritual sickness - the Devil had taken control of the girls through witchcraft. Ministers confirmed this diagnosis. - Finger pointing then ensued. The young girls named three witches who were causing their affliction. 1. A West Indies slave who was known to practice voodoo. 2. A beggar who smoked a pipe. 3. A more upstanding woman but who did not attend church and had a baby out of wedlock. - These were socially marginalized individuals and easy targets. - Over the first year of the trials over 200 people were accused of witchcraft and 19 "witches" were executed. - The trials stopped once the Salem settlement ran out of social outcasts to accuse and more respectable members of society were targeted.

Racial Group

- A group that is set apart from others because of obvious physical differences.

Prejudice

- A negative attitude toward an entire category of people, often an ethnic or racial group.

Formal Norms

- A norm that generally has been written down and specifies strict punishments for violators.

Informal Norms

- A norm that generally is understood but is not precisely recorded.

Racial Formation

- A sociohistorical process in which racial categories are created, inhibited, transformed and destroyed. - In this process, those who have power define groups of people according to a racist social structure. - One example is the creation of a reservation system for Native Americans in the late 1800s is one example. Federal officials combined what were distinctive tribes into a single racial group.

Social Constructionist Perspective

- A way of thinking that argues that what we know to be real and essential is always created within the culture and historical period in which we live. - Argues that it is imperative to differentiate between people and groups that want to label them. Labels are not inherent, we make the distinction.

Essentialism Perspective

- A way of thinking that focuses on what are believed to be universal, inherent and unambiguous traits that distinguish one group from another. - Argues that it doesn't matter what we label things, these characteristics are inherent to your biological being.

Anomie Theory of Deviance

- Adapted Durkheim's concept of anomie to explain why people accept or reject the goals of a society, the socially approved means of meeting those goals or both. - Maintained that one important cultural goal in the US is success, measured largely in terms of money. - In addition, our society offers specific instructions on how to reach it - go to school, work hard, do not quit, take advantage of opportunities and so forth. - Merton reasoned that people adapt in certain ways by conforming to or deviating from such cultural expectations.

Norms

- An established standard of behavior maintained by a society.

Societal-Reaction Approach

- Another name for the labeling perspective. - Reminds us that it is the response to an act, not the behavior itself that determines deviance.

Labeling Perspective of Deviance

- Attempts to explain why certain people are viewed as deviants, delinquents and criminals, while others whose behavior is similar are not seen in such harsh terms. - Emphasizes how a person comes to be labeled as deviant or to accept that label.

Deviance

- Behavior that violates the standards of conduct or expectations of a group or society.

Transgender

- Biological sex and gender do not align.

Cisgender

- Biological sex and gender identity align.

Biological Sex

- Biology, biological markers such as chromosomes, internal and external organs and reproductive activity.

What are the long-term consequences of residential segregation?

- By keeping different races in different geographic locations through residential segregation, the oppressed minority is often forced to remain that way, as the majority in power has no reason to improve their condition. This manifests as sub-standard housing, high crime rates and underfunded schools and perpetuates cycles of poverty through lost opportunities for wealth, safety and education. In addition, internalized racism is most likely worsened as "moving up in the world" would require leaving one's racial community.

Merton - Five Basic Forms of Adaptation

- Conformity to social norms - the opposite of deviance. It involves acceptance of both the overall societal goal (become affluent) and the approved means (hard work). However, in a varied society, the means for realizing objectives are not universal. - The innovator accepts society's goals but pursues them with means regarded as improper - e.g. professional thief. - The ritualist has abandoned the goal of material success and become compulsively committed to the institutional means. Work becomes simply a way of life rather than a means to achieving success. - The retreatist has basically withdrawn from both the goals and the means of society. - The rebel reflects people's attempts to create a new social structure.

Formal Social Control

- Control carried out by authorized agents such as police officers, physicians, school administrators, employers, military officers and managers. - Can serve as a last resort when socialization and informal sanctions do not bring about desired behavior.

Informal Social Control

- Control that people use casually to enforce norms. - E.g. corporal punishment

Functionalist Perspective of Deviance

- Deviance is a common part of human existence, with positive and negative consequences for social stability. - Deviance helps to define the limits of proper behavior. - Durkheim's Anomie. - Merton's Theory of Deviance.

Low Consensus Deviance

- Deviant behavior only applies to a certain sect of people. - E.g. no sex before marriage

Sentencing Disparities

- Differences in the lengths and types of sentences imposed for the same crime or for crimes of comparable seriousness. - Whites are given less time than African Americans for violent offenses. - Sentencing lengths for cocaine possession can vary on the basis of whether it was powdered or crack.

Differential Justice

- Differences in the way social control is exercised over different groups. - Conflict theorists contend that that entire criminal justice system in the US treats suspects differently based on their racial, ethnic or social-class background. In many cases, officials in the system use their own discretion to make biased decisions about whether to press charges or drop them, whether to set vail and how much, whether to offer parole or deny it.

Anomie

- Emile Durkheim. - The punishments established within a culture (including both formal and informal mechanisms of social control) help to define acceptable behavior and thus contribute to social stability. If improper acts were not sanctioned, people might stretch their standards of what constitutes appropriate conduct. - Anomie describes the loss of direction felt in a society when social control of individual behavior has become ineffective. - Anomie is a state of normlessness that typically occurs during a period of profound social change and disorder, such as a time of economic collapse. People become more aggressive or depressed, which results in higher rates of violent crime and suicide. - Since there is must less agreement on what constitutes proper behavior during times of revolution, sudden prosperity or economic depression, conformity and obedience become less significant as social forces. Stating exactly what constitutes deviance also becomes much more difficult.

High Consensus Deviance

- Everyone agrees that the action represents deviant behavior. - Murder, rape, robbery.

Gender Role

- Expectations regarding the proper behavior, attitudes and activities of males or females. - Gender roles are evident not only in our work and behavior but in how we react to others. - An important element in traditional views of proper masculine and feminine behavior is homophobia - homophobia contributes significantly to rigid gender-role socialization, since many people stereotypically associate male homosexuality with femininity and lesbianism with masculinity. Consequently, men and women who deviate from traditional expectations about gender roles are often presumed to be gay.

Exploitation (Marxist Class Theory)

- Explains the basis of racial subordination in the US. - From a Marxist point of view, racism keeps members of subordinate groups in low-paying jobs, thereby supplying the capitalist ruling class with a pool of cheap labor. - Moreover, by forcing these workers to accept low wages, capitalists can restrict the wages of all members of the proletariat. Workers from the dominant group who demand higher wages can always be replaced by those from the subordinate group, who have no choice but to accept low-paying jobs.

Relational Controls

- Face-to-face interactions.

Social Construction of Gender

- Gender is such a routine part of our everyday activities that we typically take it for granted, noticing only when someone deviates from conventional behavior and expectations. - Although a few people begin life with an unclear sexual identity, the overwhelming majority begin with a definite sex and quickly receive societal messages about how to behave. - Many societies have established social distinctions between females and males that do not inevitably result from biological differences between the sexes. For example, both men and women are capable of sewing and welding, but the former task is associated with women, the latter with men. - We socially construct our behavior to create or exaggerate male-female differences. For example, men and women come in a variety of heights, sizes and ages, yet traditional norms regarding marriage tell us that in heterosexual couples, the man should be older, taller and wiser than the woman. - In recent decades, women have entered occupations and professions that were once dominated by men, yet our society still focuses on masculine and feminine qualities, as if men and women still must be evaluated in those terms.

Hegemonic Feminity

- Hegemonic feminists are not merely advocating that women should have the option to pursue a career or popularize that women don't have equal rights. Rather, they denigrate women who want to get married, and they demonize the concept of marriage. In short, they are advocating the elimination of a woman's choice to become a wife and mother. They would like to eradicate all vestiges of the "patriarchy" from society

Hegemonic Masculinity

- Hegemonic masculinity is defined as the current configuration of practice that legitimizes men's dominant position in society and justifies the subordination of women, and other marginalized ways of being a man. - Conceptually, hegemonic masculinity proposes to explain how and why men maintain dominant social roles over women, and other gender identities, which are perceived as "feminine" in a given society.

Gender Identity

- How we define our gender - who we think we are.

White Collar Crime

- Illegal acts committed in the course of business activities, often by affluent "respectable" people. - For many years, corporate wrongdoers got off lightly in court by documenting their long history of charitable contributions and agreeing to help law enforcement officials find other white-collar criminals. - Even when a person is convicted of corporate crime, the verdict generally does hot harm his or her reputation and career aspirations nearly so much as conviction for street crime would. The label is not as stigmatizing.

Interactionist Perspective of Deviance

- Indicates how a given person comes to commit a deviant act, or why on some occasions crimes do or do not occur. - The interactionist emphasis on everyday behavior provides two explanations of crime: cultural transmission and social disorganization theory.

Identify examples of institutional/systemic racism that Matt Novak presents in his piece, "Oregon was founded as a racist utopia."

- Initial historical insult: state constitution of Oregon forbade African Americans from living, working or owning property, which remained unchanged until 1926. o "In the summer of 1844, the Oregon Legislative Committee passed a provision that said any free black people who were in the state would be subject to flogging if they didn't leave within two years. The floggings were supposed to continue every six months until they left the territory. That provision was revised in December of 1845 to removed the flogging part. Instead, free black people who remained would be offered up "publicly for hire" to any white person who would remove them from the territory." o The original portions of the constitution focused on limiting on state spending and racial exclusion. - Other populations of colored people were kept purposefully small. o The state did not sanction those who persecuted Chinese and Japanese populations by burning their residential areas and forcing those who did not leave immediately to do so. - Portland authorities tried to shut down the Golden West Hotel (owned, operated and patronized by black citizens) on trumped up charges of prostitution, gambling and not having proper licenses. - Oppressive laws. o The state did not ratify the Fourteenth Amendment until 1973, after ratification was rescinded in 1868. o Segregation laws in public places. - Politicians at every level of government from the state to county to city officials were involved with the KKK. - During WWII, when an influx of African Americans moved west to work in the Kaiser shipyards, the company and city built sub-standard neighborhoods that would later house predominantly black communities. Because the structures were poorly built, they easily gave way to flooding in 1948, leaving 18,000 homeless. - The history of racism in Oregon is not a part of the curriculum for Oregon students.

Contact Hypothesis

- Interactionist perspective. - States that interracial contact between people of equal status who are engaged in a cooperative task will cause them to become less prejudiced and to abandon previous stereotypes. People will begin to see one another as individuals and discard the broad generalizations characteristic of stereotyping. - Equal status and cooperative tasks are imperative, as racial hostility might worsen otherwise.

What would interactionists be interested in examining in terms of gender?

- Interactionists tend to examine gender stratification on the micro level of everyday behavior. - The key to this approach is the way gender is socially constructed in everyday interactions. We "do gender" by reinforcing

Self-controls

- Internalized norms, beliefs and morals. - Conscience

Intersectionality

- Intersectionality is how the factors of identity work together, not in isolation to offer social identity and inequality and how these offer both opportunities and challenges. It is how we integrate our differences from similarities to others and how we behave in groups, the interplay between individual characteristics and societal factors. - Interaction of multiple systems of oppression/discrimination. - How components of our identity combine to grant us increased access to important resources and increase the amount of disadvantage we face.

Racial Profiling

- Labeling perspective. - Any arbitrary action initiated by an authority based on race, ethnicity or national origin rather than on a person's behavior. - Generally, racial profiling occurs when law enforcement officers assume that people who fit certain descriptions are likely to be engaged in criminal activities. - E.g. frisking.

How does lack of knowledge/discussion of historical processes help to protect "invisible systems" of privilege and discrimination?

- Lack of knowledge/discussion of historical processes helps to protect "invisible systems" of privilege and discrimination by denying their existence. People cannot change a problem if they are ignorant of it, and most believe in their society's institutions enough not to question them - especially the majority that benefits from them. - The only way to correct issues of privilege and discrimination is by recognizing them, being continually conscious once they are recognized and working to correct these discriminations through discussion and by teaching future generations from the start how to recognize them and fix them.

Social Location

- Our place in the social stratification and identity system. - The groups people belong to because of their place or position in history and society. All people have a social location that is defined by their gender, race, social class, age, ability, religion, sexual orientation, and geographic location. Each group membership confers a certain set of social roles and rules, power, and privilege (or lack of), which heavily influence our identity and how we see the world.

Identity

- Overall identity that comes about as a result of the interactions between the four aspects of identity. - Race/ethnicity, class, gender and sexuality - Definitional categories we use to specify (both to ourselves and to others) who we are.

Cultural Transmission - Differential Association

- People learn criminal behavior through their social interactions. - Such learning includes not only the techniques of lawbreaking but also the motives, drives and rationalizations of criminals. - People acquire their definitions of proper and improper behavior through interactions with a primary group and significant other. Differential association describes the process through which exposure to attitudes favorable to criminal acts leads to rule violations.

How do institutional/structural racism and personally-mediated racism interact and reinforce each other?

- Personally-mediated racism must be present first as policy makers, the voters who put them in power, and the people who enforce racist laws, create these laws, support them and enforce them. - Over time, institutional/structural racism conserves and perpetuates this personally-mediated racism by making it the accepted norm. People start to believe that there is something wrong with a certain minority (prejudice), when in fact institutionalized racism has not allowed them to achieve any social mobility and improve their condition. - This new personally-mediated racism preserves the original institutionalized racism, as the problems minorities face are seen as individual problems, and not institutional ones, therefore the original laws are not changed and new ones that may not be as overtly racist, but serve an ultimately racist institution are created.

Conflict Perspective of Deviance

- Points out that people with power protect their own interests and define deviance to suit their own needs. The criminal justice system serves the interests of the powerful. - Crime is a definition of conduct created by authorized agents of social control - such as legislators and law enforcement officers - in a politically organized society. Lawmaking is often an attempt by the powerful to coerce others into their own morality. - E.g. laws against gambling, drug usage and prostitution. - Criminal law does not represent a consistent application of societal values, but instead reflects competing values of interests - for example, marijuana is outlawed but not alcohol or cigarettes. - Differential justice

Social Control

- Refers to the techniques and strategies for preventing deviant behavior in any society. - Social control occurs on all levels of society. - In the family, we are socialized to obey our parents. Peer groups introduce us to informal norms, such as dress codes that govern the behavior of members. Colleges establish standards they expect their students to meet. In bureaucratic organizations, workers encounter a formal system of rules and regulations. Finally, the government of every society legislates and enforces social norms.

Ethnic Group

- Set apart from others primarily because of its national origin or distinctive cultural patterns.

Fair Sentencing Act (2010)

- Signed into law by President Obama. - The statutory range for possession of either crack cocaine or powdered cocaine is now 0-1 year.

Identify examples of personally-mediated racism that Matt Novak presents in his piece, "Oregon was founded as a racist utopia."

- The constitution demonstrates the personally mediated racism of the legislative founders and people who voted for it. o "Some believers in the doctrine of abstract human rights interpret this vote against admission of free negroes as an exhibition of prejudices which prevailed against the African who was not a slave, but I have never so regarded it. It was largely an expression against any mingling of the white with any of the other races, and upon a theory that as we had yet no considerable representation of other races in our midst, we should do nothing to encourage their introduction. We were building a new state on virgin ground; it's people believed it should encourage only the best elements to come to us, and discourage others." - The new constitution recruited white "refugees" from the South who were fleeing the dissolution of slavery, which was helped by the promotion of the state as a white utopia. - The white people of La Grande burned that city's Chinatown to the ground and chased out any Chinese or Japanese residents who did not immediately flee the state. - Segregation in public places - also displayed the owners' racism. - The popularity of A Birth of a Nation, a film full of hateful stereotypes that celebrated the resurgence of the KKK. - The Ku Klux Klan sect in Oregon had over 14,000 members and was very active in the community, holding meeting, actively participating in parades and holding gathering for initiation ceremonies. - There were boycotts against businesses who advertised in the only paper who opposed the activities of the KKK. - Even today, many people still hang Confederate flags in Oregon.

Discrimination

- The denial of opportunities and equal rights to individuals and groups based on some type of arbitrary bias.

Institutional Discrimination

- The denial of opportunities and equal rights to individuals and groups that results from the normal operations of a society. - Examples include education, political representation, wage gap, employment discrimination, gender marker change on documents, and housing discrimination.

Social Control & Power

- The greatest social control power comes from having the authority to define certain behaviors, people and things.

Ideology of Separate Spheres

- The ideology of separate spheres dominated thought about gender roles from the late 18th century through the 19th century in America. Similar ideas influenced gender roles in other parts of the world. The concept of separate spheres continues to influence some thinking about "proper" gender roles today. - In the conception of the division of gender roles into separate spheres, women's place was in the private sphere -- family life and the home. Men's place was in the public sphere -- in politics, in the economic world which was becoming increasingly separate from home life as the Industrial Revolution progressed, in public social and cultural activity. - Women were granted limited access to employment, property and education. - Stemmed from the Women's Rights Movement in the 1800s - the reaction was a backlash focused on a "cult of true womanhood" or "cult of domesticity." - One consequence was that men were expected to work and not build relationships.

Describe what is meant by "the social construction of race/ethnicity" (racial formation)?

- The process by which people come to define a group as a race based in part on physical characteristics, but also on historical, cultural and economic factors. - One example is the "one-drop rule" - if a person had even a single drop of black blood, that person was defined and viewed as black, even if he or she appeared white. Legislators established official standards about who was black and who was white. - In the 1800s, immigrant groups such as Italian and Irish Americans were not at first seen as being white, but as foreigners who were not necessarily trustworthy. - The social construction of race is an ongoing process that is subject to debate, especially in a diverse society like the US, where each year increasing numbers of children are born to parents of different racial backgrounds. - For example, the biracial black-white society of the US was transforming into a tri-racial one as Latin American immigration rose in the 20th century.

Socialization

- The process through which people learn the attitudes, values and behaviors appropriate for members of a particular culture.

Social Disorganization Theory

- The social relationships that exist in a community or neighborhood affect people's behavior. - Increases in crime and deviance can be attributed to the absence or breakdown of communal relationships and social institutions, such as the family, school, church and local government. - To some, this theory leads to victim blaming, leaving larger societal factors, such as the lack of jobs or high quality schools, unaccountable.

Anti-Drug Abuse Act (1986)

- The statutory range for possession of powdered cocaine of any quantity was 0-1 year, while the statutory range for possession of crack cocaine was divided into two categories. - <5 g = 0-1 year - 5+ grams = 5-20 years - Reflects racial inequality - crack cocaine is less expensive and is typically found within low-income African American communities, while powdered cocaine is a drug used by the more affluent (mostly white).

Stereotype

- Unreliable generalizations about all members of a group that do not recognize individual differences within the group.

Gender

- What we think about the sex we are/identify with. - Self-perception of oneself as male or female, which may not match anatomy.

Describe the 4 ways in which discrimination acts as a dysfunction:

1. A society that practices discrimination fails to use the resources of all individuals. Discrimination limits the search for talent and leadership to the dominant group. 2. Discrimination aggravates social problems such as poverty, delinquency, and crime and places the financial burden to alleviate those problems on the dominant group. 3. Society must invest a good deal of time and money to defend the barriers to full participation of all members. 4. Racial prejudice and discrimination often undercut goodwill and friendly diplomatic relations between nations.

Durkheim's Five Aspects of Deviance:

1. Deviance is universal, but there are no universal forms of deviance - cultural universal. 2. Deviance is relative. 3. Deviance is a social definition. 4. Social groups make rules and enforce their definitions on members through judgment and social sanction. 5. Defining and sanctioning deviance involves power.

According to the interactionist perspective, prejudice can be reduced through direct contact between antagonistic groups if certain conditions are met. Describe the 4 situational conditions that must be met in order for the contact hypothesis to hold true:

1. Individuals should be of equal status. 2. The contact must be 3. There must be 4. Members must be exposed to

Levels of Racism (Jones)

1. Institutionalized racism is defined as "differential access to the goods, services, and opportunities of society by race. Institutionalized racism is normative, sometimes legalized, and often manifests as inherited disadvantage. It is structural, having been codified in our institutions of custom, practice, and law, so there need not be an identifiable perpetrator. Indeed, institutionalized racism is often evident as inaction in the face of need". Jones mentions that institutionalized racism often manifests itself as both in material conditions (differential access to housing, education, healthcare, etc.) and power (differential access to information, resources and voice. Jones also asserts the association between socioeconomic status and race in the US is due to institutionalized racism. 2. Personally mediated racism is defined as "prejudice and discrimination, where prejudice means differential assumptions about the abilities, motives, and intentions of others according to their race, and discrimination means differential actions toward others according to their race". This type of racism can be intentional or unintentional and includes acts of both commission and omission. It manifests as lack of respect, suspicious, devaluation, scapegoating and dehumanization. 3. Internalized racism is defined as "acceptance by members of the stigmatized races of negative messages about their own abilities and intrinsic worth. It is characterized by their not believing in others who look like them, and not believing in themselves. It involves accepting limitations to one's own full humanity, including one's spectrum of dreams, one's right to self- determination, and one's range of allowable self- expression". It manifests as an embracing of "whiteness", self-devaluation, and resignation, helplessness, and hopelessness.

Describe the three positive functions that discrimination serves for those practicing it:

1. Racist views provide a moral justification for maintaining an unequal society that routinely deprives a subordinate group of its right and privileges. - For example, southern whites justified slavery by believing that Africans were physically and spiritually subhuman and devoid of souls. 2. Racist beliefs discourage members of the subordinate group from attempting to question their lowly status, which would be to question the very foundations of society. 3. Racial myths encourage support for the existing order by introducing the argument that any major societal change (such as an end to discrimination) would only bring greater poverty to the subordinate group and lower the dominant group's standard of living. As a result, racial prejudice grows when a society's value system is being challenged.

Why do we violate norms?

1. We are unaware that a norm exists, or may not understand it enough to want to follow it. 2. We object to the norm. This can be for a variety of reasons; the norm may contrast with our values, we may feel oppressed by the norm, etc. 3. We simply want to be different. 4. We understand why the norm exists, but evaluate specific situations to not be worth sticking to it - risk vs. reward.

What roles do family, schools, and media have in gender role socialization?

Family: The family is the main agent of gender-role socialization. Parents decide what gender-specific norms and behaviors are acceptable and raise their children accordingly. For example, children are often given gender-specific chores to perform. Boys are expected to cut the grass, help Dad fix things around the house and take out the garbage. Girls are more often expected to babysit their younger sibling and help Mom with the cooking and cleaning. Thus, in the home, family often prepares boys and girls for their respective roles in broader society. Schools: Schools usually also play in a role in preparing boys and girls for their future roles in society. There are often different expectations for boys and girls, and they are subsequently taught and punished differently. For example, girls are often punished more harshly for lesser violent infractions as "boys will be boys" and girls are expected to be more gentle and docile. In addition, girls are expected to be better at languages and boys at math, and their performance in later years suffers because they expect this to be true (self-fulfilling prophecy). Finally, even some classes cater to specialized gender-roles. Although gender segregation is not explicit, home economic classes are more often taken by females, while males take classes like shop. Media: The media often perpetuates stereotypical gender roles and socializes children to conform to these stereotypes. For example, in many TV shows and movies, males are cast in more professional and working class roles, while women are portrayed as stay-at-home mothers, nurses or secretaries. In addition, these roles are often not as valuable in the show or movie, reflecting their value in society; however, girls are still expected to assume them. Thus, girls are taught that women are more adept at performing certain roles, while men are more adept at performing others, and it is more likely that they will assume the role they are exposed to. For instance, it is unlikely that a girl would want to work in construction if she is never shown on TV or in movies what that would look like.

According to the functionalist perspective, how does gender differentiation contribute to social stability?

Functionalists maintain that gender differentiation contributes to overall stability. To function most effectively, the family requires adults who will specialize in particular roles - division of labor between marital partners. Women take the expressive, emotionally supporting role and men the instrumental, practical role with the two complementing each other. Instrumentality refers to an emphasis on tasks, a focus on more distant goals, and a concern for the external relationship between one's family and other social institutions. Expressiveness denotes a concern for the maintenance of harmony and the internal emotional affairs of the family. According to this theory, women's interests in expressive goals frees men for instrumental tasks and vice versa.

What critique would the conflict perspective have about gender differentiation?

Viewed from a conflict perspective, the functionalist approach to explaining gender distinctions masks the underlying power relations between men and women. The expressive and instrumental tasks are of unequal value in society; men's instrumental skills are more highly rewarded in terms of both money and prestige. The relationship between men and women has traditionally been one of unequal power, with men occupying the dominant position. Men may originally have become powerful in preindustrial times because their size, physical strength, and freedom from childbearing duties allowed them to dominate women physically. In contemporary societies, such considerations are not so important, yet cultural beliefs about the sexes are long established, and such beliefs support a social structure that places males in controlling positions. Thus, conflict theorists see gender differences as a reflection of the subjugation of one group (women) by another group (men).