...How Gender Inequality Is Explained Sociology How has gender inequality been explained? (Answer with reference to a range of theories and approaches) Critically assess the attempt of one of the feminist group to overcome gender inequality. Social stratification “A system by which a society ranks categories of people in a hierarchy’ (Macionis and Plummer: 2005: 190). Social stratification is common in different aspects throughout society and throughout history some of the most substantial categories affected are class, race, disabilities, sexuality and globally. However this essay shall be investigating the stratification by gender, referred to as gender inequality. There are many reasons for the disparity of gender “...circumscribed by its underlying social, legal, political, economic, and cultural characteristics” (Rives and Yousefi 1997:1). Gender stratification categories people in regard to their ‘sex’, this can be defined as anatomical differences and physiological differences between male and female for example the difference in chromosomes, sex organs and hormones. The word ‘gender’ has been socially constructed through the means of a stereotype and ideology of the social role, identity, position and behaviour of male and feminine through different institutions and aspects like the media, religion, culturally and historically. Up until the era of Suffragettes in the late 19th Century women were always deemed lower than men and inequality was highly significant...
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...Gender equality has three aspects: equal opportunities, equal treatment and equal entitlements for both, men and women. It is directly linked with human development. The author says that patriarchy thrives on control of women’s sexuality, fertility and labour for male hegemony over economic resources. Economic institutions and policy can exacerbate existing gender inequalities instead of mitigating them. Laws and policies too play a significant role in determining the extent of gender inequality that exists in a society. They can serve to protect women’s rights or to reduce them. For example, in many countries, women still lack the legal right to inherit or own property and, in many others, violence against women is not considered a criminal offense. The paper argues that without transformations in economic relations or the implementation and enforcement of legal rights and protection, gender equality and the empowerment of women can remain an elusive goal. Women’s Studies have challenged the conventional indicators of development that focus on urbanization, higher education, mobility of labor, technological development, modernization, infra-structural development, industrialization etc. Through the lens of Gender Economics, the author contextualizes day to day survival struggles of women in the family, in the households, in the community and in the micro and macro economy with the perspective of power relations which control women and girl children's sexuality, fertility...
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...There will be three features of the labour market discussed within this assignment in order to highlight the inequalities. It aims discuss the inequalities amongst the gender factor, the concept of child labour and the links these factors have with unemployment. The argument which explains the gender inequalities within the labour market originates from the 1970s. However, it is fair to state that a lot has changed within society in particular the labour force since then. It is difficult to identify the particular factor that clarifies such segregation but many conclude on the basis of pay discrimination. Other factors to explain gender segregation could relate to comparative biological advantages, underinvestment in human capital, differential income role and entry barriers....(Bettio and Verashchagina (2009) Examples of gender inequality within the work place are common amongst contemporary society and this is because there are continued obvious biases in the labour market. There are hidden practices within the procedures of such institutions. According to Bettio and Verashchagina (2009) organisations lack to identify females’ skills and this inevitably leads to the ‘poor visibility of female skills’. These key thinkers argue that due to these female-dominated roles are often seen to lack such professionalism. This is further explained by justifying that due to this gender segregation...
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...economically, and socially. Although her intent is well-meant; her movement “HeForShe”, along with her address was flawed in many ways. Watson starts off her address by saying “We want to end gender inequality-and to do that we need everyone to be involved.” (Warren) but from there on she only talks about men. Watson patronizes men; unable to see the full spectrum of consequences that come with change, and the illogical statistics and statements that she presents, consequently these flaws have opened the doors to numerous media backlashes. The invitation to men “How can we affect change in the world when only half of it is invited or feel welcome to participate in the conversation? Men-I would like to take this opportunity to extend your formal invitation. Gender equality is your issue too.” (Warren) was patronizing to men as if being formally invited on a magnific stage such as the United Nations headquarters was just the thing us men were waiting for. Mia McKenzie reinforces my idea with her sarcastic remarks “It’s not because of the prevalence of misogyny the entire world over. It’s just that no one’s asked. OMG, why didn’t any of us think to ask?!” Now that we are formally invited let us see what could really happen with gender equality. Cathy Young gives an example of gender inequalities in favor of women but Watson’s “natural consequence” might not be what she had in mind. Young says when talking about child custody cases “…fathers began to fight against more covert anti-male...
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...Unequal Outcome of Gender Equality Introduction Gender equality is a sensitive issue that has raised concerns in the society. It is a human right as both genders remains entitled to experience a good living free from any fear. The concept tends to have a deep dwell on the women, who are thought to be less fortunate in society than men. The society has it in mind that empowering women and girls are similar to empowering a whole nation. The empowered section of women is popular since they contribute to an increase in health and productivity of the family and community in respective prospects of the next generation. The concept has been in the application, in the Millennium Development Goal, as an agenda, where the countries did aim at eliminating gender disparities in education before year 2015. The countries also did believe that achievement of this goal would lead to subsequent achievement of the rest of the goals. Contrary to all these concerns, the concept of gender equality has led to unequal issues in the society after extreme concentration on one gender. Some of the methods are in clear illustration in the two articles on the description. Article 1 summary The article is under the Bankrate.com Publishers. It title is Bridging the pay gap between the gender. In this article, the author is concerned of the pay gap that still exists among men and women. The gap is often in many times overlooked, or used as a factor of determining the success in women. Source of data from...
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...Claire Chapman HDFS 311: Assignment #2 Child Poverty Child poverty is a worldwide issue that is in desperate need for action and improvement. Poverty does not allow children the adequate environment to fully develop or sometimes to even survive. These children are hit hard by their circumstances and should have the right to a healthy upbringing. I will discuss Unicef’s definition of poverty, research about families, and the differences in gender across child poverty. The Unicef article, Children Living in Poverty, uses a definition of child poverty from The State of the World’s Children 2005 that states, “Children living in poverty experience deprivation of the material, spiritual, and emotional resources needed to survive, develop, and thrive, leaving them unable to enjoy their rights, achieve their full potential or participate as full and equal members of society.” They really wanted to emphasize the fact that poverty is not just of material needs, but also social, emotional, and spiritual needs as well. Poverty can be operationally defined through specifics of their nutrition, water, sanitation, health, shelter, education, and information. Unicef has defined a threshold for each one in order to collect data about it. One of the studies that was trying to find percentage of children that are severely deprived used stricter guidelines to really show the depth of poverty around the world. They found that around one billion children are living in conditions that are considered...
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...Gender Inequality in Workplace In Partial Fulfillment of the Subject Gender and Development The Philippine Women’s University Submitted by: GINEZ, ZEL A. Table of Contents Title Page 1.1 Table of Contents 1.2 Introduction 1.3 Research Questions 1.4 Related Literature and Studies 1.5 Conclusion 1.6 Recommendation 1.7 References 1.8 Introduction The researcher thought about something on how to have a new knowledge about on what’s happening in a work place if it has a gender inequality. Then the researcher conducted a research and found a lot of unfair treatment happens when a workplace has a gender inequality. This is to determine the significance of having a gender inequality in the work place. It can be also a way to open the minds of the others about having a gender inequality in the work place. Some of the other people really don’t have any idea about gender inequality towards the work place. Sometimes the other people just have a knowledge only when they see or hear it on the news. This research might help the other students or individuals to be more knowledgeable about this topic. It might help the other people who is facing the same problem on their workplaces. Though you’re just a student maybe someday it can make a very big difference towards it. Questions 1. Does the other student know about gender inequality towards in a work place? 2. Does the other people really...
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... X ELECTIVE COURSE x REVISION LAKE LAND COLLEGE Course Information Form COURSE NUMBER SOC280 TITLE Introduction to Sociology SEM CR HRS 3 LT HRS 3 LAB HRS SOE HRS ECH COURSE PCS # (Assigned by Administration) PREREQUISITES: None Catalog Description (40 Word Limit): Study of human interaction focusing on social influences shaping personality, structure and dynamics of human society. Topics include: sociological perspective, culture, society, social interaction; social change in global perspective; socialization; families; social class; and social stratification; race and ethnicity; and deviance. | | |CONTENT LECTURE LAB OUTLINE | |HOURS HOURS | Study of Sociology (What is Sociology, Methods) 5 Individual and Society (Culture, Socialization, Social Interaction, Groups, Networks, Organization, Conformity and Deviance) 10 Stratification (Class, Global, Gender, Racial and Ethnic, Aging) 15 Social Institutions (Government, Work, Economy, Families, Education, Religion) 10 Social Change (Health, Sexuality, Population...
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...According to Annandale and Hunt (2000), since the early 1970s, the inequalities in gender have been a very important focus to sociological research. Generally, researchers have shown that the difference in gender usually influences people’s experience of health and illness. According to Armstrong (1980), women live about average of five years longer than men but women also suffer more illnesses compared to men throughout their lifetime. The reasons for these differences have been narrowed down to two possible explanations. First of all, difference in the biological constitutions of the different sexes which means that the two different genders experiences different type of illnesses and secondly, sometimes there are gender related actions and approaches to the concept of health and illness that differs amongst gender (Annandale, 2003). In this essay, key terms such as gender, health and illness will be discussed using essay. Also, this essay will be examined in three dimensions. Firstly, the gender differences that influence people’s health and experience of illnesses will be discussed. Secondly, using evidences, gender health inequalities will also be outlined. Thirdly, the importance and relevance of a nurse being aware of these gender inequalities and differences will also be examined. The sociological definition of gender is the cultural ideas and the distinct social expectation from male and female. This is different from sex which focuses on differences based on the biological...
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...Inequalities, both domestic and global, illuminate the inevitability and functionality of stratification. Discuss. The title of this essay covers a very wide topic of stratification, and in this essay I will look at the many different forms of stratification that exist both at home here in Ireland and also on a worldwide scale, but to begin with I’m going to describe and define what stratification really means. In short stratification is basically how society ranks in hierarchy, which in detail means the vertical or hierarchical division of society according to rank, class or caste. Caste is defined as “a form of social stratification based on inherited status or ascription.” and this definition goes on to say that “ones social destiny is determined at birth with no chance or opportunity to change this class you have been born into.1”. It remains to be argued whether this statement is true or false, ! ! personally I think it is possible to change class or to move up or down a social class. Yes ones social destiny is determined at birth but it is possible to move up and down the social class ladder, all it takes is determination. Although if one is to begin at the bottom of the ladder, born into a family with harsh surroundings, it will be much harder to move up the ranks, as your success largely depends on your cultural background. If there is no one around you to support you with your studies or with any educational things you may be interested in, then doing any of...
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...Concept Map Essay - Gender Inequality Gender inequality has been present in the United States throughout the history of its existence. There are many forms of gender inequality such as occupational segregation or the gender pay gap. Over many years the persistence of these issue has been slightly alleviated. However, even with this alleviation gender inequality is constantly a pressing issue that can be found under the microscope of many sociologists and social science professionals. As well as being a formal and academic issue, many individuals from all walks of life argue over civil rights daily to mitigate these social problems. Equality is something that should be freely allowed to people of all social and cultural groups, gender included. However gender inequality manages to impose on even this most simple ideal. The idea to be unfair or unjust to the opposite sex is not one that we are born with, but the gender roles we are raised within might have influence on our later actions toward one gender or another. From a young age we are given, taught, shown, or influenced to act with a feminine or masculine behavior. Little girls are present with dolls and china sets, while little boys are given trucks and toy soldiers. When entered into the world of athletics young girls are often entered into ballet or gymnastics, on the other hand boys start playing baseball or basketball. It is now becoming more common to see just as many girls racing down soccer fields as boys...
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...Gender inequality in theoretical perspective GENDER: There is increasing consensus among gender scholars that gender is not primarily an identity or role that is taught in childhood and enacted in family relations. Instead, gender is an institutionalized system of social practices for constituting people as two significantly different categories, men and women, and organizing social relations of inequality on the basis of that difference Cultural Beliefs about Gender: . In general, contemporary stereotypes describe women as more communal and men as more agented and instrumental. In addition to this horizontal dimension of difference, gender beliefs have a hierarchical dimension of status inequality. Men are viewed as more status worthy and competent overall and more competent at the things that “count most” (e.g., instrumental rationality). Women are seen as less competent in general but “nicer” and better at communal tasks even though these tasks themselves are less valued. As these descriptions make clear, gender beliefs represent themselves as universal depictions of women and men defined by a narrow set of features. This is, in itself, odd since no one ever has the experience of interacting with a concrete person who is just a man or just a woman in a way that is not affected by a host of other attributes such as the person’s race or level of education. The deeply held cultural belief in the inherent difference between men and women appears to somehow disaggregate the...
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...1. Functionalist questions a. What are the functions of Wal-Mart for society? Wal-Mart is an American multinational retail corporation and one of the leading discount department retail stores (Wikipedia). It is the highest- grossing company in the United States (Fortune 2008a), and is by far one of the most successful companies worldwide. Wal-Mart offers a place to buy the majority of our goods under one roof like electronics, furniture, clothing, pharmacy, sports, food, books etc. Wal-Mart sells good at lower price than the others and this is even shown by its slogan “save money, live better”. It drives out smaller and sometimes even the expensive stores out of business due to its lower prices. Wal-Mart provides jobs for thousands of people in the society including the low-skilled people. It represents a trend of one stop shopping where we can get almost everything that we want. b. Are they the same or different from the functions of Wal-Mart in our individual lives? How do the two types of functions connect? One of Wal-Mart belief and function is the respect for the individual. They have given importance of respect for every individual and every member of the community. For individuals; Wal-Mart offers convenience, good pricing and multiple products under one roof. It reduced the overall cost to consumers as they don’t have to go from one place to another to buy different goods. c. Does Wal-Mart have both manifest and latent functions? Manifest functions are conscious...
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...Sociology has had some influence on social policy, and varies from government to government but the extent of which has been thoroughly debated. Social policies are put in place in order to address the needs of the population in terms of welfare, housing, health, education, law and order and employment. The influence sociology can have on social policy includes; electoral popularity, ideological policy and preferences of government, interest groups, globalization and its impact, critical sociology, costs and funding sources. However, there is a definite correlation between the sociological researches being compromised by too close a relationship with the funding bodies. Modern sociologists hold the view that sociological research has an impact on social policy by providing practical solutions to social problems such as unemployment, educational failure and so on. They share the view that this kind of research is able to address key issues within society, gain empirical evidence and find the root cause of such problems. On the one hand Positivists and Functionalists will state the view that social policies are ‘piecemeal social engineering’ and accept that sociological view do influence social policy making. Durkheim will hold the view that the meritocratic education system benefits society and promotes social cohesion and solidarity. He saw sociology as a way of restoring order in a society conquered by industrialization and strengthening integration and social stability. Linking...
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...We are the same from the inside why should race and gender matter? Holmes is trying to make people understand that our social inequalities are being perceived as normal when in reality they aren't. He talks about how migrant workers have been treated for years being looked down upon as something less in our society. The whole concept is that Holmes is exposing the harsh reality and that we need to change the way we treat certain people politically, legally, and symbolically. Moreover, another label society has imprinted as normal in the past, but has come a long way, is the ideal of men being better than women ultimately getting the upper hand. Gender inequality has made a major impact on our society throughout the years making changes in how our politics, culture (socially), and economics are handled and seen. We, as a society, need to keep encouraging people to look beyond stereotypes and recognize the contributions that each person, female or male, can make to the workplace and our social order. Furthermore, women have had to fight for equality in politics in the United States by winning the right to vote, as well as a seat at the political table. The Nineteenth Amendment in our Constitution gave women the right to vote in 1920. Although, gender stereotypes about female politicians and voters still exist till this day. Since gaining the right to vote, women have worked in many levels of government in the United States. For example, President Ronald Reagan named Sandra Day...
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