Sociology-Social Class - 1065 Words

â€Å" I got to figure. We all got to figure. There’s some way to stop this. It’s not like lightening or earthquakes. We’ve got a bad thing made by man, and by God that’s something we can change.† John Steinbeck. This excerpt from Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath is talking about the ‘bad things’ that we deal with in our society. Two bad things that are extremely pressing in society today are the growing gap in the social class system and gender inequality. Both social class problems and gender inequality affect the way members of our society live their daily lives but are commonly overlooked or underestimated. Social Class is a way of categorizing households into groups of similar occupations, education levels and general income levels. The†¦show more content†¦A women who performs the same occupation as a man often receives a lower salary, even though they work the same job. Masculinity is something that we relate to be ing strong and powerful, where often Femininity can be seen as fragile. The United States is a capitalist patriarchy, this means that men hold power positions allowing them to to keep women in inferior roles, and because of this women are subject to discrimination in the workplace where they earn a lesser pay scale than that of men in equivalent jobs. Women in the work place are often seen as out of place. As a women in an engineering firm, my mother was criticized for returning to work after having a baby rather than staying on maternity leave. The men in her department felt as if a women should stay home from work to take care of the baby, because after all she was a mother and maternity leave is clearly for the mother and not the father. According to a study performed in 1972 by Weitzman, even picture books portray women in inferior roles. â€Å"Boys were active in outdoor activities while girls were passive and most often found indoors. The activity of the girls in some way ty pically was in service to the boys†. When we teach our children at such a young age that women are not as strong and important as men it makes it much harder to change the way our system works. Religion is also aShow MoreRelatedSocial Class Theory And Political Sociology1303 Words   |  6 PagesGiddens 2001 ). There are three major theoretical frameworks in political sociology—pluralist, elite theory, and social-class perspectives. Classic pluralist see power held by a variety of groups in society; some of which are more powerful than others.The diverse and competing interests of different groups is the basis for a democratic equilibrium. These groups compete with each other to maximise their influence. No one group or class is able to dominate all other groups because of checks and balancesRead MoreSociology1681 Words   |  7 Pagesdivisions into class are meaningless. We are all working people now.†(Margaret Thatcher in 1988) The discussion that if Britain i s becoming a classless society last for a long time. Britain was a typical manufacturing country because of industrial revolution in 18 century. Then the class structure of Britain was changed due to the globalization and economic system which changed from industrial to service during 19th and 20th century. In this easy, we focus on the change of social class in Britain. ItRead MoreStudent s Social Background And Their Connections Within Society1531 Words   |  7 PagesAs a pre-service educator it is imperative to understand a student’s social background and their connections within society. Julie Matthews regards education being concerned with the transmission of culture, values, beliefs, knowledge and skills (2013,p166). Social insights into learner’s backgrounds can expose how and why student’s act and think in a particular way. Developmentally the sociology of education has provided numerous theories, the functionalist perspective, the conflict perspective Read MoreEssay about Sociology1492 Words   |  6 Pages Sociology is a field which developed over a millennia ago, but it was not until the nineteenth century that it came into the fore as a bona fide social science, in need of its own classification apart from other social sciences. Sociology, the study of the process of companionship;(pg.396, Ambercrombie,Hill,Turner), is a discipline, which is not exclusively independent in and of its self, yet borrows from many other disciplines such as: history, geography, and anthropology. American sociologyRead MoreGramsciS Approach To Ideology Proposes That Oppressed1544 Words   |  7 PagesGramsci s approach to ideology proposes that oppressed classes condone the ideas, values and authority of the hegemonic class because they limited motive to establish their own (Strinati, 1995). Gramsci’s contribution to ideology is noted due to the lack of force and focused on intellectual power. However, Gramsci fails to acknowledge that the working class work extremely long labour hours and do not have the opportunity to discuss their oppositional views with a group. Yet, Gramsci’s commentaryRead MoreKarl Marx And Max Weber1324 Words   |  6 Pagesfoundation of sociology. Without their contributions sociology would not be as prominent as it is today. From the contribution of how sociology should be studied, to how they applied their theories to everyday life has influenced many sociologists. Predominantly, both of these theorists’ discussed the effects of capitalism, how it has developed, shaped and changed society into what it is today. Specifically, Karl Marx’s contribution of the bourgeoisie vs. the proletariat class and Max Weber’s social stratificationRead MoreSocial Stratification According to Marx and Weber1163 Words   |  5 PagesSocial stratification is the hierarchical arrangement of individuals into divisions of power and wealth within a society. Social stratification relates to the socio-economic concept of class, consisting of the upper class, middle class, and lower class. Each class may be further subdivided into smaller classes through the main indicator is occupation. This is the most practical and most effective means of encompassing the wide variety of economic and social elements that go to make up a person’sRead MoreEssay about Social Class1016 Words   |  5 PagesSOCIAL CLASS Social class refers to the system of stratification of the different groups of people in a society. These different forms of classification are, in most instances, based on gender ethnicity and age. Social class makes everyone’s lives extremely different. For example: How long one can expect to live. In a wide range of ways, from success, to one’s health class, social class influences people’s lives (Grusky,2003). Among the life chances affected as result of social class involve factorsRead MoreHumanity and Social Forces763 Words   |  3 Pageswe do. However, sociology searches for the answer in terms of external forces. Sociology sets out to prove that human behavior is controlled by forces of social interaction, while in turn the behaviors of humans control the forces of social interaction in a cycle that controls many aspects of life. The way in which people behave and conduct their lives can be based on a plethora of factors such as social stratification. Through social stratification people are grouped into social â€Å"layers† basedRead MoreInequality Young People with Disabilities Experience in Leisure Activities1724 Words   |  7 Pagesapproaches can be applied, and in this case psychology and sociology will be explored. More specifically psychology and how body image and cyber bullying can impact leisure participation, along with sociology, which gives an insight into gendered leisure and social class. This essay will explore inequality and will be achieved by critically examining 5 young people with disabilities on a trip to The Melbourne Cup. By applying psychology and sociology disciplines to the hypothetical study can help explain