Critically discuss how sociological theories address the issue of inequality in British society ________________________________________ Inequalities exist in Britain, in common with other nations, which stem from historically and socially constructed ideological beliefs and the unequal distribution of power, both in the public and private domains. These perpetuate the notion that one section of society is superior or inferior to another. Throughout history women have been denied the political, economic, legal, social and human rights enjoyed by men. There are an increasing number of feminism perspectives but they are all commonly connected with two basic beliefs: that women are disadvantaged because of their sex, and that this disadvantage should be overthrown. Hughes & Sherratt (2004, p64) highlight the relationship between the sexes and state that patriarchy, the supremacy of men and the subjection of women, is common to all ‘feminist analysis’.
Lourde, what with being a middle-aged, black, lesbian feminist with children, faces much of this oppression, and finds herself frowned upon by society. Instead of the people discriminating against her being to blame for this, Lourde herself is the one who must take responsibility. She must be the one who inform her oppressors of their oppression. This strikes a lot of thought. Our first instinct, of course, is to blame these said oppressors for their ignorance and dominance.
The author notes the historical roots of this problem. The modem beauty myth can be traced to the social upheaval following industrialization , around 1830, when a new class of literate, idle women was suddenly in a position to challenge male dominance. The upshot, she concludes, is that Women are mere beauties' in men's culture so that culture can be kept male." The beauty myth-in Miss Wolf's view-transforms women into self-destructive, fearful, even paranoid creatures who have a love-hate addiction to food, a negative body image, poor self-esteem, and tenuous relationships with the men in their lives. They frequently become anorexic or undergo dangerous cosmetic surgery to achieve the perfect body.
Almost all jobs men did before they left to fight in the war were now a women’s job. All these jobs were a drastic change from their usual routine of cooking, cleaning and being “baby makers”, though women still got paid less than half of what men were getting paid doing these jobs. Women all across Canada started to realize that there might be something more for them in their future. Since women were doing so much for the war effort, they wanted a share in making decisions about their country. This is when women first began to work for political equality with men.
The form of slavery varies in different countries but in the US slavery is what the book calls an ascribed status; a social position assigned to one by a society without any regards to one’s talents. Slavery is the most severe form of stratification because it creates unequal power for human beings. For example, blacks that were slaves had little to no power while their owner had the power to control them. Slavery is still apparent today in the act of illegal immigrants being forced to work in terrible conditions. In comparison, America has been stratified through history through the acts of feminism.
In Huxley’s Brave New World the men and woman have very different roles in society. The women are seen as inferior to men, for example in places of work where a position of power is needed a man will have this job because men are represented as being mentally superior to women. This is relevant to most of the situations in Brave New World. When it comes to situations of a sexual nature then men are held in a higher standing than women. The motives behind Huxley’s depiction of women in this way is to sort of poke fun at Sigmund Freud’s theory that the origins of all inner conflicts are the family.
This even caused a chain reaction and made her friends taunt her, attack her heritage, and make her ashamed of her own culture. She began to shut out her Arabic side. 2. Education is the most important subject in Asfahani’s essay because she concludes by saying, “Education is the key to understanding”. When her brother told his mother of the discrimination in his life, she went to his school and educated his peers.
Is class identity gendered? During the late 20th century there has been a heated debate about relationship between class and gender, one of the major criticisms of class analysis were that women have been marginalized. Joan Acker claims that the marginalization of women in class analysis is due to ‘’intellectual sexism’’ (Acker, 1973 cited in Morgan, 166). As a result of mainly focusing on the invisibility of women in traditional class analysis the position of men within class analysis was unspoken of, however ‘’a moment’s thought would seem to suggest that men and masculinity were heavily implicated in class analysis’’ (Morgan 166) there is an assumption that class is male which is why women were neglected previously in class analysis. Morgan argues that men are ‘’holders of class power’’ (Morgan 168) this is because men can be found at the top of the social hierarchy whether it is in political, economic, educational or cultural organizations; due to this men are largely involved in class practices as ‘’individual or collective class actors’’ (Morgan 168) along with this, men may also be seen dominating the discourses of class.
We as a society may change things, such as laws and how we view women in the workforce, but sexism will always be a part of our society because of stereotyping and men will downplay women in any way we see fit to hold them at a lower lever, because they need power. Men want to feel superior. To give a historical example, jobs that were once held by men, but became dominated by women, wages declined as women became more numerous. This devalued the work that women do both in dollar terms and in more subjective perceptions (pg 276). This issue leads to discrimination against men in the workforce, but this type of discrimination is "positive discrimination" as far as modern feminism is concerned.
This is a very sensitive topic and so to properly tackle this issue one most recognizes that this inequality is rooted in what shapes today’s society. This paper will examine the inequalities within gender, race and economic or power differences. The society we live in has been shaped historically by males; at the period in which Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s own was published, feminism actually was referred to as wanting to vote for women. This I can assure you was not Ms. Woolf’s brand of feminism, however having inherited money within the same time