Exam 3 Sociology Flashcards
(58 cards)
Ideologies Justifying Stratification
Every society is stratified to some extent- ideological justification
Kuznet’s Curve (Slide #4 Stratification)
As an economy develops, market forces increase and decrease economic inequality. An upside-down U symbolizes progression during pre-industrial, industrial, and post-industrial economies.
Systems of Stratification
Slavery- Ownership of people
Estate- characterized by control of land and common during Feudalism
Caste- Based on rigid placement at birth into groups based on status.
Class- based on unequal groups but with a relatively high degree of social mobility.
Classless societies- societies with no social stratification
Meritocracy
A society governed by people selected according to merit. Britain is an example, and “The American Dream” is another pitch to meritocracy.
Marx and Weber’s class systems
Marx- Capitalists own and control the means of production, while workers work for wages and are vulnerable to displacement by machines or cheaper labor.
Weber-A multidimensional approach that is based on wealth, power, and prestige. High levels are Renters and Entrepreneurs, Mid-range is skilled laborers & middle class, and lower levels are unskilled laborers found to be least respected and incapable of significant responsibility.
Status Consistency
The consistency-or lack thereof, of and individual’s education, income, and occupation of the social position.
Davis-Moore Thesis
The greater the importance of a position, the more rewards a society attaches to it. Doctors are a prestigious example.
Theoretical Perspectives on Stratification
Functionalism- Stratification is necessary to induce people with special intelligence, knowledge, and skills to enter the most important occupations.
Conflict- Stratification results from lack of opportunity and from discrimination and prejudice against poor people, women, and people of color.
SI- Stratification affects people’s beliefs, lifestyles, daily interaction, and conceptions of themselves.
Defining and Measuring Class in the United States
Socioeconomic Status (SES); a measure based on occupation, education, and income favored by functionalist sociologists as an indicator of social class position.
Impacts of Stratification
Health- the type and quality of health care is limited to lower classes. They are environmentally prone, there are food deserts in low areas along with low life expectancy.
Income discrepancy- the wage gaps
Lack of social mobility to move to the middle or upper class.
Poverty
Measured by the government with a poverty line: based on the cost of a very minimal diet for a family multiplied by 3. The census defines episodic poverty as being poor for at least two consecutive months in a given period.
Primary & Secondary Sex
Primary sex characteristics are genitals and reproductive organs.
Secondary sex characteristics- distinguishing features that identify male and female that does not involve reproduction: e.g. Body hair, breasts, hips
Characteristics
Features that distinguish a male from a female. Can be primary (genital-related) or secondary (non-genital-related).
Gender
The social and psychological characteristics and behavior that society determines are appropriate for males and females.
Sex
A biological category that distinguished between male and female. XX Chromosomes for female, XY for male.
Differences in Sex & Gender
Gender is social, and sex is biological
Gender Roles
The cultural norms that guide people in enacting what is considered to be feminine or masculine behavior.
Gender Identity
Sense of one’s own gender.
Cisgender
People who identify their gender as the same as that of their assigned biological sex given at birth.
Gender Expression (Masculinity & Feminity)
Self-presentation (performance) of gender-making claims to masculinity and femininity.
Intersex Conditions
Those born with sex characteristics that do not fit our binary ideas of male and female bodies: XXY Klinefelter Syndrome, XXX or Trisomy X Syndrome
Sexual Orientation
The scientifically accurate term for an individual’s enduring physical, romantic/ emotional attraction to members of the same/opposite sex, including lesbian, gay, bisexual, and heterosexual orientations.
View of Gender via Biological Essentialist
Gender is pre-determined by biology instead of shaped by society.
View of Gender via Social Constructionist
Gender is a product of human definition and interpretation shaped by cultural and historical context.
