Gender, Race, and Family Sociology Flashcards

A comprehensive set of flashcards covering key terms and definitions related to gender, race, family, and social institutions presented in the lecture notes.

Gender

The culturally and socially constructed differences between females and males found in the meanings, beliefs, and practices associated with 'femininity' and 'masculinity'.

Gender roles

Attitudes, behavior, and activities that are socially defined as appropriate for each sex.

Sexism

The subordination of one sex, usually female, based on the assumed superiority of the other sex.

Structural-functional theory

A theory that states that men and women have distinct roles that are important for the survival of society.

Conflict Theory

A theory that states that the gendered division of labor within families results from male control of and dominance over women and resources.

Liberal feminism

A type of feminism that focuses on achieving equality for women within the existing legal and political system.

Gender bias

Showing favoritism toward one gender over the other.

Race

A category of people based on perceived shared physical traits.

Prejudice

A negative attitude based on faulty generalizations about members of specific racial, ethnic, or other groups.

Racism

A set of attitudes, beliefs, and practices used to justify the superior treatment of one racial or ethnic group and the inferior treatment of another.

Discrimination

Actions or practices of dominant-group members that have a harmful effect on members of a subordinate group.

Family

Relationships in which people live together with commitment, form an economic unit, care for any young, and consider their identity to be significantly attached to the group.

Marriage

A legally recognized and/or socially approved arrangement between two or more individuals that carries certain rights and obligations and usually involves sexual activity.

Blended family

A family consisting of a husband and wife, children from previous marriages, and children from the new relationship.

Monogamy

The practice or state of being married to one person at a time.

Polygamy

The concurrent marriage of a person of one sex with two or more members of the opposite sex.

Endogamy

The practice of marrying within one's own group.

Theism

Belief in a God.

Exogamy

Marrying someone outside your own group.

Education

The social institution responsible for the systematic transmission of knowledge, skills, and cultural values within a formally organized structure.

Credentialism

A process of social selection in which class advantage and social status are linked to the possession of academic qualifications.

Cultural capital

Social assets that include values, beliefs, attitudes, and competencies in language and culture.

Tracking

The practice of assigning students to specific curriculum groups and courses based on test scores, previous grades, or other criteria.

Secularization

The process by which religious beliefs, practices, and institutions lose their significance in sectors of society and culture.

Fundamentalism

A traditional religious doctrine that is conservative and typically opposed to modernity, rejecting 'worldly pleasures' in favor of otherworldly spirituality.

Sects

Relatively small religious groups that have broken away from another religious organization to renew what it views as the original version of the faith.

Ecclesia

A religious organization that is so integrated into the dominant culture that it claims as its membership all members of a society.

Denomination

A large, organized religion characterized by accommodation to society, often lacking the ability or intention to dominate society.

Sacred

Aspects of life that are extraordinary or supernatural.

Profane

The everyday, secular, or 'worldly' aspects of life.

Manifest functions

Socialization, transmission of culture, social control, social placement, change and innovation.

Latent functions

Restricting some activities, matchmaking and production of social networks, creating a generation gap.

Hidden curriculum

The transmission of cultural values and attitudes through implied demands found in the rules, routines, and regulations of schools.

Animism

Belief that plants, animals, or other elements of the natural world are endowed with spirits or life forces having an effect on events in society.

Transcendent idealism

Belief in sacred principles of thought and conduct.

Civil religion

The set of beliefs, rituals, and symbols that makes sacred the values of society and places the nation in the context of the ultimate system of meaning.

Cult

A loosely organized religious group with practices and teachings outside the dominant cultural and religious traditions of a society.

Kinship

A social network of people based on common ancestry, marriage, or adoption.

Family of orientation

The family into which a person is born and in which early socialization usually takes place.

Family of procreation

The family that a person forms by having, adopting, or otherwise creating.

Extended family

A family unit composed of relatives in addition to parents and children who live in the same household.

Nuclear family

A family composed of one or two parents and their dependent children, all of whom live apart from other relatives.

Gender identity

A person’s perception of the self as female or male.

Body consciousness

How a person perceives and feels about his or her body.

Patriarchy

A hierarchical system of social organization in which cultural, political, and economic structures are controlled by men.

Matriarchy

A hierarchical system of social organization in which cultural, political, and economic structures are controlled by women.

Genocide

The deliberate, systematic killing of an entire people or nation.

Stereotypes

Overgeneralizations about the appearance, behavior, or other characteristics of members of particular categories.