SOCIOLOGY FINAL = after midterm content

study for finals!

gender and gender roles

gender = social concept

gender roles =  one set of roles performed in society

• Gender is not a thing that one is born with, but it is situationally constructed through individual’s performances 

• Goffman's dramaturgical perspective helps us see how people “perform” in their day to day lives 

heteronormative

our social institutions, practices and norms support an automatic assumption that other people are or should be heterosexual

intersectionality

• various dimensions of inequality can combine - product of feminism’s third wave 

2SLGBTQI+

Kinsey Reports

• Created a precedent for a legitimate study of human sexuality and laid the groundwork for a body of sexuality research in the social and biological sciences 

• Research showed there's much more diversity in sexual desire and behaviour than was previously thought 

• Alfred Kinsey’s research showed human sexuality is more complex than strict categories.

• His report found homosexual experiences were more common than people believed.

• Kinsey argued sexuality is not a strict division between heterosexual and homosexual people.

• Instead, sexuality exists on a continuum or spectrum.

• He believed dividing people into strict categories was artificial and socially constructed.

Sex, sexuality, sexual orientation

sex = biological identity

sexuality = feelings of sexual attraction and behaviours related to them 

element of sexuality = sexual orientation → involves who u desire and with whom u want to have sexual relations 

double shift

• individuals working outside the home for money and inside the home on unpaid, domestic tasks 

• Another concern about differential incomes and occupations of men and women

costs of masculinity + rules of masculinity

• While we often concentrate on the costs of being female (lower pay, etc), our society also has very restrictive idea of what it means to be a man 

• Rules of masculinity: 

  • Men must avoid anything feminine 

  • Seem less masculine if they like romantic movies 

  • Masculinity is also defined by external success - money, fast cars 

  • Men expected to show little emotion but more aggressive 

  • Men are sanctioned for stepping outside of these norms 

feminization

• feminization of an occupational sphere occurs when a particular job, profession, or industry becomes dominated by or predominantly associated with women 

  • Such feminized jobs = pink collar 

homophobia

•  set of negative attitudes and beliefs about individuals who are two spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, or intersex - leading to negative behaviors or discrimination 

performativity

• not a singular act but a repetition and a ritual 

  • We create our gender through our actions and interactions 

transgender umbrella

encompasses the variety of different gender identities and sexual expressions in modern society 

• Struggles and triumphs of individuals within the community have attracted increased attention cuz of prominence of trans characters on shows 

gender and institution section

Gender and Sports

• Sports bring people together but also reinforce gender inequality

• Language and stereotypes (e.g., “throws like a girl”) show bias

• Men’s sports get more pay, media coverage, and recognition

• More coverage → more interest in women’s sports over time

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Gender and Work

• Women’s workforce participation has increased significantly

• Still inequality in:

  • Pay

  • Job types (men in higher-paying fields)

  • Household responsibilities

• Jobs are gendered (e.g., caregiving seen as feminine)

• Women often do more unpaid labour at home

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Gender and Politics

• Women are underrepresented in politics

• Barriers include:

  • Lack of party support and networks

  • Financial costs

  • Family/work balance challenges

• More women in government → more focus on gender-related issues

brilliant or bad

• Girls generally outperform boys academically, but boys are more often seen as “exceptionally intelligent”

• Gender stereotypes (men = “genius”) shape how intelligence is perceived

• Schools reinforce these beliefs through different discipline and classroom treatment

• In higher-level classes (wealthier students):

  • Boys are seen as smarter and dominate participation

  • Girls participate less and feel less confident

• In lower-level classes (less affluent students):

  • Boys disengage due to stricter discipline

  • Girls participate more and appear more capable

• These patterns show how gender, class, and school structure intersect

• Beliefs about intelligence are socially constructed early in life, not natural

credentialling

• attestation of a qualification or competence issued to an individual by a party with authority to do so like a university 

• High status groups maintain social position by acquiring more education and credentials and keeping others out of these routes to upward mobility

cultural capital

non economic social assets that promote social mobility 

• Eg = we can earn degrees, learn a more refined style of speech or adopt elite social tastes, which can make us appear to belong to a higher social class than the one into which we were born 

  • Comprised of behaviours, knowledge, and values that indicate social class

curriculum

planned interaction of pupils with instructional content, materials, resources, and processes for evaluating the attainment of educational objectives

hidden curriculum

•  lessons that are not normally considered part of academic program but that schools unintentionally provide 

latent and manifest functions

latent = not obvious + unintended

manifest = obvious + intended

schooled society

3 main reasons that we live in this

• socialization

• selection

• credentialing

selection

• second major function of education system 

  • Select individuals by awarding badges of ability 

  • Wever argued that schools are based on bureaucracies and work to confer status and prestige 

  • Theory of rationalization can be applied to this 

  • Rationalization = way of solving problems based on predictability, calculability, efficiency, and control 

  • Bureaucracies are rationalized systems that are efficient and predictable 

social capital

collective value of all of one’s social networks 

• About who u know and the “norms of reciprocity” that develop between people who know one another 

• Important - provides wide variety of benefits 

coporatization

process of restructuring state owned assets, gov agencies, or public organizations into independent business corporations 

• With reduced gov funding and unpopularity of increasing tuition fees, creating corporate partnerships and running universities with business or management techniques have become more popular 

• This corporatization can take form of naming campus buildings after major donors or corporate sponsors 

• Relationships become controversial when donors seek to influence the research or teaching at the institution 

gender reversal in educational outcomes

• Since 1960s - women’s movement has had many implications for society in canada, us, and western europe 

• Instrumental in gaining women more opportunities to enter higher education

• Women in this period were entering the workforce at higher rates 

• Declining influence of religion changed our expectations about need for women and men to marry and timing and number of children 

differential expectations, association, preperation

differential expectations = Lower class families have diff than upper class 

differential association = Children from lower class backgrounds are less likely to have role models who were high achievers in school or who attended uni 

• As a result - these children lack the knowledge of how to work within the educational system 

differential preparation = Children from families with more money are more likely to have private tutors, go on educational trips, have educational toys, and have books and newspaper around house 

COVID school closures and educational achievement gaps

education around the world

• Amount of money a country spends and results from this differ depending on the country

• The more a gov spends money on education, the higher its degree attainment rate 

• UK and US spend more than Chile and Indonesia 

• Relationship is not universal

• France spends almost half the amount US does but has almost the same percentage of the population with a post secondary degree 

• More unis in Canada are publicly funded and operated  

• The second highest source of income is tuition fees 

• Share of funding from provincial and federal governments is declining over time while the proportion from tuition fees continues to increase  

alienation

• 4 main ways 

  • Capitalism transforms a naturally social and collective activity into a process that is about pursuing one's own interests 

  • In capitalism - workers create wealth through their labor and goods they produce but only get small portions of this money. If a person works faster or more productively, the additional profit (surplus) does not go to him but goes to capitalist 

  • As division of labour in jobs increases, more surplus is created for capitalists. But this change reduces natural enjoyment of labour 

  • Capitalism distorts work cuz it separates workers from the product they make, the production process, other workers, and themselves 

Workers are alienated from the product cuz they have no creative control over what they make

• No control over how they work, do not create assembly lines or stores in which they labour or have any control of how to make products 

• Alienated from other workers 

• Alienated from themselves cuz process of work have become routine and exploitative

automation

equipment is run with minimal or reduced human activity

• Benefit = saves labour and money for business owners and can help to improve quality and precision of labour process

• Cons = can lead to loss of jobs and changes nature of the work for those who remain on the assembly line (who now are just working with the machines instead of fellow employees)

commodification

transformation of what is normally a non commodity into a commodity 

• Assigning of monetary value

• Social relations are reduced to an exchange relation 

• Karl Marx called it “callous cash payment”

disenchantment of the world

• new way of seeing the world

  • Through science and principles of rationality 

  • Weakened the influence of religious authorities

division of labour

• Division of labour = increased in modern societies, simple, mindless tasks, machines, efficient, cheaper 

  • More people engaging in specialized tasks and activities 

• Modern industrial factories - the work is divided and subdivided in a peculiar way, cause of the rise in productivity 

• Greatest improvement in productive power of labour is the effect of the division of labour 

• Everybody's dexterity is improved with this clever way of dividing labour 

• 10 guys in a factory able to make 48,000 pins a day due to this 

• Workers save time - don't have to go from one task to another 

  • Keep focused on their simple task 

• Workers who are completely focused may discover even better ways to do the job more efficiently 

emotional labour

challenge of service sector work 

• Emotional management done by workers and a process of commodifying emotional displays at work

• Result of work that involves direct contact with the public 

• Employee expected to provide public with product or service and make them feel a certain way 

• Through emotional labour, workers must control their feelings to achieve desired effect in others  

irrationality of rationality

ationalized systems can create negative outcomes 

• Easy to see that rationalized systems of fast food restaurants have neg consequences 

  • Produce lots of waste, bad for env, poor health, chronic diseases

Bureaucracies involve a lot of red tape → an excessive adherence to formal rules that hinder the functioning of organizations 

scientific management - taylorism

 theory applies scientific principles and methods to labour management and involves creating divisions in the labour process

• Its methods sought to rationalize work and make it more efficient by dividing it into smaller and smaller tasks 

• 2 main principles: standardization of products and use of specialized equipment 

• Products made from machines 

precarious employment

work for remuneration characterized by uncertainty, low income, and limited social benefits and statutory entitlements 

• Typically gives employers full control over their workers’ labour process

• Characterized by the 3 Ds = dirty, dangerous, demeaning 

primary, secondary, tertiary sectors

Primary sector = extracts or harvests resources 

• Activities include mining, forestry, farming, and fishing 

• Decreased to 3 percent by 2020

Secondary sectors = manufactures finished goods 

• Includes manufacturing, utilities, and construction 

• Decline over the same period 

Tertiary sector = service industry 

• Includes services to individuals and businesses 

• Retail sales, transportation and distribution, entertainment, the hospitality industry, tourism, banking, health care, and law 

• Increasing rapidly 

• Although it employs greatest number of Canadians, it tends to have some of the lowest paying jobs 

mechanical solidarity

• durkheim argued that early societies were based on this 

  • Each unit - like a family - provided for its own production and consumption needs and they could survive in isolation from one another

organic solidarity

• people are dissimilar and specialized, depend on one another to provide what they cannot supply for themselves 

  • Prevalent in modern society 

outsourcing

another implication of scientific management 

• Because labour is divided into smaller components, companies can separate the production processes

• This often involves moving their manufacturing division, telephone call center, or entire business to another country in an attempt to save money

bureaucracy

the rule of the office or desk and is essentially a machine made of humans 

• Prototype of rationalization in modern society 

• Rose to prominence as an organizational form in 20th C 

• Examples = non profits, like UN or profits like starbucks and apple

McDonaldization

• Society characterized by rationality = efficiency, predictability, calculability, substitution of non human for human technology, and control over uncertainty 

1. Efficiency

The focus is on finding the optimum means to an end—doing things as quickly and cheaply as possible.

2. Predictability

The goal is to ensure that products and services are identical across time and space. Consumers want to know exactly what to expect, no matter where they are.

3. Calculability (Quantity Over Quality)

This dimension emphasizes things that can be counted or quantified. In a rational society, "large" or "fast" is often treated as a substitute for "good."

4. Substitution of Non-Human Technology

Wherever possible, human judgment is replaced by technology. This makes behavior more predictable and easier to manage

5. Control

This is the ultimate goal of the other four dimensions. Rational systems are designed to exert control over uncertainty, and specifically, control over people (both workers and customers)