Sociology Exam 2

Socioeconomic status

an individuals position in a stratified social order

Stratification

the hierarchical organization of a society into groups with differing levels of power, social prestige, or status and economic resources

Income

Money received by a person for work, transfers (gifts, inheritances), or returns on investment

Wealth

a family’s or individual’s net worth (total asset minus total debts)

Upper class

Term for economic elite. Income mostly comes from returns on investments rather than wages, and historically distinguished by not having to work.

Middle class

Term commonly used to describe individuals with non-manual jobs that pay significantly more than the poverty line. In the US, 90% identify as this class

Jean Jacques Rosseau

Argued that private property creates social inequality, which ultimately leads to social conflict

Social equality

A condition where no differences in wealth, power prestige, or status based on nonnatural conventions exist

Adam Ferguson and John Millar

Agreed that private property creates inequality, but argued that the inequality is good because it meant some people are getting ahead and creating assets

Thomas Mathus

Viewed inequality favorably, but only as a means for controlling population growth. Thought a more equal distribution of resources would increase the world’s population to unsustainable levels and bring mass starvation and conflict

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

Argued that notions of inequality are constantly evolving in a larger historical arc and saw this as a trajectory that would eventually lead to equality for everyone

Dialectical materialism

A notion of history derived by Marx that privileges conflict over economic and material resources as the central struggle and driver of change in society

Max Weber

Challenged Marx’s argument of dialectic materialism saying that inequality was caused by ideas like religion, which determine who gets what

Structural functionalism

a theory where society’s many parts (institutions, norms, traditions, etc.) mesh to produce a stable, working whole that evolves over time. Believes inequality plays an important role in society because it helps allocate the best people to the most important roles

Conflict theory

the idea that conflict between competing interests is the basic, animating force of social change and society in general

Equality of Opportunity

the idea that everyone has an equal chance to achieve wealth, social prestige, and power because the rules of the game are the same for everyone (ex. anti-discrimination laws)

Bourgeois society

A society of commerce in which the maximization of profit is the primary business incentive (modern capitalism). The capitalist class (the bourgeoisie) owns the means of production and exploits the working class (the proletariat) for profit, creating a social order characterized by economic inequality and class struggle, which Karl Marx theorized in his two-class model

Equality of condition

the idea that everyone should have an equal starting point (ex. affirmative action)

Equality of outcome

the idea that each player must end up with the same amount regardless of the fairness of the “game”

Free rider problem

the notion that when more than one person is responsible for getting something done, the incentive is for each individual to avoid responsibility and hope others will pull the extra weight

Estate system

A politically based system of stratification characterized by limited social mobility. Includes laws that separate individuals and distribute power unequally. Was primarily found in Feudal Europe and American South before the Civil War.

Caste system

A religious based system of stratification characterized by no social mobility. Is stratified based on hereditary notions of religious purity. Primarily found in India

Class system

An economically based hierarchical system characterized by cohesive oppositional groups and somewhat loose social mobility

Status hierarchy system

A system of stratification based on social prestige. Prestige can be linked to different things like occupation, lifestyle of membership in certain organizations

Elite-mass dichotomy system

A system of stratification that has a governing elite, a few leaders who broadly hold power in society.

Vilfredo Pareto

Thought the masses were better off in an elite-mass dichotomy system because he believed in a meritocracy where the most skilled and talented people would reach the governing elite

C. Wright Mills

Argued the elite-mass dichotomy is neither natural nor beneficial for society

Horizontal social mobility

a group or individual transitioning from one social status to another situated in more or less the same rung of the ladder

Vertical social mobilitiy

The rise or fall of an individual or group from one social status to another

Structural mobility

Social mobility that is inevitable from changes in the economy (ex. the expansion of high-tech jobs in the past 20 years)

Exchange mobility

Mobility resulting from the swapping of jobs

Status-attainment model

Approach that ranks individuals by socioeconomic status, including income and educational attainments, and seeks to specify the characteristics of people who end up in more desirable occupations

increased

Global income inequality has ____ in the last few centuries due to colonialism and unequal development

Asset

Anything of value that is owned or controlled by a person, business, or organization, with the expectation that it will provide future economic benefit

a piece of property

Identify an example of an asset

Which standard of equality was key to the argument of the civil rights leaders in the 1960s?

Equality of opportunity

harmful to the interests of the masses

C. Wright Mills sees the consolidation of power among a small number of institutions and leaders as…

An individuals’ position in a stratified social order

Socioeconomic status can be defined as

estate

The ___ system is a politically based system of stratification characterized by limited social mobility

Sex

the perceived biological differences that society typically uses to distinguish between males and females

Gender

a social position; a set of attributes that are associated with sex identities

Sexuality

Desire, sexual preference, and intimate behavior

One-sex model of human body type

From ancient Greece to the mid-18th century, it was believed there was only one body (a male body) and the female body was regarded as its inverse (a male body whose parts were flipped inside)

Two-sex model of human body type

19th century belief that women and men were considered radically different and that female orgasm was unnecessary for conception

Essentialist

Explained social phenomena in terms of natural, biological, or evolutionary inevitabilities. See men as biologically different (which impacts behaviors)

Elizabeth Grosz and the Mobius Strip

Proposed that we view the relationship between the natural and the social (sex & gender) akin to a Mobius strip (a math puzzle that looks like a twisted ribbon loop with one side and one edge)

Sociologists

Views gender as more fluid and ambiguous

change

Overtime, masculinity and femininity ____ depending on historical context

Hegemonic masculinity

An invisible condition where men are dominant and privileged.

Feminism

a social movement to get people to understand that gender is an organizing principle in society and to address gender-based inequalities that intersect with other forms of social identity.

Patriarchy

a nearly universal system involving the subordination of femininity to masculinity.

Sexism

a form of prejudice that occurs when a person’s sex or gender is the basis for judgement, discrimination, or other differential treatment against that person.

Sexual harassment

an illegal form of discrimination revolving around sexuality that can involve everything from inappropriate jokes to sexual barter to sexual assault 

82 cents to every $1 of a mans

What is the gender wage gap?

Emotional labor

Managing emotions and their outward expression to meet the expectations of a job, especially in service sector work and female-dominated occupations

Pink collar jobs

Low paid service jobs typically occupied by women

Purple collar labor

occupational niches typically filled by transgender people

Occupational segregation

Jobs become “feminized” when more women hit the scene. Work categorized as “women’s work” tends to yield lower pay, prestige, and benefits than men’s work

Glass ceiling

an invisible limit on women’s climb up the occupational ladder

Glass escalator

the accelerated promotion of men to the top of a work organization especially in feminized jobs

The motherhood penalty

Gender inequality in promotions and wages really emerges when women become mothers. Mothers are offered 7.9% lower salaries and considered less competent and committed to their jobs

Structural functionalism

a theory in which society’s many parts (institutions, norms, traditions) mesh to produce a stable, working whole that evolves over time

Sex Role Theory

Talcott Parson’s theory that men and women perform their sex roles as breadwinners and wives/mothers because the nuclear family is the ideal arrangement in modern societies, fulfilling the function of reproducing workers

Psychoanalytic Theory of Gender

Freudian theorists provide an overly individualistic, psychoanalytic explanations for sex roles. Believes gender develops through biological determinism and family socialization

Gayle Rubin’s sex/gender system

Argued that women are treated like valuable property whose trade patterns strengthen relations between families headed by men

Conflict theorists

Believed that gender was the driving force of history and that patriarchal capitalists benefit through systems that subordinate women

Social feminists

argue that the root of all social relations including relations of production stemmed from unequal gender relations

Intersectionality

the idea that its critical to understand the interplay between social identities even though many social systems and institutions like the law try to treat each category on its own

Black feminists

Pointed out importance of intersectionality and argued early feminism was largely by and about white middle-class women

Matrix of domination

Intersecting domains of oppression that create a social space of domination. Explains how black women face unique oppressions not experienced by white women

Postmodern theories

question the notion of “woman” as a separate stable category and question the value of appropriateness of western scholars applying their cultural logical to the study of non-Western societies

Marxist feminists

Argue that sexuality in America expresses unequal power balance between men and women

Gender

____ refers to the set of social arrangements built around normative sex categories

Patriarchy

____ is a nearly universal system involving the subordination of femininity to masculinity

The development of scientific disciplines and desire to categorize behavior

Michel Foucault argued that the development of homosexuality as a social identity was related to

inappropriate jokes, sexual assault, sexual favors

Sexual harassment is an illegal form of discrimination that can be manifested through ____, with the intent of making a person, usually a woman feel uncomfortable or unsafe, particularly in a work setting

limited; more quickly

Women working in male-dominated professions often find that there are __________ opportunities for advancement, and men working in female-dominated professions often advance __________ their female colleagues.

Race

a group of people who share a set of characteristics, typically but not always physical ones, and are said to share a common bloodline. Externally imposed, involuntary, usually based on physical differences, hierarchical, exclusive and unequal 

Racism

The belief that members of separate races possess different and unequal traits. Believe humans are divided into distinct bloodlines and/or physical types, these bloodlines or physical traits are linked to distinct cultures, behaviors, personalities, and intellectual abilities, and that certain groups are superior to others

Ethnicity

One’s ethnic quality or affiliation. Is voluntary, self-defined, nonhierarchical, fluid and multiple, and based on cultural differences, not physical ones per se 

Symbolic ethnicity

Nationality, not in the sense of carrying the rights and duties of citizenship but in the sense of identifying with a past or future nationality 

Roman’s concept of race

Race was on basis of enslaved status, but slaves represented a variety of skin colors and geographic origins

Modern race development

Developed in 17th century due to global changes like the Protestant Reformation, the Age of Exploration/colonization, and the rise of capitalism

Scientific racism

Nineteenth century theories of race that characterize a period of feverish investigation into the origin, explanations, and classifications of race (pseudoscience)

Ethnocentrism

The belief that one's own culture or group is superior to others and the tendency to view all other cultures from the perspective of one's own. Scientific racism was rooted in this.

Ontological equality

The philosophical and religious notion that all people are created equal 

Social Darwinism

the application of Darwinian ideas to society—namely the “survival of the fittest”

Hebert Spencer

Popularized the notion that some groups or races had evolved more than others and thus were more fit to survive and even to rule other races. Drew on the work of Darwin to justify racism

Bhagat Singh Thind

A Sikh from India, who according to the Supreme Court (1924) did not qualify as a free white person, despite being a member of the US Army in WWI and being classified as “Caucasian.” Signaled that including dark-skinned immigrants threatened the commonly accepted notion of Whiteness and court found that science could not distinguish human differences sufficiently.  

Nazi Germany

A regime that sought to define whiteness. Tried to devise a scientific way to detect Jewishness by measuring head, which didn’t work

One-drop rule

Belief that one drop of Black blood makes a person Black, a concept that evolved from US laws forbidding miscegenation. Intended to keep white population “pure” and was critical in Plessy v. Ferguson case

Miscegenation

Technical term for interracial marriage. Politically and historically charged, so sociologists prefer the term exogamy or outmarriage

Burakumin

A minority who can be distinguished from the rest of the Japanese population only by genealogical detectives. Prejudice against this group often leads to homelessness

Racialization

The formation of a new racial identity by drawing ideological boundaries of differences around a formerly unnoticed group of people (ex. Muslims and Sikh discrimination from 9/11)

Prejudice

Thoughts and feelings about an ethnic or racial group, which can lead to preconceived notions and judgement (often negative) about the group 

Discrimination

harmful or negative acts (not mere thoughts) against people deemed inferior on the basis of their racial category without regard to their individual merit 

Robert Merton

Developed diagram about the intersections of prejudice and discrimination (active bigot, timid bigot, fair-weather liberal, all-weather liberal)

Active bigot

Prototypical racist

All-weather liberal

neither prejudiced nor discriminatory; “walk the walk" for racial equality

Timid bigot

Prejudice but nondiscriminatory (closet racist). Most people fall in this or fair-weather liberal.