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Example research essay topic: Status Of Women Men And Women - 1,333 words

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Sociology Gender inequality has been a main feature of human social life for millennia. Sociologists, political scientists and others have been thought why the unequal interest to status, power, and resources along gender lines has been existed for over 10, 000 years of human history. Many scientists have studied this phenomenon. They have found themselves with one or more theoretical perspectives that can give an explanation to gender inequality across time and space.

Theories of gender inequality came into existence from some fundamental questions. They are: How does the woman behave in any given situation under investigation? Why is the situation of woman in society so unequal to men? How and why do the differences between women matter?

Etc. From the feminist theory of gender inequality, it is stressed that men and women in society are not only different but unequal. And it comes from social organization rather than from biological or psychological differences between men and women. Men and women differ in their access to privilege, prestige, and power. The distribution problem of who gets what, when, and how has traditionally been answered in favor of males.

Sex is a biologically determined characteristic; gender is a socially constructed characteristic. All societies use anatomical differences to assign gender roles. Gender identities are the conceptions we have of ourselves as being male or female. Collins, Chafetz, Blumberg have attempted to insight many of the kinds of factors so in a much more comprehensive, synthesized theory of gender inequality.

Randall Collins proves that theories of gender inequality need to focus on a society's emphasis on warfare and fighting. Collins says that warfare and fighting are cultural universals. The degree of gender inequality depends on the level of military technology and degree of internal and external military threat. Societies differ in their level of military technologies and the degree of military threat from inside and outside. Collins points that males tend to monopolize activities for which physical strength is required.

In societies with low levels of military technologies, men tend to dominate combat. With few exceptions, men monopolize military technology. But males will tend to dominate the political structure, if a society's political structure is closely connected with organizing military activities or is constantly threatened from neighboring societies. Men also tend to be unequally favored in the gender stratification system, if we take into consideration the political structure centered on organizing the military and a control over the weapons used in war actions.

It is for sure, that men will have greater access to status, wealth, and prestige societies with high levels of military action and low levels of technology. Collins explained the very low status of women in agrarian societies, where militarism and war is usually thing. He intended his theory to be common to a wide range of societies. Janet Saltzman Chafetz points material conditions to womens status in preindustrial societies. Chafetz says that a direct function of the extent is the degree of sex stratification. It is the organization of production permits women to contribute to the production of valued resources and to control the output of such production.

Chafetz argues that technological, ecological, and demographic variables are the primary factors influencing sex stratification. She also views economic power, however, as an important component of the status of women. Like Chafetz, Rae Lesser Blumberg argues that womens level of economic power is an important factor. Blumberg emphasizes economic power as relative control of the means of production and allocation of surplus (1984: 25).

Blumberg identifies three conditions, which determine womens level of economic power. First, there is the strategic necessity of womens labor. Womens value in the labor force is measured by how much they contribute to the product of the society; to what extent they hold technical expertise in the means of production, and to what extent they are free from male supervision. Also, a surplus in the labor market causes the value of womens labor to drop. Where womens labor is in demand, the status of women rises. Secondly, female economic power will be affected by a society's modes of descent and post marital residence.

Blumberg argues that when inheritance lines are matrilineal, women have more say concerning the allocation of family resources and are therefore placed in a more central position. Matrilocal societies tend to produce more female solidarity, since mothers, daughters, and sisters are living together in the same family compounds. They are bringing in their husbands to live with them. Finally, the stratification system has an impact on female economic power. The more stratified the society, the less economic power women tend to have.

There were three major types of theories of gender inequality in preindustrial societies. Militarist theories received no support at all. It could not be evidence that warfare lowers the status of women, as these theories suggest From the material given, we can confidently say, that the theory of Blumberg provides the more valid explanation of gender stratification. His concept is the latest one.

So it combines some results of previous researches. Men and women differ in their access to privilege, prestige, and power. The distribution problem of who gets what, when, and how has traditionally been answered in favor of males. All societies use anatomical differences to assign gender roles. Nowadays with the rapid growth of new technologies and different services, womens labor is in demand and of great value.

And in many highly-developed countries the status of women rises. Women tend to do best in societies with modes of production that are relatively un inventive. When the mode of production is more intensive, women do better if they make an important contribution to agricultural production. Women do worse when the residence system is patrilocal and the descent system matrilineal.

A lot of women occupy a good position. As to the second condition we cannot agree that now matrilocal societies produce more female solidarity than. A good example is Russian where women of different generations and family status are living together in the same family. And the final point of Blumberg's theory can be easily applied to this country with a very stratified society.

Women have the less economic power there. They depend (sometimes fully) on their men. As the material conditions of society changed, so too did the status of women. Over time the communal economy changed to one based on private property.

The method of production changed from a subsistence economy to an exchange economy. The members of a family would go outside the home to sell surplus goods and resources. It became the job of men to perform the exchange. This left women to become domestic servants. They clean houses and bring up children.

As the economy changed, so too did womens relationship to the means of production. Women were slowly released from ownership and control. In the new exchange economy, women worked for their husbands. Their domestic duties, although defined as important, were not considered as socially important as the jobs performed by men. Womens new domesticated status became less socially visible. But women themselves had fewer chances for group solidarity.

Womens status plummeted. Collins, Chafetz, Blumberg awoke some additional factors, especially those involving sexual politics and the gender organization of reproduction. This is a very noteworthy and important attempt. However, what they end up with is an extremely complex set of flow diagrams and models that would likely prove extraordinarily difficult. It is impossible to test, especially given the kinds of data that are available. Indeed, they provide no empirical tests of their models at all.

Although they do suggest that it is important to do so in the future. But it is necessary to say that many of the variables they emphasize are being taken into consideration by further sociologists. Bibliography: George, River. Contemporary Sociological theory and its Classical roots: the basics.

Chat. XII, p. 230 Peter, Kivisto. Social theory: Roots and Branches. 2 nd edition. Jonathan, H. , Turner. The structure of Sociological theory. 7 th edition.


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Research essay sample on Status Of Women Men And Women

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