SOCL1101 Exam 2 Study Guide

Terms and Concepts

Sex the biological differences that distinguish males from females

Sexuality desire, sexual preference, and sexual identity and behavior
Sexual orientation inclination to feel desire toward people of a particular

gender or towards both gender

Gender a social position; the set of social arrangements that are built

around normative sex categories

Masculinity/Femininity physical, mental and emotional characteristics

that are believed to be a trait of a certain gender

Gender Identity an individuals self-definition or sense of gender;

subjective understanding of your gender

Gender roles sets of behavioral norms assumed to accompany ones

status as a male or female

Gender Expression external manifestation of gender, expressed through
ones name, pronouns, clothing, haircut, behavior, voice or body

characteristics
Bacha Posh tradition found in Afghanistan whereby girls are disguised as

boys
Intersectionality cultural patterns of oppression are bound together and
influenced by the intersection of things like race, gender, class, ability, and

ethnicity
Ethnocentrism the belief that your own cultural or ethnic group is superior

to other cultural or ethnic groups

Cultural Relativism actions should be measured by the standards of an

individual's own unique culture, not by the standards of others

Home-centered prioritize family life and sharing values and often have

many children with little paid work

Work-centered prioritize career and espouse achievement values; often

remain childless by choice

Adaptive people seek to combine paid jobs and family in some way

without giving absolute priority to either activity or the accompanying values

Social Stratification system by which a society ranks categories of

people in a hierarchy according to their relative property, power and prestige

Occupational Segregation the work men and women do is largely
separate, but not equal; this inequality usually advantages men

Feminism a consciousness-raising movement to get people to understand

that gender is an organizing principle of life. The underlying belief is that

women and men should be accorded equal opportunities and respect

Earnings Gap the shortfall between how much men earn and how much

women earn
Second Shift womens responsibility for housework and child care;
everything from cooking, laundry, bathing children etc. Unpaid housework

and childcare expected of women after they complete their days paid labor
Glass ceiling an invisible limit on womens climb up the occupational

ladder
Glass elevator the accelerated promotion of men to the top of a work

organization, especially in feminized jobs

Opting out - perceived trend among mostly middle-class women of leaving
the workforce to be full-time wives and mothers, in large part because of
frustrations with the many obstacles they face on the job and the sense that

they can find fulfillment in the home

Ambition gap the idea that there is disparity between levels of ambition

between men and women due to women underestimating their abilities

Hegemonic masculinity the condition in which men are dominant and

privileged, and this dominance and privilege is invisible

Patriarchy a nearly universal system involving the subordination of

femininity to masculinity
Race a group of people who share a set of characteristics; typically, but not

always, physical ones (socially constructed way to categorize)

Ethnicity ones ethnic quality or affiliation; based on cultural differences

rather than physical e.g. common ancestry, language, cultural heritage

One-drop rule the belief that one drop of black blood makes a person

black, strict racial boundary in which mixed-raced people are erased

Racialization the formation of a new racial identity by drawing ideological

boundaries of difference around a formerly unnoticed group of people

Racism the belief that members of separate races possess different and

unequal traits (belief that certain races are superior)

Prejudice negative attitudes, thoughts and feelings about an entire

category of people
Discrimination harmful or negative acts against an individual or group;

the treatment of people unequally on the basis of prejudice

Miscegenation the technical term for interracial marriage; literally means
a mixing of kinds

Institutional racism institutions and social dynamics that may seem race-

neutral but actually disadvantage minority groups

Digital divide the difference between people who have easy access to the
Internet and those who do not. A lack of access is believed to be a
disadvantage to those on the disadvantaged side of the digital divide

because of the huge knowledge base that can only be found online
White privilege a set of advantages and/or immunities that white people
benefit from on a daily basis beyond those common to all others; they can
exist without white people's conscious knowledge of its presence and it helps

to maintain the racial hierarchy

Racial ideology a set of fixed beliefs about one or more races
Social determinants of health conditions and factors that influence

health outcomes
Life course perspective approach used in the social sciences to help
understand human development; takes into account how we grow and
change as we go through life experiences - looks at how historical events and

cultural shifts affect an individual's evolution over time

Social class - group of people with similar levels of wealth, influence, and

status
The American Dream opportunity to middle-class comfort through hard

work
Meritocracy rewards in society goes naturally to those who are best
performers; positions or achievements of individuals in a society depends on

their abilities and effort they put, not on their class background
1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation
Act (welfare reform) beneficiaries required to work in exchange for timelimited assistance; includes work requirements, child care funding to help

mothers move into jobs, job subsidies and time limit on aid
Absolute poverty the point at which a households income falls below the

necessary level to purchase food to physically sustain its members

Relative poverty a measure of poverty based on a percentage of the

median income in a given location

Feminization of Poverty the economics trend showing that women are
more likely than men to live in poverty (gendered gap in wages, higher
proportion of single mothers, increasing cost of childcare)

Accordion families and boomerang kids a multigenerational household

in which you have adult children over the age of 21 living with their parents

(boomerang kids = kids home after college)

Nuclear family family form consisting of a father, mother and their

children
Extended family kin networks that extend outside or beyond the nuclear

family
Traditional family family structure that consists of a man, woman, and

one or more of their biological or adopted children

Endogamy marriage to someone within ones social group
Kinship networks strings of relationships between people related by

blood and co-residence (that is, marriage)

Cult of domesticity the notion that true womanhood centers on domestic

responsibility and child rearing

Urbanization proportion of people living in cities increases while the

proportion of people living in the country side diminishes

White flight white residents leaving central urban areas of major cities

and moving into suburbs

Bystander effect/diffusion of responsibility individuals do not offer any

means of help to a victim when other people are present

Demography statistical study of human populations e.g. size, structure

and response to categories such as education, birth rates etc.

Urbanism proximity and anonymity
Social atomization social situation that emphasizes individuals over

collective or group identities

Urban interaction problem necessity for city dwellers to respect social

boundaries when so many people are in close physical proximity all the time
Ghetto a portion of a city in which members of a minority group live;

especially because of social, legal, or economic pressure

Gentrification process of renewal and rebuilding accompanying the influx
of middle class or affluent people into deteriorating areas that often

displaces earlier usually poorer residents

Family wage a wage paid to male workers to support a dependent wife

and children
Capitalism an economic system characterized by private ownership of the
means of production, market competition, wage labor and the pursuit of
profit

Capital wealth or resources invested in business with the intent of using

the means of production to make a profit

Bourgeoisie middle class that had ownership of the means to production
Proletariat a class of people who earn their living through labor
Alienation decreasing importance of social ties and community (because

social atomization)
Privatization remove state from economy, turn it over to private entities
Market liberalization open up the market by decreasing barriers such as
tariffs; promote exports to spur growth and increase competitiveness in

international markets
Fiscal austerity restrict government spending, eliminate budget deficits
WTO World Trade Organization
IMF International Monetary Fund
WB World Bank
Commodification process of turning goods, services and social relations

not previously bought and sold in the market, into a commodity

Homogeneity group of fundamentally similar units
Heterogeneity group of fundamentally different units
Globalization expansion of global linkages; growth of a global

consciousness
Champagne-glass distribution visual representation of unequal global
distribution of income

Important People

David Reimer
o Debate as to whether nature or nurture influenced behaviors in boys
and girls
o Reimer was born a boy, suffered a botched circumcision
o Under guidance of Dr. John Money at Johns Hopkins University, agreed
to have their son undergo sex reassignment surgery; he was surgically
made in to a girl (Brenda)
o Despite hormone treatments, Brenda never felt comfortable as a girl
o Reimer learned the truth in his adolescence and made several suicide
attempts, before changing his identity back to male (David)

Betty Freidan
o The Feminine Mystique
o Championed womens rights to work outside the home
o Dissatisfaction of being just a homemaker

Henri Lefebvre (Rights to the City)

o
o

It is about more than just access to urban resources; its about the
rights of all urban dwellers, regardless of citizenship, ethnicity, ability
or gender, to participate the shaping and transforming of the city
Right to the City Campaigns
An idea of a new kind of urban politics that asserts that
everyone, particularly the disenfranchised, not only has a right
to the city, but as inhabitants, have a right to shape it, design it,
and operationalize an urban human rights agenda

Louis Wirth (Urbanization)

o More and more people were moving into cities and the world was
rapidly urbanizing and Wirth argued that urbanism, or the condition of
living in a city, was become the way of modern life
o Size, density, social heterogeneity defines a city
o Proximity and anonymity (live very close to people, population dense
but you can go through the day remaining anonymous)
Social Atomization
o Social situation that emphasizes individuals over
collective or group identities
Alienation
o Decreasing importance of social ties and
community (because social atomization)
Urban Interaction problem
o Respect social boundaries, avoid the transgression
of social boundaries

Jane Jacobs (Eyes on the Street)

o City planners rationalized the need to zone separate areas throughout
the city for residential, commercial and industrial uses.
o Jacobs believed these initiatives not only increased criminal activity,
but also ruined the social framework and vitality necessary for a
prosperous community; contended these policies created isolated
communities with deserted streets that are, ideally suited for rape,
muggings, beatings, hold-ups and the like
o increased street traffic, day and night, not only help communities
flourish socially and economically, but also acts as self-policing which
deters criminal and anti-social behavior
o Jacobs theory holds that populated areas are less likely to have
criminal activity if the criminal believes there is a greater likelihood of
him being seen or caught by others.

Henry Ford (Family Wage)

o 1914 announced a breakthrough policy at his Ford Motor Company,
workers were guaranteed $5 per day of work
o Policy was designed to lower turnover rates among workers; many
male job candidates tried to get hired allowed male workers to also
support a dependent wife and children
o The man does work in the shop, but his wife does the work in the
homethe factory must pay them both

Cons women are assumed to be dependent on men, patriarchal

bargain, living wage provides a male breadwinner but at the cost of
womens autonomy and freedom

Adam Smith
o Capitalism
o The Wealth of Nations explored the idea that individual self-interest
in an environment of others acting similarly will lead to a situation of
competition, as long as basic laws and contracts are honored
o Cycle of division of labor, innovation, and trade results in production of
goods that society desires, in the proportions it desires, at the price it
is willing to pay

Other Things to Consider:

Toys as agents of gender socialization

o Difference in color for types of toys blue and pink dichotomy
o Society often generalizes gender characteristics to be related to sexual
orientation
o Can be argued that engendering children sets limitations on what they
think they can and cannot do

Women in combat
o In the US and other NATO countries, women are barred from
participating in some ground combat roles
o all combat roles in each branch of the U.S. military will be open to
women, Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter announced in 2015

When the Bough Breaks

o Infant mortality
o African Americans the rate is nearly twice as high as for white
Americans (even well-educated Black women)
o cumulative impact of racism experienced over their lifetime - an
impact that can outweigh even the benefits of higher social and class
status
o chronic stress is the culprit: unequal treatment causes anxiety and the
release of stress hormones, which over a lifetime of constant activation
not only creates wear and tear on the body's organs and systems, but
can trigger premature labor

Poverty in America
o Poverty thresholds set at 3 times the cost of a minimum good diet,
adjusted for inflation
14.5% live below poverty line
19.9% child poverty rate (1 in 5 children lived in poverty 2010)
o

Rethinking American Poverty

Paradox America wealthiest country yet has one of the highest
rates of poverty

40% of working class Americans are one paycheck away from

poverty
By the time Americans have reached the age of 75, over 50%
will have spent at least a year below the poverty line during
their adulthood, while nearly 70% will have faced at least a year
near poverty

1896 Plessy vs. Ferguson

o Plessy challenged law in Louisiana requiring blacks to ride in a
separate car on trains
o Supreme court ruled that segregated equal but separate public
accommodation for blacks and whites did not violate the 14 th
amendment
o Ruling made segregation legal

Black Lives Matter

o Black Lives Matter was born in July of 2013 in a Facebook post
(Trayvon Martin case)
o Michael Browns killing in Ferguson: on August 9, 2014, Black Lives
Matter members took their grievances to the streets for the first time
through the Black Lives Matter Freedom Ride to Ferguson, Missouri
o Goal is to not have one direct leader like the Civil Rights movement
tried to make it an inclusive movement, more of a diverse, nonhierarchical leadership structure
o Ferguson police found to routinely discriminate against African
Americans
o Revenue was more important than public safety

Culture of Poverty
o Individuals feel marginalized, helpless and inferior and adopt this
attitude of living, perpetuating the cycle of poverty

Right to the City Campaign

o Everyone, particularly the disenfranchised, not only has a right to the
city, but as inhabitants, have a right to shape it, design it, and
operationalize an urban human rights agenda

Urbanized (documentary)
o looks at the issues and strategies behind urban design
o Delhi Slums, sanitation
o Bogot Enrique Pealosa creating network of cycle lanes and public
bus service
o Phoenix suburban sprawl, identical houses/driveways
o Detroit depopulated, become a ghost town

Capitalism debate

LIKE

DISLIKE

Innovation
Entrepreneurship

Inequality
Concentration of wealth and power

Efficiency

Narrow definitions of success

Growth

Hard work reward

Economic value privileged over

social value
Power of corporations

Independence/personal freedom

Globalization debate

PROPONENTS
Rising incomes
Increased opportunities
Greater competition, lower
prices

CRITICS
Continued poverty
Environmental degradation
Increased inequality
(concentration of wealth)

Economic growth

Narrow economic understanding of

the process

Improvements in health

Continued power and domination

by rich nations

Expanded knowledge and

technology

Power of global finance

Indias Reproductive Assembly Line

o Transnational surrogacy wombs for rent
o Industry profits projected to reach $6 bil.
o Indian surrogates have no legal right to the baby after giving birth
Better opportunity vs. continued exploitation
More meaningful and creative than factory worth
asserting their own moral worth
When youre poor you cant afford the luxury of thinking
about discomfort
The Organ Trade
o Global market for bodies, organs and tissues
The ideology of the global market is one of unlimited and freely
circulating goods
Supply and demand (a win-win?), entrepreneurship?
o A medical consumer
Respecting someones right to buy or sell a kidney?
If we can sell a kidney, why not a kidney?
the money I paid him was a gift of life equal to what I received

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