Theories of Social Stratification
The structural-functional approach points to ways social stratification helps society operate.
• The Davis-Moore thesis states that social stratification is universal because of its functional consequences. • In caste systems, people are rewarded for performing the duties of their position at birth.
• In class systems, unequal rewards attract the ablest people to the most important jobs and encourage effort. The social-conflict approach claims that stratification divides societies in classes, benefiting some categories of people at the expense of others and causing social conflict.
• Karl Marx claimed that capitalism places economic production under the ownership of capitalists, who exploit the
The symbolic-interaction approach suggests that
• individuals use gender as one element of their personal performances as they socially construct reality through everyday interactions.
• gender plays a part in shaping almost all our everyday experiences.
Because our society defines men as having more value than women, the sex roles that define how women and men should behave place men in control of social situations; women play a more deferential role.
The social-conflict approach suggests that
• gender is an important dimension of social inequality and social conflict.
• gender inequality benefits men and disadvantages women.
Friedrich Engels tied gender stratification to the rise of private property and a class hierarchy. Marriage and the family are strategies by which men control their property through control of the sexuality of women. Capitalism exploits everyone by paying men low wages and assigning women the task of maintaining the home. pp. 308–9
Feminism
Feminism
• endorses the social equality of women and men and opposes patriarchy and sexism.
• seeks to eliminate violence against women.
• advocates giving women control over their reproduction.
There are three types of feminism:
• Liberal feminism seeks equal opportunity for both sexes within the existing society.
• Socialist feminism claims that gender equality will come about by replacing capitalism with socialism.
• Radical feminism seeks to