Sociology Gender And Capitalism Sociology Essay

Gender can be socially defined as the difference between a man and a woman. It however is defined differently by different people and organizations around the globe. According to world health organization, gender can be defined as the socially constructed responsibilities, roles and characteristics of men and women as well as girls and boys. The way a man or women is expected to think and act in social setup is what is referred to as gender.

In general, gender has no relation to a person’s biological setup and differences. Gender roles are therefore defined in relation to the relationship between the male and female species in the society. Usually sex is confused for gender, but the two terms are different since sex is biological while gender is social. (Kornblum, 2012)

Capitalism on the other hand is the economic system where society put into practice the free market system where there is open competition taking place in the market. The market competitors have a motive for profits and their means of production is private ownership. The capitalist economy encourages investments where the government does not have any control over the business. The investors of private companies are known as capitalists, and the regulation of the economy is achieved only when the market forces are in operation. The market forces are prices and profits, and they are the determinant factor of how resources are allocated in the economy.

In general Capitalism is a state of both social and economic system that gives people the right to own goods and services they produce to their own profit. It is a condition of life where people privatize their products and hence, they have the right to choose their desired produce, the choice of the manner of production and the target price choice. This form of living is common in the modern markets where people consider individual benefits to be of more value to them as compared to the values of the society they live in. This system has penetrated its roots to most fields of the economy and social life with an objective of gaining new positions, new markets and even new resources for production. (hunt, 2002)

This sociology paper shows how the different theories of capitalism and gender intertwine in society. It also discusses how the capitalist economy affects gender in the society. In this context, gender behavior is affected by the allocation of resources within the economy. It means an individual’s financial and economic statuses are bound to be the determinant of the person’s behavior within society.

These theories were derived by Karl Max, and they are sub-theories in the study of sociology. Marx divides the society into several groups that compete for the scarce resources available, and as such the theory shows the need of power dominance in society and political, social, and economic classes. Then dominance and power is of those with more resources in society. This desire to be powerful is what brings about sociological changes and growth hence opposing forces. For a theory to be conflicting it has to be associated with four different assumptions which include: competition among individuals of different social classes, structural inequality, wars to settle the conflict, and change which is revolutionary due to the satisfaction of having personal interests fulfilled.

Conflict theory brings about gender in society as a tool used to enhance social inequality, which is done by increasing the power of dominance. It is well illustrated by the master-servant relationship. It is used to show how coercion plays a big role in enhancing power and social order. According to Karl Marx, society was divide into small groups that were competing power and resources at the same time. In this context, social order is only achieved through power, where the people who have economic stability as well as political and social resources are the main determinants of social order. (torrance, 1995)

Conflict theory therefore argues that inequality exists in society because the people who have power dominate the resources of the society to their own advantage. In this case those who have resources are the masters of high class, and those who are not in possession of resources are the obedient servants who possess the lower class in society.

To show the social in equality between members of a society, the availability of education can be used to determine how gender imbalance is affected by the lack of resources to sustain the future. This difference is shown by those who are dominant in society having the best schools, with highly qualified teaching staff that attracts higher salaries. These schools are highly equipped and students who pass through this system of education have high chances of getting a college education and later landing respectable professions in the society.

On the contrary, those who attend schools that are not well equipped may not have a college education hence vocational training which gives them blue-collar jobs and making them the minority in society. This difference is conspicuous because teachers are assumed to be treating students from the minority in society as underprivileged and incompetent. This is farther shown by the conflict theories that they are trained into subordination and not into individuals of authority.

Conflict theories also argue that the kinds of tests given in schools are biased in the sense that they favour the affluent by testing their cultural exposure hence the results are dominated by the affluent people in society. In light of the views of conflicts theorists, education is a means of power maintenance that is used to bar forces of equality.

It therefore holds that in a society where there is gender imbalance due to capitalism, the gap between the financial and economic stability between men and women will increase with time. Since men have the most powerful resources to get them to anywhere, and since capitalism is about inheritance for families, those from a powerful background will maintain power in society all the years and the vice versa is equally true.

Another theory that can be used to show how gender is discussed in sociology is the internationalism theory. This theory was derived and developed by Joe Parker. It shows the behaviour and actions of individuals with each other. The Interactionism theory is used to show the communication of animals one to another and their reactions and adaptations to society and its changes. The interaction sociologists seek to identify people’s relationship in light of different cultures, beliefs, and attitudes. (Gordon, 1996)

This theory is elsewhere called the symbolic theory of sociology because if focuses on the symbols to life’s situations and their meaning. From this perception, the interactionists think that the society is made up of people’s thoughts and interpretation of what they see. This theory however, is criticized by the fact that if focuses on the small things rather than the real things that affect the society. In the sense of education, this theory seeks to identify the results of the relationship between people in school. At times, the relationship changes people’s way of reasoning and also improves their IQ.

The sociological theories have different views in relation to gender. The interactionists view is different from the functionist’s view in the sense that, the functionist’s main point of focus is on how the centre of gender relates to the society around while the interactionists seek to identify the relationship of people within the society.

The functionist argues in favour of men in that they are assumed to be instrumental in society unlike women who are expressive. In this context, men take the instrumental roles in the society while women take the expressive roles in society. This theory looks at gender inequality from the perception that it is heightened by the role choices that an individual makes. They further think that wage inequality in society is determined by the roles that women choose to handle as well as their choices. According to functionalist capitalists, the role of care giving to the family earns women less as compared to their men.

The interactionists sociologist is concerned with how people relate with the people around them in society, their mode of communication, and the impact of their relationship on each other. They are mainly interested in what roles other people around them play. Interactionists are less concerned with the complexity of the society, the location and setting of the society, the financial status and even modernity of the society. (Odih, 2007)

On the other hand, the functionalist sociologist seeks to identify how the society organizes its activities like the industries developed in it and what is incorporated in it. They also are interested in determining the relationship of men with other societies around it. These two theories can relate together positively in the sense that they both seek to identify the importance of gender in society and the results associated with gender imbalance.

The main difference between the functionalist capitalist and the conflict theory capitalist is that the functionalists tend to defend the status quo in society. This is because they argue in favour of dominance and poor governance in society based on the economic, social and political power. The functionalist capitalists also believe that people play a big role in determining their position in society hence it can be argued that they avoid change. The conflict theory capitalists on the other hand argue in favour of change in the society. They argue against the status quo because they hold onto the believe that rich and powerful members of the society force change onto the weak and powerless people of the same society. In this sense, as functionalists consider private education as being an individual’s doing, the conflict theorists consider this kind of education as being self serving to the rich and powerful.

Systems of stratification are necessary for the perpetration of the capitalist system. This is because, these systems are of service to many functions especially one that requires that people are divided against each other. The capitalist has changed the mentally of the working class in the sense that people are turning the mentality of each other against their work mates so as to be in power. One major part of this system is the male chauvinism which has no place below the female power. In this sense, men would rather be anywhere else in the economy but not below a woman. This makes it even tough for the construction of families since men do not want to feel inferior to women

With the rise of the capitalism economic system in society, gender as a unit in the society was also affected. This is because capitalism changed the roles of both men and women from what they were during the pre-capitalist era. The organizational society started to be define by private property, and this heightened the role of men as warriors, where their need to protect and defend property took to an essential turn. This changed the family lineage and inheritance policies in the sense that a lineage based on a person’s father became important. This is because it became essential for property to remain within the rights of the male owners sons.

Since property had become the main means to social power, women assumed very little or no power in society since they were the group with less property. Women’s social position was therefore defined by the needs of their male owners. The systems of production evolved and they hence defined family and women’s role in society differently in relation to the ruling class. Women had to take care of the socially necessary labours like home keeping, raising children and handle all the house work, while men took into positions in the industry.

The gender inequality that rose through the years with respect to capitalism has not changed to the current day economy. As much as society tries hard to work on gender equality through female activists, it remains that women are still inferior to men in the world. It can be seen in most political settings that women are given less power that men so as to suit their inferiority. Women still experience low salaries at places of work just as the level of poverty in society is comprised of a larger female percentage.

Since it has come to the knowledge of every one in society that women are still inferior in the capitalist economy, men take advantage of this position. By the fact that women earn less as compared to men, and they long for power equally, men use their financial ability and social class to deteriorate the social respect women carry. This is done mostly in the sex industry where, women pose as the property to be bought when men are the property owners. This condition is created by the stratification done by the capitalists, and this condition needs to be changed for the liberation from gender inequality.

In conclusion, gender and capitalism are socially intertwined based on different paradigms of sociology. It is evident from the essay that capitalism has played a big role in changing the society from one with common goals to a society with individual goals. These changes have hence played a significant change in the roles of gender within the society, where women’s native roles have changed. On the negative side, capitalism has been seen to be gender biased in that the weak of the two; the woman is subjective to the male’s dominance.