Sociology is the systematic study of society and social interaction. In order to carry out their studies, sociologists identify cultural patterns and social forces and determine how they affect individuals and groups. They also develop ways to apply their findings to the real world.
of the Declaration of Independence bear no relation to half of the human race? If so, what is the
ground of this limitation?
Feminist sociology focuses on analyzing the grounds of the limitations faced by
women when they claim the right to equality with men.
Inequality between the genders is a phenomenon that goes back at least 4,000 years
(Lerner 1986). Although the forms and ways in which it has been practised differ
between cultures and change significantly through history, its persistence has led to
the formulation of the concept of patriarchy. Patriarchy refers to a set of
institutional structures (like property rights, access to positions of power,
relationship to sources of income) that are based on the belief that men and women
are dichotomous and unequal categories. Key to patriarchy is what might be called
the dominant gender ideology toward sexual differences: the assumption that
physiological sex differences between males and females are related to differences
in their character, behaviour, and ability (i.e., their gender). These differences are
used to justify a gendered division of social roles and inequality in access to rewards,
positions of power, and privilege. The question that feminists ask therefore is: How
does this distinction between male and female, and the attribution of different
qualities to each, serve to organize our institutions (e.g., the family, law, the
occupational structure, religious institutions, the division between public and
private) and to perpetuate inequality between the sexes?
Feminism is a distinct type of critical sociology. There are considerable differences
between types of feminism, however; for example, the differences often attributed
to the first wave of feminism in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the second wave
of feminism from the 1950s to the 1970s, and the third wave of feminism from the
1980s onward. Despite the variations between different types of feminist approach,
there are four characteristics that are common to the feminist perspective:
1. Gender is a central focus or subject matter of the perspective.
2. Gender relations are viewed as a problem: the site of social inequities, strains,
and contradictions.
3. Gender relations are not immutable: they are sociological and historical in
nature, subject to change and progress.
4. Feminism is about an emancipatory commitment to change: the conditions of
life that are oppressive for women need to be transformed.
One of the keen sociological insights that emerged with the feminist perspective in
sociology is that “the personal is political.” Many of the most immediate and
fundamental experiences of social life—from childbirth to who washes the dishes to
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