Essay for Sociology
Jylan22
homework.docxSocial class affects families in every conceivable way. Family form, marriage, divorce, and childrearing are all related to class. Social class is a complex concept that centers on the distribution of economic resources. That is, when a number of people occupy the same relative economic rank in the stratification system, they form a social class. There are no clear-cut boundaries, except perhaps those delineating the highest and lowest classes. A social class is not a homogeneous group, given the diversity within it, yet there is some degree of identification with other people in similar economic situations. Also, people have a sense of who is superior, inferior, or equal to them (Eitzen et al., 2013).
The class system in the United States is marked by striking differences in income. Income is the amount of money brought into a household in 1 year (Andersen and Collins, 2010b:71). Table 6.2 shows the average household income for each fifth of the population from 1970 to 2011. This illustrates the growing income gap between the bottom fifth and the top fifth of the population. However, it is open to different interpretations of how income inequality is maintained.
Table 6.2 Share of Aggregate Income by Each Fifth of Households, 1970, 1980, 1990, 2000, 2004, 2007, 2010, 2011
Sociologists agree that there are social classes and that income or money is the basis for classification. However, they disagree on the meaning of class for family life. Although this oversimplifies the debate, there are two different ways to think about class. The cultural approach argues that family patterns are responsible for inequality. The structural approach argues that class inequalities themselves produce different family patterns. Each approach gives us a distinctive view of family.
Objective: Explain the impact of race on family life
Like the class and gender systems, racial stratification has structural foundations. The meaning and significance of race was fundamentally changed in the beginning of the twenty-first century. The blatant forms of racism that existed in the past have given way to new, more subtle practices (Lewis et al., 2004:4). Furthermore, the United States is moving from being predominantly White to being a global society of diverse racial and ethnic peoples. Does this mean that the United States is becoming integrated and moving beyond racial disparities? Many people think that multicultural attitudes and a “color-blind” climate have replaced old-fashioned racism. After all, President Barack Obama, a Black man, holds the nation’s highest office. This makes his family the nation’s official “first family.” Today, people of color are visible in public positions. While these changes are important, they do not signal a post-racial society. This section of the chapter shows how racial inequality is a powerful force in shaping family life in the twenty-first century. The theme of this chapter is that the inequalities of class, race, and gender have structural foundations. Although important changes are occurring, our society remains structured along the lines of class, race, and gender.
Impact of Racism on Family Life
As we saw in Chapter 5, the growing presence of racial-ethnic groups is changing U.S. society. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the United States was 70 percent White, 12 percent African American, 12 percent Hispanic, 4 percent Asian American, and 1 percent Native American. Figure 6.1 shows how the racial composition of the United States is expected to change through the year 2050. Terms of reference are also changing, and the changes are contested within groups as well as between them. For example, Blacks continue to debate the merits of the term African American, while Latinos disagree on the label Hispanic. In this book, we use such terms interchangeably because they are currently used in popular and scholarly discourse.
Figure 6.1 Projected Population of the United States by Race and Hispanic Origin, 2000–2050
Select or deselect the different years to compare the projected populations of the US by race and Hispanic origin. Roll over each column for specific data.
Gender, like race and class, is a way of organizing social life. Gender inequality is built into the larger world we inhabit. From the macro level of the global economy, through the institutions of society, to interpersonal relations, gender is the basis for dividing labor, assigning roles, and allocating social opportunities. Until recently, gender differences seemed natural. Today, we know that gender is not natural at all. Instead, “women” and “men” are social creations. To emphasize this point, sociologists distinguish between sex and gender. Sex refers to the biological differences between females and males. Gender refers to the social and cultural meanings attached to women and men.
Gender is not only about women. Men often think of themselves as “genderless,” as if gender did not matter in the daily experiences of their lives. Yet, from birth to old age, men’s family lives are deeply gendered (Kimmel and Messner, 2007).
In the big picture, gender divisions make women and men unequal. Still, we cannot understand the gender system by looking at gender alone. Gender is linked with other characteristics such as class, race, and sexual orientation. These overlapping inequalities produce different gender experiences for women and men of different races and classes. Nevertheless, the gender system ranks women and men differently, and it denies both women and men the full range of human and social possibilities. The social inequalities created by gender influence family life in profound ways. In fact, “gender relations and family are so intertwined, it is impossible to pay attention to one, without paying attention to the other” (Coltrane, 1998:1).
