rewrite

Sample section of

Student Socioautobiography

Below is an example of what you may include in your socioautobiography. Notice how the key terms are in bold blue font. This is the format that I want you to use, since it directs me to the concepts that you are using to frame what you are writing.

Leaving home at eighteen to go out on my own and start my own life, there were many things I wasn’t prepared for. Because of my ascribed status at birth, being born to poor parents, I couldn’t afford to go to college, and even if I could, I really had no idea of what I wanted to do with my life. I guess that as agents of socialization, my parents did not know how to prepare me for the world of work. Thus, I had little anticipatory socialization for the workplace. I just figured I could find a job that would pay me well enough that I could afford to have all the things I never had growing up.

I truly believed that I could do anything a man could do, and deserved to be paid the same for the same work. With this in mind, I found a job in a manufacturing plant where I was, it appeared, the “token” female employee. My fellow employees were all men, and I was placed in the uncomfortable position of having to prove that I not only could do the job, but was also “one of the guys.” I soon came to learn that gender role differences are apparent in the workplace. While there are the obvious physical differences and capabilities, there are also the differences in how each gender deals with perceived problems, whether it is pertaining to the job at hand, or the interaction with fellow employees. By being the only female in a male dominated workplace, I had numerous problems to overcome. The most prevalent one was sexual harassment. I felt that I was treated as an “object”, one that had been hired simply to provide enjoyment for

the men. I had been at work an hour when the first suggestive remark came out. Being only 19 years old at the time, I had very little experience with dealing with this and was completely at a loss as to how to handle the situation. Sad to say, I handled it exactly wrong; by losing my temper. I pointed out, in no uncertain terms, that I was not a piece of meat and did not appreciate his attention. This gave him the opportunity to make another remark, this one aimed at women in the workplace in general, which caused another outburst on my part. Needless to say, by the end of my first day, it wouldn’t have mattered if I had been the best machine operator to walk in the door in a long time. By allowing this man to make me lose my temper, I had also given them a validation of the opinions they already held: that women didn’t belong in their line of work; they were too emotional and physically unsuited for the work.

Nowhere in my reading was there any information on how men were to deal with the situation. I found this to be totally unfair, and felt that maybe it was in my power to at least educate the men I was working with in proper work etiquette in regards to women. Learning about sociological theories enabled me to gain confidence and the added confidence in my manner helped me to better handle the stress of dealing with various gender issues. For example, we discussed how socialist feminism has its roots in Conflict Theory proposed by Karl Marx. According to Marx, the root of social inequality lies in the economy. This makes sense, since women like me constantly have a harder time than men in the workplace, for reasons that I addressed above.

I found that most of the men were actually feeling threatened by the whole equal rights rhetoric. Feeling unsure and uncomfortable with the idea, they tended to revert to

the patriarchy that their upbringing dictated. Like me, most of them had been raised in families where Dad worked and Mom stayed home with the kids. Having women move into the workplace was just as disorienting for them as it was for the women, and not having the skills to be able to communicate with women only added to their sense of disorientation. I realized that our similar upbringing reflected the Structural Functional Theory, which supports the idea of everyone in society behaving according to roles that help society function as a whole. The disorientation represented anomie, which Durkheim wrote results when there are too many competing social norms.

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Glossary

Anomie: condition of social normlessness (chapter 7) Conflict Theory: Addresses the points of stress and conflict in society in the ways in which they contribute to social change (chpater 1) [follow this format throughout the glossary]