Gender, Socialization, and Functionalism
Gender
Gender can be described as the relations that sub sits men and women, either in material or perceptual respects. Gender identity is determined by the social climate; the meaning attached to the male and the female people (Holmes, 13). Of the two sexes, women are in many instances thought to be inferior to men. From a religious perspective, Christians believe that a woman was created out of the man and their relationship with men is that of master-servant where the woman assumes the servant position.
The Muslim and Judaism among other religions also have a similar opinion concerning female inferiority. Beliefs such as these, have affected women in many dimensions. For instance, in many working situations, organizations set up “glass ceilings” that hinder job advancements for women. As such, affects women psychologically as they feel that no matter their efforts at the workplace, they still will remain subjects to men.
The concept of gender inferiority can affect a woman’s aspirations as well as attitudes because the acceptance of such beliefs leads to actions that are concurrent with such beliefs. It, therefore, follows that if a woman beliefs she is inferior, then her aspirations in life are limited.
Socialization
Socialization refers to the process by which an individual, either a child or an adult gets to learn from his or her fellow individuals. The process of socialization begins from the early stages of a person’s life and most individuals usually continue with this process in all their lifetimes unless when there happen circumstances that hinder the learning process; for instance in the case of sickness. Socialization can take place in any of the following ways.
In other words, the concept of socialization encompasses ways in which a person learns the way of life adopted by the members of his society by getting inculcated in the culture (Dalton, 18).
Different people encounter difficulties when it comes to getting inculcated in a given society. People who may be born with characters deemed unusual may struggle a lot to have themselves thought of as members of a given society. For instance, in some parts of the world, homosexuality is unacceptable in law, thus people born with this “abnormality” face a lot of problems while getting along in society. Such people struggle a lot to have their rights to be recognized by say, doing street demonstrations which at times are met with criticisms.
The aspirations of the persons whose behavior is not consistent with society’s perception can get limited. The aspirations of a gay to get married may fade away if the society fights gay type of marriage.
Functionalism
Functionalism is a perspective of sociology that evolved from Durkheim Emile’s work, which was later transformed by Talcott Parsons in the mid 20th century. Bohm (78) suggests that functionalism can be viewed as to be built on the premise that, the world is a beam that is composed of many rays, each ray, constituting a necessary contribution to the overall vitality of the beam in general. Functionalism holds the opinion that everything and everyone irrespective of how strange they may appear serve their purpose in the universe.
Functionalism views some of the universally acclaimed sources of a nuisance as important and constituting a vital part of society. For instance, crime is viewed as an unacceptable vice. The functionalist’s approach, consider crime as serving an important part of society. Crime leads to the creation of the need for employment and deployment of police officers, the establishment of courts, creates the study of such disciplines as criminology and law, among other related categories of work.
If crime were to cease to be, millions of job opportunities that are related to crime prevention would be lost globally and hence a huge population would suffer from unemployment. Bohm (69) observes that, in Durkheim’s view, crime, as well as deviance, serves three main functions in the society; deviance elucidates the societal norms, it encourages unity socially, and also it makes the society to move around and rethink the formerly held norms. For instance, the acts thought to be criminal or abnormal were critical in determining the rights movements for groups like the gay community in America, the movement for African-Americans among others.
The critiques of this view argue that it tends to accept and tries to rationalize social inequality and acts considered as social evils.
Functionalism can be considered to be the most generalized of sociological schools since it is not logically in tune with differences in cultures and also it fails to explain social change (Bohm, 80).
The concept can affect a person’s personality as well as aspirations in different dimensions. For example, leaders who support this perspective may participate in bad activities such as instigating and perpetrating violence in societies in agitating for rights rather than searching for solutions amicably.
Social Constraints and Opportunities
Social constraints
Social forces can be simply defined as those forces that are exerted by people on one another. Social forces shape how a person relates to one another in society. For instance, war is a social force that can affect or hinder a student’s dream of becoming a surgeon because of war disrupts learning.
Social opportunities
Social forces at times may also present opportunities for someone. War for instance again, can be a social force that can bring devastation but it can also create opportunities, like say the development of science in an attempt to create better warfare weapons like was the case after the First World War.
Response to social constraints and opportunities
People respond differently to various social constraints and opportunities. The approach adopted by a person wholly depends on his character. An optimist may perceive a negative social force as an opportunity while a pessimist may view it as a challenge. It all depends on the person’s approach.
References
Bohm, Robert. A Primer on Crime and Delinquency Theory. : Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 2010.
Dalton, Conley. You May Ask Yourself: An Introduction to Thinking Like a Sociologist. Massachusetts, US: Norton Press, 2008.
Holmes, Mary. What is Gender? Sociological approaches. London, UK: Sage, 2007.