Webernism

• Name the 4 Weberian sociologists and the views they gave on gender inequalities:

  1. Weber --> Status Groups
  2. Weber --> Party Action
  3. Barron & Norris --> dual labour market
  4. Edgell --> disrupted career development
• Who explains gender inequalities using the terms "status groups" and "social closure"?

  Weber
• Max Weber

  1. Women are a status group: Women compete with men for wealth power and status
  2. Social Closure: men prevent having to share their wealth and status with women
• Max Weber was a conflict theorist who argued that men and women are part of status groups. This refers to any group that tries to benefit its members through organised activity, e.g. professions, trade unions, political parties and businesses. Weberians see women as a status group who are in competition with men and the only way for women to improve their position is to compete for more wealth, power and status. Men use ‘social closure’ to prevent them from having to share their wealth and status with women.
• How do men use "social closure" to prevent others from gaining status and wealth?

  One way they may do this is by preventing women from climbing the career ladder
• party class — a group within society with a shared goal would campaign together
• Weber and the idea of the party class explaining gender inequalities:

  Gender inequalities still exist because the social group of "women" has not been successful at campaigning, as it is hard to prove discrimination, making the Sex Discrimination Act useless.
• Who/why is Weber's explanation around gender inequalities criticised (party action)?

  Liberal feminists believe that “part action” has been successful as women have made progress in the labour market.
• Weberians agree that there are gender inequalities but do not blame the “patriarchy” but instead use the concept of status groups to explain the conflict between men and women.
• Which Weberians use the concept of a dual labour market to explain gender inequalities?

  Barron & Norris
• Barron & Norris explain gender inequalities using the idea of a dual labour market; how does this relate to inequalities?

  1. Primary labour market = men: these jobs are well paid, require educational qualifications and allow for promotions
  2. Secondary labour market = women: these jobs require lower skills and are poorly paid with few benefits
• Which Weberian believes disrupted career developments are a cause of gender inequalities?

  Edgell
• Edgell explains gender inequality by linking it to the fact women often have "disrupted career development":

  Jobs with good promotion prospects often require their workers to have several years of uninterrupted service for promotions. This leads to women not being promoted as they move around for their husbands, making them restart their careers.
• Evidence to support Edgell's view comes from Purcell; they showed that women and men start out with equal pay, but by 7 years men have overtaken women.