key sociologists

• Li & Devine - social mobility


  Women are still less likely to be upwardly mobile & more likely to be downwardly mobile than men
• Heath & Li - social mobility

  Black Caribbean men (39.3%) & Chinese women (46.8%) were found to experience lower rates of upward mobility than black Caribbean women (67.3%) & Chinese men (56.9%)
• Savage - social mobility

  Studied social mobility in the 2000s & found men were 40% more likely to climb the career ladder than women.
• Li & Devine - social mobility: Multi-dimensional approach


  Used this approach in their study, 'Is social mobility really declining?'.

  They used a range of sources including census data, the General Household Survey (GHS), the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS), and more & found that:

  Black African & black Caribbean women have experienced a 15-20% fall in full-time employment rates over the past decade.

  39% of Bangladeshi women & 35% of Bangladeshi men work part-time, double the levels of two decades ago.

  The rates of part-time employment for Chinese & Indian men have doubled in the last 10 years.
• Mac an Ghaill - Males & gender inequalities


  Referred to a 'crisis in masculinity' bought about by a number of social & economic changes including de-industrialisation & feminisation of the labour market.

  There is a concern that young men have no clear identity or path in life as a result of the growing equality of women, the lack of traditional male jobs & the expectations placed on men today.

  Resulted in many young men displaying their masculinity in anti-social & criminal ways
• Benatar - Males & gender inequalities: work & income


  States that the least desirable & most dangerous jobs, & those with least pay & security, remain largely the domain of men.
• Warin et al - Males & gender inequalities: family life

  Found from their study of 95 families in Rochdale that the majority of fathers, mothers & teenage children believed that the father should be the breadwinner.

  Found fathers felt under pressure to provide for their families & this was intensified by demands of teenage children for consumer goods & designer label fashions.

  Men in low-paid jobs & those who were sick, disabled or unemployed were frustrated & sad that they were unable to supply what their family wanted.

  Claimed the contribution of fathers tends to go unrecognised.

  Fathers nowadays are attempting to juggle the role or provider with the emotional support role traditionally provided by mothers. Men are turning into 'all-signing, all-dancing super dads'.
• Cochrane - 4th wave feminism


  'It's defined by technology: tools that are allowing women to build a strong, popular, reactive movement online'.
• Oakley - Liberal feminism: Gender role socialisation


  Argues that gender role socialisation in the family is an important area where gender inequality takes root from a young age.

  Believes this occurs through processes such as manipulation & canalisation which teach children expected norms & values for their sex.

  Children learn their gender identity through internalising behaviour experienced in the family which is reinforced & developed by other agents of socialisation, eg. education system & the media.
• Sharpe - Liberal feminism


  Interviewed young women to find out about their priorities, compared the attitudes of working-class girls in the early 70'2 & 90's.

  In the 90's, she found that girls were more confident, more assertive, more ambitious & more committed to gender equality.

  Found that the main priorities of the girls from the 70's were 'love, marriage, husbands & children', by the 90's this had changed to a 'job, career & being able to support themselves'.

  Girls in the 90's had less positive attitudes towards marriage.

  In 1972 study, 67% of girls wanted to leave school at 16 or earlier, in the 90's 67% wanted to stay in education at least until 18.

  In 1972, only 37% of the workforce was female; now it is around half.

  May be used as evidence of changing gender norms & values & supports the view that gender roles are socially constructed rather than the product of natural biological factors.
• Feeley - Marxist feminism


  Argues that the family teaches children to submit to a form of parental authority that is patriarchal.

  Claims children emerge from family life preconditioned to accept their place in the capitalist hierarchy of power & control.

  Believes the family is 'designed to teach passivity not rebellion', the family socialises its members into accepting traditional gender roles & the view that its is 'natural' for men & women to get married & engage in separate roles & jobs in thee home - an attitude that is passed down from generation to generation.
• Benston - Marxist feminism


  Argues that a wife keeps her husband in good running order by feeding & caring for him & that this is essential to the smooth running of capitalism.

  The fact that a man must provide for his wife & children means that he is less likely to challenge the capitalist system.

  Believes that the unpaid domestic labour of women helps to support the capitalist system, contends that if women were paid a wage for their work, there would be a massive redistribution of wealth.

  Highly critical of the nuclear family & women's role within it & sees it as a stabilising force in capitalist society.
• Ansley - Marxist feminism


  Sees women as acting as a 'safety valve' & talks of women as being 'the takers of shit' as husbands return home having been exploited at work & take their frustrations & anger out on their wives.

  'With every worker provided with a sponge to soak up his possibly revolutionary ire, the bosses rest more secure'.

  Demonstrates the importance role that women play in maintaining capitalism.
• Bruegel - Marxist feminism


  Argues that the family is central to women's oppression & points to the way that the ruling class use women to join the workforce when needed & send them back to the role of full-time housewife when not required.
• Costa & James - Marxist feminists


  If women were paid for the work they do in the family, there would have to be a massive redistribution of wealth that would greatly reduce the wealth of the capitalist class.

  Launched the 'domestic labour debate' by drawing attention to how the unpaid housework & other caring work women do contributes to the economy.

  Founded the International Wages for Housework Campaign with a core demand of money paid from the sate for unwaged work in the home & in the community.
• Millet - Radical feminism


  Argues that men originally acquired power over women because of biological factors, but suggests modern technology has provided developments, eg. the contraceptive pill have meant that men can no longer legitimate their power & domination.
• Johnson - Radical feminism


  Patriarchal terrorism can be used to explain violence that is the result of 'patriarchal traditions of men's right to control 'their' women'.

  It is a form of terroristic control of wives by their husbands that involves the systematic use of not only violence but also economic subordination, threats, isolation & other control tactics.
• Atkinson - Radical feminism


  'Feminism is the theory; lesbianism is the practice.
• Delphy & Leonard - Radical feminism


  Propose the view that the family is an institution that plays a major part in the oppression of women.

  They see the family as an economic system in which men benefit from, & exploit the work of women - the key to this exploitation is that women work for the male head of the household & in this relationship he holds the economic power.

  Identified a number of characteristics of the family as an economic unit:

  Family-based households have a social structure that involves 2 types of roles: head of household & their dependants.

  The male head of household makes the decisions about the allocation of roles & tasks.

  Members of the household work without pay for the head of household & wives also carry out sexual & reproductive work.

  Argue that men are the main beneficiaries of the economic arrangements within the family.

  Believe that wives contribute much more work to family life than their husbands but get fewer benefits.
• Walby (Intersectionality) - Criticisms of the strands of feminism


  Critical of radical feminism for seeing patriarchy of universal & unchanging, & concerned that the radical feminist approach ignores the impact of class & ethnicity on gender.

  Believes that Marxist feminism is problematic because it focuses too much on capitalism & fails to explain women's exploitation in non-capitalist societies.

  Critical of liberal feminism because it doesn't consider the way that the structure of society affects gender relations.
• Walby (Intersectionality) - Theorizing Patriarchy


  Sees the concept of patriarchy of important in providing an understanding of gender inequality.

  Believes that patriarchy is not fixed & changes over time.

  Argues that it has evolved from 'private patriarchy', where women were limited to the domestic sphere of home & family, to 'public patriarchy', in which women have entered the public sphere of employment, politics & so on, but continue to suffer disadvantage.
• Walby (Intersectionality) - six patriarchal structures


  Disadvantage happens through 6 patriarchal structures in society, which restrict women & maintain male domination:

  1. Paid employment - patriarchal ideology that 'a woman's place is in the home' means that women face discrimination from the employers.

  2. The household - women are exploited in the family & take primary responsibility for housework & childcare.

  3. The state - acts in the interests of men rather than women.

  4. Cultural institutions such as the media - these represent women in a narrow set of social roles.

  5. Sexuality - a double standard is applied to men & women.

  6. Violence against women - the threat of violence & sexual assault are used by men to control women.
• Walby (Intersectionality)


  Different groups of women may be exploited by different combinations of public & private patriarchy through intersection of social inequalities.
• Walby (Intersectionality) - Gender Transformations

  Young women have made important gains compared to older women - older women may still experience private patriarchy whereas younger women tend to have better educational qualifications & are less likely to accept gender discrimination at work.

  Younger women have greater sexual freedom & are more likely to be involved in environmental & social movements, giving them more involvement in political processes.

  Even though young, well-educated women have made progress in areas of social life, patriarchy continues to have an impact on their lives.

  In the case of poorly qualified young & older women, the restrictions of patriarchy, she believes are even greater.
• Hakim (Preference theory)


  Extremely critical of most feminist theories.

  Argues women are not the victims of unfair employment practices but that they have preferences & make rational choices in terms of the type of work they do.

  Argues that a lack of affordable & available childcare is not a major barrier to women getting jobs, because mothers prioritise childrearing over employment.

  Contends there is solid evidence that men & women continue to differ their attitudes to work & labour market behaviour & that these differences relate to broader differences in life goals & the relative importance of family life.

  Preference theory is the only theory that can explain patterns & trends such as the glass ceiling, the continuing pay gap & occupational segregation.
• Hakim (Preference theory) - classifications of women's work-lifestyle preferences


  Proposes 3 classifications of women's work-lifestyle preferences in the 21st-century:

  Home-centred - family life & children are the main priorities & they prefer not to work: 20% of women.

  Adaptive - most diverse group & included women who want to combine work & family, drifters & those with unplanned careers: 60% of women.

  Work-centred - childless women are concentrated here, their main priority in life is employment or equivalent activities: 20% of women.
• Hakim (Preference theory) - Men's preference


  The majority of men are work-centred, compared to only a minority of women.

  Preference theory suggests that men will retain a dominant position in the labour market, politics, etc because only a minority of women are prepared to prioritise their jobs in the way that men do.

  Supports the functionalist human capital theory as it suggests that women are not committed as men to paid work.
• Ginn et al - criticism of Hakim


  Points out it is often employers' attitudes, rather than women's attitudes, that confine women to the secondary labour market of low-paid, part-time work.
• Murdock (Functionalism)


  Studied gender roles in over 200 societies & found that women were located in the home because of their biological function of bearing children & because their physique meant that they were less able than men to perform strenuous tasks.

  Concluded that this gender division of labour was evident in all of the societies he studied & therefore universal because they were functional.
• Parsons & Bales (Functionalism)


  Referred to men as having the 'instrumental', practical role while women have the 'expressive' caring role.

  These separate roles are seen as contributing to the smooth running of society but they also explain why men & women have different experiences in the labour market & elsewhere in the public sphere.
• Rastogi (Functionalism)


  Sees human capital as 'knowledge competency, attitude & behaviour embedded in an individual
• Schlafly (New Right) - Response to feminism


  Acknowledges that marriage can be difficult but sees it as the most fulfilling role for women & states that 'Marriage & motherhood have their trials & tribulations but what lifestyle doesn't? ... The fight from home is a flight from self, from responsibility, from the nature of women, in pursuit of false hopes & fading fantasies.
• Engels (Marxism)


  Suggested that women's subordinate position is a result of the ownership of private property & the development of the nuclear family that went with it.

  Argued that the rise of a class-based society through capitalism brought with it rising inequality.

  Argued that under capitalism men gained control over women as they wanted to pass on private property in the form of inheritance from one generation to the next & they wanted to be sure that the heirs were their legitimate offspring - gave rise to the ideology of the nuclear family, which sought to restrict women's sexuality & enforce monogamy to protect male property rights.
• Barron & Norris (Weberian theory) - dual labour market


  Argue that there is a dual labour market & this concept has been used to explain women's employment patterns.

  The suggestion is that women are concentrated in the secondary labour market & that men dominate the primary labour market.

  Argued that women are more likely than men to work in the low-status jobs found in the secondary labour market.