REVIEW QUIZ
1. What are two dominant trends in institutional
theory?
2. It is an approach that emphasizes the role of
institutions.
3. It is a social theory that focuses on developing a
sociological view of institutions.
4. It holds that a "logic of appropriateness.”
5. It emphasizes the autonomy of political
institutions from society in which they exist.
Answers
1. Old Institutionalism and New institutionalism
2. Institutionalism
3. New Institutionalism
4. Normative Institutionalism
5. Actor-centered institutionalism
Feminist Theory
“Feminist theory is a major branch of
theory within sociology that shifts its assumptions,
analytic lens, and topical focus away from the male
viewpoint and experience and toward that of women.
In doing so, feminist theory shines a light on social
problems, trends, and issues that are otherwise
overlooked or misidentified by the historically
dominant male perspective within social theory.”
Key areas of focus within feminist theory include
discrimination and exclusion on the basis of sex and
gender, objectification, structural and economic
inequality, power and oppression, and gender roles
and stereotypes, among others.
Gender
Differences
Some feminist theory provides an analytic
framework for understanding how women's location in,
and experience of, social situations differ from men's.
For example, cultural feminists look at the
different values associated with womanhood and
femininity as a reason why men and women
experience the social world differently.
Other feminist theorists believe that the different
roles assigned to women and men within institutions
better explain gender difference, including the sexual
division of labor in the household. Existential and
phenomenological feminists focus on how women have
been marginalized and defined as “other” in
patriarchal societies. Some feminist theorists focus
specifically on how masculinity is developed through
socialization, and how its development interacts with
the process of developing feminity in girls.
Gender
Inequality
Feminist theories that focus on gender inequality
recognize that women's location in, and experience of,
social situations are not only different but also unequal
to men's. Liberal feminists argue that women have the
same capacity as men for moral reasoning and agency,
but that patriarchy, particularly the sexist division of
labor, has historically denied women the opportunity to
express and practice this reasoning.
These dynamics serve to shove women into
the private sphere of the household and to exclude
them from full participation in public life. Liberal
feminists point out that gender inequality exists for
women in a heterosexual marriage and that
women do not benefit from being married.
Indeed, these feminist theorists claim,
married women have higher levels of stress than
unmarried women and married men. Therefore,
the sexual division of labor in both the public and
private spheres needs to be altered in order for
women to achieve equality in marriage.
Structural
Oppression
Structural oppression theories posit that women's
oppression and inequality are a result of capitalism,
patriarchy, and racism. Socialist feminists agree with
Karl Marx and Freidrich Engels that the working class
is exploited as a consequence of capitalism, but they
seek to extend this exploitation not just to class but
also to gender.
Intersectionality theorists seek to explain oppression
and inequality across a variety of variables, including
class, gender, race, ethnicity, and age. They offer the
important insight that not all women experience
oppression in the same way, and that the same forces that
work to oppress women and girls also oppress people of
color and other marginalized groups. One way in which
structural oppression of women, specifically the economic
kind, manifests in society is
in the gender wage gap, which shows that men
routinely earn more for the same work than women.
ACTIVITY
1. Explain the concept of Feminist Theory.
2. What is the relationship between GENDER IDEOLOGY
and GENDER INEQUALITY?
