In the previous topics we have examined inequality and the structures that inequality creates. Today social class is based in the economy and in the status achieved within that realm. In the past social class rested in part on achieved status in the economic activities of the society, but also in great part on the ascriptive status of the family. That is one could earn position in the class system but family status helped gain and maintain that position. We also examined how ethnic and racial status affects ones position in the economy, how these ascriptive characteristics are used to assign position and worth in the society. In this topic we turn to the way in which gender, as defined by the society serves to assign position and worth in the society.
We should note that this assignment based upon gender (sex) varies across time and across societies, just as has the assignment of position and worth by family, race or ethnicity. Social scientists express concern with any method of assignment of place that tends to keep people as members of a category or class from realizing their full potential. Our present use of gender for the assignment of adult roles in the society is often seen as wasting the potential of half the population. Since women are often defined as of less worth and less worthy, they are prevented from participating to the fullest in the activities of the community. Of course, the situation is far better now that in the past, but women are still denied full and equal participation in many aspects of the society. We have just recently seen this in the discussion of the ability of women to participate in combat in the military. Such denial of participation means that they will never be able to rise as far in the ranks as will men, since promotion beyond a certain level is dependent upon combat experience.
Inequality based on gender does exist within our society and we will expand this topic in the following sections. We will begin with a full description of the ascriptive and achieved status of women, then turn to an examination of the relative power of men and women. We will look at some of the explanations that have been put forth in the past as to why women choose to pursue a career and finally we will look at the differences in rewards given to men and women once they are in the work force.
This based upon the observation made by Marcia Guttentag and comment by her daughter about the lyrics of older and modern songs -- older songs venerated women, the newer ones tended to put women down. Observation made that the relative numbers of women in the society have shifted with time. When women are in short supply (the sex ratio is low -- less than 100), women are venerated, but have little power in the community. Stark cites a number of sources to support this contention about the relative status of women.
The analysis of Marcia Guttentag actually focused upon power in the the relationship between the sexes and how this affected the roles that each played within in the society in different contexts. The theoretical perspective here focuses upon exchange theory and what each sex brings to the bargain.
Dyadic power is the power in the one-to-one relationships -- between a husband and wife, between girl friends and boy friends. If there is an excess of one sex in the society, then the other sex will tend to have more power in this relationship because that sex is in short supply. For example, if men are in short supply they can pick and choose from among the greater number of women, too a degree the opposite will be true if women are in short supply, they can be very selective about their mates.
Situation in America in the 60s and 70s -- because of the baby boom, women were in excess supply because of the human pattern of mate selection. Typically men choose women who are from 2 to three years younger than they are. In this time period the age structure was such that there were more women in these prefered age ranges than there were men. The result is that men lacked the dyadic power -- they were experienced what Stark calls a power dependency. Simply put, "the dependency of one member of a dyad on the other is equal to the person's inability to achieve his or her goals outside the dyad (Stark, p. 331)."
When women are in excess numbers they will use their numbers to shape the social structures. And this is indeed what we have found. Stark points to the roots of the suffragette movement in New England when men left and went west. This can also help to explain the women's movement in the 60s and 70s. An interesting trend is coming as the baby boomer age. Older individuals tend to be more politically active, and given the numbers, we can expect women to gain more influence and power in the society as a whole over the next several decades. And their younger sisters will tend to gain power within their personal relationships with men, since their numbers are actually in decline. The result should be more equality for women in all spheres of our society.
(women seen as weaker, less able than men)
(changes in the U.S. through time)
It is only in the past 20 years or so that women who actively pursue a career outside the home have been seen as 'normal,' When I wrote my Master's thesis, women who did this were often seen as being somehow pyschologically messed up, suffering from various kinds of male envy. For many this is the only way they could explain how a woman would depart from her 'natural' character of raising children and looking after her husband.
What I was able to show in this thesis is that these young women were not pyschological misfits, but were following a course supported by their families and friends. In the late 50s and early 60s, such women were in the minority and were in fact pioneers.
Today women in the work force are common and even accepted to a greater degree than in those days.
(Equal pay for equal work? The statistical tables)
The following links will take you to a list of Bureau of Census tables reporting income for persons. This page lists all of the historical tables for comparing incomes of individuals. You may choose any of several tables to make your comparisons. Statisticians will recommend that you make most comparisons where income is reported as the median (half the people are above the value, half are below). The mean is useful, but for these comparisons it tends to be pulled in the direction of a few very high incomes.
I would like you to take a look at the following two tables and make some notes about the income differences of men and women. After you have done this you should go to the discussion thread and add your comments about what you observed in these tables. Here are the tables:
For those of you interested in exploring income information you may want to look at the entire listing of tables. The location for these is:
Historical Income Tables -- Persons
Once you have looked at these tables, you may comment on them in the discussion group.
Copyright © 1996, 1997 by Richard H. Anderson, the Department of Sociology and the University of Colorado at Denver.
This page last revised: January 12, 1999. Please contact Richard H. Anderson (randerso@carbon.cudenver.edu) if you experience any problems or have comments about these pages.