Sociology in Gender Inequalities

Sociology
Name
Institutional Affiliate
Sociology
Question 1.
Gender inequalities exist or rather takes various forms including gender-based distribution of labor, biased payment or rewarding of labor, as well as unequal distribution of power between the male and the female genders in favor of the former. Women, for instance, tend to be allocated domestic chores and are often perceived to be the care providers in a majority of households around the world. Men, on the other hand, are recognized as the breadwinners and household heads who perform tasks perceived to be difficult or requiring technical expertise. The underlying social factors facilitating the perpetuation of gender inequalities are embedded in the cultural orientations of societies around the world and the influence of their equally unique elements concerning the distribution of power and resources. The shared values, ideas, principles, and practices among members of a society play a significant role in the distribution of power and resources across the gender divide (pg. 35). These shared elements dictate or rather defines the people’s or society’s way of life including their perceptions on various issues across the social, political, and economic dimensions within society. In most cultural settings, for instance, members of the male gender often bear symbolic representations of power as household heads. The unspoken cultural stipulations of the interactions and integration of both genders towards achieving set objectives also thrive on the accepted ways of doing things or norms that often grant or allocate tasks perceived to be complex or requiring more expertise to members of the masculine gender (pg. 36). The same analogy applies in the distribution of material culture, which allocates more factors of production to the masculine gender owing to their perceived superior capabilities to deliver the desired outcomes. The biased norms, ideas, and principles embraced by a majority of societies around the world facilitate the perpetuation of gender inequalities in favor of members from the masculine gender.
The assessment and evaluation of gender inequalities in society take different sociological points of view based on equally diverse theoretical frameworks of sociology. Conflict and feminist theories, for instance, make for some of the theoretical frameworks that can be used in the analysis and evaluation of gender inequality across the social, economic, and political aspects in society (pg. 49). Conflict theory, for instance, posits that or rather enhances the perception that the increased emphasis on the appreciation of the feminine gender as an equal entity in the distribution power and resources across the different social dimensions is as a result of the fight for equal rights in the allocation of the same. The fight for the recognition of women’s rights to occupy leadership positions across the social, political, and economic social parameters and receive similar incomes and rewards to their male counterparts creates an effective framework for addressing gender inequalities in society. In essence, the call for equality in the distribution of power and resources is perceived as the fight against the influence of the dominant masculin...