Soci 1121, Assignment 2 – Gender Inequality

Hello! I have attached a word document where it has all the instructions for this term paper. This course is for beginner Sociology. Thank you very much! Soci_1121_Assignment_2.doc Soci 1121 Assignment 2 – Gender Inequality In class, we have been talking a lot about changing norms and expectations for women and men in our society. One of the main themes has been the increasing power that women are gaining in society due to their higher levels of education and workforce participation and emancipation from the constraints of marriage which bound them to man, home and family with little option of freedom or choice. Now, imagine if you will, a North America where women actually have more power than men, where women are now in the position that men have been in since time immemorial – at the top of the social hierarchy. What would this look like? Given what we learned about gender roles and expectations, and various aspects of gender inequality (education, the workplace, politics, domestic violence, unpaid work, etc.) and historically what happens when a marginalized group gains power (if you don't know, do some research), do you think that North America would be a better place with women in charge, or would this destabilize our society to the point of gender chaos? You will need to pick a side here, and I don't just want your opinion – you will need to provide solid evidence for your argument and counterargument, which means you will need to do some research (you can use the class notes, online posts, other online sources, journal articles, books, etc.) and you will need to cite your sources properly in the text of your paper. GUIDELINES: Your assignments will be assessed using two broad criteria: 1) how well you demonstrate an understanding of and ability to apply the sociological concepts relating to the question; 2) how well you argue for the thesis of your essay, including how well you handle possible criticisms of your argument. Structure: Your paper needs to have: 1. a brief introduction with a clear thesis statement a. Your thesis statement is a single, short sentence that states precisely what you want to prove. It should clearly state which side of the argument you will be taking – in other words, your answer to the question being posed. 2. a main body a. In the main body of your paper, you will argue for your conclusion and present opposing arguments/counterarguments. Your task here is to convince the reader that your thesis is correct through the method of rational persuasion. You need to provide the reader with some good reasons to think your thesis is correct; in order to do so, you also must address potential criticisms of your argument in your counterargument (this should be a separate paragraph or paragraphs in the main body of your paper), preferably by giving the reader reason to think that the criticism fails to undermine your argument. b. Common errors to avoid: i. Overestimating the strength of your own position. You may feel that it is clear that your thesis is true, and therefore you don't need to present much argumentation to support it. However, your reader may disagree. ii. Thinking that your case will be stronger if you mention, even briefly, virtually every argument in support of your position. Known as the “fortress approach” or more commonly, “kitchen sinking,” this approach is usually not effective for the following reasons: 1. Your reader will find it difficult to keep track of so many different arguments, especially if they approach the topic from different directions. 2. The ones that will stand out will be the very best ones and the very worst ones; as such, only the one or two most compelling arguments should be developed. Including the weaker ones only gives the impression that you are unable to tell the difference between the strong and the weak. 3. You only have 1,000 words and including too many different arguments will result in your covering nothing in-depth and everything superficially. Your paper will lack cohesion and focus and your conclusion will be unclear. 3. a brief conclusion a. This is a single, brief paragraph at the end where you summarize the arguments you've made in the main body. You should not be raising any new arguments or points here. Expectations: 1. Remember to stay focused on the question that was asked (not on what you might have liked the question to ask) and on arguing for your thesis. In other words, keep it all relevant to your thesis. Even if what you say is interesting and/or true, the central justification for inclusion in your essay must be relevance to your thesis. Just because something is related to the question does not mean it is relevant to establishing your thesis. A useful technique to keep you on track might be this: for each paragraph ask yourself “What is this paragraph doing for my argument? – i.e., How does it help to establish the rational persuasiveness of my thesis?” 2. Writing counts. Regardless of the brilliance of your thinking on the subject, if it is poorly expressed, you will not get a good mark (I call this ‘when bad writing happens to good ideas'). Poor writing and grammar have a negative impact on the clarity and quality of your argument, and will be penalized. Proof-read, spell-check, grammar-check, and double check. REFERENCES For this second assignment, you are required to use external sources beyond the lecture notes and you do need to know how to cite. All sources must be properly referenced IN THE TEXT and in the Bibliography/References/Works Cited. What this means is that any information you take from a journal article or other resource (that is not considered “common knowledge” and is not your own idea) must be referenced in the text. This does not only apply to direct quotes. Even when you take the information and put it in your own words (paraphrasing), you still must reference the author(s)/source of information in the text. Paraphrasing something taken from a research source does not make it your idea. Improper referencing = PLAGIARISM. Plagiarism is a very serious offence in the academic world, as it is essentially taking credit for someone else's ideas. The penalties for plagiarism become more severe as you progress through school. For this assignment, IF YOU TURN IN A PAPER WITH NO CITATIONS IN THE TEXT, YOU WILL RECEIVE AN AUTOMATIC F because it means the entire paper was plagiarized. No exceptions. There are many methods of in-text citation – MLA, APA, ASA, etc. Which one you choose is up to you but make sure you learn how to properly reference journal articles. You can find instructions on different citation formats and how to use them on the Langara Library website. Note that all in-text references must include page numbers. Even if the citation method you choose states that page numbers are not required, for the purposes of this assignment, you must include page numbers in all in-text citations. For journal articles online, sometimes the page numbers are not immediately accessible; you may have to go into the full reference to find the page numbers and number the pages yourself. You must include a Bibliography/References/Works Cited as the final page of your paper. It is important that you learn how to properly reference journal articles and online information as the format for these is quite different than books. Each citation method may have a different way of doing this. FORMAT OF PAPER: Length: This paper must no more than 1,000 words in length at 12 point font. You must include a Word Count (not including title page) at the end of your paper. Papers that go significantly over or under length will be penalized. Submission format: All papers submitted to the D2L Dropbox must be in PDF format. No exceptions!! LATE PENALTIES The assignment is due November 4th (Section 003) and November 5th (Section 001). Any and all papers submitted after these dates will be assigned a 5% per day late penalty, regardless of the ingenuity of the excuse. Therefore, if your computer crashes, printer quits or runs out of toner, flash drive is lost, erased, run over by my motorcycle, or dropped in a mud puddle, make sure this happens before the due date, and that your paper is submitted on time. No exceptions unless you have notified me in advance that your paper will be late and you are able to provide formal documentation.