SOC105 FINAL EXAM REVIEW
SCHAEFER AND HAALAND TEXTBOOK
CHAPTER 1: “Feminist Perspectives” pg. 14:
Feminist perspectives attempt to explain, change and understand the ways in which gender
socially organizes our lives to produce inequality between men and women.
Liberal feminism believes that women can achieve equality through extending their
opportunities for education and employment.
Marxist feminism believes that the capitalism system is at fault for the inequality of women.
Socialist feminism believes that gender relations are shaped by patriarchy and capitalism.
Radical feminism believes that the root of all oppression lies in patriarchy.
Transnational feminism believes that capitalism and systems of political power suppress
women all around the world.
Chapter Six: The Mass Media
“Functionalist View” pgs. 123-125:
The functionalists view media as an agent of socialization, an enforcer of norms, a conferrer of
status, and promoters of consumption, with an important dysfunction known as the narcotizing
effect. The narcotizing effect is the theory that because the media provides massive amounts of
coverage, the public becomes numb and fails to act on the info.
“Conflict View” pgs. 125-127 + 129 – 131
Conflict theorists argue that the media reflect the divisions in our society, and has the ability to
decide what is transmitted through gatekeeping. Gate keeping means that a small number of
people make sure that material travels through certain check points before reaching the public.
Theorists argue that through this gatekeeping the media maintains the privileges of powerful
and elite groups by controlling the dominant ideology, establishing hegemoney, and disrupting
oppositional ideas and consciousness. Since mass media decision makers are mainly white
males, much of mainstream media ignores lives of subgroups and creates stereotypes.
Hegemony refers to a situation where powerful groups work to convince the less powerful to
accept this version of the world as common sense, and when this is not successful, to at least
disrupt those who work for social change. Building hegemony involves embedding the
dominant ideology, framing, and stereotypes.
Class Dismissed Clip: Represents building hegemoney through stereotypes.
Thank you for Smoking and The Shining Clip: Represents building hegemony through framing.
The Colbert Report: Represents building hegemony through truthiness.
The School of Rock: Represents building hegemony through transformism.
Hegemony allows dominant groups to build leadership through consensus and cooperation.
Hegemony must be flexible enough to accommodate and incorporate both oppositional
viewpoints and alternative viewpoints. “Feminist View” pgs. 131-132
Feminists believe that the media stereotype and misrepresent reality. The media influences
how we look at women through communicating unrealistic stereotypical and limiting images of
the sexes. Three main problems are:
1. Women are underrepresented
2.Men and women are portrayed in ways that reflect stereotypes.
3. Depictions of the male-female relations represents sex roles and normalizes violence against
“Interactionist View” pgs. 132-134
Interactionists are interested in shared understanding of everyday behaviour and note that the
media has the power to manipulate the images of political leaders and celebrities through
public appearances called photo opportunities. The mass media has the ability to influence the
social construction of what it means to be gay, working class, etc. Our shared understanding of
the meaning of social phenomena is delivered through the mass media and shaped through
what we read, see, and hear.
“Media Concentration” pgs. 136-137
Only a few multinational corporations dominate broadcasting, publishing and film industries.
This causes cross promotion, and concerns have been raised that in the US gatekeeping is in the
hands of private individuals trying to maximize profits and in other countries, the process is
done by people trying to strengthen the cultural integreity. Media concentration concerns
regulators because mass media outlets may all be owned in the hands of few. The internet is an
exception to this centralization allowing people to have an audience of millions and become a
Stuart Hall: Encoding refers to the process of creating the embedded messages. Decoding
refers to the interpretation of media content by audience members. Three possible
interpretations are dominant-hegemonic reading, oppositional reading, negotiated reading.
CHAPTER EIGHT: Stratification in Canada (pgs 170-184)
Systems of Stratification:
Three general systems of stratification are slavery, castes, and social classes.
Achieved Status refers to a social position that is attained through effort and work, while
ascribed status is a social position that is assigned to a person without choice.
The most extreme form of legalized social inequality, where individuals are owned by other
Hereditary systems of rank, usually religiously dictated, that are fixed and immobile. Caste
membership is an ascribed status, and determines a person's occupation or role as a religious
functionary. Industrialization and urbanization have taken over the caste system
Social Classes: A class system is a social ranking based primarily on economic position in which achieved
characteristics can influence social mobility. The boundaries between classes are not defined,
and people can move from one level to another. Income inequality is a basic characteristic of a
class system. In Canada's class system, the top 20% hold 70% of the wealth while the bottom
20% hold 0.1% of the wealth.
Stratification is universal because without it, what reason would people have for going to
school for many years to have certain positions if they could make the same money and respect
as street cleaners. Social inequality is necessary so people will be motivated to fill functionally
Social relations depend on who controls the primary mode of economic production. The
bourgeoisie are those who own the means of production and the proletariat are the working
class. The bourgeoisie maximize profits in competition to other firms, while exploiting workers.
According to Marx, exploitation of the working class will eventually lead to the fall of capitalism
because the working class will revolt. For this to happen the working class must develop class
consciousness and overcome false consciousness which is an attitude held by members of the
class that does not reflect its objective position. A worker in false consciousness will believe "I
am being exploited by my boss" while one in class consciousness will believe "the working class
is being exploited by the capitalists". Ultimately the proletariat will over throw the bourgeoisie
and eliminate private ownership of the means of production. Marx did not believe that
inequality was inevitable but he did believe that it was the basis of capitalism.
Central belief is that women are the dominated sex. Radical feminists put great emphasis on
patriarchy as the cause of social organization of sex. They also believe that gender stratification
is systematic, creating a culture with male values. Liberal feminists believe that women's
inequality can be addressed by providing women with greater access to the public sphere. They
believe that there is a less systematic pattern of gender inequality.
Interested in micro levels of stratification. Those at the top convert their wealth into
conspicuous consumption such as more cars than they can drive, or conspicuous leisure. Erving
Goffman theorized on the activity of deference which is a symbolic act that conveys
appreciation from one person to another. This pattern is where one person is the giver and the
other is the recipient, symbolic of the unequal power relations between the two, for example
an employee opening the door for the employer.
Measuring Social Class:
Objective method: views class largely as a statistical category. Individuals are assigned to social
classes based on their occupation, education, income, and residence. Prestige ranking of
occupations is a useful indicator for class position. Esteem refers to the reputation that the
specific person has earned within an occupation.
Gender and occupational prestige: studies of social class tend to neglect the occupation and incomes of women as determinists of social rank. Women dominate the low paying occupations
so their participation in the workforce leads to a general upgrading of the status of most male-
Multiple Measures: another complication in measuring social class is that advances in statistical
methods and computer technology have multiplied the factors used to define class under the
objective method. No longer are sociologists limited to annual income and education to
evaluating a person's class position. Studies now use criteria such as the value of homes,
sources of income, assets, years in occupation, etc. These variables will not paint a different
picture but it will allow class to be measured in a multi dimensional way.
Poverty: approximately 1/10 children in Canada live in the LICO. absolute poverty is the
minimum level of subsistence that no family should live below. Relative poverty is a floating
standard by which people at the bottom of the society are judged as disadvantaged in
comparison to the nation as a whole.
Social Mobility: Movement of individuals from one position in society to another. Can be
horizontal, within the same presitige, or vertical which is movement up and down between
classes. Intergenerational mobility is changes relative to parents, and intragenerational is
changes within a person's adult life.
CHAPTER TEN: Racial and Ethnic Inequality
“What are Minority, Ethnic and Racial Groups” pgs. 211-213:
Minority Groups: Properties of minority groups include distinguishing cultural characteristics,
involuntary membership, solidarity, and in group marriage. These are groups that have less
control or power over their own lives than the members of the dominant group have. Visible
minority refers to those Canadians who are non white, and are physically different.
Race: Racial group refers to a group that is set apart and treated differently from others
because of physical differences. Biologically, there are no pure races, and there is no race in our
DNA markers. Social construction of race is the process of racialization where people define a
group as a race based on physical appearance.
Ethnicity: Ethnic group refers to a group that is set apart from other primarily because of its
national origin or distinctive cultural patterns. Ethnic groups have unique cultural traits, a sense
of community, a feeling of ethnocentrism, ascribed membership and territoriality.
Ethnicity and race form a base of hierarchical developed during the colonial era in which the
only group not racialized is white. The dominant group racializes others and in so doing holds
power over them
“What are Prejudice and Discrimination” pgs 213, 215-217
Stereotypes: Unreliable generalization about all members of a group not recognizing individual
Prejudice: Negative attitude toward an entire category of people, often ethnic or racial
Discrimination: Denial of resources, opportunities, and equal rights to individuals based on some type of arbitrary bias.
The glass ceiling is an invisible barrier blocking promotion of qualified individuals in work
environment because of gender or race.