- Published: January 11, 2022
- Updated: January 11, 2022
- University / College: University of California, Santa Cruz
- Level: Undergraduate
- Language: English
- Downloads: 42
Sociology Discussion 5: Social Stratification Questions Q Briefly, explain the social construction of reality and how it applies to social stratification
Social construction of reality is a sociology theory that explains how a group of people develop a mutual understanding of the realities in their environment. Social construction examines social behavior of people in relation to each other and how they institutionalize these behaviors and make them their tradition. Social stratification is a ranking process where people categorize themselves hierarchically using the resources that they control.
Social stratification and leadership are forms of social constructs of reality. This is because societies form a tradition to respect and follow the rule of certain people whom they have institutionalized as leaders in the society. It was the task of the privileged black people to champion the rights of other black people, but this is not what is there in reality (Hooks, 2000).
Q. 2. Describe how race or gender is a social construction
Gender is a social construction of reality. In different societies there is segregation of roles between men and women. Through this segregation of roles, societies define behaviors and character expected from people who carry out different roles. Evidence of gender being a social construct comes out clearly as children grow. When a child is a toddler, the treatment for female and male children is relatively the same. However, as they grow up, the society introduces rules specifying different roles for female and male children.
Race is a social construct which was used to discriminate against people of different races. As noted by Hooks (2000) early historic scholars suppressed the information of early African explorers because of the fact that they were black. Race is a social construct in that society’s group people based on the color of their skins.
Evidence of race being a social construct comes because despite people of different color pigmentation having similar body features such as blue eyes or black eyes these people are usually not grouped as same race.
Reference
Hooks, B. (2000). “ Chapter 8: Class and race.” In Where We Stand: Class Matters London: Routledge.
