Conflict Theory And Gender Inequality

Conflict theory sees society as a dynamic unit constantly changing as a result of competing for scarce resources. Social order is kept by power and control; those with wealth and power try to hold on to it; mainly by overpowering the poor and powerless. Inequality lasts because those who control the unbalanced portion of society’s supplies; forcefully defend their benefits. While fighting over control of these resources, these groups and individuals develop their own interests. Attention is placed on class, race, and gender in this perspective because they are seen as the most important bases and long-term struggles in society. For example, conflict theorists may explain the civil rights movements of the 1960s by studying how protestors argued …show more content…
Marx viewed the organization of society relative to its main classes, and the struggle concerning them as the engine of transformation in this structure. There are two great classes of society: the bourgeoisie, who own the means of production such as machinery and factories, and whose foundation of income is profit, and the proletariats’ who own their labor and sell it for a wage. These classes become political forces. Marx states that finally, the division between these two classes would then broaden and social structure will collapse. With the basis of classes therefore wiped away, a classless society will succeed and political power and the state will fade away. A key example of social conflict theory is the typical laborer. The laborer works within a factory, earns a wage, and goes home with a paycheck. This would seem fair, but now you have to take into consideration that the owner of that same factory must pay the worker a low wage in order to make any profit. There are several elements in Marx 's view of class conflict: classes are power relationships based on property ownership; classes are naturally opposed by the advantages of their interests, political association. Lastly, structural change is the aftermath of the class …show more content…
Cooley´s idea of the looking glass self, states that a person’s identity advances out of an individual’s social interactions with others. The main point is that we form our self-image as the thoughts of the response and assessments of others in our environment. As children, we were treated in a variety of ways. For example, if parents or see a child as intelligent, they manage to raise that child with certain kinds of expectations. Therefore, the child will eventually believe that he is an intelligent person. According to Cooley, this course has three steps. First, we imagine how we appear to another people, which is just built from our views. Second, we perceived what judgments people make of us depending on how we look. Lastly, we imagine how the individual feels about us, which will come from the judgments made by us. We usually alter our actions and looks based on how we think people view