Throughout history, the relation of individuals to society and vice versa has been a puzzling conundrum. Humans generally tend to understand the world as through an individualistic outlook with respect to their own experiences and lives. However, sociologists such as C. Wright Mills and Allan Johnson disagree and relate the importance of a “sociological imagination.”
According to Mills, the sociological imagination is “a quality of mind” that allows its possessor to use information and develop reason in order to establish an understanding and a desire to apprehend the relationship between social and historical structures and one’s biography, or essentiality their experiences and individual lives (Mills 3). To achieve this, one requires the …show more content…
In particular, “An Intersection of Biography and History” by Mary Romero employs an exceptional use of it when the author attempts to understand Chicana domestic worker’s occupation and lives in Colorado. She begins by examining the historical context and discovers that many of the Chicana families had lost their homes and property in the Mexican-American war and had to move to Colorado in search of employment and as a society came from a history of poverty, a lack of educational access, and a lower economic social class, all of which played a part in the prominence of the domestic service profession (Romero 27). Also, historically more attention was given for men to find employment and less was focused on women (Romero 27-28). Romero focused on the structure of the women who were domestic servants and found that conditions were often poor and unsuitable because most women worked for themselves and did not have access to a human resources department to report harassment or unsafe working conditions. Often times the jobs were informal and consisted of cash transactions that were not reported to the IRS and were in turn illegal, preventing the workers from having any social power (Romero 28). She then looked at the power dynamic present between the domestic servants and saw that the employers often believed that they were doing the person a favor, which resulted in their unfair treatment and inherent feeling of superiority (Romero 22-23). Domestic servant were often alienated and rarely interacted socially with other people in the house because employers and their families saw them as inferior. Furthermore, the profession as a whole was perceived with stigma to a point in which the workers denied their profession because of shame and even encouraged Romero to focus on Chicanas’ contribution to a more “respectable”
According to Mills, the sociological imagination is “a quality of mind” that allows its possessor to use information and develop reason in order to establish an understanding and a desire to apprehend the relationship between social and historical structures and one’s biography, or essentiality their experiences and individual lives (Mills 3). To achieve this, one requires the …show more content…
In particular, “An Intersection of Biography and History” by Mary Romero employs an exceptional use of it when the author attempts to understand Chicana domestic worker’s occupation and lives in Colorado. She begins by examining the historical context and discovers that many of the Chicana families had lost their homes and property in the Mexican-American war and had to move to Colorado in search of employment and as a society came from a history of poverty, a lack of educational access, and a lower economic social class, all of which played a part in the prominence of the domestic service profession (Romero 27). Also, historically more attention was given for men to find employment and less was focused on women (Romero 27-28). Romero focused on the structure of the women who were domestic servants and found that conditions were often poor and unsuitable because most women worked for themselves and did not have access to a human resources department to report harassment or unsafe working conditions. Often times the jobs were informal and consisted of cash transactions that were not reported to the IRS and were in turn illegal, preventing the workers from having any social power (Romero 28). She then looked at the power dynamic present between the domestic servants and saw that the employers often believed that they were doing the person a favor, which resulted in their unfair treatment and inherent feeling of superiority (Romero 22-23). Domestic servant were often alienated and rarely interacted socially with other people in the house because employers and their families saw them as inferior. Furthermore, the profession as a whole was perceived with stigma to a point in which the workers denied their profession because of shame and even encouraged Romero to focus on Chicanas’ contribution to a more “respectable”