Summary Of The Novel 'The Sociological' By C. Wright Mills

C. Wright Mills, in his book The Sociological Imagination¸ states that once an individual possesses the sociological imagination, he is then able to understand the larger context of his life, as well as the lives of others. This rare thinking process allows him to consider the fact that people are often “falsely conscious” of their places within society. The possession of this way of thinking allows him to view how society’s external forces have affected his life and the lives of others. Usually, it is a person’s ascribed statuses that most prominently shape his life despite him having little to no control over them, such as gender and ethnicity. By looking at my life from another perspective, I have come to realize how much these social positions …show more content…
I was, and still am, knowingly and unknowingly, affected by my gender’s role in the society and time in which I grew up. Capitalism and my social class also directly and indirectly altered my life; as my parents were proletarians, I was seen and treated unequally by those whose parents were part of the owning class. These “superiors” deemed me as lesser, and thus I was alienated, due to the ideas of inequality embedded into our society. Though, at the time, I was not aware of the impacts my gender, social class, and other ascribed statuses, had on me, I am becoming more conscious of the direct and indirect effects of society on my own life. Gender stratification, by definition of Society: The Basics, is the “unequal distribution of wealth, power, and privilege between men and women”, and thus influences opportunities and restrictions based on gender identity. As a cisgender female, I was taught and treated in a certain …show more content…
Since girls were encouraged to choose home economics over woodwork, it would then be more likely that the girls would choose to eventually take on careers that involved the skills learned in that class. For example, many girls in my class had hopes of becoming chefs, preschool teachers, and housewives. On the other hand, the boys enrolled in woodwork seemed to be more interested in becoming architects and joining careers involving hands-on work. At the time, my career choice was also influenced. I wanted to be a scientist, but most of my female peers wanted office jobs or to become teachers, which made me rethink my aspirations. “Maybe being a scientist is only for men,” I would think to myself. All of the famous scientists I knew were men, and science subjects appeared to be dominated by males, so I forced myself to become interested in something else; I did not want to be the odd girl. This new aspiration of mine, becoming a psychologist, was much more female dominated, thus it appeared to be a more realistic