Gender and stratification

“The study of gender and stratification is comparatively recent, and developed in the 1970s onwards as a result of the second wave of the feminist movement in modern western societies (Crompton & Mann 1986).”

Basics of Gender and Stratification

"In conventional class analysis, women generally, and wives in particular, took the social class position of the males in their family or household (Hakim, 2007)," this was due to the fact that the male was the worker and brought in all the income for the family. If a females’ husband were a lawyer, after marrying, she would inherit all of his worth and class status once they become a union. Initially before marriage, the father was the provider of the household so a young woman would hold the social class of her father until later, after marriage, their husband's social class. "This was essentially because occupation, or any other status in the public sphere, was taken as the most obvious indicator of a family's or household's social class/status in modern capitalist societies. Women were mostly housewives and did the household chores and cared for the family, so without any other form of income it would be hard to be in a high social class without a working husband."

The feminist movement challenged the conventional class analysis. Due to the rising female employment rates in modern western societies, a new situation arose in which couples would be dual-career as well as dual-earner, besides the traditional one earner per couple. Women in relationships could financially contribute and no longer where financially dependent on their spouse. Thus it was no longer appropriate to classify wives by their husband's social status or occupation. This was a big start for many women. Women now had a choice as to how they wanted to contribute to their family. Women could choose to fulfill the homemaker role or be a career woman and contribute financially to the relationship/family. It also created of equality within the couple, because they could get out and work as well instead of solely caring for the children and family. Her previous occupation, household chores, became shared between the husband and wife. This gave the woman an opportunity to make something of her self and not have to rely on her husband’s earnings (Hakim, 2007).

References

Crompton, R. & Mann, M. (Eds.) (1986) Gender and Stratification . Polity Press , Cambridge.

"Gender Stratification | Frontiers | Find Articles at BNET." Find Articles at BNET | News Articles, Magazine Back Issues & Reference Articles on All Topics. 13 Nov. 2008 <http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3687/is_200201/ai_n9064463>. Hakim, C. (2000) Work-Lifestyle Choices in the 21st Century: Preference Theory . Oxford University Press , Oxford.

Hakim, Catherine. "Stratification, Gender and." Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology. Ritzer, George (Ed). Blackwell Publishing, 2007. Blackwell Reference Online. <http://www.blackwellreference.com.libproxy.lib.unc.edu/subscriber/tocnode?id=g9781405124331_chunk_g978140512433125_ss1-272>