Term
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Definition
| An objective measure of poverty, defined by the inability to meet minimal standards for food, shelter, clothing, or health care (page 204) |
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Definition
| The minimal requirements necessary to sustain a healthy existence. |
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Definition
| Programs or policies that seek to rectify the effects of past discrimination by increasing representation and ensuring equal opportunity for any previously disadvantaged group (page 237) |
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Definition
| The system of segregation of racial and ethnic groups that was legal in South Africa between 1948 and 1991 |
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Definition
| involves the lack of sexual attraction of any kind; asexual people have no interest in or desire for sex (page 269) |
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Definition
| The acceptance of a minority group by a majority population, in which the new group takes on the values and norms of the dominant culture. OR A pattern of relations between ethnic or racial groups in which the minority group is absorbed into the mainstream or dominant group, making society more homogenous |
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Definition
| sexual attraction to both genders; bisexuals are sexually attracted to both males and females (page 269) |
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Definition
| A strand of feminist theory that highlights the multiple disadvantages of gender, class, and race that shape the experiences of nonwhite women. Black feminists reject the idea of a single, unified gender oppression that is experienced evenly by all women and argue that early feminist analysis reflected the specific concerns of white, middle-class women. |
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Definition
| A description characterizing workers who perform manual labor |
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Definition
| People who own companies, land, or stocks (shares) and use these to generate economic returns. |
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Definition
| A society in which different social levels are closed, so that all individuals must remain at the social level of their birth throughout life. |
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Definition
| A social system in which one's social status is given for life. Or A form of social stratification in which status is determined by one’s family history and background and cannot be changed |
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Definition
| proposed as an alternative to gay marriage; a form of legally recognized commitment that provides gay couples some of the benefits and protections of marriage (page 273) |
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Term
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Definition
| Although it is one of the most frequently used concepts in sociology, there is no clear agreement about how the notion should be defined. Most sociologists use the term to refer to socioeconomic variations between groups of individuals that create variations in their material prosperity and power. |
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Term
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Definition
| A social system with very little opportunity to move from one class to another |
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Definition
| Policies that attempt to remedy the gender pay gap by adjusting pay so that those in female-dominated jobs are not paid less for equivalent work. |
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Definition
| Those who believe that notions of gender are socially determined, such that a dichotomous system is just one possibility among many |
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Definition
| The tastes, habits, expectations, skills, knowledge, and other cultural dispositions that help us gain advantages in society |
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Term
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Definition
| The thesis, popularized by Oscar Lewis, that poverty is not a result of individual inadequacies but is instead the outcome of a larger social and cultural atmosphere into which successive generations of children are socialized. The culture of poverty refers to the values, beliefs, lifestyles, habits, and traditions that are common among people living under conditions of material deprivation. or Entrenched attitudes that can develop among poor communities and lead the poor to accept their fate rather than attempt to improve their lot |
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Definition
| A term popularized by Charles Murray to describe individuals who rely on state welfare provision rather than entering the labor market. The dependency culture is seen as the outcome of the "paternalistic" welfare state that undermines individual ambition and people's capacity for self-help. |
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Definition
| The dispersal of an ethnic population from an original homeland into foreign areas, often in a forced manner or under traumatic circumstances. |
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Definition
| The experience of unequal access to computer and internet technology, both globally and within the United States |
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Definition
| Behavior that denies to the members of a particular group resources or rewards that can be obtained by others. Discrimination must be distinguished from Unequal treatment of individuals based on their membership in a social group; usually motivated by prejudice |
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Term
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Definition
| The removal of the rights of citizenship through economic, political, or legal means |
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Term
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Definition
| The transferring of ideas or emotions from their true source to another object. |
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Definition
| Those elements of identity that are generated through others’ perceptions of our physical traits |
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Definition
| The movement of people out of one country in order to settle in another. |
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Definition
| The forbidding of marriage or sexual relations outside one's social group. |
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Definition
| Those who believe gender roles have a genetic or biological origin and therefore cannot be changed |
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Definition
| The creation of ethnically homogeneous territories through the mass expulsion of other ethnic populations. |
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Term
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Definition
| Cultural values and norms that distinguish the members of a given group from others. An ethnic group is one whose members share a distinct awareness of a common cultural identity, separating them from other groups. In virtually all societies, ethnic differences are associated with variations in power and material wealth. Where ethnic differences are also racial, such divisions are sometimes especially pronounced. or A socially defined category based on common language, religion, nationality, history, or another cultural factor or A socially defined category based on common language, religion, nationality, history, or another cultural factor |
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Term
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Definition
| Consciousness awareness of one’s own social status and that of others |
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Term
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Definition
| The exchange of positions on the socioeconomic scale such that talented people move up the economic hierarchy while the less talented move down. |
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Term
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Definition
| The position of the family member who provides emotional support and nurturing |
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Term
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Definition
| Belief in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes; also the social movements organized around that belief |
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Term
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Definition
| A sociological perspective that emphasizes the centrality of gender in analyzing the social world and particularly the uniqueness of the experience of women. There are many strands of feminist theory, but they all share the desire to explain gender inequalities in society and to work to overcome them. |
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Term
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Definition
| An increase in the proportion of the poor who are female. Or The economic trend showing that women are more likely than men to live in poverty, caused in part by the gendered gap in wages, the higher proportion of single mothers compared to single fathers, and the increasing costs of child care |
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Term
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Definition
| A system of social stratification based on a hereditary nobility who were responsible for and served by a lower stratum of forced laborers called serfs (page 194) |
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Definition
| The earliest period of feminist activism in the United States, including the period from the mid-nineteenth century until American women won the right to vote in 1920 (page 267) |
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Term
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Definition
| Social expectations about behavior regarded as appropriate for the members of each sex. Gender refers not to the physical attributes distinguishing men and women but to socially formed traits of masculinity and femininity. The study of gender relations has become one of the most important areas of sociology in recent years.OR The physical, behavioral, and personality traits that a group considers normal for its male and female members |
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Term
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Definition
| An individual's selfdefinition or sense of gender |
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Term
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Definition
| The inequality between men and women in terms of wealth, income, and status. |
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Term
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Definition
| The learning of gender roles through social factors such as schooling, the media, and family. Or The lifelong process of learning to be masculine or feminine, primarily through four agents of socialization: families, schools, peers, and the media |
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Term
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Definition
| Women holding occupations of lower status and pay, such as secretarial and retail positions, and men holding jobs of higher status and pay, such as managerial and professional positions. |
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Term
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Definition
| The systematic, planned destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group. Or The deliberate and systematic extermination of a racial, ethnic, national, or cultural group |
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Term
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Definition
| A promotion barrier that prevents a woman's upward mobility within an organization. |
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Term
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Definition
| The process by which men in traditionally female professions benefit from an unfair rapid rise within an organization. |
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Term
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Definition
| Choosing romantic partners who are dissimilar to us in terms of class, race, education, religion, and other social group membership |
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Term
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Definition
| sexual desire for other genders |
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Term
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Definition
| People who have no place to sleep and either stay in free shelters or sleep in public places not meant for habitation. |
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Term
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Definition
| Choosing romantic partners who are similar to us in terms of class, race, education, religion, and other social group membership |
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Term
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Definition
| fear of or discrimination toward homosexuals or toward individuals who display purportedly genderinappropriate behavior |
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Term
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Definition
| the tendency to feel sexual desire toward members of one's own gender |
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Term
| Horizontal social mobility |
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Definition
| The occupational movement of individuals or groups within a social class |
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Term
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Definition
| The extent, much debated in recent years, to which inherent physical differences define the distinctions between the two sexes (page 249) |
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Term
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Definition
| Marrying "up" in the social class hierarchy (page 205) |
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Term
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Definition
| Marrying "down" in the social class hierarchy (page 205) |
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Term
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Definition
| The movement of people into one country from another for the purpose of settlement. |
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Term
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Definition
| Payment, usually derived from wages, salaries, or investments. |
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Term
| Individual discrimination |
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Definition
| Discrimination carried out by one person against another (page 228) |
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Term
| Institutional discrimination |
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Definition
| Discrimination carried out systematically by institutions (political, economic, educational, and others) that affect all members of a group who come into contact with it |
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Term
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Definition
| Patterns of discrimination based on ethnicity that have become structured into existing social institutions. |
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Term
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Definition
| The position of the family member who provides the family’s material support and is often an authority figure |
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Term
| Intergenerational Mobility |
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Definition
| Movement up or down a social stratification hierarchy from one generation to another. Or Movement between social classes that occurs from one generation to the next |
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Term
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Definition
| The economic and political domination and subjugation of the minority group by the controlling group within a nation |
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Term
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Definition
| Term to describe a person whose chromosomes or sex characteristics are neither exclusively male nor exclusively female |
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Term
| Intragenerational Mobility |
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Definition
| Movement up or down a social stratification hierarchy within the course of a personal career. Or The movement between social classes that occurs during the course of an individual's lifetime |
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Term
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Definition
| Argues that people have a deep need to see the world as orderly, predictable, and fair, which creates a tendency to view victims of social injustice as deserving of their fates (page 210) |
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Term
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Definition
| A formula showing that inequality increases during the early stages of capitalist development, then declines, and eventually stabilizes at a relatively low level; advanced by the economist Simon Kuznets. |
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Term
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Definition
| lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer; sometimes "A" is added to include "allies" |
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Term
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Definition
| Form of feminist theory that believes that gender inequality is produced by unequal access to civil rights and certain social resources, such as education and employment, based on sex. Liberal feminists tend to seek solutions through changes in legislation that ensure that the rights of individuals are protected. |
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Term
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Definition
| A term introduced by Max Weber to signify a person's opportunities for achieving economic prosperity. |
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Term
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Definition
| A social class comprised of those who work part time or not at all and whose household income is typically lower than $17,000 a year. |
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Term
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Definition
| A movement that originated in the 1970s to discuss the challenges of masculinity |
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Term
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Definition
| The means whereby the production of material goods is carried on in a society, including not just technology but the social relations between producers. |
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Term
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Definition
| A program under the U.S. Social Security Administration that reimburses hospitals and physicians for medical care provided to qualifying people over sixty-five years old. |
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Term
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Definition
| The idea that ethnic differences can be combined to create new patterns of behavior drawing on diverse cultural sources. |
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Term
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Definition
| An offshoot of male liberationism whose members believe that feminism promotes discrimination against men |
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Term
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Definition
| a system in which rewards are distributed based on merit |
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Term
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Definition
| A social class composed broadly of those working in white-collar and lower managerial occupations. Or Composed primarily of "white collar" workers with a broad range of incomes; they constitute about 30 percent of the U.S. population white collar a description characterizing workers and skilled laborers in technical and lower-management jobs |
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Term
| Minority Group (or ethnic minority) |
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Definition
| A group of people in a minority in a given society who, because of their distinct physical or cultural characteristics, find themselves in situations of inequality within that society. Or Members of a social group that is systematically denied the same access to power and resources available to society’s dominant groups but who are not necessarily fewer in number than the dominant groups |
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Term
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Definition
| Romantic, sexual, or marital relationships between people of different races |
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Term
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Definition
| Ethnic groups exist separately and share equally in economic and political life. |
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Term
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Definition
| A social system with ample opportunities to move from one class to another |
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Term
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Definition
| Groups who suffer from negative status discrimination—they are looked down on by most other members of society. The Jews, for example, have been a pariah group throughout much of European history. |
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Term
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Definition
| Presenting yourself as a member of a different racial or ethnic group than the one you were born into |
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Term
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Definition
| The dominance of men over women. All known societies are patriarchal, although there are variations in the degree and nature of the power men exercise, as compared with women. One of the prime objectives of women's movements in modern societies is to combat existing patriarchal institutions. or Literally meaning "rule of the father"; a male-dominated society |
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Term
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Definition
| A model for ethnic relations in which all ethnic groups in the United States retain their independent and separate identities, yet share equally in the rights and powers of citizenship. Or A cultural pattern of intergroup relations that encourages racial and ethnic variation within a society |
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Term
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Definition
| The forcible removal of a group of people from the territory they have occupied |
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Term
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Definition
| An official government measure to define those living in poverty in the United States. |
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Term
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Definition
| Individuals who are prejudiced against others may not engage in discriminatory practices against them; conversely, people may act in a discriminatory fashion toward a group even though they are not prejudiced against that group. Or The holding of preconceived ideas about an individual or group, ideas that are resistant to change even in the face of new information. Prejudice may be either positive or negative. or An idea about the characteristics of a group that is applied to all members of that group and is unlikely to change regardless of the evidence against it |
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Term
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Definition
| The social honor people are given because of their membership in well-regarded social groups |
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Term
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Definition
| An offshoot of male liberationism whose members support feminism and believe that sexism harms both men and women |
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Term
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Definition
| social theory about gender identity and sexuality that emphasizes the importance of difference and rejects as restrictive the idea of innate sexual identity |
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Term
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Definition
| Differences in human physical characteristics used to categorize large numbers of individuals. Or A socially defined category based on real or perceived biological differences between groups of people |
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Term
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Definition
| The process by which racial minority groups are absorbed into the dominant group through intermarriage |
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Term
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Definition
| The skills taught to children of multiracial families to help them cope with racial hierarchies and to integrate multiple ethnic identities. |
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Term
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Definition
| The process by which understandings of race are used to classify individuals or groups of people. Racial distinctions are more than ways of describing human differences; they are also important factors in the reproduction of patterns of power and inequality. |
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Term
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Definition
| The attribution of characteristics of superiority or inferiority to a population sharing certain physically inherited characteristics. Racism is one specific form of prejudice, focusing on physical variations between people. Racist attitudes became entrenched during the period of Western colonial expansion, but seem also to rest on mechanisms of prejudice and discrimination found in human societies today.OR A set of beliefs about the superiority of one racial or ethnic group; used to justify inequality and often rooted in the assumption that differences between groups are genetic |
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Term
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Definition
| Form of feminist theory that believes that gender inequality is the result of male domination in all aspects of social and economic life. |
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Term
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Definition
| The forcing of nonconsensual vaginal, oral, or anal intercourse. |
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Term
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Definition
| A relative measure of poverty based on the standard of living in a particular society |
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Term
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Definition
| Poverty defined according to the living standards of the majority in any given society. |
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Term
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Definition
| The geographical separation of the poor from the rest of the population |
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Term
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Definition
| An individual or group blamed for wrongs that were not of their doing. |
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Term
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Definition
| The unpaid housework and child care often expected of women after they complete their day’s paid labor |
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Term
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Definition
| The period of feminist activity during the 1960s and 1970s often associated with the issues of women’s equal access to employment and education |
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Term
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Definition
| The practices of keeping racial and ethnic groups physically separate, thereby maintaining the superior position of the dominant group. |
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Term
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Definition
| The formal and legal separation of groups by race or ethnicity |
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Term
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Definition
| The biological and anatomical differences distinguishing females from males. |
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Term
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Definition
| An individual’s membership in one of two biologically distinct categories— male or female |
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Term
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Definition
| The making of unwanted sexual advances by one individual toward another, in which the first person persists even though it is clear that the other party is resistant. |
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Term
| Sexual orientation or sexual identity |
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Definition
| The inclination to feel sexual desire toward people of a particular gender or toward both genders |
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Term
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Definition
| The character or quality of being sexual |
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Term
| Short-range Downward Mobility |
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Definition
| Social mobility that occurs when an individual moves from one position in the class structure to another of nearly equal status. |
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Term
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Definition
| A loosely knit movement that opposes consumerism and encourages people to work less, earn less, and spend less, in accordance with nonmaterialistic values |
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Term
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Definition
| An ethnic identity that can be either displayed or concealed depending on its usefulness in a given situation |
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Term
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Definition
| A form of social stratification in which some people are literally owned by others as their property. |
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Term
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Definition
| The most extreme form of social stratification, based on the legal ownership of people |
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Term
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Definition
| A system of stratification based on access to such resources as wealth, property, power, and prestige |
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Term
| Social Construction of Gender |
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Definition
| The learning of gender roles through socialization and interaction with others. |
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Term
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Definition
| The outcome of multiple deprivations that prevent individuals or groups from participating fully in the economic, social, and political life of the society in which they live. |
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Term
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Definition
| The unequal distribution of wealth, power, or prestige among members of a society |
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Term
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Definition
| The process of learning behaviors and meanings through social interaction |
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Term
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Definition
| Movement of individuals or groups between different social positions. Or The movement of individuals or groups within the hierarchal system of social classes |
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Term
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Definition
| The tendency of social classes to remain relatively stable as social class status is passed down from one generation to the next |
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Term
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Definition
| A government program that provides economic assistance to persons faced with unemployment, disability, or agedness. |
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Term
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Definition
| The existence of structured inequalities between groups in society, in terms of their access to material or symbolic rewards. While all societies involve some forms of stratification, only with the development of state-based systems did wide differences in wealth and power arise. The most distinctive form of stratification in modern societies is class divisions. |
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Term
| Socioeconomic status (SES) |
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Definition
| A measure of an individual’s place within a social class system; often used interchangeably with "class" or The division of society into groups arranged in a social hierarchy |
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Term
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Definition
| The social honor or prestige that a particular group is accorded by other members of a society. Status groups normally display distinct styles of life— patterns of behavior that the members of a group follow. Status privilege may be positive or negative. Pariah status groups are regarded with disdain or treated as outcasts by the majority of the population. |
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Term
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Definition
| a situation in which there are serious differences between the different elements of an individual’s socioeconomic status |
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Term
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Definition
| A fixed and inflexible category. |
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Term
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Definition
| Mobility resulting from changes in the number and kinds of jobs available in a society. Or Changes in the social status of large numbers of people due to structural changes in society |
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Term
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Definition
| Social inequalities that result from patterns in the social structure. |
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Term
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Definition
| The movement organized around gaining voting rights for women |
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Term
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Definition
| The value of a worker's labor power, in Marxist theory, left over when an employer has repaid the cost of hiring the worker. |
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Term
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Definition
| An ethnic identity that is only relevant on specific occasions and does not significantly impact everyday life |
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Term
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Definition
| The most recent period of feminist activity, focusing on issues of diversity and the variety of identities women can possess |
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Term
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Definition
| Term describing an individual whose sense of gender identity transgresses expected gender categories |
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Term
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Definition
| Individuals who identify with the other sex and have surgery to alter their own sex so it fits their self-image |
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Term
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Definition
| A class of individuals situated at the bottom of the class system, normally composed of people from ethnic minority backgrounds. Or The poorest Americans who are chronically unemployed and may depend on public or private assistance; they constitute about 5 percent of the U.S. population |
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Term
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Definition
| A social class broadly composed of the more affluent members of society, especially those who have inherited wealth, own businesses, or hold large numbers of stocks (shares). Or A largely self-sustaining group of the wealthiest people in a class system; in the United States, they constitute about 1 percent of the population and possess most of the wealth of the country |
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Term
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Definition
| Mostly professionals and managers who enjoy considerable financial stability, they constitute about 14 percent of the U.S. population |
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Term
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Definition
| Movement up or down a hierarchy of positions in a social stratification system. Or The movement between different class statuses, often called either upward mobility or downward mobility |
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Term
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Definition
Money and material possessions held by an individual or group.
A measure of net worth that includes income, property, and other assets |
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Term
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Definition
| A description characterizing workers and skilled laborers in technical and lower-management jobs |
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Term
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Definition
A social class broadly composed of people working in blue-collar, or manual, occupations.
Mostly blue collar or service industry workers who are less likely to have a college degree; they constitute about 30 percent of the U.S. population (Also Lower Middle Class) |
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Term
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Definition
People who work, but whose earnings are not enough to lift them above the poverty line.
Poorly educated workers who work full-time but remain below the poverty line; they constitute about 20 percent of the U.S. population |
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