SOCI 1101H: Introduction to Sociology: Unit 3: Stratification

This visualization shows how groups of Americans are faring in terms of several social indicators. Much of this information is discussed in classrooms and the media. However, the numbers, percentages, and median figures can be confusing and hard to relate to one another. This visualization attempts to overcome this problem by presenting the data all together across income, education, gender, and household type.

The Pew Research Center Created an income calculator to determine people's socioeconomic classification according to state and income.

Have we reached an age of gender equality in the home? Not yet, says Aliya Hamid Rao of Stanford University. Family perceptions of job loss show male employment remains more highly valued than female employment even when female income is higher.

Do you think beer is for men? Well, 40% of craft beer consumers are women, and Nathaniel Chapman of Arkansas Tech University and Megan Nanney of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University show that women are challenging traditional gender norms in the craft beer scene.

Some people struggle for support from their families and medical providers because they have been assigned to a gender they don’t feel reflects who they really are. Arlene Stein of Rutgers University and stef shuster of Michigan State University explore the importance of expanding our view of gender to be non-binary and flexible.

The world of play and games has been relegated to a minor position in the study of childhood socialization. This study accords a more important role in the socialization process to the games children play. It asks: are there sex differences in the organization of children's playtime activities? A large body of new empirical data on the leisure patterns of fifth-grade schoolchildren suggests six important differences. After describing these differences, the author speculates on their possible consequences. It is suggested that play and games contribute to the preservation of traditional sex-role divisions in society by equipping boys with the social skills needed for occupational careers while equipping girls with the social skills better suited for family careers.

The phrase “Global South” marks a shift from a focus on development or cultural difference toward an emphasis on geopolitical power relations. Nour Dados and Raewyn Connell demystify and contextualize this term.

Afrofuturism has long used technoculture and science fiction as a lens for understanding the Black experience. Expressed through art, music, philosophy and various forms of media, it explores the Black experience across the African Diaspora. It places the imagination at the core by providing an alternate narrative for understanding Black experiences, often by chronicling stories of alien abductions, time travel, and futuristic societies. Afrofuturism is expressed in the music of artists like Sun Ra and Janelle Monáe and books like Octavia Butler’s Kindred, which uses time travel to explore how the institution of slavery and its intersections of race, gender, and relationships shape both present and future societies.

Why did an interracial feminist movement fail to develop in the United States? Were white feminists racist?

How does it feel to be a problem? W.E.B. Du Bois posed this question over a century ago to critique American institutions that constructed being American as White, and therefore, made being Black an inherent problem in White America. Du Bois’s question was also a demand: that we reflect on and critique a system of racial oppression that teaches those in subjugated positions that their very being is problematic. Interestingly, this is also a question that Trevor Noah, South African comedian and host of Comedy Central’s award-winning newscast The Daily Show, engages in his highly acclaimed memoir, Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood. Though Noah is not a trained sociologist, he uses the complexity and absurdity of his life to tease out numerous sociological concepts.

In the past several decades, a new life stage has emerged: early adulthood. No longer adolescents, but not yet ready to assume the full responsibilities of an adult, many young people are caught between needing to learn advanced job skills and depending on their family to support them during the transition.

Sociologist Stacy Torres examines why higher poverty rates persist among older women compared with older men and finds that women continue to face significant economic disadvantages in old age, partly due to a lifetime of unpaid, work-interrupting care giving responsibilities.

Previous research has often overlooked socioeconomic diversity among LGB people even though socioeconomic status is deeply intertwined with sexual minority status. Research methods that identify sexual minorities by their relationships do not represent the socioeconomically diverse conditions experienced by LGB people. Better identification methods in survey studies can help create more accurate research and policies that more adequately serve the needs of sexual minority populations and promote equality.