Student name
Professor’s name
Course
Date
Gender and Patriarchy
Gender roles and strategies are social structures that help in the shaping of society. By dictating the expectations on behaviors of the members of society, social structures shape the individual according to its norms. The individual can choose to decide according to his or her perspective on the problems in society, and they are referred to as individual agency as their decision is made out of the free will. The shaping of the society according to gender roles bores a patriarchal society that men dominate. This paper will focus on the role of gender role and strategies concerning agency and structure and the relation between patriarchal, patriarchal marriage, and private property ownership.
Gender Roles and Strategies concerning Agency and Structure
Gender strategies refer to the composition of thought, feeling, or action through which an individual tries to problems solving given the cultural notions of gender at play. Gender roles are norms in a society that dictate acceptable and appropriate actions for men and women in the society. In the sociology context, agency refers to a group of individuals with the free will of their choices for structure. It refers to people whose actions are governed and dictated by social structures. Associating
Agency and structure are ever-changing debates, and they have an influence on the other; as a result, one change would also have a change effect on the other. Individuals in society are shaped by social structures as well as the social structure. Even though behaviors may be dictated by the social structure’s through social control, individuals can make their decisions freely and express their decision in their behaviors’ (Jessop. B, 119).
Gender roles bring about gender inequality as dictating actions that a specific gender should do; it limits the access to resources and freedoms to the female gender. Over the years since the feminist movement was introduced, there has been a shift in the concept of gender roles. Women have been given more access to freedom and power positions. Even though the social structure didn’t offer the female gender such roles, by making freewill decisions which were seen in activities of feminists seeking equality. The making of freewill decisions as an individual agency resulted in the change in social structure, too, which now advocates for gender equality and has made policy changes in the social institutions to provide for gender equality (Lindsey. L).
Relation Between Patriarch, Patriarchal Marriage and Private Property.
Patriarchy refers to a social system that men dominate in political roles, privileges in the society, moral authority, and the control of property ever the female gender. Patriarchal marriage is a relationship that men are dominating. Private property is property owned by an individual or a group of people, unlike public property owned by the whole society.
In a patriarchal society, the social structures provide for dominance of the male gender, resulting in patriarchal relationships. Due to the dominance of men in the patriarch society, men have political, economic, and social power over women. Women don’t have the power to hold a political position, are also seen not to have the ability to oversee business enterprises, and lack voice in social matters. Women are seen as inferior beings compared to men in a patriarchal society. This dominance gives the men dominance too when it comes to matters of relationship in the society (Witz Anne,675).
In a patriarchal society, the property is owned privately as it is seen as prestige among men. In most patriarchal societies, men see women as being among their properties since they have the only primary role in society: reproduction (Gottfried. H, 451). The seeming important roles are done by men, such as the production of goods and services, educating, social control, and identity as women are associated with their husbands. Private ownership of the property has advantages; they encourage working, promote good virtues, bring economic progress, are ethically moral, and give a sense of security against the future. It also has cons; it promotes negative virtues like greed, inequality in the society, is insufficient economically, and promotes capitalism.
In conclusion, both gender roles and strategies and patriarchy in society result from gender inequality. The social structures that govern society’s behavior are more patriarchal and provide men’s dominance over women. The gender roles in society provide roles for men and limit women’s roles in the society on economic and political roles hence causing the creation of a patriarchal society. Even though in recent times, there has been a change in the social structures which provide equality to both genders, removing patriarchy in the society since both men and women have equal opportunities to succeed.
Work cited
Gottfried, Heidi. “Beyond patriarchy? Theorizing gender and class.” Sociology 32.3 (1998): 451-468.
Jessop, Bob. “Interpretive sociology and the dialectic of structure and agency.” Theory, Culture & Society 13.1 (1996): 119-128.
Lindsey, Linda L. Gender roles: A sociological perspective. Routledge, 2015.
Witz, Anne. “Patriarchy and professions: The gendered politics of occupational closure.” Sociology 24.4 (1990): 675-690.