Evaluate a book or video. Do not simply summarize, but rather interpret the movie in terms of sociological concepts, phenomena, and research addressed in the text and/or in class. 

Sociology
SEVENTEENTH EDITION
Chapter 12
Social Class
in the United States

The Power of Society
In the United States, what are a person’s odds of being born into poverty?

Our social position reflects factors such as our race and ethnicity as well as the marital status of our parents.
Of all white children born to a U.S. married couple, 6 percent are poor.
The share in poverty is nearly twice as high for comparable African American children and more than three times higher for comparable Hispanic children.
Being born to a single mother raises the odds of poverty for children of all racial and ethnic categories, with the odds of being poor almost 50:50 for African American and Hispanic children.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau (2016).
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Dimensions of Social Inequality (1 of 3)
12.1 Describe the distribution of income and wealth in the United States.
Income
Earnings from work or investments
U.S. society is highly stratified.
During recent decades, income inequality has increased.
The very richest people now receive a much larger share of all income.
This woman’s life is not the same as the social world of the people who hire these women.

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Figure 12–1 Distribution of Income and Wealth in the United States, 2015

Income and especially wealth are divided unequally in U.S. society.
Sources: Income data from U.S. Census Bureau (2016); wealth data based on Wolff (2014) and author estimates.
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Social Classes in the United States (2 of 7)
Within which social class category do you think these women fall?
These women have appeared on the television program Real Housewives of Orange County.

Ask: why?
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Social Classes in the United States (3 of 7)
The Upper Class
5 percent of U.S. population
The upper-upper class
Membership almost always the result of birth
“Old money”
The lower-uppers
The working rich
The “new rich”

Social Classes in the United States (6 of 7)
What would you say about the social class standing of the Harrison family and their friend Chumlee, who star in the popular reality television show Pawn Stars?

What about the work of running a family business?
What about their dress and interests?
What about the fact that they have recently made a lot of money from heir television show?
Doesn’t their situation show that social class position is often complex and contradictory?
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National Map 12–1 Household Income across the United States, 2015

This map shows the median household income in the more than 3,000 counties that make up the United States for the year 2015.
The richest counties, shown in the darker shades of green, are not spread randomly across the country.
Nor are the poorest U.S. counties, which are shown in lightest shades.
Looking at the map, what patterns do you see the distribution of wealth and poverty across the United States?
What can you say about wealth and poverty in urban and rural areas?
Source: U.S. Census Bureau (2016).
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The Difference Class Makes (1 of 2)
12.4 Analyze how social class position affects health, values, politics, and family life.
Health
Access to medical care affected by income level
Values and Attitudes
Vary with social class position

On average, live about five fewer years.
The toll of low income—played out in inadequate nutrition, little medical care, and high stress—is easy to see on the faces of the poor, who look old before their time.
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Figure 12–2 Median Annual Income, U.S. Families, 1950–2015

Average family income in the United States grew rapidly between 1950 and 1970. In the decades since then, however, income increased at a lower and less even rate.
After 2007, the economic recession pushed median income downward; it returned to prerecession levels by 2016.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau (2016).
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Figure 12–3 Mean Annual Income, U.S. Families, 1980–2015 (in 2015 dollars, adjusted for inflation)

The gap between high-income and low-income families is wider today than it was in 1980.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau (2016).
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Figure 12–4 The Poverty Rate in the United States, 1960–2015

The share of our population in poverty fell dramatically between 1960 and 1970.
Since then, the poverty rate has remained between 10 and 15 percent of the population.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau (2016).
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Poverty and the Trend Toward
Increasing Inequality (8 of 11)
Homelessness
Causes
Poverty
Substance abuse and mental illness
Low wages and lack of low-income housing
Structural changes in the U.S. economy
Cutbacks in social service budgets
Recent economic downturn
Is society responsible for poverty or are individuals themselves to blame? When it comes to homeless families, most people think society should do more, but many people see homeless adults as choosing to live the way they do.

No precise count; Experts estimate 636,000 on any given night
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Figure 12–5 The Share of All Income Earned by the Richest 1 Percent, 1913–2015

In 1929, the richest 1 percent in the U.S. population earned almost one-fourth of all income.
This share declined in the decades that followed, dipping below 10 percent by the mid-1970s.
In recent decades, however, the trend has been toward greater income inequality.
By 2007, the top 1 percent was earning almost one-fourth of all income once again, although this share fell with the onset of the economic recession.
Source: Saez & Piketty (2016).
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National Map 12–2 Poverty across the
United States, 2015

This map shows that the poorest counties in the United States—where the poverty rate is more than twice the national average—are in Appalachia, across the Deep South, along the border with Mexico, near the Four Corners region of the Southwest, and in the Dakotas.
Can you suggest some reasons for this pattern?
Source: U.S. Census Bureau (2016).
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Photo Credits
302: Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images; 304: David Bacon/The
Image Works; 307: ZUMA Press, Inc./Alamy Stock Photo; 308: Matt Devine/
Alamy; 308: Jupiterimages/Goodshoot/Thinkstock; 309: Newscom; 311: Historical/Getty Images; 312: cloki/Shutterstock; 319: Art Resource, NY; 321: Carl Wagner/KRT/Newscom; 322: Craig Steven Thrasher/Alamy; 325: Pool/Getty Images; 326: ABC/Courtesy of Everett Collection; 326: Marvin Miller/Everett Collection; 327: Kristin Callahan/Everett Collection.

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Sociology
SEVENTEENTH EDITION
Chapter 14
Gender Stratification

The Power of Society
If you were free to do either, would you prefer to have a job outside the home, or would you prefer to stay at home and take care of the house and family?

A recent survey asked U.S. adults this question, and men and women gave different answers.
Among men it was no contest, with a large majority choosing the job outside the home.
Among women, however, it was much closer, with only a very slight majority choosing the job.
Or, from another angle, men were three times as likely to choose a job outside the home over taking care of the house and family.
Women, by contrast, were fairly closely divided in their choices.
The difference in female and male responses shows the power of gender to shape our lives down to the very personal choices we make about how to live.
Source: Gallup (2015).
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Gender and Inequality (1 of 7)
14.1 Describe the ways in which society creates gender stratification.
Gender
Personal traits and social positions that members of a society attach to being female or male
Gender stratification
Unequal distribution of wealth, power, and privilege between men and women
“Women and men still lead different lives in the United States and elsewhere in the world, but in most respects men are still in charge.”

Charlotte Woodward wrote this in her journal. Some 300 women gathered in Seneca Falls to fight
for the right to vote. Much has changed since the Seneca Falls convention. But men and women
still lead different lives in the United States and elsewhere in the world.
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Gender and Inequality (4 of 7)
Mead
Culture is the key to gender distinctions.
What one society defines as masculine another may see as feminine.
Gewertz
Challenged Mead’s “reversal hypothesis”
These men, Wodaabe pastoral nomads who live in the African nation of Niger, are proud to engage in a display of beauty most people in our society would consider feminine.

In every society, people assume that certain jobs, patterns of behavior, and ways of dressing are “naturally” feminine while others are just as obviously masculine.
But in global perspective, we see remarkable variety in such social definitions.
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Global Map 14–1 Women’s Power in Global Perspective

Women’s social standing in relation to men’s varies around the world.
In general, women live better rich countries than in poor countries. Even so, some nations stand out:
In the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, and Switzerland women come closest to social equality with men.
Source: Data from United Nations Development Programme (2017).
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Figure 14–1 Men’s and Women’s Athletic Performance

Do men naturally outperform women in athletic competition?
Early in the twentieth century, men outpaced women by more than an hour in marathon races.
But as opportunities for women in athletics have increased, women have been closing the performance gap.
Only twelve and one-half minutes separate the current world marathon records for women (set in 2003) and for men (set in 2014).
Source: Marathonguide.com (2017).
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Gender and Socialization (2 of 6)
Gender and the Family
Gender messages
Is it a boy or girl?
Color-coding gender
Traditional notions of gender identity
Handling of and expectations for children
Female: cooperation and emotion
Male: independence and action

Gender and Socialization (6 of 6)
Wolf: The “beauty myth”
Striving to be physically attractive to men is the key to women’s happiness.
Women should measure their worth in terms of physical appearance.
Women should prize relationships with men attracted with their beauty.
In our society, the mass media have enormous influence on our attitudes and behavior, and what we see shapes our view of gender.

In the 2015 film Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 2, we see Jennifer Lawrence playing Katniss Everdeen, a take-charge, female lead character.
Such a portrayal is an exception to the conventional pattern by which active males play against more passive females.
In your opinion, how much can the mass media change conventional ideas about gender? Why?
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Gender and Social Stratification (4 of 15)
Less than one-third of the people working at companies including Google, Microsoft, and Facebook are women. Why do you think this is the case?

Occupation Number of Women Employed Percentage in Occupation Who Are Women
1. Preschool or kindergarten teacher 675,000 97.5%
2. Speech-language pathologist 158,000 97.5%
3. Dental hygienist 164,000 97.1%
4. Secretary or administrative assistant 2,596,000 94.6%
5. Child care worker 1,208,000 94.4%
6. Nurse practitioner 165,000 94.0%
7. Dental assistant 274,000 93.3%
8. Medical assistant 530,000 92.9%
9. Hairdresser or cosmetologist 745,000 92.4%
10. Medical records technician 169,000 92.1%
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Labor (2016)

Table 14–1 Jobs with the Highest Concentrations of Women, 2015

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Figure 14–2 Housework: Who Does How Much?

Regardless of employment or family status, women do more housework than men.
What effect do you think the added burden of housework has on women’s ability to advance in the workplace?
Source: U.S. Department of Labor (2016).
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1869 Law allows women to vote in Wyoming Territory.
1872 First woman to run for the presidency (Victoria Woodhull) represents the Equal Rights party.
1917 First woman elected to the House of Representatives (Jeannette Rankin of Montana).
1924 First women elected state governors (Nellie Taylor Ross of Wyoming and Miriam “Ma” Ferguson of Texas); both followed their husbands into office. First woman to have her name placed in nomination for the vice-presidency at the convention of a major political party (Lena Jones Springs, a Democrat).
1931 First woman to serve in the Senate (Hattie Caraway of Arkansas); completed the term of her husband upon his death and won reelection in 1932.
1932 First woman appointed to the presidential cabinet (Frances Perkins, secretary of labor in the cabinet of President Franklin D. Roosevelt).
1964 First woman to have her name placed in nomination for the presidency at the convention of a major political party (Margaret Chase Smith, a Republican).

Table 14–2 Significant Firsts for Women in U.S. Politics (1 of 3)

1972 First African American woman to have her name placed in nomination for the presidency at the convention of a major political party (Shirley Chisholm, a Democrat).
1981 First woman appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court (Sandra Day O’Connor).
1984 First woman to be successfully nominated for the vice-presidency (Geraldine Ferraro, a Democrat).
1988 First woman chief executive to be elected to a consecutive third term (Madeleine Kunin, governor of Vermont).
1992 Political “Year of the Woman” yields record number of women in the Senate (six) and the House (forty-eight), as well as first African American woman to win election to U.S. Senate (Carol Moseley-Braun of Illinois), first state (California) to be served by two women senators (Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein), and first woman of Puerto Rican descent elected to the House (Nydia Velazquez of New York).
1996 First woman appointed secretary of state (Madeleine Albright).
2000 First former First Lady to win elected political office (Hillary Rodham Clinton, senator from New York).

Table 14–2 Significant Firsts for Women in U.S. Politics (2 of 3)

2001 First woman to serve as national security adviser (Condoleezza Rice); first Asian American woman to serve in a presidential cabinet (Elaine Chao).
2005 First African American woman appointed secretary of state (Condoleezza Rice).
2007 First woman elected as Speaker of the House (Nancy Pelosi).
2008 For the first time, women make up a majority of a state legislature (New Hampshire).
2013 Record number of women in the Senate (twenty) and the House (seventy-eight). Also, New Hampshire becomes the first state to have all-women leadership as the governor and all U.S. senators and members of Congress are women.
2014 First woman to head Federal Reserve (Janet Yellen).
2016 Hillary Clinton is the first woman to be nominated for the presidency by a major political party and wins the popular vote by almost 3 million, but loses the Electoral College vote and, thus, the election.

Table 14–2 Significant Firsts for Women in U.S. Politics (3 of 3)

National Map 14–1 Women in State Government across the United States

Although women make up half of U.S. adults, in 2017 just 25 percent of the seats in state legislatures are held by women.
Look at the state-by-state variations in the map. In which regions of the country have women gained the greatest political power?
What do you think accounts for this pattern?
Source: Center for American Women and Politics (2017).
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Global Map 14–2 Female Genital Mutilation in Global Perspective

Female genital mutilation is known to be performed in at least thirty countries around the world.
Across Africa, the practice is common and affects a majority of girls in the eastern African nations
of Sudan, Ethiopia, and Somalia. In several Asian nations, the practice is limited to a few ethnic
minorities. In the United States, Canada, several European nations, and Australia, there are reports of
the practice among some immigrants.
SOURCES: Population Reference Bureau (2010), World Health Organization (2015), and United Nations (2017).
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Gender and Social Stratification (13 of 15)
Sexual Harassment
Comments, gestures, or physical contacts of a sexual nature that are deliberate, repeated, and unwelcome
In recent decades, our society has recognized sexual harassment as an important problem.

At least officially, unwelcome sexual attention is no longer tolerated in the workplace.
The television show Mad Men, which gives us a window back to the early 1960s, shows us our society before the more recent wave of feminism began.
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Figure 14–3 Use of Contraception by Married Women of Childbearing Age

In the United States, most married women of childbearing age use contraception.
In many lower-income countries, however, most women do not have the opportunity to make this choice.
Source: Population Reference Bureau (2016).
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Feminism Blank Blank Blank
Blank Liberal Feminism Socialist Feminism Radical Feminism
Does it accept the basic order
of society? Yes. Liberal feminism seeks change only to ensure equality of opportunity. No. Socialist feminism supports an end to social classes and to family gender roles
that encourage “domestic slavery.” No. Radical feminism supports an end to the family system.
How do women improve their
social standing? Individually, according to personal
ability and effort. Collectively, through socialist revolution. Collectively, by working to eliminate gender itself.

Applying Theory: Feminism

Photo Credits
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359: Elise Amendola/AP Images; 360: Robert Estall photo agency/Alamy
Stock Photo; 362: Stas/Fotolia; 363: Moviestore collection Ltd/Alamy Stock
Photo; 364: ChinaTopix/AP Images; 366: Gado Images/Alamy Stock Photo; 372: Kuenzig/Laif/Aurora Photos; 374: FPG/Getty Images; 376: Jim West/Alamy Stock Photo; 377: Win McNamee/Getty Images; 380: AE Pictures Inc/Getty Images; 382: Image Courtesy of The Advertising Archives; 383: Image Courtesy of The Advertising Archives; 383: PHCP Incorporated.

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Sociology
SEVENTEENTH EDITION
Chapter 15
Race and Ethnicity

The Power of Society
Is our choice to cast a vote for a particular candidate a purely “personal” decision?

In the 2016 presidential election, 58 percent of non-Hispanic white people voted for Donald Trump.
If only white people had voted, the election would have been a Republican landslide.
But Hillary Clinton received overwhelming support from Asian Americans (65 percent), Hispanic Americans (66 percent), and especially African Americans (88 percent).
If only these categories of the population had voted, the election would have been a Democratic landslide of historic proportion.
The political choices people make when they vote in elections are not simply personal preferences, but they also reflect race, ethnicity, and other societal factors.
Source: Center for American Women and Politics (2016).
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The Social Meaning of Race and Ethnicity (1 of 4)
15.1 Explain the social construction of race and ethnicity.
Race
Socially constructed category of people who share biologically transmitted traits that members of a society consider important
Meanings and importance of race vary across time and place.
No society contains biologically “pure” people.
There is more genetic variation within each racial category than between categories.

3

Figure 15–1 The Coming Minority Majority

According to projections from the Census Bureau, the United States will have a minority majority in the year 2044, less than thirty years from now.
By that time, as the figure shows, the white, non-Hispanic population will actually decline, as the number of Asian Americans, African Americans, and especially Hispanic Americans increases.
What changes do you expect this trend will bring to the United States?
Source: U.S. Census Bureau (2014).
4

National Map 15–1 Where the Minority Majority Already Exists

Racial and ethnic minorities are now a majority of the population in four states—Hawaii, California, New Mexico, and Texas—as well as in the District of Columbia.
At the other extreme, Vermont and Maine have the smallest share (about 6 percent) of minorities. Why do you think states with high minority populations are located in the South and Southwest?
Source: U.S. Census Bureau (2016).
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Figure 15–2 Bogardus Social Distance Research

The social distance scale is a good way to measure prejudice.
Part (a) illustrates the complete social distance scale, from least social distance at the far left to greatest social distance at the far right.
Part (c) presents the overall mean score in specific years (the average of the scores received by all racial and ethnic categories).
These scores have fallen from 2.14 in 1925 to 1.44 in 2001, showing that students express less social distance toward minorities today than they did in the past.
Part (d) shows the range of averages, the difference between the highest and lowest scores in given years (in 2011, for instance, it was 1.08, the difference between the high score of 2.23 for Muslims and the low score of 1.15 for Americans.
This figure has also become smaller in studies carried out after since 1925, indicating that today’s students tend to see fewer differences between various categories of people.
Source: Parrillo and Donoghue (2013).
6

Discrimination (2 of 3)
In 2014, eighteen-year-old Michael Brown was shot and killed by twenty-eight-year-old Darren Wilson, a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri.

There was widespread outrage at the killing of Brown, who was unarmed but acting in a threatening manner.
Wilson was not charged with a crime, and he has since left law enforcement.
The high level of national concern over this event and the widespread protests and rioting over this event—especially within the African American community—suggest that many believe race continues to shape the operation of the U.S. criminal justice system.
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Figure 15–3 Prejudice and Discrimination: The Vicious Circle

Prejudice and discrimination can form a vicious circle, thereby perpetuating themselves.
8

National Map 15–2 Land Controlled by Native Americans, 1784 to Today

In 1784, Native Americans controlled three-fourths of the land (blue-shaded areas) that eventually became the United States.
Today, Native Americans control 437 reservations, scattered across the country, that account for just 5.3 percent of the country’s land area.
How would you characterize these locations?
Source: U.S. Census Bureau (2016).
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Table 15–2 The Social Standing of Native Americans, 2015
Table 15–2 The Social Standing of Native Americans, 2015
blank Native Americans Entire U.S. Population
Median family income $46,006 $70,797
Percentage in poverty 26.6% 13.5%
Completion of four or more years of college (age 25 and older) 14.1% 33.4%
SOURCE: U.S. Census Bureau (2016)

Race and Ethnicity
in the United States (4 of 9)
The Congressional Black Caucus represents the increasing political power of African Americans in the United States. Even so, in 2017, African Americans accounted for just forty-six members of the House of Representatives, three members of the U.S. Senate, and no state governors.

Race and Ethnicity
in the United States (5 of 9)
Asian Americans
18 million, 5.6 percent of U.S. population
Enormous diversity within category
Attention commanded as high achievers
“Model minority” stereotype
Chinese Americans, Japanese Americans, and recent Asian immigrants

Race and Ethnicity
in the United States (7 of 9)
Arab Americans
Increasing in size
Ancestors lived in a variety of countries and cultures differ from society to society
All social classes represented
Often stereotyped as terrorists and target of hate crimes
This mosque rises above the cornfields in a rural area near Toledo, Ohio.

Arab American communities can be found in many large cities on the East and West Coasts of the United States, but the heaviest concentrations are found across the upper Midwest.
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Race and Ethnicity
in the United States (8 of 9)
White Ethnic Americans
Persist in many U.S. cities, especially in the Northeast region of the country
Primarily working-class men and women whose ancestors came to U.S. as immigrants
Endured some prejudice and discrimination
To many people, areas such as Philadelphia’s Italian Market are a source of attractive cultural diversity.

National Map 15–3 The Concentration of Hispanics or Latinos, African Americans, Asian Americans, and Arab Americans, by County

In 2015, Asian Americans represented 5.6 percent of the U.S. population.
That’s compared with 17.6 percent Hispanic Americans, 12.4 percent African Americans, and 0.6 percent Arab Americans.
These maps show the geographic distribution of these categories of the U.S. population.
Comparing them we see that the southern half of the United States is home to far more minorities than the northern half.
But do all minorities concentrate in the same areas of the country?
What patterns do the maps reveal?
SOURCE: U.S. Census Bureau (2016).
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Photo Credits
386: Gregory Reed/Shutterstock; 388: Creatista/Shutterstock; 389: Charles O’Rear/Corbis/VCG/Getty Images; 389: Paul Matthew Photography/
Shutterstock; 389: Se media/Shutterstock; 389: Wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock; 389: Paul W. Liebhardt; 389: Agencja Fotograficzna Caro/Alamy Stock Photo; 393: Joe Raedle/Getty Images News/Getty Images; 396: Ed Endicott/Alamy Stock Photo; 398: Joe Raedle/Getty Images; 401: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division[LC-USZ62-98729]; 402: Pictorial Press Ltd/Alamy Stock Photo; 402: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division[LCUSZ62-119343]; 402: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division[LCUSZ62-7816]; 402: Bettmann/Contributor/Getty Images; 404: Benjamin Applebaum/506 collection/Alamy Stock Photo; 406: RosaIreneBetancourt 6/Alamy Stock Photo; 408: Hill Street Studios/Crystal Cartier; 409: Jim West/Alamy Stock Photo; 410: Andre Jenny/Stock Connection Worldwide/Newscom; 411:
HONGQI ZHANG/123 RF GB; 412: David De Lossy/Getty Images; 413: Steven Widoff/Alamy Stock Photo.

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