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Gender Roles Of Herbert Spencer

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Herbert Spencer is a classical thinker who focused on the way society changes and functions in a sociological way. As time goes by change is something that cannot be avoided. Change has occurred throughout history for many different reasons that have caused a ripple effect upon different institutions. Whether the change is a result of social reform or advancing technology there is little chance of preventing the effect that it will have on society. The masculine and feminine gender roles back in the 50’s can be used as an example of how society has changed. Women were excluded from taking part in wars and were forced into household roles such as: childrearing, household chores and other homely duties. In todays society woman are doing duties that were once considered to be a man’s job and vice versa. Herbert Spencer studied society as a large-scale system of interrelated institutions and structures. He studied evolution as a change from unstable to one that was more stable. Spencer believes that knowing what modern day society is, how it works, and how it changes gives a firm base to develop our own view of society. Herbert Spencer is the founder of structural functionalism focusing on institutions based upon positivism in regards to facts and universal laws. During his studies, “Herbert Spencer used the organismic analogy to think about society as a whole” (Allen, page 22). He uses society in the context of an environmental object and further depicts how it functions.

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