The Social-Conflict Theory Of Inequality In Every Society

This shows relation to the ‘conflict theory’, because different social groups are not treated equally.

Conflict Theory was "influenced by Karl Marx's socioeconomic view of the elite exploiting the masses." (Parillo 12). The conflict perspective focuses on the inequalities that create racial and ethnic tensions between groups. In contrast to the fundamentalist's emphasis on stability, conflict theorists maintain, "Racism has much to do with maintaining power and controlling resources." Society is seen as being continually involved in struggles and disagreements as diverse groups struggle over limited resources. The system is hierarchical and characterized by social inequality. Conflict theorists argue that the rich and powerful force social order on the poor and weak and that existing social patterns benefit some people while depriving others. "Conflict theorists

A sociological imagination is the idea of how a personal experience can affect society as a whole. At some point a personal issue becomes a public issue. Conflict theory is the idea of competition over limited resources such as money. The theory is about domination and power rather than peace and cooperation. Those with power and wealth try to maintain that position by suppressing those without. The United States poverty is most easily explained by the conflict theory because in the US, the wealthy stay wealthy and the poor stay poor due to suppression.

As civilization has evolved, economic inequality has existed since the feudal era and has made its place in modern society. It is a dilemma that examines the gap between the low wealth of the middle-class worker and the profitable earnings of the monopolizing upper-class business owner. It is a socio- economic issue that can best explored through the lens of the conflict theory; thoroughly explaining as to how the wealth gap came to exist and the consequences of such an economic state on the interaction between the middle-class worker and the wealthy businessman.

Social conflict theory is a Marxist-based social theory which argues that individuals and groups (social classes) within society have differing amounts of material and non-material resources (the wealthy vs. the poor) and that the more powerful groups use their power in order to exploit groups with less power.[citation needed]

Men and women have different levels of risks of getting mental illnesses such as alcohol dependency. This is “more than twice as high in men than women. In developed countries, approximately 1 in 5 men and 1 in 12 women develop alcohol dependence during their lives” WHO 2015. This clearly shows that men and women have different risks when it comes to health and illness. Men are also twice as likely to have personality disorders, but women are more likely to have anxiety and depression than men are. Women have more accounts of sexual harassment and rape and this has a knock on effect to the amount of people with depression.

Conflict theorist have an opposing view, that the inequality seen in society is a result of domination and coercion where those with power, wealth and prestige exploit those without to maintain their standings. They believe that that every person and class are fighting over a limited number of resources and each is competing for an advantage. Wealth inequality is unfair because the elites, those in control of “societal resources” use those resources to perpetuate their own standing by shaping the belief system of society, controlling the distribution of resources, and blocking the mobility and opportunities of the poor. Because the wealth inequality is inherently unfair, conflict theorist argue that the disadvantaged in society should be given support by redirecting the “societal resources” to those in need. [9]

Eating disorders are largely considered to be a "female disease". Statistics seem to validate this perception – of the estimated five million-plus adults in the United States who have an eating disorder, only ten percent are thought to be male ((1)). Many professionals, however, hold the opinion that these numbers are incorrect – it is impossible to base the statistics on anything other than the number of adults diagnosed with eating disorders, and men are much less likely than women to seek help for such a problem ((2)). This means that the male population probably suffers more from eating disorders than the numbers show.

Mortality rates: In gender men generally die earlier than women because of many aspects of their life, for instance in general women tend to take care of them self more physically. A lot of women go on diets and a lot of exercise DVDs and detunes are mainly aimed at women. Women in general do try to eat healthy and go on diets whereas men usually aren't very aware of their diet and don’t have much intention on improving it. Women also tend to go to the doctors and seek medical advice more often and have their illnesses diagnosed and treated more often than men. Because women' generally take more care of themselves and do more to keep themselves healthy.

Conflict theory is an argument that deviance is deliberately chosen and often political in nature. Conflict theories also show competition for gender dominance in gender inequality. Men would be the dominant sex in this theory, making women the obvious subordinate sex. This hierarchy is prominent in every society in our world today. This means most standards and rules are usually made around men, and in turn things are usually seen through the male perspective. Since this is the standard view in our society, and the view we have all come to know, it makes narrowing the inequality gap between men and women a very difficult task. Gender inequality could also be seen as political in nature as well. Politics play an immense role in gender inequality and could definitely help stop this issue in America, but would it really make a difference? Laws may change to help protect women and their rights but it can never change the way that people think and raise their children.

It is based on four principles: it is a trait of society, it from generations to generation, it is universal, it involves inequality. Two theorists, Karl Marx and Max Weber, are the prominent contributors. How gender, race and class plays a role in a society is clearly stated. Gender stratification occurs among men and women when men are given better recognition and opportunity than women. Feminist theory uses the conflict approach to examine the effect these social stratifiers play. Conflict theorist is of the opinion that stratification is harmful to the society. The economy benefits the upper or middle class over the working class, white over other race or skin

Femanism is defined as the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes ("feminism" def. 1). Both the 1980s and 1990s were filled with optimism and inspiration for women in the fight for equality. The Second wave feminism was a product of the civil right movement, as the women involved in it became disappointed with being seen as second class operators within the equality movement. These women are often refered to as the women 's liberation movement.

Society is created to be functional, but for whom? In America, there is a lower class, a middle class, and an upper class. A majority of the lower class are minorities, while the upper class are mainly white. This is no mistake, society was made to function for rich, white, owning men. Poverty is one of the greatest assets the upper class has to keep them at their high status. Poverty allows the upper class to stay on top, while the lower class suffers from a multitude of problems such as poor education systems, high incarceration rates, and financial troubles that keep them from moving up the socioeconomic ladder.

Inequality had been appeared since a long time ago and still exists in today’s liberal society. The possibility of equality in possession of one will lead to inequality as long as human beings still possess more than one attribute or good. For example, disabled people who are unfortunately born disadvantageous compare to normal people, disabled people’s needs are greater even though they both receive the equality of healthcare. This essay will illustrate the reason of the existence of inequality in modern society and therefore prove that this concept is natural and inevitable by discussing two major points which are gender and class inequality with references of three main famous authors: Mill, Marx and Weber.

“A specter is haunting Europe-the specter of Communism”. These words by Karl Marx resonate not only in Europe, but also in the world today. The specter is that of inequality and the importance of human relationship. Richard Wilkinson, a professor of Social Epidemiology at University of Nottingham, speaks about how economic inequality harms society. He said in the beginning of his speech, “I think the intuition that inequality is divisive and socially corrosive has been around since before French revolution”. There have been a lot of people who fought for equality in American history. Still, not all individuals have it and some are still fighting for it, especially in the working industry. Inequality has been a threat to the importance of human relation. Americans should eliminate the prejudices of being too narrow-minded about the blue collar workers because this will lead to social conflict in our society.