week 1- introduction (concept and definition)

As key components of social structure, statuses and roles allow us to organize
our lives in consistent, predictable ways. In combination with established norms,
they prescribe our behavior and ease interaction with people who occupy different
social
statuses, whether we know these people or not. Yet there is an insidious
side to this kind of predictable world: When normative role behavior becomes too
rigidly defined, our freedom of action is often compromised. These rigid definitions
are associated with the development of stereotypes—oversimplified conceptions
that people who occupy the same status group share certain traits they have in
common. Although stereotypes can include positive traits, they most often consist
of negative ones that are then used to justify discrimination against members of a
given group. The statuses of male and female are often stereotyped according to
the traits they are assumed to possess by virtue of their biological makeup. Women
are stereotyped as flighty and unreliable because they possess uncontrollable raging
hormones that fuel unpredictable emotional outbursts. The assignment of negative
stereotypes can result in sexism, the belief that the status of female is inferior to
the status of male. Males are not immune to the negative consequences of sexism,
but females are more likely to experience it because the status sets they occupy are
more stigmatized than those occupied by males. Compared to males, for example,
females are more likely to occupy statuses inside and outside their homes that are
associated with less power, less prestige, and less pay or no pay. Beliefs about inferiority
due to biology are reinforced and then used to justify discrimination directed
toward females.

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