Assignment sociology Essay

Submitted By angelaway98
Words: 4603
Pages: 19

Angela Way
Sociology-P1
Feminism:
This theory contains three different parts developed by Marx, Ellen Wills and politicians in the 1970’s. Marx developed the Marxist theory which consisted of women being oppressed by capitalism and men. For example, women were expected to be a housewife and be dominated by men. This means that they depend on a wealthy man to live a stable lifestyle and did not work for themselves.
The second part was Radical feminism and this was developed by a woman called Ellen Wills. This suggested that women were oppressed by only men and expected to stay at home mothering the children and doing the general duties of a house wife. This is similar to the Marxist theory however women were not looking for a gentleman with money but more focusing on bringing up the next generation.
The last part of the feminism theory was Liberal feminism and this was developed by politicians in that the legislation ‘Equal pay act (1970)’ and ‘sex discrimination act (1975)’ meant that society became more equal as women were able to work and get paid equally to men and aimed to stop sexism in our society. However still from today our society is not completely equal.
Functionalism:
In the 1890’s Talcott Parsons developed the functionalism theory. His theory meant that society work together and uses methods of social control to deal with deviant members or groups, to ensure that society functions smoothly. Functionalists approach to sociology uses the metaphor of society working like the human body. For example, it uses the major organs (heart, lungs, liver and kidneys) to describe the interrelationships of our society. This means that as the body needs those organs, our society needs things such as banks, education, a health system, employment etc. to run smoothly as a whole. The human body organs all play an equal part in keeping the body running healthily, just like the departments of society all contribute to our society running smoothly. When one organ from our body does not work or has problems it means our whole body is affected, similarly when one part of our society is suffering or breaks down our whole society is affected. Functionalism is a sociological approach that sees the institutions of society as working in harmony with each other, making specific and clear contributions to the smooth running of society.
Collectivism:
In 1947, after the Second World War, a number of politicians developed the collectivist theory which addressed poverty through a wide range of welfare benefits. After the war, it became hard to get back to normal as so many homes and businesses’ had been destroyed. This theory came with many suggestions to overcome the challenges they had to face. For example, one point was to combat the ignorance through the expansion of opening secondary education to everyone. This would mean that more people were guaranteed the right education to open up more job opportunities. They also made it possible to build council houses so that there would be less homeless people and provide a cheaper place to live. The collectivism theory suggested we put more money in to the National Health Service to provide equipment to fight off diseases around in that time. One last point they made was to remove illness by supporting policies of full employment and the development of labour exchange. Collectivism is the opposite to individualism in that we all work together as a society meaning that we shared the remaining resources, this lead to small communities working together rather than government and private ownership (wise geek).

Angela Way
P2-Sociology
Health is a person’s mental/physical state. When someone has ill-health it means there is a problem with their health and they do not feel like their usual self (Google definitions).Health is defined in three different ways:
• Positive:
This is an effect which contributes to good health or improving health. For example it says (Wilkinson, 1996) ‘having a sense of control