Week 12: Domestic Division of Labor

Family and work are the two main concerns of all married women all over the world. The struggle gets even tougher when one has kids and more so when one is a single parent. On completing the chart 'Who completes which task in your family', I realized my mom does majority of the household work and some chores that I never even thought of before! The rise in women labor force has brought a change in the roles and expectations of the gender, both at workplace and family. Even though men have started sharing a lot of daily chores; not in a lot of families will you see the husband cooking, doing the laundry, or cleaning up the house. The men in the families would take up occasional tasks like lawn mowing, washing the car or much fun chores like giving the kids a bath etc.
The fact is household and child care responsibilities are still applicaple to women even if she has to get to work at 9:00am and doesnt return home until 5:00pm. I believe it is the society's expectations and social assumptions of gender roles. The social agents such as one's own family, schools, books, media etc. all assume and preach that women are the nurturing and the care taking sex. Women who are not able to keep up to the expectations feel gulity of not being able to do so.

Week 11: Is our world secularizing??

 After I read the news everyday and today after reading the chapter, I believe our assumtion that we are secularizing is a absolutely false. The world today as I see it, is frantically religious as always! Even though there is a huge population of atheists (1.1 billion according to Adherents.com), secularization is not a dominant trend. As religious organizations such as Churches and Temples are losing their former social and political influence; religion still remains significant often in new and unfamiliar forms. Not all of us go to a Church or a Temple every week, but most of us do believe in going on pilgrimages once in a while.
I believe that having some sort of faith is not wrong as long as it serves the purpose of preaching peace and satisfies the yearning of our 'soul' for purpose and meaning. However, when religion leads to some sort of fundamentalism is where the problem arises. I come from India, where communal riots between the Hindus and the Muslims is a common sight. 9/11 was a catastrophe which has left indelible images on our minds. There are many such catastrophic events that have proved time and again that a portion of the society/world has gone furiously religious as ever. Hence, in an era where people are killing each other in the name of religion and where the propenents of cosmic warfare justify the loss of innocent lives as serivng God's larger purpose, I am afraid we still have to go a long way to say that our world is secularizing.

Week 10: A Tale of Two Families

After more than two hundred years of continuous presence in North America, African Americans are still in a miserable situation due to the residues of slavery and widespread discrimination and prejudice against them for a very long time. The story ' A Tale of Two Cities' throws light on how many African Americans face problems in every step of their lives. And unfortunately this is passed on to their children and hence many future generations are effected who in turn have to struggle to make a living. Unfortunately, not everyone are able to be a part of th so called 'American Dream'. Not everyone gets the same access to home ownership, good schools, health services and other resources. I do believe strongly in the statement that  - Wealth is not just luxury; its also the starting point for the next generation. I have been fortunate enough by the grace of God to be able to start my career without the pressure of supporting my family. However, I have seen how financial support in the beginning of one's career actually helps a person start at a much raised platform than those who don't have it at all.  The story emphasizes on how important the access to good resources is essential for a comfortable start.

Week 8: Why we should care about Global Inequality?

Rapid globalization has a huge impact on the future of global inequality. The question is: Why/How does Global Inequality matter to us? The truth is it is incorrect to look at inequality as being solely an issue to the poor as the fact remains that is is intrinsically connected to wealth. For instance, the ease with which corporations move from one country to another might result in falling wages for many people in high income countries and rising wages for  some in low-income countries. Globalization has intertwined countries and detaching one from the other is not easy. Where our country falls in this global stratification of economies effects most of our economic activities such as the prices we pay for goods and services, size and strength of our economy, the availability of technology and the quality of education, health and employment we receive. Each country has a lot to offer and contribute to the world either in a positive  or a negative way. Hence, each individual making up a society is affected by global inequality and also equally contributes to it.

Week 7: How much does social class matter in the U.S. today?

Today, class is not just limited to one's occupation but it also depends on one's lifestyle and consumption patterns. People do give importance to the price tag  on the watch than on the dial, they do feel it is important to buy branded clothes, teenagers want to own an iPod or an iPhone, membership in an elite polo/golf or a country club does matter. Depending on these is how you would form your social group or your 'friends' that you would hang out with. When I was in school it did matter what gadgets I own, which brands do I wear and what my parents do. I have to admit that since I belonged from a well to do family, it did help me get into the in-groups most of the times (if not the one with the very rich kids!). However, the question is who is the judge of what exactly is class? Friends might think you are a social climber, whereas children or your younger siblings may be embarrassed to introduce you to their friends! In an era, when people from different backgrounds can watch the same television show, can have access to the same programs on the internet, can shop in the same mall stores; aren't class differences nullified?

Modern societies have become more materialistic and are people are driven by goods they own. However, can we ever draw a distinct line between the social classes (upper, middle, lower etc.)? Won't every class have its own subclass? I do think that though the American society is class conscious, however, it is not that stratified as some other popular societies. Merit and education does play an important role and there have been quite a number of instances when people have beaten the odds to become successful.

Week 6: Are we more isolated due to technology??

There has been speculation and fear of the impact of technology such as internet on people and communities since it emerged. In my opinion, though internet has created a lifestyle that prevents people from engaging in face to face conversations, it has definitely bought people - families and friends together. It is true that internet has weakened day to day community life but at the same time it has created new forms of communities which brings people with shared interests together which can later flourish in to a personal relationship. Some experts and critics may say that the internet creates loneliness and boredom, but on the positive side it can be tool to kill loneliness. Moreover, today people do realize the importance of spending time with family and friends due to the awareness of the fact that they spend a major portion of their day in front of the computer and internet. Internet creates efficiency and helps make so many transactions quicker which in turn saves time for face to face socializing with family and friends. Furthermore, how can we blame technology for increasing isolation when it can be actually used as a tool to increase social network and be in touch with our loved ones which otherwise would have been a problem. 

However, by saying this I do not support sitting glued to the computer or any other form of technology all the time. If used to the right extent, technology can be a boon rather than a bane. Present and future generations should be taught the importance of balancing technology and personal face to face relationships. 

Week 5: Community Policing and Shaming

In my opinion, Community Policing and Shaming are good ideas to monitor crime and dealing with criminals. Community Policing provides the community with a voice in how it expects to be policed. The mutual understanding and partnership between the police and the community could bring up the most effective ways of policing. It  might also help in solving some recurring criminal problems in the community as both the police officials and the community members tend to be on the same page while trying to fix the issue. Moreover, it gives the police department a chance to become familiar with more people and change the negative views and reputation towards them if any. It helps both parties to interact and make the community a safer place to live in.

Shaming on the other hand could be effective to a certain extent. Some hardened criminals who have no qualms about what they do, probably won't feel embarrassment whatever the case maybe. However, it might work on young teenagers and school children who are usually afraid of their families, teachers and being boycotted by their friends. Shaming is definitely a better method than incarcerating these young children who might commit crimes under the influence of peer groups, drugs etc; and hence they should be given a chance to start afresh.

Week 4: Nature vs. Nurture

Nature endows us with inborn abilities and traits while nurture shapes our genetic tendencies as we grow and mature. It is true that our DNA definitely has a role in shaping on how intelligent we are or how our personalities shape up as we grow. However, I believe that Nurture plays a larger role in defining who we are and how we behave and interact at the end of the day. For instance, if environment didn't play a part then ideally identical twins should be exactly same in all aspects! I believe our families, their upbringing, education, religion, peer groups, media and other such social factors play a very significant role in shaping our personality. As mentioned in the book, the unsocialized children namely the 'Wild Boy of Aveyron' and 'Genie' are examples of how different a human beings can be when prevented from interacting with the society. Furthermore, violent, aggressive, alcoholic or a sexually pervert person is not born that way; his experiences in life with family, peer groups and other such agents of socialization makes him like that. How a child behaves and reacts to situations and circumstances depends on how his parents, friends or teachers might have reacted to a similar situation or what they might have asked him to do in a situation like that. So to what extent are we a product of Nature or Nurture depends on how the two interact and not just one factor.

Week 3: How American Culture looks to outsiders

The clip (starring Hugh Laurie) seems to me like a satire on Americans and how at times they are full of themselves. It shows constructive social criticism by the British of the perception of how Americans are usually very proud of their country. I personally found it hilarious! The way Hugh Laurie says 'States' is very funny which reiterates how some Americans won't think beyond their own country. Every citizen is proud of his/her own country and I would not say it is not right. However, such clips are supposed to be taken in the right spirit and should be left at that. The way the sketch ends shows how the clip's producer just wanted it to be a joke and wanted to make sure there is nothing more to it.

Week 2: Stanford Prison Experiment

I do not think the Stanford Prison Experiment carried out by Philip Zimbardo was unethical as it just helped him emphasize on the fact that how "good people" can be manipulated by their environment to conduct or accept  atrocious evil  behavior. I think the experiment just showed that once people are given the authority (Stanford Prison Experiment) and once they are assured that they won't be responsible for the outcome of their actions (Milgram experiment); so called "good people" do not take a lot of time to execute such beastly actions. If the experiment was to be unethical it wouldn't have been called off earlier and Zimbardo could have forced to continue with the experiment assuming he had paid those students. In fact, the results of the experiment just shocked everyone as it showed how permeable (sponge-like) and adaptable human brain is. However, I do agree that there could have been other ways of proving this point, and this experiment probably wasn't the only solution.

Week 1 :Introduction, SOC 200

Hello everyone,

I am Aditi Nayak, an international student from India. I graduated in May 2010, with a Bachelors in Accounting and Finance. I am currently working with an European Start up firm. I am taking these ELI courses in order to earn 150 credits for my CPA license. I chose this course in particular as I thoroughly enjoyed the Sociology class I took while I was in Temple University. It was exciting and enriching to know about people, their ethnicities, races and the development of human society. I am looking forward to enhance my knowledge through this course. During my leisure time, I enjoy reading novels, listening to music and I love to travel.