Sociology: More Than a Career Path?

Sociology: More Than a Career Path?

By: Donna Gallano

 Many people, including myself at one point, believe that sociology is a specific line of study for those interested in pursing a career in this field. From just being in an introductory sociology class for half a semester I have realized how false that belief is. Sociology affects everyone in the world in all different kinds of ways. It can help explain many aspects and conflicts of life, and usually sociologist are the ones who will challenge these issues and push for change.

What makes sociology relevant to us all is this idea of a sociological perspective, which is seeing how the general patterns of society shape individual lives. Developing this perspective and applying it in our daily lives will give us all personal awareness which can help us understand how and why our society operates the way it does.

The social-conflict approach in forming a theory of society “sees society as an arena of inequality that generates conflict and change.” Within this approach we study how race, gender, sexual orientation and age are related to how money, power, education and social prestige are distributed unequally. With a sociological perspective we can use different theories such as this one, to help us understand these societal patterns and hopefully incorporate this knowledge in our own life decisions, and in shaping the lives of the children we may raise.  There are two main theories that branch from this approach which are, gender-conflict theory and race-conflict theory. These theories help explain how the many issues pertaining to gender and race are formed, and why they're still prevalent today.

Gender conflict is more closely related to feminism, the fight for equality of men and women. With this social conflict there has been a lot of policy change in the past that has given women many of the rights owed to them such as voting, education, and being allowed to run for office. The unfortunate thing is that although women have gained these right throughout the past decades we still see gender conflict lying beneath the surface and causing much controversy and problems. For example, Hilary Clinton who is argued to be among one of the most prime candidates for presidency still lost that race when her qualification met or exceed her competitors. Don’t get me wrong, it isn’t fair to say she didn’t get elected just because she is a woman but we now have had an African American president and still not one women president. With this I am just emphasizing the fact that gender inequality is still socialized into many people across the country.

We all are aware of the recent racial tension that has risen throughout the country, and quite frankly it has brought up some deep-rooted issues people around the U.S hold. Race-conflict pushes for the equality of all races, and not just for these “rights” they may legally have, but for true equality so that other races are treated in the same light as most Caucasians usually are. We can blatantly see that there is still much work left to do in order to obtain this goal, but that is what drives the social change we need. In our sociology 170 class, Professor Weffer (a Latino) gave a personal example of racial profiling that he had experienced being a college student at UIC. While wearing UIC soccer apparel he was stopped on his walk from the library to his dorms late one night, and the police insisted he present a school I.D. This was even after he told the police where he came from and where he was headed, and not to mention his clothes clearly demonstrated his affiliation with the university. Now this is just among some of the racial profiling that goes on in our society, and is probably pretty minor compared to most.

When we really consider all of these social issues and how they originated, and continue to unfortunately thrive today, we see that sociology is among our everyday lives. By any individual having basic sociological knowledge they can seek change in their personal lives and among their society. Overall, one can simply obtain a deeper understanding of the world around them.

External Links:

-http://www.summer.harvard.edu/blog-news-events/gender-inequality-women-workplace

-http://wallstcheatsheet.com/politics/where-is-america-today-on-racial-inequality.html/?a=viewall