1. Explain the rise of feminism and discuss the issue of gender inequality in health care and education as it relates to women in the United States.
Feminism refers to the belief in the philosophy that women and men are equal hence deserve to be treated in the same way. In the 1960s, women in America face limitations almost in every sphere of life. They were lefty to be housewives with their main role in the society being servants of their husbands. For those who had a rare chance of getting a job, they were subjected to poor working conditions when compared to their male counterparts including getting very low salaries. However, there were brave women who emerged and started the feminist movement in America. The rise of the feminist movement in the 1960s started with the demand for better terms of service at the workplaces for the women employees (O'Neill, 2013). The feminist movement started with the demands for an end to gender-based inequality at the workplace. Later on, this movement picked momentum and started demanding the respect of women rights as equal to men even in families.
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As mentioned earlier, women in the United States of America have been able to experience in healthcare and in education. In hospitals, women employees are not allowed to lead medical departments. This is the same in the education field. Leadership positions are left for the men. Then in schools, more boys are sent to school buy their parents than girls. This situation continues to be witnessed. It is the reason for the calls to implement affirmative action.
2. Explain the conflict perspective on Social Security and discuss intergenerational competition and conflict.
According to the conflict perspective on social security, there is competition among social groups to have control of power and the scarce resources. The fact presented by the conflict perspective on social security is that although people may fail to recognize it, the youths and the elderly are fierce opponents in a struggle that always threatens to push the society into trouble. The best way to explain this view is by considering the social security law.
Initially, many elderly people did not have any form income once they reached 65 because they had not saved money for their future lives. Social security was introduced in the 1920s to give them an income on which to survive. To provide jobs for younger people, the new Social Security law required that workers retire at age 65. It did not matter how well people did their work, or how much they needed the pay. For decades, the elderly protested. Finally, in 1986, Congress eliminated mandatory retirement. This inter-generational conflict may persist forever. The issue of social security and forceful retirement at the age of 65 years old normally appears like a case of taking money from the elderly to give the youths. This notion causes an inter-generational conflict.
3. Compare and contrast the functionalist (pluralist) and conflict (power elite) perspectives on U.S. power.
The functionalist perspective views the state as having emerged out of the social needs of the social group of people. According to functionalists, people form a government and give it power of monopoly over violence as a way of protecting themselves from oppression. The risk in this case is when the state decides to misuse this monopoly and starts mistreating its citizens.
The conflict view, on the other hand, is made up of the top leaders who make the decisions on behalf of the country (Kauppi & Madsen, 2013). These are very powerful individuals who run the affairs of the country. Power elites include military leaders and politicians at the top. The similarity in the two views is that both view the government as a tool of protection against oppression.
4. Discuss the globalization of capitalism, including its effects on workers, the division of wealth and the global superclass.
As a result of capitalism, the world countries have become part of a single huge economic unit. The result is that an economic shock in one country, such as the Great Depression in the U.S, affects all countries of the world. Capitalization has brought about free trade and flow of people, which benefits workers with more opportunities.
Moreover productivity of workers is on the rise with the advancement of technology. The emerging overlapping memberships of the globe’s top multinational companies enfold their leaders into a small circle that are called the global superclass .
References
Kauppi, N., & Madsen, M. R. (Eds.). (2013). Transnational power elites: The new professionals of governance, law and security . Abingdon-on-Thames: Routledge.
O'Neill, W. L. (2013). The woman movement: feminism in the United States and England . Abingdon-on-Thames: Routledge.
