SOCIOLOGY OF HEALTH AND ILLNESS

Sociology of Health and Illness

Sociology of Health and Illness

Introduction

The social inequality and disparities are found in the societies in Britain not only today but they have been prevalent for years. These disparities make the society question if domestic and global inequalities highlight the inevitability and functionality of stratification. Human geographers became directly interested in the study of inequality when the focus of the discipline shifted to examining spatial differences using quantitative methods and exploring how different variables varied across space (Britton,2000,418-434). Typically, such variations occurred across a country or city, although a few scholars were interested in variations across the globe.

Critical Assessment

Gender Based Inequalities

The term gender refers to the “social” or “psychological” gender of a person, where “sex” and “gender” should be seen as analytically independent of each other. Gender refers to a historically specific practice of social classification. It focuses on the special perceptions and patterns of interpretation by which the binary structure of “male” and “female” is viewed, dealt with, and institutionalized. In doing so, it deals with the symbolic order of sexes in a society, as well as with the self-attributions and identification of the individual, which focus on it but are not identical to this symbolism (Britton, 2000, 418-434). In most societies, categorizing into male and female gender categories takes place on the basis of the shaping of primary and secondary gender characteristics. Disambiguation and the one-sidedness of “male” and “female” are associated with the two-gender classification, as well as with social relations of symmetry and asymmetry, equality and hierarchy, of inclusion and exclusion (Britton, 2000, 418-434). These relationships are embedded in concrete social relations and structural connections. At the same time, the fact that classifications do not simply exist but constantly need to be reacquired points to their instability and dependency on having to be updated at a practical level. Based on the realization that social gender differentiation is not based on anthropological, biological, or physiological conditions but on the result of social classifications, it can be inferred that the hierarchical relationship of the sexes to one another is not an expression of a “natural” order that cannot be changed (Hall, 2007, 1-11).

Explanation

On average, in Britain, men earn more than women, although the difference between the sexes is being reduced in most developed countries. In many poorer countries, however, the divide is still marked. If today widows rarely throw themselves on their dead husbands' funeral pyres, their daughters still live shorter and more brutish lives than their sons. Generally, discrimination between the sexes is more marked at the bottom of the social ladder than at the top (Hall, 2007, 1-11). This trend is reflected in the number of female politicians and legislators who have gradually gained power in recent years. However, the conditions in which poor women in Britain live tend to be distinctly less positive than those of poor men. Women work harder than men, earn less money and respect, and have fewer opportunities for education or higher-paying ...