Sociological theories and health - feminism and Marxism

Anna Smith

Unit- Sociological Perspectives

Health and Social Care

Feminism

This movement that is dedicated to making sure women have and attain rights and opportunities equal to those enjoyed by men. Feminists believe that women experience discrimination because of their sex and the also have particular needs that remain unmet as to in society. Within the feminist movement, there are various perspectives of what is the main importance. Some feminists hold Marxists views and take into consideration that capitalist society is mostly dominated by men. They believe that that these two factors are repeatedly reinforcing embedding their position as a natural order of society; this continues female oppression both ideologically and economically.

Gender and patterns are associated with the feminist approach, as women’s expectancy is higher then men as they live 5 years longer then men, as infant mortality rates for boys are higher then those then baby girls, there is also a higher death rate for men this can be associated with the higher levels of alcohol drinking and cigarette smoking, there is also a high death rate for the younger generation of men aged between 17 and 24 this can be associated with risk taking and linked deaths from road accidents, this could be linked to the feminism approach because ...

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Marxism

The basis of Marxism is social class in terms of the different levels of power each class has, the relationship of each class has to the means of production, the conflicts this makes and the influence these conflicts have on the society. In Marxism, there two major social classes within a capitalist society of private enterprise economy. These are the powerful ruling class they are called bourgeoisie who have means of production, they are the owners of property, factories and land, because of their position they are able to subordinate the working class proletariat. The working class have to sell their labour to the ruling class in order to earn wages to live.

Social class is linked with the Marxist approach this is mostly relied on the opposing classes the working class, and the ruling class

The Acheson Report (1998) shows that there is an existence of health inequalities and their association to social class, in this report there is data, even though there is a downfall in mortality, the superior classes take into account more rapid mortality deterioration.

In The Black Report (1980) the report shows that there are higher levels of poverty in the lower social class and higher death rates due to ill health, the higher social class live in a more advanced area which more suitable for living conditions, but in contrast to that, people that live in the ruling class live in the inner city areas which is more prone to higher levels of pollution.

Teacher Reviews

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Diane Apeah-Kubi

9th of Aug 2013

An introduction outlining what would be covered would be useful to help the reader get a sense of what will be presented. It is also useful for the writer in terms of using it to check that what it is the main body matches what was written in the introduction. Without the detail of what M2 requires, I cannot say whether it has been achieved or not. I will say that the writer does evidence good knowledge of Marxist theory and the basic ideas around Feminism. Excellent links were made to relevant reports and what they suggest about social class and health inequalities, however grammatical errors did not allow the writer?s ideas to come through clearly. Please proof-read carefully. It appeared that the writer was trying to make a link between feminist theory and health inequalities, but this link did not come through clearly. If feminist theory mainly deals with the subordination of women in society, how does that link to trends in health amongst women, e.g. depression rates for instance? 3/5

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