Family structure has changed. In the past there were mostly nuclear families, but in contemporary society there is diversity of families. Divorced parents, lone parents, homosexual parents, families where women work in part-time or full-time jobs, or families where both parents work full time. These bring uncertainty to the society, as families are not stable. The power between men and women within the family is more equal. Man is no longer seen as the only one who brings home money for living because there are possibilities for women in the labour market. However in most cases, women have still the main responsibility of household and children, so at the end, they have to struggle between unpaid work in housework and paid work in public sector.
The private patriarchy, when men exercise power over women has moved, as Silvia Walby argues, to public patriarchy. (Sherratt, 2004, p.65). It could be seen in the labour market, where women have lower paid jobs than men for exactly the same work, and in some places women are much less likely to get jobs at a younger age, as some companies do not want to lose their workers due to pregnancies.
Another feminist writer, Saskia Sassen outlines that economic globalization brings inequality not only to women in developed countries but also in the Third World, where there is not enough income. Because of internationalized manufacturing production, and pressures from low-cost imports, many women in poor countries have entered the labour market. Mostly these are young women, and their households are left without the important contributions women make. Due to poor education and training and family responsibilities, women have significantly less money, and they are not financial independent. Globalization is a phenomenon including changes in culture, politics and economics globally, where some parts of the world are getting closer and others are drifting further apart with no reference to geographical distance. Some people might benefit from globalization, and some might not. Globalization brings new patterns of migration, which has negative effects for women, as they can be easily pressured into prostitution or be dislocating from their families. (Held, 2004, p.101) Many people and families decide to migrate to developed countries for better lives, but it is not always easy for women, who cannot find a decent job, due to their education.
In the past, there were other divisions in the labour market due to race and ethnicity. In 1950s there has been a massive increase of people from other colonies, such as Africa, Caribbean and India, who were looking for a better lifestyle in the UK. These people were subject to racism and had low-class jobs. Today they have a better chance to earn more money, and live safer life’s, but even though people have better knowledge and are more educated, in some places the inequalities and racism still continue. Racisms affect people, who are identified as belonging to ‘races’ and are not considered to be socially valuable. These people usually do not have social rights or they are name-called. (Woodward, 2004, p.121)
Another change in the last fifty years was how people look at disabled people. They are not any more considered to be a burden on society, where there is no place for them. They are able to work, and be educated as anyone else. In the past, disability was something that made people different from the others, and disabled people were not able to live normal lives and had to be always dependent on someone else. In this contemporary society, disabled people have more opportunities, and they are not at the centre of attention. (TV02, The Unusual Suspects)
Not all divisions are less significant, due to globalization and new technologies, people in developing countries might feel more social divisions, than fifty years ago.
Due to new technologies, and quick communications, people in developed countries are able to see what is going on in developing countries. Fifty years ago, it was not as easy as now to travel to other countries within few hours. It is quite easy and quick now to see the social divisions between developed countries and the Third World. People in developing countries do not always have the opportunity of using clean water for drinking, being educated or have the opportunity to use electricity. This also brings, as pessimistic globalists agree the inequalities between those who are “information rich” and “information poor”, as they are not able to use communication technologies or have access to information. (Held, 2004, p.57)
So how can it be seen in the example above, it is not only about material things, but also about knowledge, what distinguish people from one another, and making big gap in social divisions.
Fifty years ago, the people who had more knowledge than others, experts, were quite clearly dissociated from the rest of society. For example in medical society, the doctors were the experts, and people did trust them. An expert, more generally, is a person with extensive knowledge or ability in a particular area of study. Experts have the power, because they have the knowledge. In the past general practitioner was seen as a friend, family doctor for all members of the family, somebody with authority and widely recognized in the community. General practitioners were well respected between their patients, who took their advice and treatments seriously.
But in nowadays people do not trust the experts as much; it could be that the development of new complementary and alternative medicine and new easily accessible information sources, which contradicts what the experts say. So this means, people have much more knowledge and available information from other sources; that it might lead to anxieties or uncertainties.
As demonstrated within this essay social divisions can be seen in some areas to less significant than they were fifty years ago. Especially when it look at gender within the work place and the family set up. Divisions can also be seen to be deteriorating rapidly in terms of racism and disability discrimination. However these are not global trends. However what is important to note is that how some social divisions are actually getting bigger and at a very fast rate. This can be demonstrated by the access to knowledge. It should be available to everyone but people without such comforts like the Internet and satellite TV are being left behind. So it can be summarized that in many ways social divisions are less significant in many aspects, but in some ways social divisions can be seen as far more significant as they were fifty years ago.
Word count: 1548
References:
Gove, J. and Watt, S. (2004) ‘Identity and gender’ in Woodward, K. (ed.) Questioning Identity: Gender, Class, Ethnicity, London, Routledge/The Open University
Sherratt, N. and Hughes, G. (2004) ‘Family: from tradition to diversity?’ in Hughes, G. (ed) Ordering lives: family, work and welfare, London, Routledge/The Open University
Mackay, H. (2004) ‘The globalization of culture?’ in Held, D. (ed) A Globalizing World? Culture, Economics, Politics, London, Routledge/The Open University
Woodward, K. and Watt, S. (2004) ‘Science and Society: Knowledge in Medicine’, in Goldblatt, D. (ed) Knowledge and the Social Sciences: Theory, Method and Practise, London, Routledge/The Open University
DD100 TV Programmes and Study Skills (2005), Changing knowledge about disability, Milton Keynes: The Open University (DVD)
