Qualitative Social Research - Essay Example

QUAL The current repot looks at gender roles in society, and examines several research studies done on this with special attention paid to methodology. Overall, a summary of the issue of what gender roles, both male and female, mean in society, is approached, regarding synthesis and assimilation of ideas. Generally, many sources seem to agree that, in the modern western world, a patriarchal culture still provides gender roles that are unfair to women, although women have made many strides forwards towards gender equality and rights.

Patriarchy is used to define the control and social control mechanisms of the state in terms of gender, stating that males are in a position of power and women in one of sublimation. As one source shows, using a qualitative method of case study analysis, patriarchy can be applied to the role of the state in women’s issues to explain inequities in the system. “The social roles men and women occupy may account for gender differences. Women are thought to have poorer experiences within any given role (role strain theory), have more conflicts among their different roles (role-configuration theory), or have fewer role opportunities available to them (role accumulation hypothesis) compared to men” (Ericsson and Ciarlo, 2000).

These researchers realize that there are also other various gender role theories which use the patriarchy as a target of oppression and as a way of explaining why women in state institutions have sometimes been overrepresented historically in terms of certain perceived illnesses that were often socially based. Other sources take a more cultural view, rather than a social and historical view, when it comes to the problem of gender and how it has developed to the modern day. “Television’s first and strongest impact is on the perception that women have of the public male world and the place they have in it.

Television is an especially potent force for integrating women because television brings the public domain to women” (Spigel, 2001). This is one common argument using popular culture, and represents the search for a more personal vision. “Postwar media often suggested that television would increased women’s social isolation from public life by reinforcing spatial hierarchies that had already defined their everyday experiences in patriarchal cultures” (Spigel. 2001). There are many perspectives with which to define these issues.

Although feminist perspectives on gender may focus on historical change within their portrayals, they are more likely to also focus on the things that haven’t changed. “Not surprisingly, much of the racism or paternalism found in memoirs of colonial women focuses upon servants and substantiates this aspect of the charge leveled at them as destructive women. Yet colonial men expressed the same racism through their own work as administrators, business owners, or settlers” (Bell and Offen, 1983).

This perspective is displayed variously in relevant literature, in terms of masculine and feminine roles which perpetuated various aspects of the dominant culture in its tools of oppression. “Stereotypes appear to be a function of cultural norms and socialization. Sullivan & OConnor (1988) found that there has been a 60% increase in advertisements in which women are portrayed in purely decorative roles. They also claimed that the womans role in advertising is sexy and alluring” (Kang, 1997).

Another related issue for analysis is the amount of credence given by researchers to advertising texts and images, in terms of the potential for an individuated consumer. Although few authors listed one dominant, specific reason for inequality in gender roles today, one set of authors did surmise that perhaps the difference was articulated due to the fact that a “change in the status of women may have caused people to evaluate women more favorably than they did when the first studies of gender stereotypes were conducted” (Eagly, Mladinic, and Otto, 204).

This shows strong support for the basic argument of the current report mentioned above, in terms of the possibility of a break with the past being shown in contemporaneous society, when compared to earlier times when conditions were less fair for women. REFERENCEBell, S and K Offen (1983). Gender, the Family, and Freedom. Stanford, CA: University Press.Ericsson, N. and J. Ciarlo (2000). Gender, Social Roles, and Mental Health: An Epidemiological Perspective. Sex Roles: A Journal of Research.

Eagly, Alice H., Mladinic, Antonio, and Stacey Otto (1991). Are Women Evaluated More Favorably than Men? Psychology of Women Quarterly, 15, pp. 203-216. Kang, M. (1997). The portrayal of womens images in magazine advertisements: Goffmans gender analysis revisited. Sex Roles: A Journal of Research.  Spigel, L (2001). The suburban home companion. Welcome to the Dollhouse. Durham, NC: University Press.Women’s rights (2008). American Civil Liberties Union Bulletin.