Are We Free within Society - Essay Example

Are We Free within Society? Do you think our society affords more freedom to males than to females? Why or why not? Ever since ‘man’ came into existence, it has been the males who have dominated the gender race in all walks of life. Education, Politics, Sports, Music etc they all have been dominated by men. When we talk about scientists, world leaders, economists, how many women comes to mind? Certainly not enough for them to complete against the men force. Ironically enough, the very first sentence used for this answer used the wordings “ever since ‘man’ came into existence”, showing the biased side of us humans. Terminologies such as salesman, chairman, postman, mankind, etc have used by males and females alike for many centuries. So it is really the males who allow for such gender bias? The actual question that hangs is “Do men have more freedom than women that allows them to dominate?” Unfortunately it is our society that has given more freedom to men than to women. As we know, a society is built upon from its historic backgrounds and contains similar values and beliefs for a very long time. Our historic background unfortunately has held women in the background while men have always taken the center stage. The examples cited above are enough to remind us that women have been an oppressed segment of our society. Being physically weaker has left them good for lesser professions and, home and child rearing have become their most accepted professions. Mary Wollstonecraft a famous British philosopher and feminist went on to say that “The grand source of female folly and vice has ever appeared to me to arise from narrowness of mind; and the very constitution of civil governments has put almost insuperable obstacles in the way to prevent the cultivation of the female understanding” [4]. Bearing the emotional characteristic, have left them untrustworthy of emotion enduring jobs. They have been subjected to this stereotype from the very beginning and it is this same stereotype that women have to face in our present society. Many modern machines have helped beat some of the stereotypes especially of physically weaker as it now requires only a part of the masculine resources, and if the minimum demanded is not above the female’s capacity, they can be considered as man’s equal [1]. Efforts to escape this charade have been welcomed in most quarters but it will be many years until women can truly turn the tables on men. What about the modern, high income countries compared with traditional low income nations: Are some of the world’s people more free than others? A society consists of people from all walks of life. The rich, poor, young, old, working, non-working, colored, non-colored etc all are part of the society. And it takes its values and believes from the historic background. And unfortunately history has always had thing with ‘power’. People who possess power have always controlled either by forcing or by charming the people with lesser power. Nations have fought to gain this power and many have been wiped off the face of the earth as a result. Each day people fight to take control over another. Violence is repeated day after day and yet there is no respite. “So what actually is power?” Power is the ability influencing others to change a belief. Through time, power has been associated with money, and this belief is justified. Money might not necessary bring happiness, but it is sure to bring power with it [3]. And this characteristic allures people to come and come again and reach out to the seductive nature of money. They believe that a higher income will beget power and the more power they can get, the more they will be able to influence others under their command. This is true for most of the wealthy nations. The third world countries fell compelled to buckle under the command of modern wealthy nations to meet their basic needs. This compulsion wipes out the notion of freedom from the third world countries. These traditional low income countries are either forced or influenced to take command from their superiors thus free will can longer live in the people of these countries. The rich and free people always set the stage and the poor are the ones who perform like mere puppets providing an entertaining performance for the rich. The rich make all the rules and regulations, develop the society’s norms, hold their personal values high to convert them into the society’s values and then control the lesser people like a remote control of a child’s toy car. How does the understanding of sociology increase your freedom? The two perspectives of sociology on freedom are divided by a fine line. One perspective says that we are mere puppets in a show and it is the society that controls the way we act, interact, think and feel. The other theory is that even though these backstage forces do exist, we as humans have the capability to force our way through these barriers to create a part of our own in the society. Both these theories play their part in explaining how much in reality a person is free to do on his or her own will. Taking an example of a woman in a conservative society where working outdoors is considered bad. In such a society, the first perspective holds back the women from undertaking any outdoors endeavors and any such attempt is sure to beget social exclusion. On the other hand, the second perspective tells us that these very forces enable that women to take on the challenge and attempt to break the barrier any become one of the few women who will start the revolutionary change. Once we understand that we are made up of the society’s characteristics and possess the same values and principles of the society, we can progress further to differentiate the desirable characteristics from the non-desirable characteristics. We have to realize that we truly are never free [2]. Forces of the society always play on our minds when we take our decisions. Once we accept this fact, we can move on and change the things in us and in our society to our own liking. And this understanding of sociology allows us to become free from the tangles of the society, the obstructive nature of the powerfully rich and the stereotypical nature of few black sheep who degrade the whole herd. Works Cited 1. Beauvoir, Simone de (1949), The Second Sex, Book One: Facts and Myths, Part I: Destiny, Chapter 3: “The Point of View of Historical Materialism” 2. Unit 11 (2003), “Individuality and Freedom” Available at , Accessed on July 30, 2007 3. Veenhoven, R. & Ouweneel, P. (1995), “Livability of the welfare state: appreciation-of-life and length-of-life in nations varying in state-welfare-effort”, Social Indicators research, Vol. 36, pp 1-49 4. Wollstonecraft, Mary (1792), A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. 1792. “Observations on the State of Degradation to Which Woman Is Reduced by Various Causes”, Available at , Accessed on July 30, 2007 Read More