Social Change: Gender, Economics, Politics and Culture, and Environmental Forces - Essay Example

?Introduction Social change can be shaped by various environmental forces and to illustrate this is the very point of this essay. The proponent has chosen gender, economics, politics and culture as environmental forces that try to continuously admit social change into the society. Gender Gender is a common issue today. Man against woman and so on and so fort. This is not about war between these two sexes but it is all about woman claiming equality with man. As a result, ”magazines, romance novels, television, advertisements, music and internet” are bombarded with information regarding what woman can do as a woman and her ability to be equal with men, thus this emphasizes that people are learning gender roles through the media (Bryan & Lie, 2009). For instance, this particularly can be simply illustrated by animated movie films like Cinderella, Snow White, Mulan and Pocahontas. These movies talk about what a woman should be and how they should act in the society. Cinderella and Snow White depict the traditional and classic definition of a woman. They are full of poise and grace and are entirely dependent on the man’s regime and strength. In fact, Cinderella escaped a miserable life from her step mother and step sisters by marrying a prince. Furthermore, Snow White was able to wake up from eternal sleep by receiving a kiss from a prince. All of these movies clearly depict a woman’s role in the society and the man’s ability or authority over her. However, it is a different story with Mulan and Pocahontas. These movies are basically revolutionary because the message is clear; they talk about the woman power and her ability to do what a man can do. Even at some point, these movies also show that there are even situations when both man and a woman are exposed together but a woman may absolutely excel. Let us apply this in reality. There are some countries today that their head of the state is a woman. In the Philippines for instance, there were already two woman presidents they elected. The first woman president of the state was Corazon Aquino who ousted Ferdinand Marcos in his martial law regime. Even in the United States, there were various women officials in the state. In fact, Hillary Clinton is one of the women with high authority in the state today. These women proved that it is not only men who are capable of leading in the state, but absolutely a woman has the ability to have substantial power and authority within a nation. Not only that, woman proved to be highly equal with men when it comes to business. For instance, Oprah Winfrey is a remarkable woman and one of the richest in the world and could be placed in rank with the top richest men. Oprah significantly destroys the basic concept of the society that it should only men who could lead in the business world. Even in education system today, gender remarkably plays a significant role on how society changes it views on educating each individual. A specific case is evident in Nepal where gender has a significant impact on education system and in return placing high market value for women in employment (Williams, 2009). The above information simply illustrates that gender is basically a significant factor bringing substantial impact on social change. Today, many people are looking forward to a woman as equal with men. In fact, many strongly believe in saying that “behind a great man is a woman”. Economy Economics is another environmental force that tries to continuously admit social change into the society. For instance, social change “stalled” in Japan during its economic crisis in 1980s and resumed in 1990s when its economic condition substantially alleviated (Lee & Fujita, 2011). In 2008, the economic downturn in the United States significantly changed the mindset of Americans. For example, after that economic event, most of them are in the process of adjustment and even recovery. Many people lost their job and some other are looking forward to financial stability. In times like this, common sense would suggest that people remarkably have to change their lifestyle. From an economic standpoint, an individual should only spend the amount that he or she could earn. Spending beyond what an individual could only earn is a specific illustration the birth of debts. In this case, a highly expensive lifestyle is changed and this is evident among Americans today. The presence of online articles regarding financial measures in times of economic crisis is a remarkable proof that social change is definitely affected by the prevailing economic condition and it basically changes people’s lifestyle in the first place. Politics Support for same-sex marriage in the United States is said to be highly influenced by politics. This is a remarkable finding of a certain research that tried to integrate political factors as significant contributing forces of the success of same-sex marriage in the United States (Sherkat et al., 2011). Many people are advocates of same-sex marriage and the fundamental principle behind it is the consideration of person’s right to enjoy life from varying sexual orientation. This is the very point of the existing arguments, but religious ideology may hinder this claim. As a result, the issue has become highly politicized and is centered on the government officials who have the capacity to legalized same-sex marriage. Prior to its legality, same sex marriage has to be approved by government officials after a long series of debates. It is without question then that politics remarkably played significant role in various social issues. Culture Culture is another significant environmental force that obviously contributed to social change. In line with this, it is important to understand a particular human experience. Let us take the case of symbolic value and a material culture. The United States for instance is home to people with remarkable fashion statement. Among of them are renowned actors or actresses in the entertainment industry. The US is renowned to be the entertainment icon in the world. Entertainment is basically an integral part of American experience itself. Within this experience remarkably comes up the culture for fashion, a material culture. Symbolic values are actually associated with material culture (Crane & Bovone, 2006). This means that people around the world try to impersonate their favorite entertainment icon. For instance, it is very possible that those avid fans of Justin Beiber would follow his fashion statement as a way to show the value of their emotion, feeling and other important components that are part of the human experience. These symbolic values are actually associated with how a person dresses up, talks and carries one’s self in the society. Conclusion It is important to understand that social changes are actually the results of various environmental factors. These factors are strong enough to influence the humanity and in fact, the social change itself remained constant because it continuously happens from day to day situations out of the human experience. References Bryan, R. J., and Lie, J. (2009). Sociology: your compass for a new world, the brief edition (2nd ed). California: Cengage Learning. Crane, D., & Bovone, L. (2006). Approaches to material culture: The sociology of fashion and clothing. Poetics. 34, 319-333. Lee, K. S., & Fujita, Y. (2011). Economic recession and the nature and pace of social change in Japan. Social Science Research. 40, 784-795. Sherkat, D. E., Williams, M. P., Maddox, G., & Vries, K. M. de. (2011). Religion, politics, and support for same-sex marriage in the United States, 1988-2008. Social Science Research. 40, 167-180. Williams, N. (2009). Education, gender, and migration in the context of social change. Social Science Research. 38, 883-896. Read More