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Is the social stratification theory gender-blind? Elucidate. (UPSC CSE Mains 2025- Sociology, Paper 1) 10 Marks
Social stratification theory, especially in its classical formulations, has historically been gender-blind, meaning it largely ignored gender as a distinct axis of inequality.
Classical Theories and the Absence of Gender
Rooted in the works of Émile Durkheim and Talcott Parsons, functionalism views society as a system of interrelated parts working together to maintain stability. Stratification is seen as necessary to ensure that the most qualified individuals fill the most important roles. Gender roles are justified as functional: men perform instrumental roles (breadwinning, leadership), while women perform expressive roles (nurturing, caregiving).
Karl Marx and Max Weber largely ignored gender as an independent and structuring force of social hierarchy. Marx focused on class relations rooted in ownership of the means of production, viewing women’s oppression as a byproduct of capitalism rather than a distinct system of domination. Similarly, Weber’s multidimensional model—emphasizing class, status, and party—did not integrate gender as a core dimension of stratification, despite recognizing status groups. As a result, women’s labor, particularly unpaid domestic work, was rendered invisible, and household stratification was often reduced to the status of the male breadwinner.
Feminist Critique: Gender as a Foundational Stratifier
Feminist scholars argue that gender is not secondary but foundational to social stratification. They critique the assumption that class alone determines social position, pointing out that women experience inequality not only through class but through patriarchal structures that systematically privilege men. For instance, the sexual division of labor—where women are assigned caregiving and reproductive roles—creates a separate and unequal status that persists across class lines. This results in phenomena like the wage gap, occupational segregation, and the “second shift” of domestic labor, all of which reflect gender-based stratification independent of class.
Intersectionality – Contemporary
The concept of intersectionality, introduced by Kimberlé Crenshaw, further exposes the limitations of traditional stratification theories. It demonstrates that gender does not operate in isolation but intersects with race, caste, and class to produce unique forms of oppression. For example, a Dalit woman in India faces compounded disadvantages due to her gender, caste, and class, which cannot be understood by analyzing any single factor alone. Traditional models fail to capture such layered inequalities, reinforcing their gender-blind nature.
Scholars like Ortner and Whitehead have proposed that gender itself functions as a prestige structure, where men are universally assigned higher status through public roles (e.g., chief, priest), while women’s status is mediated through relationships to men (e.g., wife, mother). This structural devaluation of women is not an outcome of class but a cross-cultural pattern, suggesting that gender must be treated as a primary, not auxiliary, dimension of stratification.
While traditional social stratification theory was indeed gender-blind, contemporary sociology has evolved to integrate gender as a central dimension of analysis. This transformation owes much to feminist scholarship, which reframed gender from a peripheral concern to a core component of social structure.
POSTED ON 05-10-2025 BY ADMIN
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