The aspect of functionalist perspective that makes sense to me is that male and female do have different gender roles with in the family that complement each other to make the family work. Society sees females as supporters of the family emotionally and males as being the provider for the family. This is still true for some families today. This guy I know said in his house his dad worked and his mom stayed home cooking and cleaning. He said that how it’s going to be when he starts his family. In a way it is beneficial to the family because the man being at work frees him from thinking about what needs to be done at home. That would leave him to focus all his attention on work. The female being at home will take on the responsibilities at home, and she wouldn’t have to worry about work. I can relate this view to how a watch works. If you open up the back of the watch there a lot of parts in there from gears to springs to a battery all working together to make the watch work. That’s mainly the point of the functionalist that the male does his part and the female does her part all together to make the family work. You have to have the right parts or people in order for this to work. There are some household that the females work and the male stays at home which goes agents the functionalist view.
The aspect of the conflict perspective that makes sense to me is that one gender is being suppressed by the other. Society puts the males as the suppressor and the female as the suppressed. The conflict perspective believes that since there is an unbalance in power between males and females that it affects society in a negative way. In every culture and sub culture the biggest, strongest and smartest male is always look at as a leader someone that the people go to for answers, guidance, protection or they would be fearful of them. I can relate this to how slavery worked back in the day. The white males were superior over all people not only black people. The conflict theorists believe that we all should be equal no matter male or female or color. This would work out great within the family structure. Everything the male can do the female can do it too. It also takes off sum of the burden put on one person. For instance in some household the male works and the female works and when either is not working they take care of the house such as bill, kids, and grocery. Now a day’s its really uncommon to not be able to balance two or more things at once like work and school or work, school, and home.
Gender stratification takes a toll on the males in society weather they are aware of it or not. I have felt the impact of gender stratification thought out my life, in my house my dad has been making all the rules and no one can contest his rules or else we would be disobedient not even my mom. It like a dictatorship in my house whatever he says goes. As I child if I want to do anything my mom would tell me to go ask my dad first. When letters from school and report cards came home my mom would leave it until my dad came and opened it. A professional experience was when I was working overnight at Wal-Mart in Neptune. The supervisors a man and a woman wanted all the males to do all the heavy work while the women fold clothes and straighten up shelves. One cold night they told all the males to go outside and bring some carts inside. They only wanted the men because they thought we can handle cold better than the women. A personal experience I have is when I have a girlfriend they always expect me to do all things that men are supposed to do in relationships. Like pick her up, pay for food, open car door. I believe that we are all equal and whatever I can do you can do. There’s no need for me to open doors and pay for things. A religious experience with gender stratification is every time we pray the males are always in front and the females in the back. The only reasoning for this is because if we were to mix it would be difficult for some men to focus their attention on praying to God. From the outside looking in it would seem like we are being suppressive towards females.
