'Social divisions are now much less significant than they were fifty Essay

'Social divisions are now much less significant than they were fifty years ago' Discuss - Essay Example ago as each individual member of the community tended to judge themselves and others by how well they lived up to these expectations during what was considered the ‘golden age’ of community and society. These concepts were widely explored by social philosophers such as Max Weber (1864-1920) and Michel Foucault (1926-1984) as being integral elements of personality development and the structures by which modern society manages to function. Their theories provide a context by which change within the female gender identity over the past 50 years can be discussed. The changes within this single demographic demonstrate how globalization has significantly worn away at the sharp divisions between social groups that once were so formidable, introducing a great deal of uncertainly and confusion in its wake. As this study will demonstrate, social divisions are now much less significant than they were fifty years ago by tracing through these various elements. The so-called ‘golden age’ of modern society occurred as society became settled into expected roles and outcomes. As the country made its way into the new modernized age, the wealthier classes set the standard for acceptable living. Men were expected to hold respectable jobs in the city often working for the same company all of their lives. Loyalty and devotion to the corporation were often rewarded with lifetime support. They would go into work in the mornings, come home in the evenings, and expect to find their families clean and ready for them. Examining the letters and diaries left behind, Welter and others hypothesized that it became necessary for women to uphold the traditional ideologies the family had held dear while in a rural setting, thereby restricting them to a single idealized image of what embodies the True Woman. â€Å"The nineteenth-century American man was †¦ at work long hours in a materialistic society. The religious values of his forebears wer e neglected in practice if not in