The term “social construct” refers to social phenomenon, such as race, gender and childhood, and how society treats these circumstances based on certain ethics determined by mankind. In cultures, there are norms and values that are apparent to everyone because of social construction. Social constructionism works because society creates it and behaves accordingly. For example, oppression of women was a norm in the past. Over time, gender roles have been socially constructed for women to be equated and it is now a social value to treat women as so. Another example is women as a labor force. Many cultures prefer women in assembly to men; however, other cultures have had substandard views about women, such as the Western demeanor towards women, disallowing female participation in labor. Globalization over time has helped to change that view and woman as labor are thriving in most cultures.
Social construction is propelled by globalization. Globalization is a process that includes social, economical, technological, and political advancement towards the goal of international integration and coexistence. One example of how globalization affects social construction is consumerism.
In the late nineteenth century, advertisement advanced a consumer society. Robbins stated, “[world] private and public consumption expenditures [reached] $24 trillion in 1998, twice the level of 1975 and six times that of 1950.” The drastic change in consumerism was caused by social construction. Robbins said, in the late nineteenth century, “People purchased only necessities…there was a major transformation of the meaning of goods and how they were presented and displayed.” Advertisement had become a type of merchandise in itself. “By 1929, advertising was an $11 billion enterprise…Finally by 2006, the United States alone spent $152 billion on advertising” (Robbins). In the early twentieth century, American society embraced consumerism and advertising by incorporating the promotion of consumption in institutions. Business programs were introduced in Universities. Advertisement and business themes were adopted by companies and agencies of all types (Robbins). Once the idea of consumerism was accepted by society, it became part of the culture. That is how social construction works. Society behaves a certain way and as it grows, it is constructed into part of regular life.
Consumerism is only one part of globalization and, also, the culture of capitalism. The culture of capitalism refers to people who live in a capitalist society. A capitalist economy functions with a combination of employment and consumerism resulting in more capital. Capital is all goods produced for exchange into financial wealth.
The culture of capitalism provides a backdrop for social constructions propelled by globalization, such as women's oppression. In accompaniment of capitalistic culture, the introduction of the nuclear family and multilateral institutions, as well as the trans-historical male-dominated political system, had a large effect on gender roles' social construction. Robbins cites Eleanor Leacock who has studied women's gender roles all over the world. She made a valuable observation that, “the degree of power varies with the gender system of [women's] culture; the status of their race, religious group, or class to which they belong; the political system under which they live; and their personal attributes and life histories.” However, Martha Ward (also cited by Robbins), noted that women produce about 75 to 90 percent of the world's food crops. “The major occupations of women worldwide are, "street-selling, factory assembly lines, piecework, cash-cropping and commercial agriculture, prostitution or sex for work, and service in domestic settings, like maids who change the sheets of hotel beds."” (Robbins).
The double-standard is that they are still expected to be responsible for the running of the household even if their husband, or other alpha-male member of the family, reserves the “head of household” title for themselves (Robbins). “According to the United Nations, in no country in the world do men come anywhere close to women in the amount of time spent doing housework” (Robbins) It was the nuclear family that indulged power on men. The nuclear family was socially constructed to promote consumption, but detached women from society. In many Eastern Asian cultures, this isolated wives in a patriarchal home (Robbins). “Women's productive activities and decision-making authority shifted…to the household domain, whereas their social status was redefined as subservient to and dependent on male household heads” (Robbins)
Women have been labeled an ideal workforce in many cultures for many reasons. Aihwa Ong (cited by Robbins), was told by a Japanese manager that “females [are] better able to concentrate on routine work…young girls [have better] eyesight…[and] girls below thirty are easier to train and easier to adapt to the job function.” Women are also more likely to face destitution that men. Women, children, and people of race or ethnicity have the highest poverty rates, therefore, need jobs the most. This forces indigent groups to compete for less secure jobs with lower wages. This discrimination, particularly on the racial and ethnic level, was indirectly reinforced with the establishment of capitalism (Robbins).
