Charles Wright Mills Sociology

Through this course, “Introduction to Sociology”, my sociological imagination has been tested, questioned, and expanded. Sociologist Charles Wright Mills had explained that sociological imagination “enables us to grasp history and biography and the relations between the two within society” and that “neither the life of an individual nor the history of a society can be understood without understanding both” (Mills, 1959). I began this journey with what I thought was a good understanding of where I stand for various social issues that exist today. However, reaching the end of the course, I find myself to have opened up to new views and opinions by being exposed to different perspectives through my fellow classmates, scholarly articles, and the
Mills certainly woke me up to expand my view on the issues outside of my “private orbit” and escape the grip that my personal issues had on me (Mills, 2000). I had always known that being knowledgeable about the different problems around the world was important, however I never considered that in order to better understand my own troubles I must understand the deeper societal reasoning behind those issues. I believe now that society as a whole will benefit when individuals view problems from a more knowledgeable perspective. One major issue that intrigued me during this course was on gender inequality. Our gender identities are constructed by two factors: our biological characteristics and surrounding sociological influences. Biologically, men are built to be more muscular than women. From this physical difference, people assume that men are stronger than women and leads to discrimination against women. As a result, women may develop a sense of inferiority and this leads to serve as the basis for gender inequality. Undeniably, especially with the recent feminist movement, gender equality has significantly increased compared