Editing hierarchy (section)

== Social hierarchies ==
Many human [[organization]]s, such as [[business]]es, churches, armies and political movements are structured hierarchically, at least officially; commonly superiors, called ''bosses'', have more [[power (sociology)|power]] than their subordinates. Thus the asymmetrical relationship might be "has power over". (Some analysists question whether power "really" works as the traditional organizational chart indicates, however.) See also [[Chain of command]].

[[feminism|Feminists]] talk about a hierarchy of [[gender]], in which a culture sees [[male]]s or [[masculinity|masculine traits]] as [[superiority|superior]] to [[female]]s or [[femininity|feminine traits]]. In the terms above, these feminists present us a hierarchy of only two nodes, "masculine" and "feminine", connected by the asymmetrical relationship "is valued more highly by society". An example of this usage:

:The hierarchical nature of the dualism - the systematic devaluation of females and whatever is metaphorically understood as "feminine" - is what I identify as sexism. (Nelson [[1992]], p. 106)

Note that in the contexts of feminism and other social criticism, the word ''hierarchy'' usually is used as meaning ''power hierarchy'' or ''power structure.'' Feminists do not take issue with ''hierarchy'' in the most general definition of the word, but rather with the specific asymmetrical relationship of unequal value between men and women. Various other social critics take issue with different types of power hierarchies that they see as being unjust.