Modern western societies have moved dramatically from hierarchical social structures based in inheritence to egalitarian social structures where differences in social status and power tend more often to be based on merit.

Consider the relative change in social empowerment for men and women in American society since colonial times. In colonial New England, women were thought mentally and physically inferior to men and shut out of political life. At home wives were virtually the property of their husbands with no recourse to divorce and in many cases no rights of inheritance.

Following the revolutionary war, women in the United States first rapidly gained power in the domestic sphere and gradually gained power in the public and political sphere. Though incomplete, the process of equalization has continued throughout the 20th century.

In an hierarchical society in which there is consensus about the duties and powers of various members of society (e.g., men will act primarily in the public sphere and women primarily in the domestic sphere), it is in this respect simpler to form a concept of self. One is guided in the process by widely held beliefs about what is possible and what is proper for a person of a given gender and position. These limitations ordained by society narrow the possibilities and supply a clearer prescription for success than in a society where anyone can become anyone he or she chooses. Thus, while an egalitarian society may be clearly desirable on moral grounds, egalitarianism contributes to the difficulty experienced by modern Americans attempting to craft a self, to figure out who they are. When the task of self-definition falls to the individual, to the individual as well goes the possibility of failure and its consequent anxiety. In modern society blame for an unfulfilling life is directed inwardly and the result can be doubt, disappointment, and despair. Adding greatly to the problem in modern society are the communications industries of marketing and advertising who attempt to prey on this anxiety, amplifying it and then selling apparent solutions to it in the form of life style products.