American Society : The Power Of Privilege

Whereas in recent decades major strides toward gender equality have been made, sociologists are quick to point out that much remains to be done if inequalities in the United States are ever to be eliminated. Behind much of the inequalities seen in education, the workplace, and politics is sexism, or prejudice and discrimination because of gender. Fundamental to sexism is the assumption that men are superior to women.

According to Karen Horney in chapter 12 of The Distrust Between the Sexes, “Even men who consciously have a very positive relationship with women and hold them in high esteem as human beings, harbor deep within themselves a secret distrust of them; and how this distrust relates back to feelings toward their mothers, which they experienced in their formative years.” This is one of the many examples of when Karen Horney relates the relationship between men and women to one that stems from when they were both younger. “And, although impressive gains were made by women, there are still significant inequalities that must be addressed. In this context, the focus often turns to the pay gap between men and women, which is widely discussed in both academic and practice-oriented fora.” (Public Personnel Management). A lot of people in the country today are better about equality between men and women, but men are still payed more than women in some jobs and women want to be payed the same as men for the work they do. Civil Rights in America wrote this, “Persons who claim sex discrimination in the form of a violation of the act must prove that their basic job duties were equal to that of a higher-paid employee of the opposite

In the beginning of the year I entered this class with a very sheltered and ignorant view of current and past events. Through time and sociological evolution I have begun to see things in a different light. The development of my ability, to look at something or some kind of situation, lets me use the sociological terms in such a manner to relate them to micro and macro problems in society. This started with the assigned readings of the class; the aim was to decipher the messages the authors were presenting. The goal was then to dig deeper and use my experiences to help myself understand the concepts throughout the course. "The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be ignited." Plutarch (46-120 CE--common era) I was no longer

Women have virtually the same rights as men. However, the fault needing to be recognized in today’s society is the way that women are treated. Even in simple areas, such as jobs, women are put on the back burner. A woman is able to become a CEO of a company, nonetheless, she will struggle twice as hard as a man would. Even as an employee, women are statistically paid less than men are.

Inequality between different groups of people within the United States is concerning for many sociologists and society in general. One of the main inequalities throughout the United States is gender inequality. Gender inequity is found in all past and present societies. It takes the form of patriarchy. From the patriarchal point of view, gender inequality can be traced back to biological differences in early societies (“Steven Goldberg on Patriarchy” 2006). This inequality is present in society through many different forms, including job segregation, the gender pay gap, and a great difference in women’s political representation (Joan Acker, 1989).

The social construction of race allows “whiteness” to be regarded as the default race or the normal race. This normalization is apparent when white people ask people of color the quintessential question of “where are you from”. An attitude of alienation and “otherness” is placed on minority groups because, quite frankly, being American means being white. Throughout Peggy McIntosh’s essay, “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack”, she discusses the unscathed and unacknowledged effects of white privilege that are rampant in America’s society today. A hierarchical structure revolving around meritocracy is practically entrenched into our society, and those who are at the apex of this structure are able to do a myriad of things at the

The sad reality is White privilege is very prevalent in the United States and has been for the past hundreds of years not to say that there has not been improvement. This is a very touchy subject where emotions runs deep many people who do not see it as an issue do not believe that White privilege exists. I do not think it is always done purposely the way society is set up many do not realize what they are doing or some may not even care. When watching the video about the resume experience it was sad to hear the same resume with different names the jobs called back the less ethnic name and how it was estimated that it would take five weeks longer for the person to find a job that was not white. Additionally saying a person who has an ethnic

The deep but subtly entrenched nature of white privilege into the American social structure is problematic because it creates complications to overcoming this type of racism. The difficulty in detecting white privilege facilitates the denial of the role white privilege plays in affecting an individual’s living experience in America. The reality is that white privilege does make a difference in the opportunities available to certain individuals. However, this difference is not as subtle. The biggest problem white privilege poses, aside from the discrimination and bias it employs, is that it is difficult to identify. Due to its intrinsic nature, eradicating its effects requires a reconstruction of the white supremacist American social system.

In the year of 2015 A.D., white people always wanted to come up with ways how can they further their benefits of their white privileges in America. They wanted more benefits to fulfill their greed, so of course they continued on seeing how can they make it worse for people of color— especially for the black people. So, one day they made a banking system and use a card to get any job, sort of education without trying, not to be stereotyped, never have to worry about becoming the next hash tag, being attacked and killed by the law enforcement, never having to enforce your children about the terrible, cruel realities of systematic racism. The list goes on, how white privileges exists.

White Privilege is the societal privilege that benefits people whom society identifies as white in some countries, beyond what is commonly experienced by non-white people under the same social, political, or economic circumstances.

White privilege has decreased over the past couple years due to further understanding of racial differences. However, I believe it does still exist within our society. Many times it goes unnoticed by whites because they have the upper hand in the situation. One privilege I have noticed I have as a white member of society is credibility in educational situations.

Women have always taken a back seat to men in American society. There has always seemed to be one set of standards that apply to men, and another set of standards that apply to women. This is evident in the home, workplace, and all throughout society.

Throughout many decades women have been struggling to be equal to men, both at home and in the work place. Women have come a long way and are certainly fighting to gain that equality, but gender roles are very important in our society. They have become important in life from birth, and society continues to push these gender roles. The treatment of the male gender is very different from that of the female, and this issue has become very important to me, as a woman. As children we learn and adapt to specific gender roles, and as we grow they become more evident and more important to our role in a society. There is a lot of discrimination against the female gender. Carol Gilligan argued that

“It’s not the profession that has the glass ceiling, someone has put it there” (Brower 162). Men need to change their attitudes and actions towards women in the workplace. They need to abandon believing that they are superior to women. Most men truly believe that a woman is simply not capable of doing as well of a job, or better, than a man can do. Therefore, they become extremely unsupportive of women and fail to recognize their accomplishments. They decline to give women raises, higher executive positions, more responsibility and overall respect. Many men have very subtle and low-key ways of showing their discrimination. These men know that it is unlawful to discriminate against women, so they do it ways that can have no reprimanding consequences. They will go out to lunch, dinner or drinks with the guys, claiming that it is just a time for male bonding. But the truth of the matter is that most business relationships develop over these “bonding times” therefore, leaving the female employees out of the equation (Brower 160). Other men are not so subtle. Male bosses often deliberately overlook a female employee for a promotion by making bogus credentials that only a male would be able to fulfill (Brower 162). Men aren’t planning to become pregnant and take maternity leave as often as a woman does. My mother has come into contact with both types of men. She has been scanned

As an society is constantly progressing throughout a variety of perspectives, privilege plays a role among the conflicts of the person's life. In the terms of injustice and hardships, it is quite difficult to address these issues and to cope with them. Privilege is a term that is described as an unearned right that is given to an individual for the purpose of a specific power based on one's culture, race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, etc. It is important to acknowledge privilege as many people have rights in some kind of way in which they can misuse it in negative ways, which can be the cause oppression against another individual. I am going to discuss the content of 'invitation' and reflect aspects of my life which I have greater power and privilege than others. The questions corresponding to this article is why are you interested in exploring these issues related to privilege? and is your interest connected with any particular hopes for your work, for your life, for the world in which we live.