Discrimination As A Weapon Of Sexism

There are many varying opinions towards the lower class, some believe they are lazy and others think they are earnest hardworking folk. In her book “Nickel and Dimed”, Barbara Ehrenreich takes a closer look at the lives and hardships of the lower class. Her goal is to bring awareness to the struggles of these people and while attempting to disprove negative misconceptions about these people. The author writes to an audience of privileged upper class people trying to prove just how difficult it is living in the lower class. Although Ehrenreich does achieve these goals, her arguments are weakened because she focuses more on her experiences rather than those around her. Despite living in similar conditions to these people, she isn’t getting the

The Great Depression was an economic downturn in America that lasted from 1929 until about 1939, making it the longest lasting depression ever experienced by the industrialized world. The stock market crash caused a chain reaction that involved problems such as unemployment, deflation, an increase in debt, and general poverty for lower class citizens. Attempts at escaping the depression weren’t altogether successful. In fact, most of the efforts resulted in high consumer debt as well as over optimistic loans given to the public by banks and business investors. The Depression caused severe political changes in the US as well as its obvious economic failures. After three years of the depression, Herbert Hoover lost the presidential election

“The percentage of Americans who say they are in the lower-middle or lower class has risen from a quarter of the adult population to about a third in the past four years, according to a national survey of 2,508 adults by the Pew Research Center” (http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2012/09/10/a-third-of-americans-now-say-they-are-in-the-lower-classes/). Today’s adults stating that they are in the lower class are most likely to have had a rough life growing up, and can now not escape the lower class. Social class is the idea of “a division of a society based on social and economic status” (http://www.dictionary.com/browse/social-class). Social class has the greatest impact on who a person turns out to be and what decisions they make because those

I think Montsios’ point that, “Class standing has a significant impact on the chance for educational achievement” (Monsios 193). I think this statement is very true, because it is very apparent that there is a huge education gap in the United States due to income. People of higher incomes can have the luxury of sending their kids to better schools, private or public, and have the ability to give them a college education without having to worry about the financial costs, while people of lower classes cannot have this luxury. This is absolutely ridiculous, because this country was founded on the idea of equality, and having an equal and free country to pursue opportunity. Just like the educational side of this, people also struggle with in the sense of survival and

In the first article titled “Class in America” by Gregory Mantsios the discussion on class affecting the United States negatively is brought up. Gregory talks about the fact that people do not choose to be poor but they are put into situations where they cannot move up in class. Due to the fact that class creates an immense gap in communities, there are many issues linked to being categorized as the lower class. In the article Gregory states that “class affects more than lifestyle and material well being. It has a significant impact on our physical and mental well-being as well.” CITE) The author connects the idea that if you are in the lower class than you will also deal with other issues include your mental and physical health declining. Alongside this idea, the author also states “All Americans do not have an equal opportunity to succeed, and class mobility in the United States is lower than that of the rest of the industrialized world. (CITE) This goes along with the idea that once your born into a class, breaking out of it is virtually impossible. The author is also making the point that in the United States class is more problematic than other developed nations and because of this not everyone is given the chance to break free from a poor lifestyle.

The Great Depression was a time of profound social, political, and economic change in America. “It was the deepest and longest- lasting economic downturn in the history of the Western industrialized world” (The Great Depression). It started in 1929 and lasted until the early 1940s. It affected each nation differently, but was severe in most places.

Throughout time one of the most obvious class markers has been education and it still remains so. People who belong to the higher classes view education as a higher priority and have more access to the best school in the country. When stuck in lower classes people must attend schools where books, computers, and education are not found at the same level. An article in the Atantic Times mentions that “ Kids who belong to lower social classes fell behind children in the upper classes by about a year or so.” Today, that gap is close to four years.” For those in the upper class their kids are placed in an abundance of classes from an early age such as foreign language, art, and many sports. Children who are in lower classes have no way of getting a head start when compared to children in higher classes Sarah Garland also mentions how “ When children have plenty of time to build social skills and bigger vocabularies in short term reduce their chances of

Many believe that there is no more class separation. To many people it almost appears to be classless. In the article Shadowy Lines That still Divide it says “At a time when education matters more and more than ever, success in school remains linked tightly to class…. At a time of extraordinary advances in medicine, class difference in health and lifespan are wide and appear to be widening”. Even today education is more available for kids with money especially collage. Many colleges have very high cost and most good college is very costly. Like education, health care is also another factor that shows the division between the social classes. Many lower classes can not afford health care and can not pay for medicines. The lifespan of the lower class would be lower than that of a higher class due to the fact that higher class can afford better treatments. The American dream would be easier for the upper class to achieve because they can get a better education and better health care. In the Great Gatsby, the class separation is demonstrated through the two sides; West Egg and East Egg. Only wealthy people with a social class live in east Egg

Class Matters challenged many of my original beliefs on class including the belief that if you worked hard, had a good ethic, and stayed determined you could easily become part of the upper-class. Throughout the course of the first chapter I would slowly drift away from this belief. One argument the authors of Class Matter made is that globalization and the outsourcing of jobs has made it harder for lower class Americans to make the jump from low class to even the middle class. The reason for this is the fact that many of the factory jobs that are being outsourced to foreign countries where once the stepping-stones for lower class workers trying to enter the middle class. With those jobs are gone the only ones left usually require higher levels of education, which can be hard to achieve for low-class workers, or jobs that provided no opportunity for increasing you class. Some people say that these people choose to not get a high level of education, but that is not necessarily true. Many of the low-class workers, when applying for college, must compete with higher class applicants who come from more prestigious high schools.

In reality class always matters and it shapes our interests in life. We all come from different background and ethnicity. I believe that class is shaped mainly by income and occupation. However, many people think if a person is wealthy, therefore, he belongs in the upper class. But there are other factors that define class and it is more than just how much money you have. It can be the network of people that surrounds, traditions, and academic status that can also define class. Many of it has to do in which family you have been born and network that creates it. All of my family members have been born and raised in Russia; they completed universities, got jobs, and had enough income to support a family. “Each of us is born into a family with a particular class identity and class history—sometimes it is a mixed or hybrid identity—but almost always it is part of a network of other relationships—to other families in a community, to work and jobs, and to institutions” (Zandy 112).

The class system is still very much alive in American society and those in the lower-class deal with struggles that those of other class do not experience. For example, Americans born into the middle and upper class generally receive a higher quality of education, thus forcing the lower class to receive an education that is less than those who live in wealth. With the role that education plays in the likelihood of one to succeed, the people that receive the most generally are given more opportunities to achieve their own personal dreams. Those born into the lower classes also struggle with the lack of resources that those in the higher class receive. For example, a student from the lower class that wants to open a business may not receive the same financial support from their family as a member of the higher class would. Even with the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, those of the lower-class face challenges that make it much more difficult to achieve the American

We live in a world where every day we wake up trying to make a living and get onto the next day repeating the same thing over and over. Waking up each day and realizing that you are not able to survive in this world without any money can have a huge impact towards any goal you are trying to reach. In some cases we tend to set the bar high but there is only one problem, how are we going to get enough money to pay for our future goals? Growing up in the working class has been a ride to remember. Experiencing poverty can also have a great affect in your life. After reading three amazing articles one by Richard Rodriguez the second by Barbara Ehrenreich and the last one by Bell Hook, I have learned that there is so much more than to be classified into a class (working class, middle class, and poverty).

Our social justice issue is gender discrimination. Gender Discrimination is a major thing going on in our world today. Therefore, gender discrimination happens in things such as sports, education, health, employment, laws, and in different countries. Gender discrimination was a major thing in the past, and is still a major thing today. Men continually think women are weak, and so women are targeted more in crimes. They also think that women won't stand up for themselves, and women continually let men bring them down because they aren't brave enough. In jobs they believe women won't work, and that women aren't capable enough to do the job, so women end up getting paid less or have to work ridiculously short hours. Today in our century, women are targeted more than men because they are considered weak. Being labeled weak makes women are more vulnerable to at least one form of abuse. 1 in 3 women are abused in some form at a time of their life by a man. Women are targeted for crimes, such as home break-ins, because if they live on their own, they are thought to not be able to defend themselves that well. Women are also being killed all the time. In India, women are burned to death if they can't meet financial requirements, while men aren't. In Egypt, women are killed if they do something considered unclean in their family or outside their family. In South Asia more than 2 million baby girls are killed or abandoned to die because they are considered a financial burden to the

Gender bias, also known as sexism, is a full of attitudes, laws, taboos, preferences, and behaviors that differentiates and discriminates against either sex. These may be a position of which male dominance and female subjugation in the modern society. It could also be a form of sexual stereotypes between men and women, these are commonly experienced in employment versus other positions. A final place that discrimination is faced is the academic environment, the female to male ratios are not in sync in certain programs and courses because of this and it is pressuring men and women to not go into certain fields and do what they love and please. Most advertisements on Television, magazines, newspapers, online ad’s, use a charged sexually image with a female as the star. Women are to be a pleasure for men, and nothing else. Many people have different opinions on genders and sexuality and that is okay, but sometimes you just need to keep them to yourselves.

Gender discrimination against women is out of control across the world and seeps into many aspects of women 's lives. This discrimination harms women in two ways. First, women directly experience stressful events. The experience of sexism is so common that some research suggests women can experience one to two instances of everyday sexism. But women aren 't only harmed by sexism through the physical stress caused by others. They are harmed to the extent that they internalize and adopt these sexist attitudes that can manifest as poor self-concept. This negative self-concept often obvious on a subconscious level, as women and men will demonstrate automatic negative biases against women (Ferguson, 2013).