Social Inequality

I never put much thought into social inequality because of two main reasons, which are that I see every as equals and believe we should be treated as such and because I come from the privileged ethnicity/race group. At first, I believed that prejudice, discrimination, and privilege were terms used to describe a past where every viewed themselves as superior or inferior to one another just because the color of their skin. Nevertheless, after watching White Like Me by Tim Wise, I now understand that social inequality and racism, although not as severe as in the past, still exists today.

Social inequality refers to the ways in which socially defined categories of persons. Unequal society has a big impact on individuals. There are different ways in how you can discriminate against someone this includes stereotyping. Stereotyping is were an individual is labelled as a certain person, or put into a certain group. For example a group of teenagers on the streets wearing hoodies, people would presume they were out to cause trouble.

Social inequality is a problematic phenomenon that occurs all around the world and affects both the developed and developing nations. It is defined as “the unequal distribution of social, political and economic resources within a social collective” (van Krieken et al. 2013, p. 205). Inequality is closely connected with social stratification, a system of social hierarchy that positions individuals and groups into categories according to social variables such as class or ethnicity (van Krieken et al. 2013, p. 485). This stratification has a significant impact on the opportunity that an individual may have to move up the hierarchy of inequality (Gill 2017a).

Social inequality is the issue pertaining to the lack of housing, health care, education, employment opportunities, and status. It is the dismissal of people from participation in what we, the members of society distinguish as being valuable, important, socially desirable, and personally worthwhile. There are many different perspectives on social inequality within our society; the three areas I am going to focus on are those of the Functionalist, Conflict and Symbolic-Interactionist.

When the resources in a society are distributed unevenly it leads to social inequality. Often inequality is understood as being socio-economic and it is now closely associated with social inequality. “Social inequalities are differences in income, resources, power and status within and between societies. Such inequalities are maintained by those in powerful positions via institutions and social processes.” (Warwick-Booth, 2013 p.2)

What is racial inequality? Racial inequality is discrepancies in the opportunities and treatment of people based solely on their race. Racial inequality is a serious issue that is often discussed in the American criminal justice system. Although racial discrimination is present in the criminal justice system, some people use the words inequality, discrimination, racism, and profiling loosely and do not understand how truly complex it is to prove that there actually is racial inequality present in the criminal justice system. Daniel P Mears, Joshua C. Cochran, and Andrea M. Lindsey article Offending and Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Criminal Justice: A Conceptual Framework for Guiding Theory and Research and Informing Policy illustrates

Social inequality can practically be made apparent at any moment of someone’s life – whether at work or school amongst peers or simply watching the news in the morning. According to Dalton Conley, social inequality is narrowly defined as “a condition in which a difference in wealth, power, prestige, or status based on nonnatural conventions exist” (2017 p.241). Moreover, social inequality is a process whereby society can determine how a class of people is expected to coexist within predetermined social, political, and economic boundaries. The affected class will live within the predefined constraints, and the affected class will then pass the predefined constraints on to future generations. It is imperative to understand that social inequality is a result of social stratification, which according to

In every country around the world you can see some form of inequality. The United States is not the only place in the world where people are living in an unfair social system. Inequality can span from racism, sexism, sexual orientation, where you live and how much income you make. You see in the U.S you are placed in a social class based on the amount of money you make a year. There are 6 different social classes in this country that everyone is placed in. Upper class, New Money, Middle class, Working Class, Working poor, and Poverty level. The two most important social classes in my opinion are the Upper Class and the Poverty level. Being in the upper class

Second, there are many other forms of social inequality besides wealth. Some of the other forms are gender, disability, and age. Women did not have the same rights as men, so they were going through the same difficulties as the lower class. People who have disabilities, due to their inability to operate with their crippled body parts, have lost the benefits of the able bodied. Also, age is another factor; sometimes children would be excluded just because they are

Social inequality used to be a problem about 150 years ago in the United States. In the 1800s, soldiers fought for the basic rights of African-Americans in the Civil War. Before that, our soldiers fought for our rights in the Revolutionary War. An example of social inequality is in Mexico where people are treated differently whether they are light or dark brown. Research shows

In order to better understand the debate surrounding social inequality, one must first understand the three viewpoints. The first viewpoint is one of liberals and many democrats, while the second is that of Republicans and

“1]. How does social inequality impact people of different nationalities [ethnicities & races], classes, and genders in society.”

Social inequality is defined as the unequal distribution of social and economical resources. There are unequal opportunities and rewards for different social positions and statuses within a group or society. Because there is social inequality, people have less life chances meaning less educational and occupational opportunities, which prevents movement on the social ladder. This gives authority to the rich because the rich own the means of production, giving capitalists the power to exercise it by exploiting the poor working class. An individual interest and not that of a community drive the rich. Such differences degrade and stigmatize the social class with less money and opportunities causing social stratification.

The term glass ceiling was coined more than twenty years ago by the Wall Street Journal to describe the barriers that women face at workplace. The word ‘ceiling’ suggest that women are blocked from advancing their career while the term ‘glass’ is used because the ceiling does not always visible. Women might work as hard as men do but they only earn about seventy-five per-cent of the men’s income though they might be of the same seniority, experience as well as education level. The earning differential is due to the traditional responsibility for family and childcare tasks assigned by the society towards women. This is because the society still assumes the high-paying professions as masculine and feminine women could not fit the requirements of holding the position and they better do a more nurturing job. This typical thinking causes men to be numerically dominant in almost all area like in key global and national decision-making position such as international organisations, governments, and as well as the board of CEOs and directors of private enterprises. As an example, rarely are women seen to sit in the parliament seat or hold the superior position in a government party. Take the case of our own Datuk Ng Yen Yen who did not succeed in her bid for the MCA’s vice presidency in October 2008. She challenged the tradition within the male-dominated party but then her failure indicates the hesitance of the

Society holds many structures that mould human performance and produce opportunities for some, but inequalities for others (Morrall, 2009). These structures in society are organized by the hierarchies of class, ethnicity and gender (Crossman, 2016). Due to having a society based on hierarchies, social inequalities are inevitable. Social inequality refers to the ways in which a group or individual of a certain social position may receive unequal opportunities or distribution of ‘goods’ such as education, income, living conditions and healthcare (Walker, 2009). These unequal opportunities may be given to someone because of their ethnicity, gender, income, religion or social class (Walker, 2009). For example, people in a high social class will be able to pay for their children to go to a good private school for a good education, whereas lower-class or working class people will struggle to afford the same education.