Gender, Race and Class

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Gender
Race
Class
Conclusion
Works Cited

Introduction

This paper discusses three interrelated concepts of gender, race and class. The three concepts are said to be related because they are all socially constructed. The concepts are also institutionalized, meaning that they are entrenched in social systems and institutions such as organizations, schools and governments.

The three are therefore characterized by discrimination, inequality, prejudice and skewed distribution of resources and power. In a nutshell, men hold senior positions of leadership than women, the whites colonize the non whites, and the rich exploit the poor. The concepts are discussed below separately.

Gender

Gender refers to the social construction of the differences between males and females. For example, the belief that all men are brave and strong while all women are coward and weak. Sex is defined as the biological differences between men and women. For example, body anatomy.

While most or all males have beard, more muscular bodies and deep voices, most or all females do not have beard , have high pitched voices and are less muscular. Gender stereotypes are therefore the believes that people have towards males and females (Connel 72).

There are both implicit and explicit attitudes towards males and females. When we say that the attitudes are implicit, we mean that they are internalized in our thinking processes. For example, a teacher may select male students to represent a school in a math contest and select female students to represent it in the art subjects or in languages.

This may happen as a result of the belief that all males are good in mathematics while all females are good in easy subjects like the arts and languages. In professional context, a male doctor may be referred to as ‘the doctor’ while a female one may be referred to as ‘the woman doctor’ to imply that it is unusual for a female to be a doctor.

When we say the attitudes are explicit, we mean that the stereotypes may not be necessarily internalized, but are based on generalizations about males and females. For example, a firm may refuse to recruit females to work as guards because of the belief that females are not only weak, but are also prone to other forms of violence such as rape.

Both implicit and explicit attitudes towards gender stereotypes are sometimes correct but are not always true. For example, while it is correct that men are courageous and able to do tough subjects like mathematics, not all of them are able to perform well in mathematics.

In some cases females may outshine males in mathematics. For a person to confirm a certain stereotype, he or she must do a research on the same. While doing the research however, he or she must bear in mind that attitudes and behaviors keep on changing (Mora and Ruiz 34).

Gender stereotypes are related to ambivalent sexism, which is the coexistence of positive and negative attitudes towards a certain sex. Ambivalent sexism is understood by taking a closer look at some words and phrases which are used to describe females. For example, a female Chief Executive Officer (CEO) may be described as very cute, adorable and attractive.

Another example is the saying that men are incomplete without women. These are positive attitudes towards women. In leadership context, the female CEO may also be described as a ‘very good public relations agent’ while the male CEO may be described as a ‘very good leader’.

These ambivalent attitudes towards females are used by males to remain at the top of the hierarchy of power and leadership and place females at the bottom. While a phrase like ‘that female CEO is very cute, calm and attractive’ implies a positive attitude towards her, it can also imply that she can be too emotional to become a good leader.

Ambivalent sexism is therefore used mostly to propagate the inequalities between males and females especially in the pursuit of power and authority. This leads to the enactment of policies which do not adequately reflect the views and wishes of females in the society.

Race

Race refers to the physical characteristics of people from different parts of the world. Such characteristics include skin color, dialect, eye color, type of hair and cultural practices. However, the skin color is the most common criteria for distinguishing people by race. We have various races such as the Whites, the Asians, the Jews and the Blacks.

Race contributes to the formation of two groups of people namely the dominant and the subordinate groups. A dominant group is defined as the most powerful group in a society. This group enjoys the highest social status and has access to unlimited privileges. A subordinate group refers to people who are singled out for unfair treatment due to their physical and social characteristics. This group is also subjected to various forms of discrimination by the dominant group. (Glenn 41).

The defining criteria in the formation of the two groups include race, ethnicity and skin color. Others include colonization, migration and annexation. In the United States, the dominant groups are characterized by skin color and ethnicity. Basically, the White Americans are classified as the dominant group.

Their ethnicities include British, Germans, Norwegians, Irish, French, the Dutch and Polish.They are categorized as the dominant group because they were the ones who played a major role in the attainment of American Independence form the Great Britain. They are also very rich, highly educated and enjoy a high social status. They also do white color jobs and always hold positions of leadership in political, social and economic spheres (Rothenberg 17).

The subordinate group comprise the African Americans, the Asian Americans, Latin Americans, Spanish and Jewish Americans. These are the people whose skin color is different from that of the White Americans. They are not as economically stable as the White Americans. In most cases, they do casual jobs especially in the plantations, factories, airlines and in the hospitality sector.

One example of how the two groups have an impact on each other is their economic relationship. The dominant group owns the means of production. As a result, it usually employs the subordinate group to do the casual jobs as the dominant group takes the leadership and management positions in various sectors of the economy.

Class

Class refers to the social differentiation of people within a society depending on their social status, which is majorly determined by their economic status. People of low economic status usually belong to a low social class and vice versa. Karl Marx presented a two class model of society comprising the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. The bourgeoisie are few in number and they own capital for production. They are also rich, powerful, oppressors, exploiters and they always win elections in democratic countries

On the other hand, the proletariat are the workers, owners of labour and they are the majority in numbers but are powerless since they are oppressed and exploited by the rich and they always lose in elections in democratic nations. The proletariat can be described as a class in itself in the sense that they share same objectives and relationships to the means of production, that is, they are laboures who are paid in wages (Rank 13).

The two classes are always in conflict with each other because their interests are incompatible. While the bourgeoisie have the interests of maintaining the status quo which ensures their dominance, the proletariat are interested in changing the status quo which deprives them of good life.

However, the two classes are not aware of the nature of the circumstances which they live in but assume that the situations which they find themselves in are natural and nothing can be done to change them, a situation Karl Marx calls false class consciousness (Andersen and Taylor 26).

Conclusion

The concepts of gender, race and class are interrelated, meaning that they are all products of social constructions and are based on historical perspectives of discrimination, stereotyping and prejudice. They are also systems of power and control, manipulation and exploitation. While men dominate women, the whites dominate the non whites and the rich dominate the poor in the society.

The concepts are entrenched in our society and social institutions to the extent that we see them as normal. However, an objective analysis of the concepts shows that there are no fundamental differences between men and women, whites and non whites and the rich and the poor, meaning that if the playing ground was to be level, what a man can do can also be done by a woman, what a white man can do, a non white can also do and what can be done or achieved by a rich man can also be done or achieved by a poor man.

Works Cited

Andersen, Margaret, and H. Taylor. Sociology: Understanding a Diverse Society, Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 2002. Print.

Connel, Raewyn. Gender, Washington DC: Polity Press, 2009. Print.

Glenn, Nakano. Unequal Freedom: How Race and Gender Shaped American Citizenship and Labor, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002. Print.

Mora, Ricardo, and C. Ruiz. Gender Segregation: From Birth to Occupation, Madrid: Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, 2000.Print.

Rank, Mark. One nation, underprivileged: why American poverty affects us all, New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.Print.

Rothenberg, Paula. Race, class, and gender in the United States, Walton: Mac higher publishers, 2009. Print.

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