Inequalities of Class, Gender, and Ethnicity

Class

• Class usually refers to a level of economic wealth, but can also be cultural (high class/low class)
• There are two ways to describe class: Durkheimian and Marxian
  • Durkheimian: different levels of wealth along a continuum, inequalities are natural
  • Marxian: two distinct categories, class is one's relationship to the "means of production", inequalities are based on exploitation and subjugation
    • Proletariat (workers) and Bourgeoisie (owners)

Economic/Class Inequality

• Exists between, within, and across countries
• World income distribution:
  • 42 richest people own half the wealth in the world (Oxfam, 2018)
  • 8 men own more than the poorest half of the world's population (Oxfam, 2018)
  • 82% of new wealth in 2017 went to the richest 1% (Oxfam, 2018)
• Comparative economic inequality between societies:
  • USA: wealthiest 20% own 85% of the wealth (2016)
  • World: wealthiest 10% own 85% of the wealth (2016)
• Income and wealth inequality in Canada:
  • Top 20% earn 43% of income
  • Bottom 20% earn 5.2%
  • In the last 30 years, the income share of the wealthiest 1% increased by 75%
  • The share of the poorest 20% fell by 20%

Intergenerational Income Elasticity

• Increases with inequality

Class as a Continuum

• Class, gender, and race are arbitrary categorizations along a continuum
• Socially constructed categories, just like grades (F=50 and below; D=50-60; C=60-70; B=70-80; A=80-90; A+ = 90-100)

Race and Ethnicity

• Race: based on physical differences
• Ethnicity: based on cultural identity
• Both are socially constructed categories arbitrarily dividing humans along a continuum
• The Human Genome Project has shown only 15% of genetic variation to occur between 'races' (85% within 'races')

Racism and Ethnocentrism

• Racism: the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination
• Ethnic discrimination: discriminating due to ethnicity
• Ethnocentrism: making value judgments about another culture from perspectives of one's own cultural system

Sex and Gender

• Sex: a cultural categorization of diverse human physiology
• Gender: a set of shared cultural understandings of how men, women, girls, and boys should look and act
• Gender roles: patterns of behavior that a society expects of males and females
• Gender socialization: the process by which people learn their culturally prescribed gender roles

Gender Biological Determinists

• Structural functionalists: gender roles are natural and related to physical differences
• Examples: men are naturally more aggressive, women are more nurturing

This quiz covers the concepts of class, gender, and ethnicity, including the Durkheimian and Marxian perspectives on class and its relationship to economic wealth and production. It also touches on the aspects of inequality and social categorization.