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Outline and assess the view that some social groups suffer more inequality in terms of life chances than others It is evident that inequality (social or economic differences between people or groups, which often leads to unequal opportunity, and treatment) is present all around us, even in modern day Britain. There is a view that because of the inequalities, some social groups suffer more in terms of life chances. This means that these individuals may be limited in their ability to share in the economic and cultural goods of society, such as education, health and employment. Working class individuals are disadvantaged in terms of their income, wealth and health. For example, according to the Office of National Statistics (2014), the life expectancy from higher managerial and professional backgrounds is 80 years old; however, the life expectancy of men from routine backgrounds, typically associated with manual labour of the working class is 74. This shows that the working class are disadvantaged in terms of their income and wealth as they typically earn less. Despite, earning less there are serious health implications, which means there life expectancy is shortened by 6 years. This relates to the typical danger of manual labour, such as working in hazardous environments such …show more content…
as mines but also the implications of a lack of economic capital, which leads to the working class suffering more inequality. However, functionalists would argue that society is meritocratic and suggest that there is increasing social mobility and individuals are able to achieve their status in society. This is evident by the ‘Super Rich’ upper class according to Giddens. Giddens identifies two groups of the ‘Super Rich’ upper class - ‘Jet Set or Pop Aristocracy’, such as Cheryl Cole and the ‘Entrepreneurial Rich’ like Richard Branson. This shows there have been changes in society which has led to individuals who have come from traditional working class backgrounds, such as celebrities who have been able to work their way up the social structure to become part of the new ‘Super Rich’ upper class. According to feminists, females are disadvantaged in terms of life chances. Evidence from www.ukpolitical.info shows that 191 of the 650 members of parliament are female - only 29%. This means that females tend to be socialised into looking after the family and having a career for women is considered of less importance. Oakley would support this, as she believes girls are socialised into limited roles by canalisation, manipulation, verbal appellations and different activities. Hence, leading to girls pursuing a family and boys pursuing a career. This means that females suffer more inequality in terms of life chances. Nevertheless, males are also disadvantaged and suffer inequality and as time progresses females are experiencing less inequality.
Dermott (2006) argues that men work longer hours than women despite their role as fathers Doyal (2001) believes that as men tend to work in high-risk industrial jobs, they are more likely to suffer in terms of workplace accidents. In addition, according to Sharpe girls are improving in education and attitudes are changing. Now, girls are more likely to pursue higher education and careers compared to 30 years ago. This proves that changes in society have meant that males can also suffer inequality and attitudes are changing to allow women to suffer less
inequality. Elderly people suffer more inequality in terms of life chances. For example, older people are portrayed negatively in the media and in particular, such connotations of elderly people involve them being seen as ‘smelly’, ‘decrepit’ and ‘ugly’ according to Carrigan and Szmigin. Featherstone and Wernick believe that birthday cards point out the distaste towards the ageing population. This shows that older individuals suffer inequality and may often be faced with rudeness and negative stereotypes from younger members of society. This can lead to elderly people feeling excluded from society and suffering inequality in terms of life chances. However, young people are also disadvantaged in terms of life chances. According to Griffin, the media in three ways also portray young people negatively: young people are portrayed as dysfunctional, deviant and suffering a deficit. Best argues that the media amplifies youth deviance and creates moral panics about young people. This means that young people may be disadvantaged in terms of their life chances and may suffer when seeking employment due to these negative stereotypes surrounding young people. Young people may face rudeness and negative attitudes from older members of society. Discrimination and institutional racism exists. For example, ethnic minority groups are 7 times more likely to suffer from poor housing and overcrowding compared to white households according to the Shelter England. Furthermore, the Panorama Survey (2008) found that 72% of police officers who had responded to the survey had experience institutional racism. This shows that ethnic minorities often suffer from a concrete ceiling, which limits their ability to progress in society, for example in employment. These ethnic minority groups may feel ethnic penalties due to their ethnic identity and this can lead to ethnic minority groups suffering in education as well, which is evident by the low achievement rates of Bangladeshi, Pakistani and Black ethnic groups. Ethnic minorities suffer inequality in terms of their life chances. However, there are different levels of disadvantage between ethnic minorities and it is clear that not all ethnic minorities are suffering inequality in terms of education. For example, according to the Department for Education (2006), 75% of Chinese pupils and 72% of Indian pupils 5 A*-C GCSEs compared to 58% of white British pupils. This shows that despite ethnic minorities suffering from a concrete ceiling, individuals can overcome this concrete ceiling and succeed. Dale et al would support this, as they believe that there is evidence of change across the generations - Muslim Asian women are more likely to participate in the labour market and speak fluent English, which helps them in employment and education. Ethnic identity does not necessarily affect an individual's life chances. It is reasonable to suggest that some social groups suffer more inequality in terms of life chances than others, such as the working class, females, elderly people and ethnic minorities. However, it is not just these groups, which suffer from inequality in terms of life chances. Furthermore, there have been some social changes now, which have meant that these groups are suffering less inequality and society is changing. All social groups can and have been victims of inequality, however, with continued changing attitudes and beliefs, inequality can be eradicated and life chances will be accessible for all.
Economic inequality and injustice come in the same hand. Poor people are more likely to experience inequality and injustice. The negative assumptions of poor people are created by the media and politicians. Promoting economic justice by offering people living in poverty some form of social support. Barbara Ehrenreich found in her experiment the workforce for low-wage was difficult. Conley talks about the different types of social inequalities and how they have been unsuccessful.
1. What is the difference between a. and a. Inequality became instrumental in privileging white society early in the creation of American society. The white society disadvantaged American Indians by taking their land and established a system of rights fixed in the principle that equality in society depended on the inequality of the Indians. This means that for white society to become privileged, they must deprive the American Indians of what was theirs to begin with. Different institutions such as the social institution, political, economical, and education have all been affected by race.
This essay asks to discuss some of the ways in which differences and inequalities persist over time, suggesting that they are not static, continuing to be made and remade by the actions of people and society. With Inequality being defined as ‘‘The unequal distribution of valued social resources within society or between societies including money, housing, power, health and education”. whilst Differences is defined as “contrasts between groupings of people such as those based on gender, class, age, sexuality and race, including things people value and the variations between them including their physical, behavioural, attitudes and preferences”. (Blakeley and Staples, 2014 p 25). However, it is noted not all differences will lead to inequalities,
Rowlingson, K. ( 2011). Does inequality cause Health and Social Problems? Birmingham: Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
Social injustice in our society portrays the segregation of people among different types of groups. Throughout history, humans have been divided into different social classes from lowest to highest. People in the lower class experiences many hardships when it comes to living and are seen as inferior in society.
Income inequality is when income is unevenly distributed in a country. This inequality has reached staggering heights across the world. Even in what we consider developed countries this disparity is only increasing. The causes for income equality can range anywhere from immigration to the policies and politics of a country. However, some critics of income inequality will argue that it will always be present and is necessary to stimulate growth. Nonetheless, the problem is not only that the gap between the poor and the rich is widening but that income inequality is causing devastating market and government failures.
As time has passed by, class inequality has lost its utmost importance (Scase, 1992). Even though it may not seem vital it is still prominent in today’s society and everyone’s lives. The term Class if taken as a form of identity which is stuck onto every individual as a signpost, there is no way of getting rid of it nor escaping it. The class is not as vital anymore because there are more opportunities available so it’s much easier for social mobility to happen in the 21st century. In the past people were victims of circumstances and stood no chance to move up the class ladder; they were born into a class they would die in. Now social mobility has become easier so moving up the class system is not as difficult as it was before, which is why the importance of class is diminishing. A recent example that can be seen of Sadiq Khan, his father was a bus driver in Pakistan and now he is the Mayor of London. The concept of Class has no ‘correct’ definition but it’s known as an inequality
Although philanthropic groups have been concerned about social inequalities for centuries, the issue of health inequalities in the UK was rejuvenated in the 1980s by the publication of the Black Report (Black and Townsend et al., 1982). Data amassed by the Black Report illustrated marked differences in mortality rates between the occupational classes, for both men and woman alike, at all ages. A class gradient was observed for most causes of death. The Black Report provided four theoretical explanations of the relationship between health and inequality:
Inequality is known as the instance or condition of being unequal (Anon., 2003), therefore saying that inequality is when there are differences and when this is linked with the worldwide financial crisis, ‘it draws great attention to the world of the super-rich and the increases in inequality since 1980, which is returning the country back to a degree of inequality which was last seen around 1929 or maybe even 1913’ (Morrill, 2008). This demonstrates that inequality has been an increasing problem, but should this inequality affect us and affect us in the terms of health disparity?
Social class can be defined in a variety of ways. As Alexander Hamilton once said, “all communities divide themselves into the few and the many”. To elaborate on Hamilton’s words, social class is what divides society into different rankings based on several factors. Amongst these factors are income, wealth, occupation, personal prestige, association, socialization, power, class consciousness and social mobility. As a result, these are the factors that define us as human beings in regards to society. A person’s well being is overall, heavily dependent upon this system of stratification in that it helps decide who gets what and the quality of the things that a person is receiving. This concept is defined as life chances developed by sociologist
In America it is based on the relations of property and power and the division of social classes in the United States, the most basic class distinction is between the powerful and the powerless. Social classes groups are the upper class have a great deal of power which usually are viewed as the elites within their own societies. In general usage, the elite is a hypothetical group of relatively small size that is dominant within a large society, having a privileged status perceived as being envied by others. Various social and political theories propose that social classes with greater power attempt to strengthen their own ranking above the lower classes. The upper class has more power because there are some people who are wealthy and do have
The life expectancy can be varied when it is compared based on social class. People have different occupation and this can be the reason why the life expectancy is different. For example, if a person has a job in the mine and another one had a job in an office, the one who has a job in the office are more likely to live longer because they work in a cleaner environment, away form smoke and dust. The England and Wales the Poverty Site 2009 draws attention that men who works in routine or manual backgrounds have lower life expectancy compared to men who has jobs in the intermediate backgrounds and managerial or professional backgrounds. Per 100,000 men who works in
I conceive that there are two kinds of inequality among the human species; one, which I call natural or physical, because it is established by nature, and consists in a difference of age, health, bodily strength, and the qualities of the mind or of the soul: and another, which may be called moral or political inequality, because it depends on
Specifically, females’ tendency to embark upon part-time instead of full-time occupations and their ability to discontinue work have provided them with lesser privileges—decreased pension rights, lower individual assets, and reduced long-term incomes.... ... middle of paper ... ... Typifying the roles of men and women in the labor force due to family concerns and women’s biological purpose has provided men with a source of comparative advantage in work.
Inequality refers to the differences in living conditions in a society; it could also be defined as an unequal distribution of a country’s resources across its population. Inequality is obviously an important issue, since higher levels of inequality will usually translate into higher levels of poverty, crime and social unrest. However, it is often ignored by society. This is because people have many misconceptions about inequality and it’s origins. Some argue that there is an equality of opportunity and that it’s people’s fault if they earn less than they should. However this is a myth, since most hard working low-income students rarely attend college and when they do, they usually attend public universities. Which leaves them at a great disadvantage, so the idea that poor people are poor because they ‘haven’t worked as hard’ or because they are ‘lazy’ is a very ignorant one, which people choose to believe in order to justify inequality.