Whats all this talk about Race and Gender??

Jamilah Dodd

5/2/14

Soci.170

Sites: http://catholicscienceteacher7.blogspot.com/2014_03_27_archive.html

What’s All this talk about Race & Gender?

Having discuss chapter 13 in class which talks about Gender & Inequality I took more of the chapter information in as a mental note when it began to talk about things like feminism. I enjoy talking about this chapter most because it covers many controversial topics like gender, gender stratification, matriarchy, patriarchy, sexism, feminism, race, and ethnicity. Gender can be described or defined as personal traits and social positions involving members of a society attached to either men or women.  When the chapter discusses more about gender we get in to matriarchy and patriarchy. Matriarchy is when you have women that are more dominant than the males and Patriarchy is when you have men that are more dominant over the women. We also talked about topics like sexism and institutional sexism.  Sexism can be defined as a belief that one sex is more superior to the other. Institutional sexism is the sexism that is found in economy.

I also realized more how much gender plays a role in the family. For example, when you have children and you are deciding colors, whether it’s a boy or girl, and the handling and expectations of the children. Gender also definitely exists in the school setting simply by the way it shapes our beliefs and may even guide our areas of study. Mass media also shows how women often times get the roles that have more sex appeal and white male get center stage. Race and gender go hand and hand when talking about inequality. 

Both gender and race involve inequality and discrimination. Race involves biological traits and although many people may confuse race and ethnicity, ethnicity involves cultural traits like languages and religion. More in depth, race also is linked to minorities. A minority is any category of non white people distinguished by physical and or cultural differences.  An example would a group of minorities like Mexican, Asian, Black, Middle Eastern, and Native American. All of these races face racism, prejudice, discrimination, and stereotypes. Like race, ethnicity, and minorities, many people don’t know the difference between the four. I was one of those people who thought it was all the same but learned that there is a difference. Racism is a belief that one racial category is more superior to another. Prejudice is a rigid and unfair generalization about an entire category of people. Knowing the difference between the two helped me not have as many stereotypes against white people, having always thought they were racist and prejudice.

I realized in this chapter how much both race and gender play a role in my society today. After all of the social movements we have had as a whole over time and fights for equality, women will still have to fight harder for equal opportunities. For example, my twin sister and I were voted most inspirational in high school and were invited to attend the award ceremony the following week. At the ceremony we were supposed to receive an award but because we didn't interact more with our male faculty members, they did not vote for us even we put in a lot of work.