Abstract
This paper will go over the differences and inequalities of social class, gender, and race. The paper will go into detail about how it can affect people in school. The paper goes into detail about how it can affect people in the work environment.
Introduction
Socialization is the lifelong process by which people learn their society’s culture and where they develop their social identity. As research has showed that as children grow and move through school that the home environment is a critical time for shaping attitudes towards and the success in school; in a nation that is diverse as the U.S., educating all the children equitably has proven to be an immense challenge. By the time a child enters kindergarten, it is already clear what the social class differences in academic achievements are. Social class, gender, and even race can make a difference in education.
Social Class Differences and Inequalities
Social class is the single factor with the most influence on how ready a child is ready to learn when they first go to school, with low social class children far behind from the very start (García & Weiss, 2015). Social class is normally spilt up based on income and/or wealth, education, prestige and power, with children raised in different social classes having different material realities, that can and will impact their educational outcomes. It is believed that over time student from the less privileged family may reject school because they feel that their knowledge is not respected and that they do not belong in the school.
Annette Lareau describe the parenting style of the middle-class families in three different way. The first way is in the terms of the organization of daily life, middle class children participate in numerous extra-curricular activities and children in the working class have a looser schedules. The second is the interacting with institutional authorities.
The third and final way is the use of language. Recent data show that children from different social classes experience different language environments during primary socialization. Most working-class children develop an emerging sense of constraint, on the other hand middle class children develop an emerging sense of entitlement. Normally children in the highest social class usually have reading and math scores that is higher than other children in different social classes (García & Weiss, 2015). Children from the low class usually have noncognitive skills (García & Weiss, 2015).
Gender Differences and Inequalities
Gender is normally referred to the set of social distinctions that differentiate a man from a woman, it is a socially learned role. In contrast, sex refers to the set of biological characteristics that differentiate a man from a woman. Sometimes one gender does not match up to their sex. Girls and boys socialized differently from birth, and most children have an idea of their gender identity by the time they begin school. It seems that parents give more physical contact and respond quickly to the expression of distress to female children. Boys receive more active, rougher and tumbled play, it also seems that parents talk more to daughters than sons. Parents will actively draw the daughter/s into dialogue and will use more emotional words.
So, by the time girls reach 6 years old, the have a much larger vocabulary of emotions and can interpret a wider array of emotional cues from people’s faces than boys, however, parents will use more mathematical, scientific, and action words with boys. Toys also strongly differentiated by gender and play a role in gender socialization. Toys marketed to boys are often featured violence and competitiveness, while toys marketed to girls involve communal and cooperative forms of play.
Even though there are more transgender and gender non-conforming students withing the educational system, the schools are still organized around the gender binary. Male gender roles have set expectations, so the boys who fall outside of these expectations usually experience pressures. Adolescents who do not fit in may experience bullying, verbal, physical, emotional, and/or cyber. An adolescent may not fit in because of how they look or dress, or any other number of reasons, they may be bullied over some small or by something small. Bulling will happen not only in adolescents; it technically happens in adulthood as well. How an adolescent is bullied also have gender differences, with boys being physically and girl verbally.
In higher education, gender differences are more complicated. It has been noticed that male students tend to participate more frequently in class discussions, are more likely to offer questions and/or answers when asked as a whole class, and they seem to respond quicker when called on spontaneously. Female students typically hang back in discussions in class, occasionally preface responses with doubt and/or apologies. It seems that on paper that female students receive higher grades and are among the students that earn the highest grade in the classes. In history women in every society have had fewer educational opportunities than men, sometimes it is not only less but a different type.
There are also normal everyday things that are technically different by gender, such as cars, specifically safety features. It has been found that women are 47% more likely to suffer severe injuries in a car crash, this is because the safety features in cars are designed for men (Whiting, 2019). Inequalities also happen in movies and T.V. shows as well. Apparently for every female character in a film there are 2.24 men characters (Whiting, 2019). Gender different and inequalities happen around the world, some are worse than others. There are about 12 million girls that get married before they turn 18 around the world, 659 million women are alive today who were child brides (Whiting, 2019).
According to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap report it will take about 108 years to close the gender gap with the current rate of progress (Whiting, 2019). There are only 6 countries that give women equal legal work rights as the men, typically economy will only give women three-quarters rights that men have in measured areas (Whiting, 2019). Careers and workplaces are where you may see gender inequalities easily. Women are underrepresenting in high-level positions and overrepresented in low-paying jobs (Institute for Policy Studies, n.d.).
Gender discrimination and sexual harassment is a significant reason to economic divides (Institute for Policy Studies, n.d.). Women that are of color and/or transgender experience high levels of poverty, unemployment, and/or other economic hardships (Institute for Policy Studies, n.d.). The occupations that are female dominated are on the lower rungs in the wage ladder, they make up 63% earning the federal minimum wage (Institute for Policy Studies, n.d.). As of 2016, women earned less than 81 cents for every dollar a man earned (Institute for Policy Studies, n.d.). On the average and in all industries women in America earn less than men in America (Institute for Policy Studies, n.d.).
Racial Differences and Inequalities
The history of the race and education in the United States can be characterized as separate and unequal. When slavery was around in the United States, education was forbidden. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 ruled the delays in desegregation would no longer be tolerates, the government required school districts to develop desegregation plans, which they used threats of cutting funds to enforce. In the 1970s and 1980s were characterized by plans throughout the nation to achieved racial integration, some areas successfully desegregated, while others remained segregated. In today times, students mostly attend a school in which their own race is the majority. Asian-American students are the only ones to attend truly diverse schools. Not only do most children attend segregated schools, they also tend to attend schools with unequal resources, large portion of school funding comes from local property taxes.
African Americans and Hispanic students have low achievement scores, low rates of high school graduations, and are less likely to enroll in college compared to White and Asian Americans students. There has been a rise of Hispanic students in America and by 2024 it is predicted that 29% of public-school enrollments would be Hispanic. Native Americans also experienced profound cultural clashes within the educational system, they have the lowest educational outcomes of any racial and/or ethnic group.
65% of Native Americans receive their high school diplomas, 85% for White and Asians, 71% for Hispanic and 67% for African Americans. Native Americans college enrollments have doubled since the 1970s, however only 13% of young adults have a bachelor’s degree or higher, compare to 62% among Asian Americans, 38% among Whites, 19% among African Americans, and 14% among Hispanics. There is race inequalities in not only schools, but in work as well. This is true especially in the pay, where it is not only different in race but in gender as well. The largest pay gaps between men and women appear among whites and Asians, this is not because African Americans and Hispanics made faster progress in equity but because average pay for men in these groups falls far below the whites and Asian (Institute for Policy Studies, n.d.).
In America it is generally thought that being white is an advantage in society, while being African American and/or Hispanic hurts people’s ability to get ahead, it is mixed opinions when it comes to what impact being Asian and/or Native American has (Horowitz, Brown, & Cox, 2019). 59% say that being white helps people’s ability to get ahead in the country, 28% say neither helps nor hurts, and 12% say it hurts (Horowitz, Brown, & Cox, 2019). 56% sees being African America as a disadvantage, 25% says it hurts people’s ability to get ahead, 26% says it neither helps nor hurts and 17% says it helps (Horowitz, Brown, & Cox, 2019). 51% sees being Hispanic as a disadvantage, 18% says it hurts people’s ability to get ahead and 30% says it neither helps (Horowitz, Brown, & Cox, 2019). The opinions are split when it comes to being Native American, equal amount says that it hurts, and they say it neither helps nor hurt and a small share says it helps (Horowitz, Brown, & Cox, 2019). A plurality says that being Asian neither helps nor hurts, 34% says it helps, and 21% says it hurt (Horowitz, Brown, & Cox, 2019).
Conclusion
If we had equals schools that would increase the educational attainment of disadvantaged students by an average of about one-half year (Ballantine, Hammack, & Stuber, ‘Chapter 3 Equality of Educational Opportunity?: A Look at Social Class Differences and Inequalities’, n.d.). However, we do not have equal schools. Yes, there are inequalities in social class, gender, and race, but some will still succeed despite all the hardships. Some will fall into the statics. It would be nice if the world, not just schools, where equal, but sadly they are not, and these are just a few of the differences and inequalities out there.
