The recent case of unfair treatment happened with a friend of my family. She found out that she gets much less payment than her male colleague. It is an example of a pay gap, the phenomenon connected with sexism. Unfortunately, racism, sexism, and homophobia still exist in our society and are hard to eradicate. The major reasons for the stated problems are studied by symbolic interactionists, conflict analysts, and functionalists. Symbolic interactionists stress the influence of microlevel contacts: if people are unequal in their status and fail to cooperate in pursuing their goals, it leads to increased prejudice (Kendall, 2016). Functionalists see the root of the problems in tensions between subordinate and dominant groups (Kendall, 2016). Conflict theorists, for their part, focus on the difference between the ability to utilize power and economic advantages among dominant and subordinate groups’ representatives (Kendall, 2016). Benuto et al. (2020) call these unequal groups “in-group” and “out-group”. Members of in-groups protect their advantageous positions and benefit from the exploitation: that policy could also be favorable to capitalists and the government (Benuto et al., 2020). Solutions to the stated problems may lie in the interest convergence of groups, recognition of the minorities’ values and heritage, fighting with discrimination patterns, and encouragement of inclusion at the levels of policy creation, implementation, and reinforcement (Benuto et al., 2020; Kendall, 2016). In addition, the measures of creation of minority grassroots organizations, and passing laws equalizing opportunities for workers and students also help prevent injustice.
Gender barriers are hard to overcome because such stereotypes have a long tradition in our culture. For many years women experienced political, economic, and educational discrimination. According to functionalists, a woman’s human capital is diminished when they are out of the labor force and engaged in child-care activities. Conflict analysts note the male dominance over resources and women, especially in terms of physical power (Kendall, 2016). In addition, different agents of socialization often reinforce gender stereotypes. Nowadays, when we see noteworthy progress in eliminating gender stereotypes in the workforce, women still could face injustice. For examples, the so-called “glass ceiling” for women managers, the pay gap, and gender segregation (Kendall, 2016). Recent case studies by Catalyst conducted in the USA among Fortune 500 US companies (2017) showed that women managers hold only 5.8 percent of CEO positions and comprise only 19.9 percent of corporate board seats (Bertrand, 2017).
References
Benuto, L. T., Duckworth, M. P., Masuda, A., & O’Donohue, W. T. (Eds.). (2020). Prejudice, Stigma, Privilege, and Oppression: A Behavioral Health Handbook. Springer.
Bertrand, M. (2017). The glass ceiling. Becker Friedman Institute for Research in Economics Working Paper, (2018-38).
Kendall, D. (2016). Sociology in our times (11th ed.). Cengage Learning.