Exploring the Barriers: Studies in Race, Class, and Gender Paper Example

Race, gender, and class are the most powerful principles in the ideology of cultural development worldwide. Each culture present different views of race, class, and gender but all of them has corresponding social construction which has nearly always led to structured inequality. Due to social movements, there has been an increased presence of the working class in both women and men. Race, class, and gender affect all the aspects of humanity, and they concurrently build the experience which affects all humans in the society. Though sometimes they may feel more meaningful in a specific person`s life, their effects are overlying and increasing on people`s experience (Evans, Douglas, Kwan-Lamar Blount-Hill, & Cubellis 9). Gender, class, and race take a role in shaping and forming the experiences that human beings go through in life. Race, class, and gender are social forces that inform and shape the organization of schools and educational spaces such both formal and informal learning.

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Gender is defined as the personal commencement of oneself as being a male or a female. This notion relates to the concept of gender roles, which is the outward display of personality that mirrors the gender identity. The combination of inherent, environmental or extrinsic factors identifies gender identities; on the other hand, gender role is displayed within a society by factors which are observable which can be appearance and behavior. In most cases, gender identity and gender roles are in agreement,

There are generalizations involving gender differences, attributes, and roles of various individuals or different groups. The stereotypes about gender can be positive or negative, and they rarely disseminate information about others. When assumptions about gender are automatically applied regardless of actual evidence, they are depicting gender stereotyping. Many understand the danger arising from gender stereotyping, yet they go on and make these types of simplistic generalizations. Regarding roles, traditionally the female stereotype role is to marry and get children, also to prioritize her family welfare before her own. She is intended to be loving, caring, nurturing, compassionate and be sexy and beautiful.

On the other hand, the male stereotypic title role is to provide finance, be independent, courageous, holds his emotion and always be the one initiating sex. These stereotypes can prove very harmful; they can in one way or the other alter individual creativity and expression as well as deter professional growth and personal growth. Children learn stereotypes on gender from adults. They study gender roles from parents, peers, teachers, and media and pass the gender stereotypes from one generation to the next. Recently the Feminists have struggled to remove and redefine traditional stereotypes of gender roles. The variances between men and women are not merely biological. The society culture establishes a set of unwritten cultural laws that shows the act of each gender (Evans, Douglas, Kwan-Lamar Blount-Hill, & Cubellis 15).

In the social setting, there are many Gender barriers. The reasons for the gap between women and men are deep-seated and multifactorial, and it has existed for generations. Further, the beliefs and perceptions held by both genders are problematic, and it is these reasons that make the problem arising from gender challenging to address. Women experiences barriers to leadership and such barriers are individual mindsets, structural barriers, institutional mindsets, and lifestyle choices. Structural barriers encompass a lack of significant access to important informal networks which are sporting events and after-work drinks. Mostly, men assume that ladies do not want to participate in these types of events. Hence they do not bother to invite them. To eradicate this barrier, we must try our best to be more inclusive with social events and our networks. Men should invite women and women to invite men to interact together.

Behaviors and thoughts women have held them back. Most women in organizational structure reach the director level. Moreover, the majority do not pursue president, vice president or any C-level positions due to numerous reasons such as socialization pressures, desire to avoid politics and lack of confidence (Danielle 23). Women usually want different things that men themselves do and are confronted with various barriers that men do not encounter. Hence, most ladies have decided to opt for private sectors, startup companies, and nonprofit organizations. Also, family choices are considered barriers as they contribute to the gap in gender leadership. There is an imbalance in work balance between men and women. The more imbalance is existing at home, the more the imbalance will be at work.

Gender barriers to communication incite many problems in the workplace and at home. Presence of societal stereotypes, interpersonal differences, and assumed gender roles contributes to a communication gap between different sexes. Both men and women in society have assigned roles that lead to the gender divide. Bearing in mind, not all men and women fit the considered category; mostly men are focused on tasks while women are usually focused on relationships. In most cases, women prefer to develop a relationship first then use that same relationship to work collaboratively, while men do not apply this method as they experience frustrations. Instead, they use tasks as a way to connect with others. The differences conclusively establish a gender barrier in how men and women communicate. When conflicts arise, task-oriented and relationship-oriented approaches communications may be exaggerated. Women discuss conflict to preserve the relationship, but Men tends to assume conflict to do away with the effect it may cause on the relationship.

In the decision-making process, there exist style differences in both genders creating a barrier to communication (Barbara, Froyum, & Scarborough 26). Men in most cases rely on product-driven style while women depend on process-oriented and prefer to gather information. In the workplace, a leader who is female seeks advice from other workers. A male leader views this as a weakness and decides on his own, without consulting colleagues. Also, women discuss issues verbally but men process it internally, and in this manner, a woman can interpret the silence of a man as he is not interested in the issue hence barrier occurs.

Furthermore, there is unequal engagement, in the workplace, men usually provide information, they hardly seek information, but women seek to listen and understand others in a place where there is mixed gender group, they grant everybody an opportunity to contribute to a conversation. Men dominate the conversation and interrupt women. Men consider leading a conversation to be their responsibility or to demonstrate competence. In such situations, women choose to quit from the conversation or remain silent.

Racism is the certainty in the intrinsic superiority of one race over other races and in so doing the right to dominance. In most cases people of the same race stays and forms relationships together, they live in places where their race predominant (Yuen, 21) They have their unique lifestyle and considers other races to be lower. Individuals in different societies use racism and racial stereotypes to ascertain whether to move away from members of the particular race and to determine if one feels safe in a place where an individual of a particular race resides. It is the society which creates constraints like skin color which are required for membership in the said race. Therefore, a social accord often determines a person`s race.

Racial and ethnic disparities have been observed among persons with similar race and ethnic group, within the same setting. In most instances' racism is displayed in two categories, firstly, racism as set beliefs and practices that manifest in a commercial setting such as banking practices, the law enforcement system and education system. In these systems, there is racism in that the level of funding in black and white schools is different. The institutionalization magnifies the power of individuals or group bias hence race barrier.

Secondly, through history for hundreds of years, there has been biasing in the relationship between the whites and blacks, leaving an enormous injury and trauma in its conscious. There have been conflicts about racism as people are treated differently based on their color, and it even affects the employment opportunities in certain jobs or any other privilege available. Another race barrier is seen in health outcomes and quality of care. It is observed in persons who have the same health insurance, within the same health plan and same scheme of care.

The class is a structure of stratification of various groups of people in a given society. Class classifications are based on age and gender ethnicity. Social class makes people`s lives very different ranging from one`s health class and success. Social class affects how much and what people eat, how people`s health care and the kind of housing and education level they reach. Social class can be upper, middle and lower classes in which upper middle class are professionals and managers while those who are lower class shop workers and office workers. The working class, like the middle class, are made of sub-groups of people who include the skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled workers. Those who are born in this class mainly rise to the middle class. Members of the different class have more or less chance to get essential things in life. There is a feeling of equality among members of same class and feeling of superiority to the class below and inferiority to the class above in the social hierarchy. The societies are divided into classes based on the status is regarded as inevitable, and the anybody possessing wealth in society has resources that can make exercise both economic and political power (Danielle 35)

Class barriers that face lower income families can be economic, social, cultural and educational. In an educational setting, class barriers keep poor children out of professional careers. While measuring progress on improving life chances for the disadvantaged people, it is seen that most deprived children are significantly behind their privileged upper class in access to quality education. Social class is still the most massive projector of school achievement, in that the probability of getting a degree and also a child`s behavior, favors those born in privileged homes. The wealthy often school their children well, taking them to high performing institutions and giving them possible tools needed to be very productive economically. Entry requirements to elite institutions such as high fee payment keep away children from disadvantaged backgrounds; it only remains the principal ticket by which working class or privileged students are held at the inlet of the doors of best institutions.

Thus, those students that are in underprivileged inner cities have a strict sense of their forecasts and relate circumstances of elder siblings, friends, and relatives. Higher class students enjoy opportunities such, exploiting connections to take up high-end internships, secure jobs with the top city companies, which lower-class students cannot afford to get. Based on the report from The Sutton Trust, in their research, they concluded that the social class is still the leading predator of achievement in schools and likelihood of getting a degree, it suggests that advantages of being from wealthy family have not changed for 30 years. Coming from a privileged family increases the chances of succeeding through the education system ( Lynn 14).

Conclusion

Lower class families experience poor quality of dietary due to the per...