Evidence Of Social Inequalities Flashcards
Inequality briefing
Working class disadvantage: workplace
Richest 20% have 60% of overall wealth which is 100 times more than what the bottom 20% have
Mac an Ghail
Working class disadvantage - workplace
Deindustrialisation has led to a ‘crisis of masculinity’ amongst working class males = they face unemployment
Willis
Working class disadvantage - workplace
Working class males see their futures as working in basic manual labour jobs likely their fathers therefore they do not aspire for more (anti-school subculture)
Bourdieu
Working class disadvantage : education
Education system is biased towards dominant classes and it devalues the knowledge and skills of working class through the ‘hidden curriculum’. Also working class lack cultural capital to succeed
Jackson
Working class disadvantage : education
Ladettes who adopt anti-school attitudes and have assertive femininity around smoking and arguing with teachers. As a result, they are negatively labelled by their teachers
The Department for Education
Working class disadvantage : education
Attainment 8 measures a student’s average grade across 8 subjects based on anything above a 5. Those who have free school meals = 34.4% and those who are not = 48.3%
Price
Working class disadvantage : media
‘Poverty porn’ to describe Channel 4’s Benefit street = underclass being exploited by the media to shock and entertain audiences.
Jones
Working class disadvantage: media
‘Chavtainment’ portray a negative view of working class as ‘slothful and aggressive’. Changed the view of working class being the ‘scum of the earth’
Milliband
Working class disadvantage : media
-media is the ‘opium of the people’ : it distracts us as the working class masses from real social issues faced in a capitalist society
-media is another way we are controlled
Walmsley et al
Working class disadvantage : crime
41% of prisoners are from the lowest social classes. But only 19% of the overall population
Coles
Working class disadvantage : crime
If you are poor you are more likely to commit crime
Harding
Working class disadvantage : crime
Working class youth in London turn to crime for income. = a street casino as they turn to crime and gamble with their lives. They also gain status known as street capital through committing deviant acts
Adkins
Female disadvantage : workplace
-horizontal and vertical segregation = disadvantage roles of women. In theme parks, males worked as ride operators whilst women working in catering. These roles caused women to face sexual harassment from staff and customers
What is horizontal and vertical segregation?
Horizontal - work in the same workplace but certain aspects have gender barriers
Vertical - men more likely to be higher, women can’t get to certain promotions or do certain jobs
Laura Bates - Everyday Sexism Project
Female disadvantage : workplace
In the uk parliament men outnumber women by 4 to 1. Only 18/108 High Court Judges are female
The Financial Times
Female disadvantage : workplace
Current gender pay gap suggests both a man and a woman in the same level job worked for one calendar year = a woman would work for free from 30th November. Biggest pay gap is the financial and insurance sector
Skelton
Female disadvantage : education
The hidden curriculum negatively influences subject choices
Kelly
Female disadvantage : education
Science is packaged as a boys subject = boys dominate science class and are used in examples n textbooks = girls are disengaged from the subject
Colley
Female disadvantage : education
Subject choices are negatively influenced by perception of gender roles, subject preferences, learning environment
Ferguson
Female disadvantage : media
Content analysis on women’s magazines ‘cult of femininity’ which promotes the idea that excellence is achieved through caring for others, family, marriage and appearance
Tuchman
Female disadvantage : media
Narrow range of roles for women led to their ‘symbolic annihilation’ in the media. This refers to the media which omits, trivialises or condemns certain groups that are not socially valued such as women
Mulvey
Female disadvantage : media
‘Male gaze’ = women presented as passive objects for male desire
Harding
Female disadvantage : crime
Girls took the role as “fixers” and were used by males to hide weapons and drugs. They were also subjected to sexual abuse and harassment from male gang members
Everyday Sexism Project- Laura Bates
Female disadvantage: crime
Over 2 women a week in the UK are killed by a current or former partner
Leonard
Female disadvantage : crime
Claims that judges label females as ‘doubly deviant’ and judge that they have not only broken laws but also gender roles meaning that they should be punished more harshly
Dermott
Male disadvantage : workplace
Argues that men work longer hours than women regardless of their status as fathers
Farrell
Male disadvantage : workplace
The ‘glass cellar’ - of the 25 professions ranked lowest, 24 of them are 85-100% male dominated e.g roofer, welder, sewer maintenance
Benatar
Male disadvantage : workplace
In his book ‘the Second Sexism’ states that the least desirable and most dangerous jobs, and those with least pay and security remain largely the domain of men
Willis
Male disadvantage: education
Working class ‘lads’ are fatalistic about their future due to following in their father’s footsteps = low status, low paid, basic manual jobs. Causes them to develop anti-school attitudes in the workplace as they did not see the value in achievement (did not need qualifications to get the jobs
Mitsos and Browne
Male disadvantage: education
Teachers treat males and females differently causing an inequality for boys as teachers are too lenient on ‘laddish’ behaviour of boys and this can do them a disservice leading to their lack of achievement. Whereas, they are hard on girls who are seen as breaking both the school rules and gender norms - ‘doubly deviant’ : this ensures that they achieve
Department for education
Male disadvantage : education
In 2019, 71.9% of female students achieved a C/4 grade or higher in comparison to 62.9% of ale students who achieved a C/4 grade or higher in the UK.
Sewell
Male disadvantage: media
Black Caribbean boys turned to rapper role models in the media due to a lack of father figure within the home. These hyper masculine negative role models then lead these boys into deviant anti-school subcultures which lead to their lack of achievement
Easthorpe
Male disadvantage: media
Argues that a variety of media, especially Hollywood films and computer games, transmit the view that masculinity based on strength, aggression, completion and Jolene is biologically determined and therefore a natural goal for boys to achieve
E.g Avengers: Thor, GTA
REACH Media Monitoring Project
Male disadvantage: media
Coverage of black young males in the news often links them with violent crime, and particularly murders involving knives and/or gangs. This negative image of black males can therefore provide negative role models
Messerschmidt
Male disadvantage : crime
The gang acts as a location for males to ‘do masculinity’ which has to be accomplished and proved = ‘accomplished masculinity’
Campbell
Male disadvantage: crime
Men are denied their masculinity through academic success or being the breadwinner (de-industrialised society) = turn to violence and anti-social behaviour to express their masculinity
Faludi
Male disadvantage : crime
Males are not ‘deviant’, they are ‘performing their masculinity’ and demonstrated qualities expected from males ; toughness, bravery and strength
Gov.uk (2017)
Ethnic: workplace
Pakistani and Bangladeshi had lowest employment rate of 55%
White/white British/other had highest employment rate between 62-91%
Wood et al
Ethnic: workplace
Did a field experiment to examine job applications and found that names associated with an ethnic minority background would have to make 16 applications before getting a positive response compared with 9 applications for ‘white sounding’ applications
Parkin
Ethnic: workplace
Ethnic minorities are a negatively privileged status group. Ethnic majority use social closure to prevent ethnic minorities from reaching positions of authority and status. As a result they face a concrete ceiling in the workplace
DfE statistics (2019)
Ethnic: education
GCSE results with an ‘average attainment 8 score’ were as follows:
Chinese - 64.2%
Indian - 56.3%
White British - 46.1%
Black Caribbean - 39.6%
Mirza
Ethnic - education
Studied black Caribbean girls and found that they faced institutional racism and negative labelling from teachers. Although they did resist this and achieve in education they still faced these negative attitudes and potentially did not achieve as well as they could due to lack of support from teachers
Gillborn
Ethnic- education
Black Caribbean boys face institutional racism at school and that they are put into lower sets and entered for lower tier exams limiting their chances of success - this can narrow future opportunities
Alexander
Ethnic - media
Asian youths in east London were unfairly targeted by police and the media. The ‘myth’ of the Asian gang was created whereby the media reported violent clashed between black and Asian gangs. Alexander argues that the Asian boys were criminalised as a result of islamophobia
Van Dijk
Ethnic - media
Used a content analysis to study representations of ethnic groups in the UK over a 10 year period and found that the media stereotype black people in 5 ways. = criminal, threat, abnormal, unimportant and dependent. This included presenting cultural tactics as abnormal and using blanket terminology such as ‘Asian culture’
Children Now- Fair Play
Ethnic - media
Ethnic minorities are stereotyped in video games. 86% of heroes are white, 8/10 competitors in sports games were black and 86% of black female characters were presented as victims of violence
The Lammy Report
Ethnic - crime
Over 40% of young people in custody are from BAME (black Asian minority ethic) backgrounds. The men and women make up 25% of prisoners. Number of prisoners increased from 25% in 2006 to 41% in 2016
Hood
Ethnic - crime
Black men were more likely than white men to receive custodial sentences for offences which have fines or community services as punishments. = institutional racism within police force
Social trends Survey (2017)
Ethnic - crime
Black people are 7 times for likely to be stopped and searched than white people
Ritzer
Youth- workplace
Young people are often on 0 hour contracts in what Ritzer calls ‘McJobs’ (unstimulating, low-wage jobs with few benefits, especially in a service industry
BBC three (2020)
Youth- workplace
Under 25s are treated more harshly in the benefits system. They don’t get the same level of support as people over 25. Younger people are also more likely to be renting and renters have not had the same level of support from the government as people with mortgages
The equality trust
Youth - workplace
Young people have been in a bad situation for the past decade with increasing rental, housing and accommodation costs
Youngpeopleshealth.org.uk
Youth - health
Obesity in 11 year olds increased from 1995-2004, since then has levelled out
25% of young women and 14% of young men take prescribed medicine weekly
In 2014, 41,921 young people aged 10-24 were admitted to hospital for self-harm through either cutting, poisoning and other methods
The guardian
Youth - health
By 2037, it is anticipated that we will go from 6.5 million family carers to 9 million due to our ageing generation. : care system that relies on young carers is not fit for its purpose
Cohen
Youth - media
Negative labelling of youths in the media e.g mods and rockers. He stated that they are labelled as ‘folk devils’ who threaten the basic morals of society. This can lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy where youths ‘live down to their label’
Griffin
Youth -media
Labelled in 3 ways: dysfunctional, suffering a deficit, deviant = create a self-fulfilling prophecy and also negative treatment from the general public / by those in ‘power’
Women in journalism
Youth - media
Study titled ‘Hoodies or Altar Boys’ = how teenage boys were presented in national and local newspapers=
1. Negative language to describe them
2. More stories about teens and crime than any other topic
3. Few stories showed teen boys in a good light
4. 85% of teen boys said newspapers portray them in a bad light but reality TV was seen to portray them the most fairly.
5. Teenagers were weary of other teenagers
Jacobson
Youth - crime
Found that children and young people in custody - 3/4 have absent fathers, half had to live in a deprived household, half has run away and others were from care homes with ‘complex backgrounds’
Harding
Youth - crime
Working class youths in London face deprivation and turn to crime for income - Harding calls this a ‘Street Casino’ as they turn to crime and gamble with their lives - street capital us gained through committing deviance/criminal activities
Johnson
Elderly - workplace
Ageism occurs in the workplace. It is institutionalised and embedded in practices and society. Ageism in the workplace is expressed through the stereotypical assumptions about a person’s competency to do a job in relation to their age. Older people find it much more difficult to get a job as they get older and face stereotypes in the workplace
The National Pensioners Convention (NPC)
Elderly - workplace
1 in 5 (2.5 million) older people live below the poverty line. The majority of these females living alone
Barron and Norris
Elderly - workplace
Elderly are more likely to be in found in the secondary labour market which is defined by low pay, low status, a lack of chance and promotion and few fringe benefits e.g no access to private pensions
Greengross
Elderly - health
The NHS is guilty of institutional ageism because older patients are treated differently from the young. For example a young person will have a clear ‘care plan’ that includes maintaining links with their family etc but the elderly will be denied clinical treatments and often anything offered will be ‘end of life; care
The Royal College of Surgeons and Age UK (2014)
Elderly - health
Some areas of the uk no one over the age of 75 is being offered crucial surgery for breast cancer and very few undergo bowel cancer surgery or have knee and hip replacements - despite legislation making this illegal from 2012
Landis
Elderly - media
Stereotypes in representations of older people. Depicted as ‘one-dimensional’ and described in a number of way such as grumpy old man, depressed or lonely, feisty old woman, sickly old person
Carrigan and Szmigin
Elderly - media
Older people are ignored in media advertising and when they are included they are stereotyped and presented as caricature of an elderly person. Presented as smelly and incontinent an in need of support meaning they are seen as dependent on others
Digital generation gap
Elderly - media
Causes problems for employment, as older people may be less comfortable using technology than the young who have grown up with it. Also feel unable to cope with changes such as paperless banking and a lack of understanding of popular conversations and activities because they may not be able to access social media
Financial Times (2015)
Elderly - crime
The number of over 60s in jail topped 4,000 for the first time on record, more than double the figure 10 years ago. The number of inmates with dementia has risen while cases of diabetes and hypertensions have also soared - prison service is not fit for elderly people
Age UK
Elderly - crime
Of those targeted by fraud scams, the financial loss for older victims (those aged 55 and over) was likely to be nearly twice as much per scam as that for younger age groups
