Poverty Among Women

1101 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Effects of gender on stratification

For centuries, gender, race, ethnicity, and age, have contributed to the social stratification of persons in society, and more specifically, for the means of this essay, women in society. In the United States for example, gender and age greatly contribute to whether or not one will be subject to a life of poverty. In Cultural Anthropology: A Problem Based Approach, Robbins discusses the book Women and Children Last by Ruth Sidel in which Sidel draws a comparison between the Titanic and American society in the 1980's. "Both were gleaming symbols of wealth that placed women and children at a disadvantage" (Robbins, 239). When the Titanic went down that night, the women and children traveling first and second-class were the first to be saved, but the women and children in third-class and steerage were either the last ones to be saved or rather not saved at all, so much so that 45 percent of the women and 70 percent of the children in steerage died. Sidel claims that the same way certain women and children on board the Titanic were the last to be saved, in the United States as well, certain women and children are not the first to be saved, but rather the first ones to fall into poverty.

Race and ethnicity as well have contributed to the social stratification of different groups in society. For a long time, to be part of a certain racial or ethnic group essentially decided ones place in the social hierarchy. Most people had little trouble convincing themselves that race and ethnicity play a key factor in the justification of racial stratification, especially when the state and religious authorities reinforced this idea. To additionally reinforce racial superiority, scientist Samuel George Morton conducted an experiment in which he fa...

... middle of paper ...

... many possible factors that contribute to the condition of homeless women. Whether it is sexism, the idea that men are superior to women, or racism that contributes to their condition as homeless women doesn't really matter. The important thing to note is that gender has always played a large part in social stratification, and women, especially those of a minority race or ethnicity, seem to be at the bottom of this social hierarchy.

Works Cited

Friedl, Ernestine. "Society and Sex Roles". 1978.

Mitter, Sara S. "The Shadow Economy: Cleaners in Bombay". 1991.

Robbins, Richard H. Cultural Anthropology: A Problem Based Approach. U.S.: Thomson

Wadsworth, 2006.

Sidel, Ruth. Women and Children Last. New York: Viking Press, 1986.

Waterston, Alisse. Love, Sorrow, and Rage: Destitute Women in a Manhattan Residence.

Philadelphia: Temple Univ. Press: 1999.

Show More
Related

  • Analysis Of The Book 'Racial Fault Lines'

    1344 Words  | 3 Pages

    Any notable person with medical expertise will testify that racial identities bear no scientific weight and one’s race is only as significant as the person--or culture the said person is submerged in--makes it out to be. When dissected sociologically, “race prejudice [is] an irrational manifestation of individual pathologies” (Racial Fault Lines, 17)... “[that] represent attempts by one group of people to secure for themselves a privileged position in the social structure at the expense of stigmatized and subordinated social groups,” (Racial Fault Lines, 18). And, while the privileged groups’ “superiority” and other groups’ “inferiority” is arbitrary and holds no ethical legitimacy, the damage caused to the “inferior” groups is undeniable and enormously detrimental. Tomás Almaguer, in his insightful book, Racial Fault Lines: The Historical Origins of White Supremacy in California, explores the various ways in which the Mexican, Native American, and Asian populations in the late nineteenth century

    Read More

  • Ethnic Studies Issues And Approaches Summary

    617 Words  | 2 Pages

    One very important form of ethnic stratification is the colonialization of the Americas, truly the Spaniards destroyed a highly advanced civilization when they took over the lands of the Native Americans. Yang uses the colonization of Puerto Rico to portray how ethnic stratification occurs, when the Puerto Ricans had contact with Americans in 1898 (65). Colonization and ethnic group interactions alone are not enough for ethnic stratification, Yang mentions there are “conditions” that cause stratification. These conditions are the “Social-Darwinian approach, the social-psychological approach, the functionalist approach, the conflict approach, and the Donald Noel hypothesis (66). These theories share what is the conditions causing stratification, though some theories have some holes in them, these are very important in understanding ethnic stratification. Personally, I do not like being called a “minority group” because the title describes what the society thinks of my ethnic group and at the bottom of the hierarchy. People have told me I need to be diligent to succeed in education, implying everyone has an equal opportunity to receive the most benefits from society. I did not realize living in the projects, having a low social class or being a minority group affected your chances of becoming successful, because of people around me who had an abstract-liberism

    Read More

  • Myths of the Melting Pot

    1981 Words  | 4 Pages

    concerns racial equality in America. The myth of the “Melting Pot” is a farce within American society, which hinders Americans from facing societal equality issues at hand. Only when America decides to face the truth, that society is not equal, and delve into the reasons why such equality is a dream instead of reality. Will society be able to tackle suc...

    Read More

  • The Racial Contract, by Charles W. Mills

    1142 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...by Charles W. Mills, the author attempts to provide an explanation for the way that race plays a role in our society, and how it has reached this particular point. Not only does Mills’ work provide some explanation in regards to this matter, but other notable texts and documents connect to his ideas as well, such as Michael Omi and Howard Winant’s, “Racial Formation in the United States,” and the remarks made by Abraham Lincoln in “The Lincoln-Douglas Debates.”

    Read More

  • Racial Inequality Essay

    1212 Words  | 3 Pages

    Inequality became instrumental in privileging white society early in the creation of American society. The white society disadvantaged American Indian by taking their land and established a system of rights fixed in the principle that equality in society depended on the inequality of the Indians. This means that for white society to become privileged they must deprive the American Indians of what was theirs to begin with. Different institutions such as the social institution, political, economical, and education have all been affected by race. Sociologists use Assimilation theory to examine race and institutions. The perceived deficiencies of minority immigrant groups by white society has resulted in a generalized characterization of these different racial groups that is demeaning and reinforces the negative stereotypes towards minorities in the United States. Knowles and Prewitt argue that the cause behind the racial tension is the historical roots of institutional racism, which has prevented the minority from attaining equality. Following structured social inequality in the United States, institutions have consistently denied the minority groups through discrimination in education, employment, health care and medicine, and politics. Some ways that this has been done is the use of Jim Crow Laws. These laws created inequality in the educational institution by conducting the black schools and whited schools separately; whites used different textbooks than blacks and they could not be interchanged, and promoting equality for the races was considered a misdemeanor offense resulting in fines or prison. Because of these institutions, we see that there is an American Ethnic Hierarchy. This is divided into a three tier system: first ...

    Read More

  • Environmental Injustice Endured by the Native Americans

    2091 Words  | 5 Pages

    Schaefer, Richard, T. Racial and Ethnic Groups. 12th ed. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2010. Print.

    Read More

  • Women and Poverty in Canada

    2495 Words  | 5 Pages

    Poverty is a significant threat to women’s equality. In Canada, more women live in poverty than men, and women’s experience of poverty can be harsher, and more prolonged. Women are often left to bear more burden of poverty, leading to ‘Feminization of poverty’. Through government policy women inequality has resulted in more women and children being left in poverty with no means of escaping. This paper will identify some key aspects of poverty for Canadian women. First, by identifying what poverty entails for Canadian women, and who is more likely to feel the brunt of it. Secondly the discussion of why women become more susceptible to poverty through government policy and programs. Followed by the effects that poverty on women plays in society. Lastly, how we can reduce these effects through social development and policy.

    Read More

  • Satire Essay

    939 Words  | 2 Pages

    There are many other cases of why the homeless are homeless like domestic violence, mental illness, addictions, and unaffordable health care. Homelessness is a problem which has been caused by many different aspects but mainly money because of massive unemployment rates. A hidden aspect to homelessness that we may not think of is ...

    Read More

  • Domestic Violence: A Cause of Homelessness in Women

    967 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...ty for increasing the likelihood that women will become homeless. Female single parent families rose form 23.7 % of all families in poverty in 1960 to 52.6 % of all families in poverty in the mid 1990's. (Hagen, 1994). As a result of historical growth in women's poverty and female headed family homelessness, it has been increasingly important for research to focus on the unique sets of issues and problems that women's homelessness presents.

    Read More

  • Poverty in America

    1213 Words  | 3 Pages

    Everyone knows what the word poverty means. It means poor, unable to buy the necessities to survive in today's world. We do not realize how easy it is for a person to fall into poverty: A lost job, a sudden illness, a death in the family or the endless cycle of being born into poverty and not knowing how to overcome it. There are so many children in poverty and a family's structure can effect the outcome. Most of the people who are at the poverty level need some type of help to overcome the obstacles. There are mane issues that deal with poverty and many things that can be done to stop it.

    Read More

  • Social Stratification in the African American Community

    1003 Words  | 3 Pages

    Social Stratification in the African American community has changed over the years. Social stratification is defined as a rigid subdivision of a society into a hierarchy of layers, differentiated on the basis of power, prestige, and wealth according to Webster’s dictionary. David Newman in Sociology Exploring the Architecture of Everyday Life describes stratification as a ranking system for groups of people that perpetuates unequal rewards and life chances in society. From slavery to the present, the African American community has been seen to have lower status compared to white people. Today, the stratification or hierarchy difference between whites and black are not really noticeable, but it is still present. However, during slavery, the difference in social stratification was noticeable. Whites dominated over the blacks and mulattoes (offspring of a white and black parent). The mulattoes were seen to have a higher stratification than an offspring of black ancestry. Because the mulattoes were related to the whites, they were able to obtain higher education and better occupations than blacks. For example, most slaves of a lighter skin tone worked in the houses and darker slaves worked in the fields. As the people of light skin tone had children, they were able to have advantages too. The advantages have led into the society of today. In this paper I will discuss how stratification has been affected in the African American community over time by skin tone to make mulattoes more privileged than dark skin blacks.

    Read More

  • Racial Formation Essay

    1303 Words  | 3 Pages

    The United States used racial formation and relied on segregation that was essentially applied to all of their social structures and culture. As we can see, race and the process of racial formation have important political and economic implications. Racial formation concept seeks to connect and give meaning to how race is shaped by social structure and how certain racial categories are given meaning our lives or what they say as “common sense” Omi and Winant seek to further explain their theory through racial

    Read More

  • The Feminization of Poverty

    1792 Words  | 4 Pages

    One of the Biggest Challenges for Women Today: The Feminization of Poverty The division of labour and education along gender lines, racial inequalities and discrimination, and unpaid domestic labour all contribute to the growing feminization of poverty. Feminists are working to decrease the income gap, to benefit the overall health of women and the population at large. The term feminization of poverty describes the disproportionate number of women who are poor, and its link to the division of labour along gender lines (Calixte, Johnson, & Motapanyane, 2010). The Canadian Labour Congress reported that in 2005, women working full time earned 70.5 cents to the dollar that every male in a comparable job earned ( as cited in Calixte, et al., 2010, p. 17). Across the board, women are more likely to suffer from poverty than men are (Harnan, 2006).

    Read More

  • Inequality for Women

    1335 Words  | 3 Pages

    Many US Women’s experiences have been shaped from the intersecting power inequalities that they have faced throughout their lives. These inequalities bring criticism, cruelty and sometimes death; however these women continue to fight for their rights through protests, activist organizations and by remaining composed when faced with adversities.

    Read More

  • Poverty in Developing Countries

    590 Words  | 2 Pages

    As developed countries quench their thirsts for petrol, developing countries around the world are left behind, force to watch on without any help from the outside community. Being poor means to be disadvantaged in every single way. It means not being able to support yourself or your family or have the basic necessity to life. Without substantial help for these helpless people then we should be feeling guilty that we are living lives far better than what others are experiencing. Poverty may because by wars, disease or lack of education and infrastructure and the resulting consequences may be hunger, starvation, crime and ultimately death. If poverty is not eradicated then injustice will continue, increasing death tolls and lives.

    Read More

More about Poverty Among Women

Open Document