Privilege And Inequality

The phrase “systems of privilege and inequality” is not something many people know about, or even consider. The word privilege can be defined as a benefit or an opportunity given to some, but not to others. Privilege is usually unearned and granted upon someone, or to someone, by nothing except, possibly, being somewhere at the right place, at the right time. Most privileges are factored on a social level, by just simply being born. Susan M. Shaw and Janet Lee explain this concept of privilege and inequality perfectly in their work, “Systems of Privilege and Inequality,” which can be found in the book Women’s Voices, Feminist Visions. The authors explain how privilege and inequality works in society and how difference needs to be recognized instead of shamed. Being born into a white, middle class, “normal” family, for example, will grant you with several more opportunities than say, being born into a

Social inequality consists of members of gender, sexual orientation, and race being isolated or not treated as equally as others. Individuals who identify as being a different sexual orientation than what is considered “normal”, like homosexual or transgender, face discrimination when it comes to children, healthcare, housing, and work. Women face many challenges as well, like being paid less than men: seventy-nine cents to every man’s dollar. If one is looking at positions of power, it can be seen that women hold significantly less positions than men. The average CEO, or the people in charge of a company, are more commonly men than women, as women are not taken as seriously when it comes to business. “For example, media often reinforce negative stereotypes about women such as dumb blondes, passive Asian Americans, or pushy African Americans,” (Shaw and Lee 61) which paints women in a bad image and is where this negative connotation of women is stemmed