Theories Of Social Inequality

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Social inequality is known as the existence of differing opportunities and benefits for distinct social positions throughout society and the groups within. We are currently facing the significant issue of social inequality throughout our everyday lives. Whether it’s the workplace or the supermarket, social inequality is a prominent issue. This can be seen through problems between race, gender, sexual orientation, or financial outcome. Therefore, this problem will affect society as a whole if not addressed. All of these issues tie into the principles of individual agency and larger social structures/processes. An individual agency is the ability of an individual to act independent and make their own decisions, however, this can be affected …show more content…
The functionalist theory supports the idea for social inequality as it is inevitable and plays a key role throughout society. They believe that positions higher up in society should be compensated more as a result of their standings. The conflict theory, however, views this inequality as a result of some social groups holding more power than others. As a result of this issue, they feel that social inequality prevents the social progress of other, less powerful groups who can therefore never climb the social ladder. In today’s society, power is achieved through certain beliefs and cultural norms which ultimately causes the social inequality …show more content…
There is an extreme white supremacy theme throughout our society. If one is not of American decent, they are automatically though less of and incapable of doing a white man’s job. As a result, many ethnically diverse individuals are in the lower classes, and white individuals occupy the higher classes. White individuals are portrayed as having all of the top-of-the-line things, whereas any other individual is seen as living off of food stamps while working multiple jobs with three kids at home. The harsh reality is that all of the above are exactly true, many people just will not accept

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