Addressing Inequality After reading Robert Jensen’s article Beyond Race, Gender, and Class, it is clear that inequality and all the various widespread injustices that come hand-in-hand along with it are, and have been throughout history, deeply embedded in sociological and institutionalized structures and the very crippled society we all live in today. It doesn’t matter what way you look at social inequality and it’s numerous aspects, whether it is job access due to race, economical and educational access and advancement due to class level, or sexual harassment and violence in the workplace due to differences in gender. In today’s society, anyone would say and feel that all of these cases of injustices and inequality are wrong and inhumane, but yet these cases still occur everyday throughout the world because society and the people in power that control it find ways of justifying them without actually addressing the true problems and causes that fuel these injustices and discrimination. In truth, people of today’s society recognize the appalling prejudices of race, class, and gender, but turn away and refuse to take action and actually redress them and our society. As Jensen put it, the talk of a “post-racial” and “post-patriarchal” America, and capitalism as the inevitable, natural, morally, superior economic system is absurd. The United States remains a White Supremacist, male-dominant society and there is class welfare and the rich and prosperous are fomenting and winning it (Beyond Race, Gender, Class). These redresses are essential for the necessary change in this society and critical for mankind’s strive towards the future of an equal and just world. I would like to address the injustices of gender inequality and the efforts to redress it. Throughout history, the idea of men being the more naturally dominant gender and women as the less superior, objectified gender has played a significant role in weaving and intertwining itself into the world’s societal structure. “Men—that is, husbands in heterosexual marriages—are regarded as the natural head of a household, charged by God with leadership responsibilities. The man should exercise that power responsibly, but exercise it he must, and women find their place in that chain of command” (Beyond Race, Gender, Class). Although, just in the past century women have made many exquisite advancements and achievements politically, economically, and sociologically towards equality between these gender roles due to many women’s rights and suffragist movements. Yet, the fact still remains that women are still rationalized today, but there are many individuals and groups of people who continue to fight for gender equality.
In West Africa for example, the UN Women held a conference on women in Ghana. “The Symposium held under the theme “Sustaining responses on gender equality”, was in line with the African Women’s Decade launched in 2010, it enabled the different countries to debate and recommend concrete steps for redressing gender inequality and to renew institutional commitments to raising the gender equality agenda in the overall aid effectiveness debate” (BlogSpot). One of the primary conclusions that came from the symposium was emphasized strongly on the fact that much effort must be stressed on keeping the promises and commitments made by government on gender equality is upheld and put into stone (BlogSpot). I strongly agree that these promises and commitments made by government on important issues such as gender equality must be followed through and upheld. Changes must be made by those in power and the government is a prime example of some of the power needed to take a step forward and help thrust these ideas, concerns, and strategies into motion.
Another example, many countries in Europe are initiating quotas with the goal to lower the pay