Forms of Social Inequality

Forms of Social Inequality

Following are the major types or forms of social inequality.

Gender inequality
One of the major forms of social inequality is in the form of gender. The emphasis on gender inequality is borne out of the deepening division in the role assigned to male and female in all spheres of human endeavor, particularly in the economic, political and educational spheres. Women are less active compared to men in political activities and decision making processes.
Gender discrimination and women’s development is a greatly discussed matter, even though awareness regarding this subject is often ignored on the lower level. The gender and development approach through gender analysis, seeks to understand the roles, responsibilities, resources and priorities of women and men within a specific context, examining the social, economic and environmental factors which influence their roles and decision-making capacity. The practice of male-female differentiation results in structural deprivation of the female life.
It has been observed that world issues like HIV/AIDS, illiteracy, and poverty are experienced more by women than men.
Girls face problems to access good education, which limits their opportunities to succeed. It is important to increase enrollement rates in school for girls and ensure they have safe, stable and good quality education.[6] Women’s participation in work has been increasing globally. But women are faced with wage discrepancies and differences compared to what men earn.
This is true globally even in the agricultural and rural sector in developed as well as developing countries.[8] An important concept related to this is the glass ceiling effect.  It refers to the unseen, yet unreachable barrier that keeps minorities and women from rising to the upper rungs of the corporate ladder, regardless of their qualifications or achievements.
This is still practiced by many countries, lowering the chances of women to excel. It prevents women from succeeding and making the maximum use of their potential, which is at a cost for women as well as the society’s development.  Ensuring they are entitled to women's rights promotes a sense of belonging that motivates women to contribute to the society. Once accessible to work, women should be titled to job security, a safe environment and need to be protected against gender based violence.

Racial Inequality
Racial Inequality is the belief where individuals are treated based on the race they belong to, and their racial characteristics such as their skin colour, physical characteristics, their place of origin and culture. Some races are considered superior than others, thus resulting in unequal treatments and opportunities in a society.

Racism is evident and people have the tendency to prejudge - just because one person or a group of people of a particular race does wrong, it doesn’t give anybody the right to classify them all in that same group. This classification is known as stereotyping, it is when people form pre-judgments and assumptions.

This along with xenophobia and other forms of discrimination continue to occur in societies especially with the advancement of technology and globalisation. What is shown on televisions, newspapers and the internet has a huge role to play in giving people some preconceived notions to decide their views on these races. This results in racial inequality.

Caste Inequality
Caste system is another way of treating people unequally. It exists in Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Africa, Japan, Korea and majorly in India.
Caste maybe dependant on one’s occupation (functional), based on origin or by birth (hereditary). There are a number of restrictions faced by people that belong to a certain caste.
 For example, they are not allowed to exchange and share food/drinks between people from other castes, they are restricted from going to certain places, they are only supposed to marry someone that belongs to the same caste as them – this is referred as endogamy, and also their dressing sense and food habits gets determined according to the caste they belong.
Unequal treatments are faced by lower castes in the form of discrimination, physical violence and exploitation.

Age Inequality
Age discrimination is defined as the unfair treatment in promotions, recruitment, or privileges because of the age of a person. Age discrimination is seen a lot in the work environment. The Age Discrimination in Employment Act was passed in 1967 and it protects people age 40 and older from being discriminated against in the employment world. Not only does the act apply to employees but it also applies to job applicants. It is considered unlawful to discriminate against someone because of his/her age especially when it comes to employment.