Topic

Name

Course

Institution

Tutor

Introduction

Equal employment opportunities in the society are almost impossible though there have been attempts to see justice done. Social inequality has contributed heavily to the problem of inequality in employment opportunities. Most of the inequalities are based on gender while others on social status making many people miss the chances though they are qualified. This therefore is a social problem which needs analysis to determine its preference and the way forward to ensure that there is equality. For this reason, the following discussion will focus on analysis of equal employment opportunities.

Discussion

The world leaders and all the stakeholders are looking forward to seeing the equality in employment maintained A lot of discussions have been held to ensure that justice remains paramount when providing the opportunities to all the qualified personnel. This however has not been the case and it has been observed that the three main hindrances to employment opportunities are the social status, race and gender issues. The three social constructions have been used to discriminate people and locking them out of the employment opportunities.

Gender inequality has been the main cause of employment inequality. Sexual differences have been used to decide who gets to do which job and who gets promoted. Culturally, women were required to look after the house while the men became the breadwinners (Thompson 1997).This became so embedded in the people’s mind and it has been shaping the way the female are viewed. In many cultures, they are denied chances of acquiring better education which is meant to provide them with the required skills. On the other hand, men who are also considered stronger sex get better opportunities to secure jobs and education. A survey carried by the National Science Foundation (1995) in America found the despite the fact that both genders could have the same qualifications, inequality still arises. The analysts found that there was a gap between the salaries that both genders earned despite the fact that they were both doing similar tasks.

In their quest to find the cause of this difference, they found that men are considered more experienced than the women (Ida 1998). This leaves the conclusion that education background is not a determinant when it comes to securing employment opportunities. The society has also other factors that they consider which give men better chances over women. It has also been observed that job inequality arises when it comes to promotion opportunities. The biggest beneficiaries of this are again the male. Most female have been observed to hold lower positions in areas such as receptions and secretarial while the male are offered positions of Directors or Executive Officers. The main reason for this is that the female are regarded as the weaker sex who cannot hold the higher position competently. This kind of myth has been used to deny the female the chance despite the fact that they have equal opportunities to their male counterparts.

The other main factor that has undermined the employment equality is social status (Grusky 2000) The society is made up of strata which form the social classes. These classes determine many things including who gets the best opportunities in the society. Just as Karl Marx said, the culture of the high class people will always dominate that of the lower class (Wright 1997).They are always seeking to get richer and richer at the expense of the less privileged. People coming from this group of people find better opportunities in employment as they are able to influence or use unfair means to get employed even if they are unqualified. Low class people have to struggle to find employment even if they are qualified.

The other factor that has been used to lock people out of employment are the matters relating to race (Rogers 2000). It is the society construction and myth that is aimed at segregating people on skill color basis. The white people have for a long time being looked at as more intelligent and superior to other races especially the blacks. As a result, this has led to inequality when it comes to employment opportunities with the whites being favored over the blacks. If employment equalities are to be achieved, then all the relevant authority must work tirelessly to fight the evils of race, class and gender issues.

Conclusion

If all the stakeholders involved in the employment sector do not act, then the inequality which has been so prevalent when it comes to job placement will perpetuate. People need to be given equal chances so long as they are qualified for a particular task without focusing on their race, class and gender. Opportunities that are meant to increase the skills of the employees such as the seminars should be provided to all so that they are diversified in their field of employment.

Reference:

Castro, Ida (1998). Equal Pay: A Thirty Five Year Perspective, U.S. Department of Labor, Women’s Bureau. June 1998; Gender Gap Theory Collapses Under Scrutiny, National Science Foundation. (1995). Division of Science Resources Studies. (Scientists and Engineers Statistical Data System)

Hannaford I (1998) Race: the history of an idea in the West. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore

Harpending H, Rogers A (2000) Genetic perspectives on human origins and differentiation. Annu Rev Genomics Hum Genet

Daniel Bertaux, and Paul Thompson(1997); Pathways to Social Class: A Qualitative Approach to Social Mobility Clarendon Press, 1997

Barbara Ehrenreich (2002). Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America

David B. Grusky (2000) Social Stratification: Class, Race, and Gender in Sociological Perspective

Erik Olin Wright. Classe (1997) – a detailed Marxian guide to define working class/middle class