- What is social inequality?
- Types of social inequality
- Causes of social inequality
- Consequences of social inequality
We explain what social inequality is and the types that exist. In addition, the main causes and consequences of this social problem.
What is social inequality?
Social inequality is understood to be a situation of disparity or disadvantage of some portion of the citizenship of a country, or between countries of a region, or between regions of the world, with respect to others that are unfairly favored. It is the opposite, logically, of the social equality.
Social inequality is a problem of the societies contemporary times, product of the uneven development of the various regions of the globe and the imposition of certain ideologies or valuations of some Humans above others. In fact, social inequality is the origin of the discrimination, since the latter consists of treating in a different way those who are economically, socially or morally disadvantaged.
Seen in this way, social inequality implies an unequal distribution of opportunities, of the I respect and access to goods and services, which is based on various cultural or social reasons. It is not, as many would have you believe, a natural or obvious feature of human existence, nor is it a form of “Justice”Or divine punishment.
Social inequality does not occur in the exact same way in all places and areas. In some societies it is an issue linked exclusively to socioeconomic class, while in other places it also involves considerations of race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, etc.
Types of social inequality
The most obvious classification of social inequality has to do with the grounds for discrimination. Thus, we can speak of social inequality according to:
- Economic possition. Probably the most common of the forms of social inequality, it is anchored in the economic capacity of the individual or of the class to which it belongs, thus separating the world from the rich, the middle class and the poor, obviously to the detriment of those who occupy the lower rungs. Those lower down the ladder have less access to goods and services, political representation, symbolic and cultural visibility, as well as study and even education. feeding adequate. Depending on how far apart these social strata are, one can speak of caste societies, in which climbing to the upper rungs is practically impossible.
- Religion. Religious struggles are as old as man, and in many modern societies they still constitute a factor of inequality between human groups, reserving power and opportunities to those who profess a certain faith, and condemning those of others, often referred to as “ infidels ”or“ heretics ”.
- Gender. It is about discrimination based on biological sex (as in the case of women) or sexual orientation (as in the case of the LGBT community), which reserves the dominant and most favored positions for men straight (especially if they are white) and marginalizes those who do not register in a certain traditional order of sexual or erotic roles.
- Ethnicity. The discrimination Racial gives superior position to certain races or ethnic groups, subjugating others to their will as they are considered "inferior" or "different", and thus denying them access to goods or even fundamental rights, such as life. Some of the great massacres and genocides history are based on this type of discrimination.
- Ideology. In this case, it is about political discrimination, that is, the inequality of opportunities and goods among those who adhere to a doctrine politics and those who don't, or those who oppose them. It is what happens in governments totalitarians or in dictatorships, for example.
Causes of social inequality
Social inequality does not have a single cause, but is a consequence of the way in which our life has passed. history What species. The French thinker Jean-Jacques Rousseau reflected on the origin of inequality between men and claimed that its origin was in the social state, that is, that man is not born in inequality, but acquires it when he begins to compare yourself with your peers and see the way they live.
The study of primitive societies has shown that they were much more egalitarian societies in the distribution of work and benefits, but somewhere in the Neolithic period began a process of hierarchization and construction of the Condition that implied the distribution of labor and social division, something that would reach its peak with the invention of the slavery and the exploitation of man by man.
Consequences of social inequality
Social inequality has very concrete consequences and very contrary to the harmonious development of the nations Or the humanity. The perpetuation of the poverty, the entrenchment of resentment and the need for revolutions or conflicts violent are just some of them, since the discomfort of being stuck in immovable social strata usually leads to the depression or to rage in oppressed communities.
On the other hand, the oppressed never fully develop their potential, since the resources necessary for this are being used by others, causing an incalculable loss of human potential. And poverty, far from being a simple evil, is the source of many extremely arduous difficulties to combat: risk to Health, the increase in crime, class hatred, the deterioration of the politics, etc.