P5: Explain how social inequalities affect different groups in society.
Social inequality affects different social groups in different ways meaning that each group in
society has a different experience when it comes to social inequalities. Social inequality is
the existence of unequal opportunities and rewards for different social positions or statuses
within a group or society. This can involve groups such as men and women, high class and
working class people, religion, ethnicity, gender and age.
For class, there is social inequality as there is believed to be an uneven distribution of
wealth. It has a different effect to people of the higher class than the people of the lower
class. The higher class, as a result of the inequality, get a better standard of life whereas as
the lower class have a lower quality if life with them unable to afford the things in life that
enable to live a stress-free life with good health as the main concern. Lower class people
have to live in bad housing in areas that are rich in pollution levels. In some cases there is
over-cramping where there are too many people living under one small roof. They may not
be able to afford private healthcare which allows them to get high quality treatment when
they need. Gender is another social group that may be affected by inequality as women
may argue that men have it easier in life than woman. Gender inequalities are seen in
employment as it is evident that in many industries, women get a lower pay than men for a
role that is the same. Women are being seen as superior and their skills set are very much
the same as men which debates whether men deserve to be paid more than women. Men
are seen as the dominant force and in many areas there are more men than women. In
many TV soaps and series, there is normally only one main female character. Age is another
social group that can be affected by social inequality as the elderly are discriminated as
most are seen as people that are useless and they sit at home playing games such as Sudoku
to try and ensure they are still mentally active but they do like other activities such as sky-
diving and going to the gym. People do not see or value elderly people as people that are
able to now participate in any activities and this is an example of stereotyping as they see
that once you reach a certain age then you must now make yourself active through the use
of board games and bingo whereas elderly people are not all in such a position as it is quite
evident that many elderly people are quite capable of participating in such activities.
Another is ethnicity as many people are still discriminating against people who have
migrated to the UK. People from backgrounds that are different to the UK’s culture are
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