Understanding Inequality: The Intersection of Race/Ethnicity, Class, and Gender

364 Pages·2007·2.27 MB·English

by  Barbara A. Arrighi

ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC.

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Copyright © 2007 by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Understanding inequality: the intersection of race/ethnicity, class, and gender / edited by
Barbara A. Arrighi.—2nd ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
9781461646549
1. Equality—United States. 2. United States—Social conditions. 3. Minorities—
United States—Social conditions. 4. Social classes—United States. 5. Sex role
—United States. I. Arrighi, Barbara.
HN90.S6U53 2006
305.0973—dc22 2006019621
Printed in the United States of America

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National
Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials,
ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
For
My family
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
I - HELPFLIL CONCEPTUAL TOOLS
1 - Mysterious Power of Social Structures
2 - “They” Are All the Same, but Each Member of My Group is Unique
II - EMBEDDED IDEOLOGY
3 - Black Women and Feminism
4 - Divining Our Racial Themes
5 - Size 6
III - THE OTHER WEARS MANY FACES
6 - Diversity and Its Discontents
7 - Coping With the Alienation of White, Male Students
8 - The Second Sex
IV - STRUCTURED INEQUALITY—THE INVISIBLE IRON CAGE OF CLASS
9 - The Double-Bind of the “Working-Class,” Feminist Academic
10 - (In) Secure Times
V - STRUCTURED INEQUALITY—RACE/ETHNICITY
11 - A Black Woman Took My Job
12 - Are Men Marginal to the Family?
13 - Policing the Ghetto Underclass
14 - America’s Iron Curtain
15 - The Heartland’s Raw Deal
VI - STRUCTURED INEQUALITY-ACQUIRING GENDER
16 - Bodies that Matter
17 - Believing Is Seeing
18 - Toward Safer Societies
19 - Tomboys Yes, Janegirls Never
20 - Hormonal Hurricanes
VII - CORPORATE GATEKEEPING
21 - Talking from 9 to 5
22 - Women in the Power Elite
23 - Women above the Glass Ceiling
24 - Invisible Women
VIII - WOMEN’S EQUALITY
25 - Women against Women
26 - Where the Girls Are
27 - Mating, Marriage, and the Marketplace
IX - THE PRICE OF DEVIANCE
28 - The Unruly Woman
29 - Black Man with a Nose Job
30 - Hitting Bottom
31 - Older Men as Invisible Men in Contemporary Society
X - PATRIARCHY AND ITS CONSEQUENCES
32 - The Subjection of Women
33 - Real Rape
34 - Clarence Thomas, Patriarchal Discourse, and Public/Private Spheres
XI - EQUALITY AND THE MILLENNIUM
35 - How Harvard Helped Curb Title IX’s Role in Admitting Women
36 - Downsizing Higher Education
Epilogue
Index
About the Editor
Preface
My primary goal in editing this text was to create a reader that would encourage students to
think in new ways about old issues. In order to achieve that goal, I knew it was imperative to
include a mixture of scholarly, research-oriented readings and essays that would elicit
classroom discussion. As a writer and researcher, the highest praise I can offer my colleagues
whose work is included here is that I wish I had been the author of the fine writing assembled
in this reader.
The selections have been excerpted to a digestible length and degree of difficulty suitable
for undergraduate courses. I think readability has been achieved without jeopardizing the
integrity of the writing or intent of the authors. Having said that, it is my sincere hope the
selections will whet your appetite so that you will read the original sources in their entirety.
You will not be disappointed.