The growth of imperialism and colonialism furthered these beliefs with the ideologies of superior and inferior races. One of these was the ideology of slavery, where the Negroid class was considered as an uncivilized and inferior class. The fact that being a Negro in the later half of the 19th century meant having no rights as an individual at all. (Ref 11)
This obviously aroused from the prejudiced views, which led to discriminatory acts, which curbed the opportunities of a Negro ever being successful in a social context. It was impossible to imagine a Negro rich and owning land in most parts of America in the 1900’s.
Racism today:
These encounters that occurred when different cultures with different values came into contact with each other and the incompatibility caused by such led to the occurrence of such trivial ideas of prejudice and discrimination.
Hundreds of years now government surveys have shown publics services to be stereotyping and applying prejudices
A current survey published by the Times Education dated 11/12/98 shows that black pupils are 15 times more likely to be excluded than their white counterparts. The same newspaper shows the black people are 8 times more likely to be arrested than their white counterparts. Can we suggest that this is in fact institutional racism or are these plain and true figures?
One stereotypical view that is maintained in the educational system is that the Negroid race was genetically less intelligent than other races. This is based on low marks in achievement tests. From this point of view it is believed that ‘the kindest course would be to cease trying to make them achieve levels of academic attainment beyond them.’
(Ref 7)
This can than explain the reasons for exclusion and the increase growth in crime. But what happened to the values of the multicultural society that we pose to live in?
The truth is that even though we pose to be a multicultural society a very minute percentage of ethnic groups are involved in public services. The under representation of minority groups itself acts as a deterrent and leads to the belief of failure associated with certain pathways of life.
(Ref 7)
The Guardian newspaper dated December 1996 published an article on a law student named Kamlesh Bahl. The article consisted of a report made by the law student of institutional racism. She stated that even though she was third in her class, she never got a job and this was because she was of a different race. The title itself laid out a certain barrier known as the ‘Cement roof’, which can be thought of as an ethnic barrier in the society curbing their success in that related field.
A very different formal piece of research – a piece of television journalism named Black and White researched into the existence of racial discrimination in fields of housing, employment etc as a reality. Kevin and Rob two people of the same class and qualifications but of different races take part in this research. One is black and the other is white. The result of this experiment to test showed there to exist racism. The figure that was accounted was 40%. This percentage refused opportunities to the black person while it offered the same to the white person.
Although the above statistics may seem shocking enough we need to consider their reliability.
The newspaper article was written in 1998 and many things would have changed by now. Also the work was carried out in a place where there were a majority of black pupils. Thus we can assume there would have existed bias in the survey. The newspaper articles suggestive of institutional racism did not account other ethnic minorities alongside Kamlesh Bahl who might have got a job irrespective of their race. Once again the article it outdated and its relevance may have changed over the time period. The idea of under representation of ethnic minorities hence curbing life chances is clearly in contrast with an article published by the ‘Sunday Times’ dated 24th November 1996, which with the title ‘Black middle class on the move’ clearly suggests the ideology of an emergence of a black middle class. As we will se ahead a middle class normally compromises of professional jobs such as teachers and doctors etc.
The results I got from my questionnaire tend to disagree with the factors of race as an impediment of someone’s life. About 80% of my participants said race could not be a factor that affects their life chances. Around 20% did say that there does exist racism in the public sector.
In conclusion having obtained the following evidence I can conclude that race may be a factor that does affect a persons life chances negatively, but to what extent, would mean more research needed into the topic. But I can say one thing, if these ideologies have seeped into the very foundations of our society they could diminish its very meaning unless an until they are taken care of. The only solution to such a problem would be a widespread acknowledgement of the idea of a pluralistic society.
Education and Social Class:
I will discuss on education and social class alongside as they both have an impact on each other.
Education has not always been a commodity widely available to the society in general. This itself has been a fact that has separated the classes we live in for many years.
The formation of the social hierarchy and the educational system in the past related to each other. The kings had private tutors; experts in varied field while the working class had only family traditions and manual skills to help them live a decent life. It was during the renaissance that the middle class was formed (the last two millennia). The emergence of a class not of nobility yet not related to the lower class was called the middle class. It consisted of scholars and clerics. Even today those who are in the middle class are involved in professional jobs. Their position was based on the knowledge that was available and hence the skills they acquired. Education thus can be conferred to an aspect other than cross –class marriage as providing social mobility.
Education itself firstly was nationalised in this country by the Education Acts of 1870 and 1880. (Ref 11 Sociology in progress). This act nationalised the process of education. The main motive for this move was to prepare a work force, to enable people to generally operate better in a changing society, and to keep social order. This general objective of the introduction of education on such a wide scale itself relates to the classifications it brought about.
There have always existed two separate classes in the education system namely private and public. The private system could only be afforded by the upper class while, the working class attended schools held by churches etc.
It was this partial system that had been in adoption that gave the few the power over the many. To bring the gap closer and increase equality on both sides The Educations Act of 1902 was set up which stated that grammar schools provide spaces to children of other classes on the ability of merit. (Ref 11)
But this only had a limited affect of the class and education divisions within the society.
Further more the tripartite system or the Education act of 1944 divide the society into the three main classes we see today. Three kinds of schools were intended to provide an education for three types of children. The grammar schools were for those who were smart academically, the technical schools were for those thought suitable for qualifying as skilled, craft or technical employees and the secondary moderns were intended to provide education for the non-academic student whom were expected to find lower-level jobs.
The following is a table of results comparing the grades from pupils of different social backgrounds but of similar high ability.
(Reference All Our future, 1968, J.W.B.Douglas)
A less formal piece of research into class and education – a television documentary was given in the series 7UP, where individual from different classes were interviewed on their life every seventh year. One could see that the following individuals namely Andrew, John and Suzy who were in the upper class knew what they wanted to do and where they wanted to go in life by the time they were seven years old. Their paths had been laid out form them and they could only attain such education if they had the money and they did and so they had more chances of being successful in life then one of their following companions namely Lynn who quoted ‘ I’m going to work in Woolworth’s.’
Another article published by the Guardian entitled Toffs and Slum Kids show the difference between education and classes. An article that had a controversial picture describing the contrast between the life of the poor and rich gives account of the boys who were in the picture. They go on to describe the social position of the boys then and their life now. (Ref 12)
The reliability of the following issues is quite an important consideration one has to take in mind. The 7UP video series gave an outlook on life in a different time. The article itself was outdated as much, but in a sense, its message on social hierarchy still remains the same even today.
At least 91% of my participants were educated in state schools. More than 50% of them were involved in a professional job. And a majority of them considered themselves successful.
I conclusion I can state that education and belonging to a certain social class does in fact affect a persons life chances. From what I have seen, a person in the upper class is more likely to obtain better facilities and resources hence he would tend to have a better lifestyle. The maintenance of social class is important, as it is the foundation of the social structure we are based on. As in nature there must always be a pyramid cal structure upon which the few reside over the many.
Gender Socialisation:
The age-old prospect of being male or female itself could limit ones chances in life. The common stereotypes associated with gender can affect a person.
The gender differences between men and women are not based on their biological differences but are a result of a different pattern of socialisation.
Gender behaviour is firstly learnt through primary or basic socialisation within the family and is reinforced later practically. Learning gender differences begins at childhood, where 3 important values are emphasized. These are:
- Males and females ought to act differently
- These difference are a result of biology and are therefore natural
- Those who don’t accept these rules are deviants.
These ideas bring about varied differences between men and women.
The stereotypical views state that a woman should be physically weak, more emotional, have motherly instincts and lack strong sexual desires while the idea for men is completely opposite. (Sociology in practise)
Gender socialisation within the family, school and media:
The family as a whole plays an important part in determining the gender of a baby. From birth different things are done for boys and girls such as boys are given guns while girls play with dolls, blue is a colour for boys and pink is a colour for girls. Certain pathways are laid out for each of the gender.
Children’s literature often reinforces gender stereotypes. Two classic examples of these genders stereotypes include birth congratulation messages (Ref 13)
Bet she’s sugar and spice, A son is fun!
And everything nice, he’ll keep you busy
A pink and petite little treasure with blankets and pins
Your new little ‘she’ and charm your hearts
Who’s certain to be with his boyish grins
A wonderful bundle of pleasure. What’s more
He’ll make you proud and glad
Congratulations mother and dad
Certain school subjects are often thought of being more appropriate to one gender than another. For example maths, physics, chemistry and electronics are often seen as ‘male’ subjects while biology, French, English are thought of as female subjects. When boys and girls make their subject option at various stages of their school carriers they are likely to be influenced by these ideas, even if they are not consciously aware of them.
The reason why so they aren’t so many women doing engineering is because a relatively small population take the subject required, as they fall into the male category.
One-way children learn their gender roles are through role models.
The mass media are very influential on the development of gender role stereotypes. They provide us with the role models on which we base ourselves. Often in comic strips for boys these are soldiers or action heroes who are strong and live dangerous lives. While in girl’s comics these role models are teenage schoolgirls who spend most of their time sorting out family problems and occasionally fighting through the school gymnastics match to win. (Sociology in practise)
We can confer that our society as a whole is patriarchal. This means it is a male dominated society. However sexist this may seem it is true. A publication made by the TES dated December 1996 entitled ‘Men still dominate top teaching job’ indicates the patriarchal ideology imbedded in our society.
Although government surveys suggest ‘girls as doing better in subjects than boys’ they also suggest them as facing a ‘glass roof’ through which they are able to see through but not obtain what they want. They suggest that most managerial work is male dominated. (Ref4)
Women who make up two thirds of the workforce around the world are considered as cheap labour in places such as Bangladesh and Taiwan. (Ref 4)
The again comes into question the reliability of these surveys. Although the girls do better in their chosen subjects than boys these subjects again tend to revolve around the stereotypical female subjects. The again comes into consideration within stereotypical boundaries why girls should do better the very feministic values which radical feminists abhor are actually what gain them such position of excellence in their fields. Third world countries often tend to exploit their workers who are normally women, who due to age old traditions and cultural impediment are illiterate and cannot do anything else but work. Their need arouses from the need to feed their families and have no other option but to work in such ill conditions.
The results I have obtained from my questionnaires also show there to exist sexism within the society today. At least 60% of my participants agree with their existing sexism within the community. A majority of these are women who are in the middle class and relate with the existence of a Glass roof.
I can conclude that gender does play an important part in bringing about a persons success or failure. Unless concepts such as The Equal Pay Act of 1970 and The Sex Discrimination Act of 1975 are really taken into consideration, then only shall we benefit as a community as a whole.
Nature/Nurture:
Social Organisation the family is basic unit of a social organisation. It maintains traditions and beliefs and hence acts as a major component in balancing social structure
The current society is divided in to three main types of families.
- Nuclear family
- Extended family
- Lone parent family.
The nuclear family consists of two parents living with a child or children. An extended family consists of a nuclear family along with relatives from any side of a family living. A lone parent family consists of one parent living with a child or children.
As quoted by Tony Blair ‘ It is within the family that we learn the difference between right and wrong. It is upon the values of the extended family that the decent society will be built.’
A survey of the Types of households in the U.K in 1995 compared to that of thirty years ago (1965) shows a rise in the amount of lone parent families in Britain today. (Ref 5)
The problems associated with lone parent families, those of instability also pose a threat to an individual’s outcome in life. One in such a situation may resort to crime. With a higher rate of crime and unemployment we could confer that fundamental values that are not being taught at the primary stage. These fundamental values, which are lacked by a majority of those who do not live in nuclear or extended families, affect them in various concepts of life. It might affect their education and hence they may truant from school, hence not achieving good qualifications, as a result of which they may not get a decent job and finally resort to crime.
Geography and resources: Natural resources and geographical features help build a culture. As different cultures and civilisations developed around the world, each of these have skills they develop which is necessary for living within their environment. As they began to realise how to use these skill more efficiently and learn to make more benefit from their environment they became more and more intelligent. They develop ideas conceived from natural observations and converted them for their own benefaction. Their intelligence in turn creates a more successful culture.
It has long been argued that intelligence is hereditary. Can this be considered as fact bringing about a persons success or failure?
In spring 1998, Robert Plomin claimed to have discovered a gene linked with intelligence. He stated:
‘Not all individuals are endowed with the same intelligence and this must have something to do with our genes and the way they interact with the environment’ (Ref 14)
If intelligence is linked to the environment we now know why the Greeks were such good navigators and why the Egyptian mummies survived thousands of years by the process of embalm nation.
An article published by the Daily Telegraph dated 17 October 1998 entitled ‘Born loser? Bad luck, it runs in the family’ suggests the linkage bad luck through genes. In a study made by Peter McGuffin , he found out from his studies of depression that bad luck runs in families and such individuals have a genetic propensity to create chaotic lifestyles. The idea of hereditary intelligence suggests that the progeny of the intelligent will themselves be intelligent and hence be successful in life.
50% or my results included nuclear families and the other 50% included lone parent families. At least 75% were involved in a professional job.
From the above I can conclude that nature/nurture like racism can negatively affect individuals chances in life, but to what extent, needs more research into it.
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Methodology:
To prove or disprove the hypothesis I had to collect information based on the subjects I had previously talked of. This is known as primary research.
I used both primary and secondary information to base my results on. I will also use interviews to back up my questionnaires.
Primary sources include all the information irrespective of the method used from questionnaires, interviews, experiments and observational studies that the researcher has gathered. I used questionnaires to collect information to form my results. This was the basis of my primary research I also used interviews to back up those results. I used a quantitative method as it would prove more easy to tabulate results and therefore easy to check results. The results would also be easy to analyse and thus out into graphical format.
Secondary sources include all the statistics and information not collected directly by a sociologist engaged in research, but which other people have collected. This gives a broad based opinion that could be used to check the reliability of the results.
For example
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Government statistics: these are useful as they provide more accurate information as they are done on a larger scale and involve less bias. But they do have periods between their collections and cannot be extremely reliable for the same opinions put forward 2 to 3 years after they have been carried out. Examples of such surveys include the census.
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Historical documents such as diaries: these are helpful to get personal insight into historical moments but one must consider they are personal and although sometimes they may reveal trivial content as they are personal they may be biased.
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Media sources, television: media and television give an insight into a multitude of information, but then again these may be biased. The media may want to falsify claims to excite and draw attention of the local public.
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The Internet: the Internet itself is a heaven of information available at the click of a mouse but as it is a form of mass media it too may be biased.
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Non-fiction publications: non-fiction publications are a collection of verified information from various sources and usually can be depended on. These may involve sociology textbooks, atlases etc.
I will use questionnaire to gather my primary information from. I will use secondary resources to back up these results. These will mainly consist f the above sub-sources.
Questionnaires have many advantages. One of these is that they are very easily distributed and hence can reach a large sample of people. They are easy to understand and they are good for asking personal questions, as they remain anonymous.
The disadvantages of using questionnaires are that they have a very low response rate and are time consuming to follow up to. One cannot go into depth with the questions that are asked. Finally there is the assumption that the correct person is not answering it and hence an invalid set or biased sets of results occur.
Interviews on the other hand provide in greater insight and depth to the situation. A very small sample is needed and it can be conducted in a flexible way and usually the response rate is high. The disadvantages in the other hand include not being able to ask personal questions and they usually take a lot of time. There also exists a possibility of bias on the interviewers side.
I carried out a pilot survey to find out what issues I needed to put that I had forgotten and what issues were not that clear to the reader.
My sampling frame will be the general community I live in and will compromise of age ranges from 12 to 40+. I have chosen this age range to see how opinions conflict with age. I will hand out a total of 30 questionnaires in my local community and base my results on their opinions. I will carry out a stratified sample where I will collect a set of results from a cross section of the society I live in.
The first couple of questions consist of vital statistics that need to be gathered. By asking questions such as:
What is your gender?
I asked this question to find out what gender the individual was and how this would form his/her opinions.
What age range do you fall into?
By providing an age range between 12 and 40+ I wanted to see how opinion would differ with age.
What ethnic group are you a part of?
I asked this question to rule out any bias factors and also to find out the individuals ethnic group
Are you religious?
I asked the following question to determine whether the individual was religious and to find out what religion he or she was a part of and how this would affect his/her views
What is your martial status?
This was to find out if the individual was living in a nuclear family or a lone parent family.
Do you have any children if married?
This question was to find out how many children that individual had and whether the resources they would get based on their parent’s social status would be enough to bring about their success of failure.
Do you have any disabilities?
Once again to rule out the possibility of bias I used this question.
What type of school did you go to?
This was to mainly find out what type of education a person had received and hence what relevance’s would we see to the individual’s job (social status)
Was the school a multicultural school?
This question was basically asked to see whether the individual was in touch with different races. This would mean less racist attitude especially in the younger generation.
What qualifications do you have?
This was to see how qualified a person was and therefore how likely he/she was to succeed in life.
What is your current social status?
This question was asked to find out whether the individual was employed or not
If employed what field of work do you undertake?
This was asked so that I could determine what social class the individual was in
What field of work are your parents in?
This was asked to see whether or not the individual was skilled in a family tradition that curbed him in any way from progressing
In your view is Britain a multicultural society?
This question was asked to see the individuals view on race
Have you ever been discriminated against in any field be it work, social life etc?
This question was asked to see if the individual had experienced discrimination in any field, and whether this had affected the individual or not.
Have you been denied a job or position you were in every sense worthy of obtaining had it not been for the colour of you skin or the religion you follow?
This question was asked to see whether belonging to a certain race or religion did indeed affect your chances of success or failure.
Have you been denied a job because of any disability you have?
This question was asked to see whether disability affects a person’s life style.
I the opted for some opinions on whether institutional racism affected a persons life chances by asking:
Current survey show black people are 8 times more likely to be arrested than white counterparts. In your view is this a form of racial discrimination in the public services?
I than asked if the following did affect the life chances of the involved:
Would this suggest to you that black people are more likely to be successful than white?
I then went on to view their definitions of success and failure and whether considered themselves a success or failure in life by asking:
What would you define success as?
What would you define failure as?
Do you consider yourself a success in life?
If ‘no’ do you consider your self a failure?
The following is a copy of my questionnaire.
Analysis and Evaluation:
From looking at the set of results I obtained I found there to be interesting facts about the society in general. A major constituent of my repose was from the White/European community in general totalling up to about 40% followed by the ‘other’ group, group followed by the Indian sub-continent, followed by Afro-Caribbean group. I live in an area where there exists a diverse population of communities and that is why I have been able to obtain the following percentages of ethnic groups.
My results contained 27% Christians, 7% Muslims, 7% Hindus, 7%Buddhists and a whopping 52%. The reason I think such a majority were others is mainly due to the questionable idea of the existence of God. It is this search for this proof and different lifestyles that account for such a percentage to occur. Many are turning away from religion with the reason on the growth of science.
The age groups were equally spread out and most of them had an equal number of males and females partaking in them.
50% of these were married and had children. Most of the married had an average of 2 children. A majority of my responders were also from state school. Most of these were mixed schools, which were multicultural. A majority of these people ended up in professional jobs. Those who turned up in manual jobs had some family influence on them. Unfortunately I did not obtain any disabled people and therefore could not give account on how disability affects a persons life chances.
Most of my responders denied having been biased against in any way of life being its on social basis, work etc.
A more astounding fact was that a majority of people did think there did exist bias between male and females in the society today. A majority of these thinkers came from the middle class, which constituted to most of my total sample. 73% of these were males and this would the go onto specify that the male dominated. This would show me that in fact gender discrimination
My results tend to show that most people in the ‘Working Class’ tend to view happiness as materialistic gains. This is probably due to their impoverished way of life. The middle class though tends to view success as a state of mind, happiness rather than materialistic gains. I also noticed that a majority of woman formed the working class while men dominated the middle class.
Other noticeable feature within my results involves how the age you are and what your views on success and failure in life are. Most of the younger range of people went for materialistic needs such as good house, fancy car etc.
But as they get older, the majority resort to happiness and state of the mind as the definition of success and failure.
Every one of my respondents felt their life had been a success in some way or another.
I am pleased with the method I chose to carry out this assignment. I believe that though there could always be improvements. The task was such that my results needed to be accurate if I was to prove this hypothesis.
The idea of using questionnaires was a good one though it did in fact cause some problems. The very fact of the questionnaire being forgotten or misplaced meant I had to keep on asking the participants continuously for these. In some cases I did not get questionnaires back so I had to print of new one and make up for the loss.
I believe a larger sample would have also improved my results and their reliability. A larger sample would have meant more peoples opinions.
I had and equilibrium in my sample. I asked an equal number of men and women from each gender and age group. But I could have improved the number of people in the ethnic groups by giving out questionnaires to more of them.
Religions as well were not that well represented. I had hardly expected such an outcome but I believe more could have been done to ensure each religion was equally represented.
I also didn’t have any participants with disabilities so this made it impossible for me to confer what affect disability has on life chances.
It could be seen that there were none representing the upper class in my questionnaire. I could have also improved these results by representing them as well.
I believe the questions I put in the questionnaire were just right and not too many of them. The format I believe was correct there were no leading questions. I feel that some questions were unnecessary and others could have been replaced in their place.
An interview would have been a preferable way to make my results reliable too. But this would have been time consuming and was therefore unnecessary.
I believe there to be more factors that affect the life chances of a person and would have liked to include more of them, which would mean more background knowledge, but due to time constraints I could not do that.
The results I obtained were exactly what I had wanted. Their representation graphical format could be improved by using different type of graphs for various types of results and reliability improved by adding more graphs.
I believe these graphs are easy to understand.
Overall I believe my techniques have been quite successful in obtaining results for this assignment.
Conclusion:
From the sets of results I obtained I believe that a child future is pre-determined and affected by factors such as:
- Race/Religion
- Gender
- Nature, nurture
As my results go to show that these factors are indeed what determines us in today’s society. Although they may seem to be some conflict between views on gender bias in my set of results, which show that most of men and women believed there to be no bias, I still believe there is.
Other noticeable features in my results include the under representation of religion and hence religious values, the family unit breaking up a whole, our views on success and failures and the belief that racism exist in today’s society.
These facts all go on to conclude the following facts ‘that if a person is white, upper class he will have more education and resources and therefore greater chance of success in life that that who is an ethnic minority, working class with a dysfunctional family.’
But there are always exceptions and one must keep that in mind. I believe that the grounds on which a child life is determined is not always set to be as it is. His opportunities, etc may be affected by those factors but if he has determination he is surely to succeed.