Unit 1 P4 and Unit 4 P1

Gender

Gender is to do with a person’s sex. We fall into two groups –male and female. Different groups in society have different expectations of the way men and women should look and behave, and the society in which boys and girls grow up influences the roles they adopt as adults. Factors that make people different from each other concerning gender are:

• Job: men may have a better chance at getting a job such as a builder, plasterer or mechanic than a women. Even though women can get jobs in beauty, health and many more they still don’t have as many options as men. Also men may do the exact same job as a women yet get paid more, which could make it difficult for a women to afford things they need.
• Looks: it is quite easy to tell the difference between a male and a female just by looking at them. Females tend to be more petite than males, males tend to be more muscular and have stronger physiques.
• Interest: as a female your interest might be shopping, beauty, make-up, sports, dancing, horse riding, fashion magazines whereas if you are a male your interest might be football, rugby, play station, Xbox, the pub. This doesn’t mean that just because you are a female or a male that you can’t have which ever interest you want but in today’s society these are usually interest that make men different from women.
• How you are treated by others: if you are a female you may feel a bit more threatened at night by yourself than if you were a male.  If you are a female you could be treated as a housewife and expected to do the cleaning and cooking whereas if you were a male you’d be expected to go out and earn a living.
• How you think: if you are a female you may think about more practical things like when you have to pick the kids up from school, what you are doing tonight. Women also tend to think about how situations could develop in the future. Men don’t tend to think as practical and tend to think more about what they are doing at the time E.g. when they are at work. Men also tend to think about one thing at a time whereas women multitask.

Social Class

Social class is another way of grouping people together. A person’s social class is determined by their occupation or there upbringing, which is closely linked to their family background, education (private schooling) and geographical location (where they live).Because there are so many occupations in our society, there is a diverse range of social classes that people belong to. Your social class is also determined by the amount of money you earn in your occupation. Factors that make people different from each other concerning social class are:

• Job: there are many different ranges of jobs you could have that may affect your social class. For example someone who has a job as a doctor is going to earn more money than someone who is a shop assistant. The higher up your job is, the more respect you tend to get as normally you are your own boss so you don’t have to listen to someone higher than you but been your own boss does mean more stress and work. Your job can affect where you live, if you earn a lot of money and have a good job you are going to live in a big house in a nice area and in a house you have chosen whereas if you work in a job that is just minimal wage you aren’t going to be able to afford a big house in a nice area and you may not get to chose where you want to live as you can only chose what you can afford.
• Looks: even though this doesn’t really make you different, you social class can determine how you look. If you have a good occupation you may be able to afford to buy designer clothes and get your hair and nails done quite often whereas if you don’t have as such good occupation you may not be able to afford designer clothes and only be able to get your hair and nails done every so often.
• Interests: if you have a good occupation you can afford to have many interests, for example you may like to go abroad a lot, do sports, shop and have money to do all of these things whereas if you are on a lower income you still may like to do all of these things but can’t afford them so you may have to pick just one. However, just because you earn a poor income doesn’t mean that you can’t enjoy yourself because you could go for walks on the beach instead of going to gym.
• Where you live: this is one of the biggest differences because if you earn a lot of money and have a good job you are going to own your own house and usually one of your own chose in a nice area whereas if you earn a low income you are not going to be able to afford a house you want in an area you want which means you would have to compromise and also the area in which the house is situated also affects its price.

Ethnicity

Ethnicity is to do with the cultural or national groups that people belong to. Different ethnic groups have their own distinctive characteristics, for example: country of birth, skin colour and cultural background. Some examples of ethnicity groups are white (British, Irish, other White), mixed (Mixed White and Black Caribbean, White and Black African, White and Asian, other mixed background), Asian or Asian British (Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, other Asian background), Black or Black British (Caribbean, African, other Black background) and Chinese or other ethnic group. Factors that make people different from each other concerning ethnicity are:

• Looks: even though this may not make you different, the way you look may make people know what ethnicity you are for example if you are black you most probably are Black or Black British and if you are white you are most probably White. However, you may be white but some of your family come from an Asian background thus your looks don’t determine your full ethnicity.
• Interests: sometimes your ethnicity determines your interest, for example in your ethnicity religion may be a major factor and you may have to spend time going to church or praying. Also, in some ethnicity groups the countries that they come from are very poor therefore they may not have the facilities or money to do certain activities. Finally, some ethnicity groups have different views on certain activities therefore because of your ethnicity you may not be able to join in, in a certain activitiy.
• Beliefs: your ethnicity may determine your religion, I think that this is probably one of the biggest factors that makes people different because if someone believes in one view of something and another in a completely different view then they will have a completely different outlook on life. In some ethnicity groups you have the choice to pick which religion you would like to believe whereas in other ethnicity groups you are born with your religion. Every different religion has different celebrations, festivals, wedding ceremonies etc which will make people different from each other. Finally, every religion believes in a different god and some religions pray more for example.