Tuesday lecture on Racism and Patriarchy gave me a lot to think about.
The racism aspect of the lecture was the first hour, it involved how racism occurred from the late 18th Century. Derek told us about social construction and how people can use this is used to perpetuate inequalities. We also discussed the Critical Race Theory which gave me an insight into how people of colour live with racism around them every day. These inequalities exist in most aspects of their lives; from applying to jobs, to buying houses (as they may find it difficult to buy a home in a predominantly white area) and education. In governments the majority of people of power are white, and black people are the minority, an example of this is Barack Obama who was the 1st Black President of the USA. Despite having 43 Presidents before him. This lecture gave me a deeper insight into some of the inequalities that people of colour face on a daily basis.
We also discussed Patriarchy which is when women face inequalities in society as they were once viewed as inferior to men. Women were expected to stay at home, raise the children, cook and clean and be a good wife for their husbands. Women did not work nor were they expected to as they were seen as too fragile and incapable of doing a good job.
Why get a woman to work when a man can simply do it better? Propaganda from war time (which is only 70 years ago) strongly shows these views. Luckily women were able to prove and show their skills when the men went to war and then it became more socially acceptable for women to have jobs. This is also due to the work of the Suffragettes during the war who campaigned for women’s rights. Overtime they were allowed more freedom and social lives. Despite these massive progressions for women in society it’s clear that in today’s age women still face inequalities.
The pay gap is still a huge issue in some professions with women getting paid significantly less than men for doing the same job. Recently it came to the media’s attention that the BBC was not providing equal pay for men and woman, and had not for years. This was not in one sector of the BBC but ranged across the board from TV presenters to sport editors. These inequalities can also still be seen for women sporting professionals, only recently in Wimbledon are women winning the same prize money as the men. This is a step of progression but in 2017, there should be no reason a woman should be winning less than a man for being equally talented. More equality needs to be seen for women and Derek’s lecture gave me a deeper insight into this.
