In James M. Henslin's Sociology: A Down-to-Earth Approach, many issues and concepts encapsulated within the domain of sociology are explored. Of these, two issues are particularly compelling in light of one another: gender inequality and racial prejudice. Each of these concepts is unique in that each relies upon the existence of a set of physical characteristics that in turn obtain for specific groups of people in a given society. All societies contain men as well as women, and all societies are affected by racial distinctions. As such, both ôgender inequalityö and ôracial prejudiceö is fully capable of holding a distinct place in the realm of sociology, and yet it would be shortsighted to consider one without also looking at the other. Each concept is partly defined by a set of theoretical themes that is not unique to it; both gender inequality and racial prejudice share some common threads that can help us to recognize patterns of social behavior in general.
Gender inequality originates with gender stratification; in most societies, oneÆs sex will determine to some extent oneÆs access to power, prestige and property (Henslin 308). Privileges are never universally available to everyone on equal terms. Rather, they are biased toward some people and against others. OneÆs gender will, in any society, play a part in determining which privileges are available and which are not. For this, gender requires a degree of learning on the part of the individual. The structure of society and the privileges it earmarks for people of a certain type send messages to individualÆs that in turn prompt behavior that is tailored to those privileges. In effect, we learn how to be men and we learn how to be women. Thus, though ôsexö is genetically determined and biologically apparent, with ôgenderö this is not obviously the case (Henslin 308-311).
Similarly, racial prejudice has two dimensions, each of which adheres to a si...