Theories of Human Behavior and the Social Environment (MSWK531)

Chapter Eight
Diversity
Chapter Objectives
At the end of this chapter, students will be able to:
- Understand the meaning of diversity
- Describe the main features in which diversity can be observed
- Analyze how diversity incorporated in social work practice

 What is diversity?
The concept of diversity encompasses acceptance and respect. It means understanding that each
individual is unique, and recognizing our individual differences. These can be along the
dimensions of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, age, physical
abilities, religious beliefs, political beliefs, or other ideologies. It is the exploration of these
differences in a safe, positive, and nurturing environment. It is about understanding each other
and moving beyond simple tolerance to embracing and celebrating the rich dimensions of
diversity contained within each individual.

Diversity is a reality created by individuals and groups from a broad spectrum of demographic
and philosophical differences. It is extremely important to support and protect diversity because
by valuing individuals and groups free from prejudice, and by fostering a climate where equity
and mutual respect are intrinsic.

"Diversity" means more than just acknowledging and/or tolerating difference. Diversity is a set
of conscious practices that involve:

 Understanding and appreciating interdependence of humanity, cultures, and the natural

environment.
 Practicing mutual respect for qualities and experiences that are different from our own.
 Understanding that diversity includes not only ways of being but also ways of knowing;
 Recognizing that personal, cultural and institutionalized discrimination creates and
sustains privileges for some while creating and sustaining disadvantages for others;
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 Building alliances across differences so that we can work together to eradicate all forms
of discrimination.

Diversity includes, therefore, knowing how to relate to those qualities and conditions that are
different from our own and outside the groups to which we belong, yet are present in other
individuals and groups. These include but are not limited to age, ethnicity, class, gender, physical
abilities/qualities, race, sexual orientation, as well as religious status, gender expression,
educational background, geographical location, income, marital status, parental status, and work
experiences. We need to acknowledge that categories of difference are not always fixed but also
can be fluid, we also need to respect individual rights to self-identification, and recognize that no
one culture is intrinsically superior to another.

Wellner (2000) conceptualized diversity as representing a multitude of individual differences

and similarities that exist among people. The characteristics representing diversity are illustrated
in Gardenswartz & Rowe’s (1994) ‘Four Layers of Diversity Model’ which includes
organizational dimensions, external dimensions, internal dimensions, and personality.

1. The organizational dimensions represents the outer most layer and consists of characters
such as management status, union affiliation, work location, seniority, divisional
department, work content/field, and functional level classification. The characteristics of
diversity associated with this layer are items under the control of the organization in
which one works. The people can influence this layer in a limited capacity, because
control rests with the organization in which a person works.
2. The external dimension represents those characteristics that deal with the life choices of
an individual. The individual exercises a higher level of control over these characteristic
than in the organization dimension. The characteristics in this layer are personal habits,
recreational habits, religion, educational background, work experience, appearance,
status, marital status, geographic location, and income.
3. In the internal dimension of diversity an individual has no control over these
characteristics. These characteristics are assigned at birth, such as age, race, ethnicity,
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gender, and physical ability. Often these characteristics are the sources of prejudice and
discrimination.
4. Personality is described as traits and stable characteristics of an individual that are
viewed as determining particular consistencies in the manner in which that person
behaves in any given situation and over time. The personality of an individual is
influenced by the other three levels of the model. The other layers help shape the
individual’s perception, disposition, and actions, as the individual interacts with the
world around them

8.1. Race

Race is a grouping of humans based on shared physical or social qualities into categories
generally viewed as inherently distinct by society. First used to refer to speakers of a
common language and then to denote national affiliations, by the 17th century, the term race
began to refer to physical (phenotypical) traits. Modern scholarship regards race as a social
construct, that is, a symbolic identity created to establish some cultural meaning. While partially
based on physical similarities within groups, race is not an inherent physical or biological
quality. Social conceptions and groupings of race vary over time, involving folk taxonomies that
define essential types of individuals based on perceived traits. Scientists consider
biological essentialism obsolete, and generally discourage racial explanations for collective
differentiation in both physical and behavioral traits.

Since the second half of the 20 th century, the association of race with the ideologies and theories
of scientific racism has led to the use of the word race itself becoming problematic. Although
still used in general contexts, race has often been replaced by less ambiguous
and loaded terms: populations, people(s), ethnic groups, or communities, depending on the
context.

- Defining Race

Modern scholars view racial categories as socially constructed, that is, race is not intrinsic to
human beings but rather an identity created, often by socially dominant groups, to establish
meaning in a social context. Although commonalities in physical traits such as facial features,
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skin color and hair texture comprise part of the race concept, the later is a social distinction
rather than an inherently biological one. Other dimensions of racial groupings include shared
history, traditions and language. For instance, African-American English is a language spoken by
many African Americans, especially in areas of the United States where racial segregation exists.
Furthermore, people often self-identify as members of a race for political reasons.

When people define and talk about a particular conception of race, they create a social
reality through which social categorization is achieved. In this sense, races are said to be social
constructs. These constructs develop within various legal, economic, and sociopolitical contexts,
and may be the effect, rather than the cause, of major social situations. While race is understood
to be a social construct by many, most scholars agree that race has real material effects in the
lives of people through institutionalized practices of preference and discrimination.

Socioeconomic factors, in combination with early but enduring views of race, have led to
considerable suffering within disadvantaged racial groups. Racial discrimination often coincides
with racist mindsets, whereby the individuals and ideologies of one group come to perceive the
members of an out-group as both racially defined and morally inferior. As a result, racial groups
possessing relatively little power often find themselves excluded or oppressed,
while hegemonic individuals and institutions are charged with holding racist attitudes. Racism
has led to many instances of tragedy, including slavery and genocide.

In some countries, law enforcement uses race to profile suspects. This use of racial categories is
frequently criticized for perpetuating an outmoded understanding of human biological variation,
and promoting stereotypes. Because in some societies racial groupings correspond closely with
patterns of social stratification, for social scientists studying social inequality, race can be a
significant variable. Scholars continue to debate the degrees to which racial categories are
biologically warranted and socially constructed. Accordingly, the racial paradigms employed in
different disciplines vary in their emphasis on biological reduction as contrasted with societal
construction.
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8.2. Ethnicity

An ethnic group, or an ethnicity, is a category of people who identify with each other based on
similarities such as common ancestry, language, society, culture or nation. Ethnicity is usually an
inherited status based on the society in which one lives. Membership of an ethnic group tends to
be defined by a shared cultural heritage, ancestry, origin myth, history, home land, language
or dialect, symbolic systems such as religion, mythology and ritual, cuisine, dressing style, art,
and physical appearance. Ethnic groups, derived from the same historical founder population,
often continue to speak related languages and share a similar gene pool. By way of language
shift, acculturation, adoption and religious conversion, it is sometimes possible for individuals or
groups to leave one ethnic group and become part of another (except for ethnic groups
emphasizing racial purity as a key membership criterion). Ethnicity is often used synonymously
with ambiguous terms such as nation or people.

The largest ethnic groups in modern times comprise hundreds of millions of individuals (Han
Chinese, being the largest), while the smallest are limited to a few dozen individuals
(numerous indigenous peoples worldwide). Larger ethnic groups may be subdivided into smaller
sub-groups known variously as tribes or clans, which over time may become separate ethnic
groups themselves due to endogamy or physical isolation from the parent group. Conversely,
formerly separate ethnicities can merge to form a pan-ethnicity, and may eventually merge into
one single ethnicity. Whether through division or amalgamation, the formation of a separate
ethnic identity is referred to as ethnogenesis.

Depending on which source of group identity is emphasized to define membership, the following
types of (often mutually overlapping) groups can be identified:

 Ethno-linguistic, emphasizing shared language, dialect (and possibly script) –

example: French Canadians
 Ethno-national, emphasizing a shared polity or sense of national identity –
example: Armenians
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 Ethno-racial, emphasizing shared physical appearance based on genetic origins –

example: African Americans
 Ethno-regional, emphasizing a distinct local sense of belonging stemming from relative
geographic isolation – example: South Islanders
 Ethno-religious, emphasizing shared affiliation with a particular religion, denomination or
sect – example: Jews

Approaches to understanding ethnicity

Different approaches to understanding ethnicity have been used by different social scientists
when trying to understand the nature of ethnicity as a factor in human life and society. Examples
of such approaches are: primordialism, perennialism, constructivism,

 Primordialism holds that ethnicity has existed at all times of human history and that
modern ethnic groups have historical continuity into the far past. For them, the idea of
ethnicity is closely linked to the idea of nations and is rooted in the pre-Weber
understanding of humanity as being divided into primordially existing groups rooted
by kinship and biological heritage.
 Perennialism an approach that is primarily concerned with nationhood but tends to see
nations and ethnic communities as basically the same phenomenon, holds that the nation,
as a type of social and political organisation, is of an immemorial or "perennial"
character. Smith (1999) distinguishes two variants: "continuous perennialism", which
claims that particular nations have existed for very long spans of time, and "recurrent
perennialism", which focuses on the emergence, dissolution and reappearance of nations
as a recurring aspect of human history.
 Constructivism sees both primordialist and perennialist views as basically flawed, and
rejects the notion of ethnicity as a basic human condition. It holds that ethnic groups are
only products of human social interaction, maintained only in so far as they are
maintained as valid social constructs in societies.
- Modernist constructivism correlates the emergence of ethnicity with the
movement towards nation states beginning in the early modern period. Proponents of this
theory, such as Eric Hobsbawm, argue that ethnicity and notions of ethnic pride, such as
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nationalism, are purely modern inventions, appearing only in the modern period of world
history. They hold that prior to this, ethnic homogeneity was not considered an ideal or
necessary factor in the forging of large-scale societies.

Ethnicity is an important means by which people may identify with a larger group. Many social
scientists, such as anthropologists Fredrik Barth and Eric Wolf, do not consider ethnic identity to
be universal. They regard ethnicity as a product of specific kinds of inter-group interactions,
rather than an essential quality inherent to human groups. Processes that result in the emergence
of such identification are called ethnogenesis. Members of an ethnic group, on the whole, claim
cultural continuities over time, although historians and cultural anthropologists have documented
that many of the values, practices, and norms that imply continuity with the past are of relatively
recent invention.

Ethnic groups differ from other social groups, such as subcultures, interest groups or social
classes, because they emerge and change over historical periods (centuries) in a process known
as ethnogenesis, a period of several generations of endogamy resulting in common ancestry
(which is then sometimes cast in terms of a mythological narrative of a founding figure); ethnic
identity is reinforced by reference to "boundary markers" - characteristics said to be unique to the
group which set it apart from other groups.

Ethnicity theory

Ethnicity theory says that race is a social category and is, but, one of several factors in
determining ethnicity. Some other criteria include: religion, language, 'customs,' nationality, and
political identification. This theory was put forth by sociologist Robert E. Park in the 1920s. It is
based on the notion of “culture”. This theory was preceded by over a century where biological
essentialism was the dominant paradigm on race. Biological essentialism is the belief that white
European races are biologically superior and other non-white races are inherently inferior. This
view arose as a way to justify slavery of Africans and genocide of the Native Americans in a
society which was supposedly founded on freedom for all. This was a notion that developed
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slowly and came to be a preoccupation of scientists, theologians, and the public. Religious
institutions asked questions about whether there had been multiple geneses’s (polygenesis) and
whether God had created lesser races of men. Many of the foremost scientists of the time took up
idea of racial difference. They would inadvertently find that white Europeans were superior. One
method that was used was the measurement of cranial capacity.

Ethnicity theory was based on the assimilation model. Park outlined his four steps to
assimilation: contact, conflict, accommodation, and assimilation. Instead of explaining the
marginalized status of people of color in the United States with an inherent biological inferiority,
he instead said that it was a failure to assimilate into American culture that held people back.
They could be equal as long as they dropped their culture which was deficient compared to white
culture.

Michael Omi and Howard Winant's theory of racial formation directly confronts both ethnicity
theory's premises and practices. They argue in Racial Formation in the United States that
ethnicity theory was exclusively based on the immigration patterns of a white ethnic population
and did not account for the unique experiences of non-whites in this country. While this theory
identifies different stages in an immigration process – contact, conflict, struggle, and as the last
and best response, assimilation – it did so only for white ethnic communities. The ethnicity
paradigm neglects the ways that race can complicate a community's interactions with basic social
and political structures, especially upon contact.

And assimilation – shedding the particular qualities of a native culture for the purpose of
blending in with a host culture – did not work for some groups as a response to racism and
discrimination as it did for others. Moreover, once the legal barriers to achieving equality had
been dismantled, the problem of racism became the sole responsibility of already disadvantaged
communities. It was assumed that if a Black or Latino community was not 'making it' by the
standards that had been set by white ethnics, it was because that community did not hold the
right values or beliefs. Or they must be stubbornly resisting dominant norms because they did not
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want to fit in. Omi and Winant's critique of ethnicity theory explains how looking towards a
cultural defect for the source of inequality ignores the "concrete sociopolitical dynamics within
which racial phenomena operate. In other words, buying into this approach effectively strips us
of our ability to critically examine the more structural components of racism and encourages,
instead, a “benign neglect” of social inequality.

Ethnicity and Nationality

In some cases, especially involving transnational migration, or colonial expansion, ethnicity is

linked to nationality. Anthropologists and historians, following the modernist understanding of
ethnicity as proposed by Ernest Gellner and Benedict Anderson see nations and nationalism as
developing with the rise of the modern state system in the 17 th C. They culminated in the rise of
"nation-states" in which the presumptive boundaries of the nation coincided (or ideally
coincided) with state boundaries. Thus, in the West, the notion of ethnicity, like race and nation,
developed in the context of European colonial expansion,when mercantilism and capitalism were
promoting global movements of populations at the same time that state boundaries were being
more clearly and rigidly defined.

In the 19th century, modern states generally sought legitimacy through their claim to represent
"nations." Nation-states, however, invariably include populations that have been excluded from
national life for one reason or another. Members of excluded groups, consequently, will either
demand inclusion on the basis of equality, or seek autonomy, sometimes even to the extent of
complete political separation in their own nation-state. Under these conditions – when people
moved from one state to another, or one state conquered or colonized peoples beyond its national
boundaries – ethnic groups were formed by people who identified with one nation, but lived in
another state.

Multi-ethnic states can be the result of two opposite events, either the recent creation of state
borders at variance with traditional tribal territories, or the recent immigration of ethnic
minorities into a former nation state. Examples for the first case are found throughout Africa,
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where countries created during decolonization inherited arbitrary colonial borders, but also in
European countries such as Belgium or United Kingdom. Examples for the second case are
countries such as Germany or the Netherlands, which were ethnically homogeneous when they
attained statehood but have received significant immigration during the second half of the 20th
century. States such as the United Kingdom, France and Switzerland comprised distinct ethnic
groups from their formation and have likewise experienced substantial immigration, resulting in
what has been termed "multicultural" societies especially in large cities.

In recent decades feminist scholars (most notably Nira Yuval-Davis) have drawn attention to the
fundamental ways in which women participate in the creation and reproduction of ethnic and
national categories. Though these categories are usually discussed as belonging to the public,
political sphere, they are upheld within the private, family sphere to a great extent. It is here that
women act not just as biological reproducers but also as 'cultural carriers', transmitting
knowledge and enforcing behaviors that belong to a specific collectivity. Women also often play
a significant symbolic role in conceptions of nation or ethnicity, for example in the notion that
'women and children' constitute the kernel of a nation which must be defended in times of
conflict.

Ethnicity and Race

Race and ethnicity are considered to be related concepts. Ethnicity is often assumed to be
somewhat more of a cultural identity of a group, often based on shared ancestry, language and
cultural tradition, while race is assumed to be strictly a biological classification, based
on DNA and bone structure. Race is a more controversial subject than ethnicity, due to its
common political use. It is assumed that, based on power relations, there exist 'racialized
ethnicities' and 'ethnicized races'. Ramón Grosfoguel (University of California, Berkeley) argues
that 'racial/ethnic identity' is one concept and that concepts of race and ethnicity cannot be used
as separate and autonomous categories.
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Before Weber, race and ethnicity were primarily seen as two aspects of the same thing. Around
1900 and before, the essentialist primordialist understanding of ethnicity was predominant:
cultural differences between peoples were seen as being the result of inherited traits and
tendencies. With Weber's introduction of the view of ethnicity as a social construct, race and
ethnicity became more divided from each other. In 1982 anthropologist David Craig Griffith
summed up forty years of ethnographic research, arguing that racial and ethnic categories are
symbolic markers for different ways that people from different parts of the world have been
incorporated into a global economy.

8.3. Social Class

A social class is a set of subjectively defined concepts in the social sciences and political
theory centered on models of social stratification in which people are grouped into a set
of hierarchical social categories, the most common being the upper, middle and lower classes.
Class is a subject of analysis for sociologists, political scientists, anthropologists and social
historians. However, there is not a consensus on a definition of "class" and the term has a wide
range of sometimes conflicting meanings. The term "class" is etymologically derived from the
Latin classis, which was used by census takers to categorize citizens by wealth in order to
determine military service obligations.

In common parlance, the term "social class" is usually synonymous with "socio-economic class",
defined as "people having the same social, economic, cultural, political or educational status",
e.g., "the working class"; "an emerging professional class". However, academics distinguish
social class and socioeconomic status, with the former referring to one's relatively stable socio-
cultural background and the later referring to one's current social and economic situation and
consequently being more changeable over time.

The precise measurements of what determines social class in society has varied over time. Karl
Marx thought "class" was defined by one's relationship to the means of
production (their relations of production). His simple understanding of classes in
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modern capitalist society are the proletariat, those who work but do not own the means of
production; and the bourgeoisie, those who invest and live off of the surplus generated by the
proletariat's operation of the means of production. This contrasts with the view of the
sociologist Max Weber, who argued "class" is determined by economic position, in contrast to
"social status" or "Stand" which is determined by social prestige rather than simply just relations
of production.

- Marxist Views on Class

Classes are large groups of people differing from each other by the place they occupy in a
historically determined system of social production, by their relation (in most cases fixed and
formulated in law) to the means of production, by their role in the social organization of labor,
and, consequently, by the dimensions of the share of social wealth of which they dispose and the
mode of acquiring it."
—Vladimir Lenin, A Great Beginning on June 1919

For Marx, class is a combination of objective and subjective factors. Objectively, a class shares a
common relationship to the means of production. Subjectively, the members will necessarily
have some perception ("class consciousness") of their similarity and common interest. Class
consciousness is not simply an awareness of one's own class interest but is also a set of shared
views regarding how society should be organized legally, culturally, socially and politically.
These class relations are reproduced through time. In Marxist theory, the class structure of
the capitalist mode of production is characterized by the conflict between two main classes:
the bourgeoisie, the capitalists who own the means of production and the much
larger proletariat (or "working class") who must sell their own labor power (wage labor). This is
the fundamental economic structure of work and property, a state of inequality that is normalized
and reproduced through cultural ideology.

Marx makes the argument that, as the bourgeoisie reach a point of wealth accumulation, they
hold enough power as the dominant class to shape political institutions and society according to
their own interests. Marx then goes on to claim that the non-elite class, owing to their large
numbers, have the power to overthrow the elite and create an equal society.
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In The Communist Manifesto, Marx himself argued that it was the goal of the proletariat itself to
displace the capitalist system with socialism, changing the social relationships underpinning the
class system and then developing into a future communist society in which the free development
of each is the condition for the free development of all. This would mark the beginning of
a classless society in which human needs rather than profit would be motive for production. In a
society with democratic control and production for use, there would be no class, no state and no
need for financial and banking institutions and money.

- Weberian Views on Class

Max Weber formulated a three-component theory of stratification that saw social class as
emerging from an interplay between "class", "status" and "power". Weber believed that class
position was determined by a person's relationship to the means of production, while status or
"Stand" emerged from estimations of honor or prestige.

Weber derived many of his key concepts on social stratification by examining the social
structure of many countries. He noted that contrary to Marx's theories, stratification was based on
more than simply ownership of capital. Weber pointed out that some members of the aristocracy
lack economic wealth yet might nevertheless have political power. Likewise in Europe, many
wealthy Jewish families lacked prestige and honor because they were considered members of a
"pariah group".

 Class: A person's economic position in a society. Weber differs from Marx in that he does
not see this as the supreme factor in stratification. Weber noted how managers of
corporations or industries control firms they do not own.
 Status: A person's prestige, social honor or popularity in a society. Weber noted that political
power was not rooted in capital value solely, but also in one's status. Poets and saints, for
example, can possess immense influence on society with often little economic worth.
 Power: A person's ability to get their way despite the resistance of others. For example,
individuals in state jobs, such as an employee of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, or a
member of the United States Congress, may hold little property or status, but they still hold
immense power.
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Common three-stratum model

Today, concepts of social class often assume three general categories: a very wealthy and
powerful upper class that owns and controls the means of production; a middle class of
professional workers, small business owners and low-level managers; and a lower class, who
rely on low-paying wage jobs for their livelihood and often experience poverty.

 Upper Class

The upper class is the social class composed of those who are rich, well-born, powerful, or a
combination of those. They usually wield the greatest political power. In some countries, wealth
alone is sufficient to allow entry into the upper class. In others, only people who are born or
marry into certain aristocratic bloodlines are considered members of the upper class. The upper
class is generally contained within the richest one or two percent of the population. Members of
the upper class are often born into it and are distinguished by immense wealth which is passed
from generation to generation in the form of estates.

 Middle Class

The middle class is the most contested of the three categories, the broad group of people in
contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the lower and upper classes. One
example of the contest of this term is that in the United States "middle class" is applied very
broadly and includes people who would elsewhere be considered working class. Middle-class
workers are sometimes called "white-collar workers".

Theorists such as Ralf Dahrendorf have noted the tendency toward an enlarged middle class in
modern Western societies, particularly in relation to the necessity of an educated work force in
technological economies. Perspectives concerning globalization and neo-colonialism, such
as dependency theory, suggest this is due to the shift of low-level labor to developing nations and
the Third World.

 Lower Class

Lower class (occasionally described as working class) refers individuals employed in low-
paying wage jobs with very little economic security. The term "lower class" also refers to
persons with low income. The working class is sometimes separated into those who are
employed but lacking financial security (the "working poor") and an underclass—those who are
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long-term unemployed and/or homeless, especially those receiving welfare from the state.
Members of the working class are sometimes called blue-collar workers.

In the late 18th century, the term "class" began to replace classifications such
as estates, rank and orders as the primary means of organizing society into hierarchical divisions.
This corresponded to a general decrease in significance ascribed to hereditary characteristics and
increase in the significance of wealth and income as indicators of position in the social hierarchy.

8.4. Gender

Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to, and differentiating

between, masculinity and femininity. Depending on the context, these characteristics may
include biological sex (i.e., the state of being male, female, or an intersex variation), sex-
based social structures (i.e., gender roles), or gender identity. People who do not identify as men
or women or with masculine or feminine gender pronouns are often grouped under the umbrella
terms non-binary or gender queer. Some cultures have specific gender roles that are distinct
from "man" and "woman". These are often referred to as third genders.

John Money introduced the terminological distinction between biological sex and gender as a
role in 1955. Before his work, it was uncommon to use the word gender to refer to anything
but grammatical categories. However, Money's meaning of the word did not become widespread
until the 1970s, when feminist theory embraced the concept of a distinction between biological
sex and the social construct of gender. Today the distinction is strictly followed in some
contexts, especially the social sciences and documents written by the World Health
Organization (WHO).

In other contexts, including some areas of social sciences, gender includes sex or replaces it. For
instance, in non-human animal research, gender is commonly used to refer to the biological sex
of the animals. This change in the meaning of gender can be traced to the 1980s. In 1993, the
US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) started to use gender instead of sex. Later, in 2011, the
FDA reversed its position and began using sex as the biological classification and gender as "a
person's self representation as male or female, or how that person is responded to by social
institutions based on the individual's gender presentation.”
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The social sciences have a branch devoted to gender studies. Other sciences, such
as sexology and neuroscience, are also interested in the subject. While the social sciences
sometimes approach gender as a social construct, and gender studies particularly do, research in
the natural sciences investigates whether biological differences in males and females influence
the development of gender in humans; both inform debate about how far biological differences
influence the formation of gender identity.

In general terms, "sex" refers to the biological differences between males and females, such as
the genitalia and genetic differences. "Gender" is more difficult to define, but it can refer to the
role of male or female in society, known as a gender role, or an individual's concept of
themselves, or gender identity. Sometimes, a person's genetically assigned sex does not line up
with their gender identity. These individuals might refer to themselves as transgender, non-
binary, or gender-nonconforming.

- Sex

The differences between male and female sexes are anatomical and physiological. "Sex" tends to
relate to biological differences. For instance, male and female genitalia, both internal and
external are different. Similarly, the levels and types of hormones present in male and female
bodies are different.

Genetic factors define the sex of an individual. Women have 46 chromosomes including two Xs
and men have 46 including an X and a Y. The Y chromosome is dominant and carries the signal
for the embryo to begin growing testes. Both men and women have testosterone, estrogen,
and progesterone. However, women have higher levels of estrogen and progesterone, and men
have higher levels of testosterone. The male/female split is often seen as binary, but this is not
entirely true. For instance, some men are born with two or three X chromosomes, just as some
women are born with a Y chromosome. In some cases, a child is born with a mix between female
and male genitalia. They are sometimes termed intersex, and the parents may decide which
gender to assign to the child. Intersex individuals account for around 1 in 1,500 births.
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- Gender

Gender tends to denote the social and cultural role of each sex within a given society. Rather
than being purely assigned by genetics, as sex differences generally are, people often develop
their gender roles in response to their environment, including family interactions, the media,
peers, and education.

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines gender as:

"Gender refers to the socially constructed characteristics of women and men, such as norms, roles, and
relationships of and between groups of women and men. It varies from society to society and can be
changed."

Gender roles in some societies are more rigid than those in others. The degree of decision-
making and financial responsibility expected of each gender and the time that women or men are
expected to spend on homemaking and rearing children varies between cultures. Within the
wider culture, families too have their norms. Gender roles are not set in stone. In many societies,
men are increasingly taking on roles traditionally seen as belonging to women, and women are
playing the parts previously assigned mostly to men. Gender roles and gender stereotypes are
highly fluid and can shift substantially over time.

8.5. Family

In the context of human society, a family (from Latin: familia) is a group of people related either
by consanguinity (by recognized birth), affinity (by marriage or other relationship), or co-
residence (as implied by the etymology of the English word "family" [...] from
Latin familia 'family servants, domestics collectively, the servants in a household,' thus also
'members of a household, the estate, property; the household, including relatives and servants,'
abstract noun formed from famulus 'servant, slave [...] or some combination of these. Members
of the immediate family may include spouses, parents, brothers, sisters, sons, and daughters .
Members of the extended family may include grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, nephews,
nieces, and siblings-in-law. Sometimes these are also considered members of the immediate
family, depending on an individual's specific relationship with them.
 Theories of Human Behavior and the Social Environment (MSWK531)

In most societies, the family is the principal institution for the socialization of children. As the
basic unit for raising children, anthropologists generally classify most family organizations
as matrifocal (a mother and her children); conjugal (a wife, her husband, and children, also called
the nuclear family); avuncular (for example, a grandparent, a brother, his sister, and her
children); or extended (parents and children co-reside with other members of one parent's
family). Sexual relations among the members are regulated by rules concerning incest such as
the incest taboo.

8.6. Implications for Social Work Practice

Social workers are met with varying problems, people and personalities daily. It is a simple fact
of this crucial career — all different kinds of people need help and support. Improving the well-
being of members of your community means social workers need to be capable of interacting
with people from different backgrounds, with varying economic statuses and myriad religious
beliefs. Clients may speak other languages or struggle to communicate in other ways. Diversity
is the central tenant of a successful social worker, and embracing only makes them better at what
they do.

Cultural competency is a cornerstone of superior social work. Being culturally competent means
you understand the “specific cultural, language, social and economic nuances of particular
people and families.” Social workers have the unique ability to understand both the difficulties
faced by different groups of people and how the inequalities of our current social systems can
have a negative effect on lives — whether it is people of color, or people facing mental health
disorders. Culturally competent social workers are vital to the well-being of the community and
the people they serve. They identify problematic situations and unfair societal boundaries,
transcend language barriers and understand the nuance of family dynamics across ethnicities.
They are sympathetic to the rights of the elderly and people with disabilities. Cultural
competency is an invaluable aspect of social work and a trait of all exemplary social workers.

The National Association of Social Workers firmly believes that the profession calls for
defenders of social justice - a belief that rings true as social workers are one of the few groups of
 Theories of Human Behavior and the Social Environment (MSWK531)

professionals willing to stand up against injustice, stereotyping and unfairness. The core values
upheld by social workers bleed into their professional lives. Honoring minority contributions to
the world of social work is a great way to acknowledge how far social work has come and how
specific individuals facilitated such growth.

Social workers have a unique responsibility, one that is rarely matched in the professional world.
They are bastions of change and justice and proponents of equal rights. They support, inspire,
engage and speak out. Social workers are a diverse group from varying backgrounds, ethnicities
and religious beliefs and this is why they are so good at what they do. Everyone needs support at
some point and social workers are culturally competent social justice warriors capable of helping
anyone and everyone.

In a multicultural society, social workers are expected to recognize diversity in their practice and
actively tackle oppression. Knowledge and practice in this area should cover the following:
● Understanding differences in self and others
● Respecting difference
● Repertoire of personal presentation
● Challenging discrimination and oppression
● Be able to challenge cultural assumptions