FHHM1114

INTRODUCTION TO
SOCIOLOGY
TOPIC 5 SOCIAL INEQUALITY
 This topic is
corresponding to:

• Chapter 9, 11, 12 &

13 [Part 3] in
Schaefer’s text; and

• Chapter 9, 10, 11,

Main Reference 2: 12 & 13 [Part 3] in
Schaefer, R. T. (2012). Sociology (13th
ed.). NY: McGraw-Hill. Henslin’s text.

Main Reference 1:
Henslin, J. M. (2012). Sociology: A down-to-earth
approach (11th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Pearson.
 TOPIC 5 SOCIAL INEQUALITY

5.1 WHAT IS SOCIAL INEQUALITY?

5.2 SOCIAL CLASS INEQUALITY
5.3 SEX AND GENDER INEQUALITY
5.4 SEXUAL ORIENTATION AND INEQUALITY
5.5 RACIAL AND ETHNIC INEQUALITY
5.6 AGE INEQUALITY
5.7 ABLE-BODIEDNESS AND INEQUALITY
 TOPIC 5 SOCIAL INEQUALITY

5.1 WHAT IS SOCIAL INEQUALITY?

SOCIAL INEQUALITY
A condition in which members of society have
differing amounts of wealth, prestige or power

• Some degree of inequality characterizes EVERY

society
 TOPIC 5 SOCIAL INEQUALITY

5.2 SOCIAL CLASS INEQUALITY

5.2.1 DEFINING STRATIFICATION AND
SOCIAL CLASS
5.2.2 SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON
SOCIAL CLASS INEQUALITY
 5.2 SOCIAL CLASS INEQUALITY
5.2.1 DEFINING STRATIFICATION AND SOCIAL CLASS

STRATIFICATION
A structured ranking of entire groups of
people that perpetuates unequal
economic rewards and power in a society

• EVERY society stratifies its members

• Social stratification is universal
• Stratification
producing groups of
people arranged in
rank order or
hierarchy, from low
to high
• These groups of
people are social
classes whose
members have
similar economic
resources
CLASS SYSTEM
A social ranking based primarily on economic
position, or the possession of money or material
possessions

SOCIAL MOBILITY
The movement of individuals or groups from one
position in a society’s stratification system to
another
Movement up or down the social class ladder
• Social class inequality is also known as economic
inequality

Household
Income 2016.

Source from
Department of
Statistic
Malaysia
(2017).
 5.2 SOCIAL CLASS INEQUALITY
5.2.2 SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON SOCIAL CLASS INEQUALITY

KARL MARX:
THE MEANS OF PRODUCTION

MAX WEBER: PROPERTY,

PRESTIGE, & POWER

OTHER VIEWS
 KARL MARX:
THE MEANS OF PRODUCTION

• Marx concluded that social class depends on a

single factor - the means of production

MEANS OF PRODUCTION
The tools, factories, land, and investment
capital used to produce wealth
 • Based on such economic inequality, Karl Marx
distinguished between two groups of people:

BOURGEOISIE
Marx term’s for capitalists, those who own the means
of production and exploit the working class

PROLETARIAT
Marx term’s for the exploited class, the mass of
workers who do not own the means of
production
• In capitalist
societies,
bourgeoisie
maximize profit in
competition with
other firms and in
the process, exploit
worker who must
exchange their
labor for
subsistence wages
 MAX WEBER:
PROPERTY, PRESTIGE, & POWER

• Unlike Karl Marx, Max Weber insisted NO single

characteristic totally defines a person’s position
within the stratification system
• However, Max Weber argues that there are 3
components in social class:
 property (or class/wealth)
 power
 prestige (or status)
 FACTORS OF
DESCRIPTION
SOCIAL INEQUALITY
Ownership of property, including
incomes and wealth;
Property / Class / Wealth
An important source of power and
prestige (in the form of achievement)
Gains of desirable social status;
Prestige / Status Its gains can be based on wealth, power
or simply achievement
Ability to control others, even to their
objections;
Power
Some powerful people do not own
property – e.g. Mother Teresa

• Each factor influences the other two and they are interrelated
Exercise 5.1
1. Identify which of the following social inequalities are the
results of either differing property, power OR prestige:
a) A gold medalist in Olympic Games versus a fifth place
contestant
b) A billionaire in Forbes 500 Richest People versus a
homeless child in the street of Bangladesh
c) A supervisor who has the right to dismiss a worker
versus a worker who works illegally without insurance
coverage and other benefits
• Stratification is closely linked to social status,
either through ascribed status or achieved status
Exercise 5.2
1. Identify which of the following stratifications are due to ascribed
status OR achieved status?
a) A girl who is born as a slave
b) A divorcer who is infidel
c) A disabled who got his legs amputated
d) A boss who inherited his coffee shop business from his father
e) An entrepreneur who makes successful investment
f) An ex-convict who works as construction worker
OTHER VIEWS
 TOPIC 5 SOCIAL INEQUALITY

5.3 SEX AND GENDER INEQUALITY

5.3.1 DEFINING SEX AND GENDER
5.3.2 SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON
SEX AND GENDER INEQUALITY
5.3 SEX AND GENDER INEQUALITY
5.3.1 DEFINING SEX AND GENDER

SEX
Biological characteristics that distinguish females
and males, consisting of primary (reproductive
organs) and secondary sex characteristics
(physical distinction NOT related to reproductive
organs)
GENDER
The behaviours and attitudes that a society
considers proper for its males and females
• Gender is a master status
– masculinity and femininity

GENDER ROLES
Expectations regarding the proper
behaviors, attitudes and activities of
males and females
• Sex is biologically assigned while gender is
culturally learned
• From a sociological perspective, biology alone
does NOT determine gender identity, but rather
it is a mixture of biology and socialization
• Gender roles sort us into different life
experiences
• We learn about gender roles since we are
young from our culture
 Exercise 5.3
• Fill in the blanks according to your culture
Male / Boy / Man Female / Girl / Woman
Pink color
Active and dominant
Gentle
Tough and rational
Likes male, boy or man
Taller, older, bigger-built
As a nurturer and taking care
of household affairs
Bold and brave
Source from
Department of
Statistic
Malaysia
(2019).
5.3 SEX AND GENDER INEQUALITY
5.3.2 SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON SEX AND GENDER
INEQUALITY

FUNCTIONALIST PERSPECTIVE

CONFLICT PERSPECTIVE

FEMINIST PERSPECTIVE

INTERACTIONIST PERSPECTIVE
 FUNCTIONALIST PERSPECTIVE

• Talcott Parsons and Robert Bales contended that

women take the expressive, emotionally supportive
role and men the instrumental, practical role, with
the two complementing each other
• These theorists did not explicitly endorse traditional
gender roles, but they implied that dividing tasks
between spouses are functional for the family as
a unit – sexual division of labor
EXPRESSIVENESS
Concern for the maintenance of harmony
and the internal emotional affairs of the
family

INSTRUMENTALITY
Emphasis on tasks, a focus on more distant
goals, and a concern for the external
relationship between one’s family and other
social institution
 CONFLICT PERSPECTIVE

• Gender is a basis for making people unequal

• Gender differences is a reflection of the
subjugation of one group (women) by another
group (men)
• Men may originally have become powerful in
preindustrial times because their size, physical
strength, and freedom from childbearing duties
allowed them to dominate women physically
 • Yet, in contemporary societies, cultural beliefs about
the sexes are still long established that places
males in controlling position
• Men’s work is uniformly valued while women’s work
is devalued

Exercise 5.4
• Identify and define
the so-called men’s
works and women’s
works
 FEMINIST PERSPECTIVE

• Women are generally the victims of sexism

SEXISM
Sexism is the ideology that one sex is
superior than other, generally used to refer
to male prejudice and discrimination
against women
• Women suffer from both individual acts of sexism
(e.g. sexist remarks and acts of violence) and
institutional sexism
• Sexism is a form of discrimination

INSTITUTIONAL DISCRIMINATION
The denial of opportunities and equal rights
to individuals and groups that results from
the normal operations of a society
GLASS CEILING
An invisible barrier that blocks
the promotion of a qualified
individual in a work
environment because of the
individual’s gender, race or
ethnicity
• Factors contributing toward glass ceiling:
 continuous role conflict between the demands
at the office and the family role
 women do NOT have the required mobility, as
in many cases the man follows the job and the
woman follows the man and not the other way
around
 Women may be content to cling on to the
career ladder rather than pushing hard enough
to move up it
• Women are always
less preferable by
employers because
they are perceived to
have less skilled and
immobile as
compared to men
• For women who
successfully enter the
labor market, they often
receive lower wages
than their male
counterparts do
Source from
iMoney.my
September
2017
INTERACTIONIST PERSPECTIVE

• People actively reshape and redefine

gender roles, either strengthening or
changing them
• We “do gender” (strengthening gender)
by reinforcing traditionally masculine and
feminine actions
• We challenge traditional gender roles by
“redoing gender” (changing gender)
 TOPIC 5 SOCIAL INEQUALITY

5.4 SEXUAL ORIENTATION AND

INEQUALITY
5.4.1 DEFINING SEXUAL ORIENTATION
5.4.2 SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON
SEXUAL ORIENTATION INEQUALITY
 5.4 SEXUAL ORIENTATION AND
INEQUALITY
5.4.1 DEFINING SEXUAL ORIENTATION

• Social science research on human sexual behavior

indicates that both men and women occupy places on
a broad spectrum in term of their sexual interests
and practices, and culturally relativist
• The terms “homosexual” and “heterosexual” are
arbitrary categories

HETEROSEXUAL CONTINUUM HOMOSEXUAL

• The concept of homosexuality emerged largely as
a result of the medical profession’s claim to have
“scientifically” established that such behaviors was
abnormal and pathological, engaged in only by
persons who were a separate and different human
type
• Yet, until today, NO one has yet been able to
definitely establish any biological or psychological
trait (apart from sexual orientation) that differentiate
homosexuals from anyone else
5.4 SEXUAL ORIENTATION AND
INEQUALITY
5.4.2 SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON SEXUAL ORIENTATION
INEQUALITY

FUNCTIONALIST PERSPECTIVE

CONFLICT PERSPECTIVE
 FUNCTIONALIST PERSPECTIVE

HOMOPHOBIA
Fear of and prejudice against homosexuality

• Homophobia contributes significantly to rigid

gender role socialization, since many people
stereotypically associate male homosexuality
with femininity while lesbianism with
masculinity
• Men and women who deviate from traditional
expectations about gender roles are often
presumed to be gay, even though this is NOT
always correct

• Violations against gender roles may result in

negative sanctions, from casual treatments like
frowns, stares and curses to humiliations and
criticisms to severe reactions like shunning,
bullying and worse, murders (hate crime)!
Exercise 5.5
• Why the difference?

It’s
It’s hilarious
disgusting! and funny!
 CONFLICT PERSPECTIVE

HETEROSEXISM
An ideology which holds that homosexuality is
unnatural and immoral

• Heterosexism may lead to prejudice, stereotype and

discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual,
transgender, transsexual, intersexual, asexual etc.
• Members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender
(“LGBT”) community in Malaysia face numerous hardships,
including:
a) a lack of personal safety due to harassment by civil and
Syariah authorities;
b) living in fear of prosecution for the private acts of
consenting adults; and
c) constantly facing public discrimination and denigration
• The government refuses to consider repeal of article 377B
of the penal code, which criminalizes consensual “carnal
intercourse against the order of nature,” or to replace article
377C on non-consensual sexual acts with a modern, gender-
neutral law on rape
• LGBT are perennially
at the receiving end
of negative
innuendo and hate
speech in the
mainstream media,
which is seemingly
tolerated by the
authorities
 TOPIC 5 SOCIAL INEQUALITY

5.5 RACIAL AND ETHNIC INEQUALITY

5.5.1 DEFINING RACIAL GROUP AND
ETHNIC GROUP
5.5.2 SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON
RACIAL AND ETHNIC INEQUALITY
 5.5 RACIAL AND ETHNIC INEQUALITY
5.5.1 DEFINING RACIAL GROUP AND ETHNIC GROUP

RACIAL GROUP
A group that is set apart from others because of
physical differences that have taken on social
significance

ETHNIC GROUP
A group that is set apart from others because of its
national origin or distinctive cultural patterns
• Although such groupings are convenient, they
serve to obscure differences within ethnic
categories, as well as overlook the mixed
ancestry of so many people in Malaysia

Exercise 5.6
• Who are the Malays,
Chinese, Indians, Orang
Asli, Orang Iban and
Orang Kadazandusun?
Discuss.
DOMINANT GROUP
The group with the most power, greatest
privileges, and highest social status

MINORITY GROUPS
A subordinate group whose members have
significantly less control or power over their
lives than the members of a dominant group or
majority have over theirs
 FIVE BASIC PROPERTIES OF A MINORITY GROUP
ACCORDING TO CHARLES WAGLEY AND MARVIN HARRIS
(1958)
1. Membership is an ascribed status and involuntary

2. The physical or cultural traits that distinguish minorities are

held in low esteem by the dominant group

3. Minorities are unequally treated by the dominant group

4. Minorities tend to marry within their own group

5. Minorities tend to feel strong group solidarity (a sense of “we-

ness”)
5.5 RACIAL AND ETHNIC INEQUALITY
5.5.2 SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON RACIAL AND ETHNIC
INEQUALITY

CONFLICT PERSPECTIVE
 CONFLICT PERSPECTIVE

ETHNOCENTRISM
The tendency to assume that one’s culture and way of
life represent the norm or are superior to all others

RACISM
The beliefs that one race is supreme and all others are
innately inferior
• Both ethnocentrism and racism are racial prejudice and
discrimination
PREJUDICE
A negative attitude toward an entire category of
people, often an ethnic or racial minority

DISCRIMINATION
The denial of opportunities and equal rights to
individuals and groups because of prejudice or
other arbitrary reasons
 • Although prejudice and discrimination are generally
related, they are NOT identical and either condition
can be present without the other

Exercise 5.7
1. Identify which of the following shows prejudice or
discrimination:
a) A job application by a Malay who cannot speak
Cantonese has been rejected by a Chinese company
which has business in Klang Valley and Hong Kong
b) A Malay entrepreneur is skeptical against the influx of
illegal immigrants but still hires a few Indonesians to
work in his factories due to their low wages
• Prejudice and discrimination lead
to the exploitation of indigenous
people in Malaysia when they are
forced to give up their traditional or
customary land
• Discrimination and inequality lead to the
introduction of affirmative action

AFFIRMATIVE ACTION
Positive efforts to recruit minority group
members or women for jobs, promotions,
and educational opportunities

• In Malaysia, the beneficiaries of such affirmative

action are the Malays and indigenous people in
Sabah and Sarawak
 Federal
Constitution
of Malaysia

Reservation / Quota
for Malays or Indigenous People
in Sabah and Sarawak

(a) Scholarships; Permit or

(b) the Number of Places offered in License for the
Public
any Tertiary Educational Institution; Operation of
Service
(c) Educational or Training any Trade or
Privileges or Special Facilities Business
 • Many people resent these
programs, arguing that
advancing one group’s cause
merely shifts the
discrimination to another
group
• Various individual or groups
actually benefit from racial and
• Resentment against affirmative ethnic discrimination in terms
action led Indian Malaysians of money, status, and influence
to organize HINDRAF rally in and they will NOT surrender
2007 involving some 30,000
protesters such benefits easily
 TOPIC 5 SOCIAL INEQUALITY

5.6 AGE INEQUALITY

5.6.1 DEFINING AGE AND AGING
5.6.2 SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON
AGE INEQUALITY
5.6 AGE INEQUALITY
5.6.1 DEFINING AGE AND AGING

• “Being old” is a master status and it has a major

impact on how others perceive them, and even
on how they view themselves

• All of us who live long enough will eventually

assume the ascribed status of an older person
• The age at which people are considered old
depends NOT on biology, but on culture
• One society may treat older people with great
reverence, while another sees them as
unproductive and “difficult”

AGING
The combination of biological, psychological
and social processes that affect people as
they grow older
5.6 AGE INEQUALITY
5.6.2 SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON AGE INEQUALITY

FUNCTIONALIST PERSPECTIVE

INTERACTIONIST PERSPECTIVE

CONFLICT PERSPECTIVE
 FUNCTIONALIST PERSPECTIVE:

DISENGAGEMENT THEORY
The view that society is stabilized by having
the elderly retire (disengage from) their
positions of responsibility so the
younger generation can step into their
shoes
• Elaine Cumming and William Henry (1961)
suggests that society and the aging individual
mutually sever many of their relationships

• The approach of death forces people to drop

most of their social roles

• The aging person withdraws into an increasing

state of inactivity while preparing for death
Exercise 5.8
1. Identify the social
roles that will be
dropped by the
elderly when they are
faced with the
approach of death
2. What are the
examples of inactivity
involving the elderly?
 INTERACTIONIST PERSPECTIVE:

ACTIVITY THEORY
Elderly people who remain active and
socially involved will be best adjusted
Satisfaction during old age is related to a
person’s amount and quality of activity
• This theory is often seen as an opposing
approach to Disengagement Theory
• Retirement NO longer means an end to work,
but shorter, temporary, part-timed, contract-based
works or working from home
• Among those who decline in their mental
capacities later in life, deteriorations is most
rapid in those who withdraw from social
relationships and activities
LABELING THEORY ON AGE
A study on the social construction and
social perception of “old age”

• The factors spur people to apply the label of “old”

to others or themselves are:
 biology
 personal history or biography
 gender age
 timetables or signals from society
 CONFLICT PERSPECTIVE

• In Malaysian society, old age typically corresponds

to the retirement age (fixed at 60 years old since
2012) for many workers, when they are perceived
as “too old to work anymore”
• However, if 65 years old is to be regarded as the
beginning of old age, then it is estimated that they
are 5.1% (male 704,898/female 788,384) of the
total population
GRAYING
The growing percentage of older people in
the population

• Graying cost a lot to government budget when

aging population getting more than their fair
share of society’s resources, mostly in health
care sector and social care and support
• It present an intergenerational competition and
conflict
• “Although EPF savings is
one of the main channels
to provide for retirement,
99.9% of the contributors
would withdraw their EPF
savings in one lump sum
once they reach 55 years
of age and 70% of them
would use up all their
EPF savings in just
three years post-
retirement”
 TOPIC 5 SOCIAL INEQUALITY

5.7 ABLE-BODIEDNESS AND

INEQUALITY
5.7.1 DEFINING DISABILITY AND ABLE-
BODIEDNESS
5.7.2 SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON
ABLE-BODIEDNESS INEQUALITY
 5.7 ABLE-BODIEDNESS AND INEQUALITY
5.7.1 DEFINING DISABILITY AND ABLE-BODIEDNESS

DISABILITY
Any long term physical, mental, intellectual or
sensory impairments which may hinder full and
effective participation in society

ABLE-BODIEDNESS
Without disabilities
• The types of disability include:
• Vision, hearing or speech disability;
• Physical disability;
• Learning problems;
• Mental illness; and
• Multiple disabilities
• Impairment arise from a variety of causes: illness,
disease, accidents, environmental hazards, criminal
victimization, involvement in war, or problems
associated with prenatal development or birth
5.7 ABLE-BODIEDNESS AND INEQUALITY
5.7.2 SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ABLE-BODIEDNESS
INEQUALITY

CONFLICT PERSPECTIVE

INTERACTIONIST PERSPECTIVE
 CONFLICT PERSPECTIVE

ABLEISM
A system that treats people with disabilities as if
they are defective, unwhole, or less than full
human beings

• The disability becomes a master status, one that

carries a stigma, signifying doubt as to a person’s
social worth
• People with disabilities are viewed as if they are
members of some other “species”
• Ableism suggests that this “separate species” is
childlike in nature, as they are assumed to have
the characteristics of:
 helplessness
 dependency
 inability to take responsibility; and
 need for guidance
Exercise 5.9

1. Which types of
disability are
more likely to be
stigmatized
compare to the
others?
• The OKU community in
Malaysia continues to face
numerous hardships and
challenges in their daily lives
 INTERACTIONIST PERSPECTIVE

• Many people are afraid of people with

disabilities, as they avoid eye contact and
minimize interaction
• Avoidance can be a way of protecting oneself
from the unknown and from the fear of
embarrassing or stressful social errors that
might arise during interactions with people with
disabilities
SUMMARY
TOPIC 5 SOCIAL INEQUALITY
 CORE CONCEPT 1
Sociologists seek to understand
how people are stratified or ranked
on a scale of social worth and how
that ranking affects life chance;
Social inequality is a condition in
which members of society have
differing amounts of wealth,
prestige or power
 CORE CONCEPT 2
Class system is a social ranking
based primarily on economic
position, or the possession of
money or material possessions;
Marx concluded that social class
depends on a single factor - the
means of production while Weber
argues that property, prestige and
power are the components in
social class
 CORE CONCEPT 3
Sex is biologically assigned while
gender is culturally learned;
Gender roles are a set of
expectations regarding the proper
behaviors, attitudes and activities
of males and females;
Heterosexism is an ideology which
holds that homosexuality is
unnatural and immoral
 CORE CONCEPT 4
Racial groups are distinguished by
physical differences while ethnic
groups are distinguished by
national origin or distinctive cultural
patterns; Dominant groups have
more power and wealth, and
enjoys higher prestige compared to
minority groups; Racism is the
beliefs that one race is supreme
and all others are innately inferior
 CORE CONCEPT 5
Aging is the combination of
biological, psychological and social
processes that affect people as they
grow older;
Disability is any long term physical,
mental, intellectual or sensory
impairments which may hinder full
and effective participation in society;
Ableism is a system that treats
people with disabilities as if they are
defective, unwhole, or less than full