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Unlock This CourseYou have seen how social class, age and gender affect life chances. The last factor in the syllabus is ethnicity. Remember from an earlier lesson that racism is treating people unfairly because of their ethnic group. Here we look at what that can do to people's opportunities.
As before, these are patterns across large groups in some societies, not what happens to every person. Many people from ethnic minorities do very well. The patterns vary between countries, and they are often linked to other things such as income and where people live.
Key terms:
Studying hard but in an under-resourced school - for some ethnic minority groups, where they live can shape their education
In some societies, people from ethnic minority groups are more likely to live in poorer areas with less well-resourced schools. They may also have fewer chances to stay in education for longer. This can lead to fewer qualifications on average.
In some societies, people from ethnic minorities find it harder to get a job or promotion than equally qualified people from the majority group. They may also be more likely to do low-paid or insecure work. Direct discrimination by an employer is one cause.
Notice the link between the two. Fewer qualifications can lead to fewer job chances, and discrimination at work can make this worse. You will study ethnicity and educational achievement in more detail later in the course.
Health. In some societies, certain ethnic minority groups have worse health on average. Reasons include poverty, poorer housing and work in unhealthy or dangerous jobs. Language barriers or a lack of trust can also make it harder to use health services.
Housing. People from ethnic minorities may be more likely to live in overcrowded or poorer quality housing. This can be because of lower incomes. It can also be because landlords or sellers discriminate against them.
Life expectancy. Where an ethnic group has lower incomes, poorer housing and worse access to healthcare, its members may live shorter lives on average. In some countries, indigenous peoples have a shorter life expectancy than the rest of the population.
Rejecting someone because of their name on a CV is individual discrimination - if a company's rules do it, that's institutional
Discrimination can be individual. An employer who refuses to interview someone because of their name is one example. It can also be institutional. Here the problem is not one prejudiced person. It is the way an organisation works.
For example, a company might fill most jobs by asking current staff to recommend friends. If the staff are mostly from one ethnic group, people from other groups are less likely to hear about the jobs. No one set out to exclude anyone, but the practice still gives some groups an advantage. That is institutional racism. Later in the course you will see how it is applied to schools and to the criminal justice system.
So far we have looked at class, age, gender and ethnicity one at a time. In real life, people have all four at once. Intersectionality is the idea that age, ethnicity, gender and social class overlap and combine, so that the impact of inequality on an individual depends on all of them together.
The key point is that the effects do not just add up. Being, say, a young woman from a minority ethnic group in a low-income family is not the same as simply one disadvantage plus another. The combination can create experiences that none of the groups would face alone.
Amara is 17, female, from an ethnic minority group and from a low-income family. She applies for a part-time job. Her age may mean she is seen as inexperienced. Her gender and ethnicity may lead some employers to stereotype her. Her family's low income means she cannot afford unpaid work experience that would help her. Each factor makes the others harder to overcome.
Daniel is a 55-year-old man from a wealthy family and from the majority ethnic group. He lives in a large house and has good health care. Now compare him with Samir, who is the same age and gender but from an ethnic minority and a working-class background. Samir may face discrimination in hiring and live in poorer housing. The same age and gender produce very different life chances because ethnicity and class differ.
Intersectionality helps explain why two people who share one characteristic can have very different experiences. It also warns us not to treat everyone in a group, such as 'women' or 'young people', as if they all had the same life chances.
1. Writing that all people from an ethnic minority are disadvantaged. Say 'in some societies' or 'on average'.
2. Saying that institutional racism means a person is deliberately racist. It is about the rules and practices of an organisation.
3. Describing ethnic identity (an earlier topic) instead of life chances.
4. Defining intersectionality as 'being disadvantaged in two ways'. It is about how the factors combine and interact.
5. Not naming the area of life chances, such as health or housing.
(a) Define the term: (i) discrimination [2]
(ii) intersectionality [2]
(b) Give two examples of ways in which a person's ethnicity can affect their life chances. [2]
(c) Explain three ways in which age, gender, ethnicity and social class can combine to affect the life chances of one individual. [6]
(a)(i) Discrimination is treating a person or group unfairly (1) because of a characteristic such as ethnicity, age or gender (1).
(a)(ii) Intersectionality is the idea that age, ethnicity, gender and social class overlap (1) and combine to shape how inequality affects an individual (1).
(b) In some societies, people from ethnic minorities find it harder to get jobs or promotion (1). They may be more likely to live in overcrowded housing (1).
(c) First, a young person from a minority group may be stereotyped by employers because of both age and ethnicity, so they find it harder to get a first job (1)(1). Second, a woman from a low-income family may leave school early to care for relatives and may then face discrimination, so she has fewer qualifications and fewer job chances (1)(1). Third, a person who is poor and from a minority group may live in poorer housing and have worse access to healthcare, so their health is worse than that of a wealthy person from the majority group (1)(1).
In (c), use a different pair or group of factors in each point, and show how they combine with words like 'both' or 'together'. Each point needs a 'so' or 'because' to earn the second mark.