Minorities

in detail what you see as the 3 greatest challenges facing society in the area of minority relations today, and how the discipline of sociology will deal with these challenges:

Although there are many challenges that face society in minority groups, there are three that I believe stand out that most and should be addressed more so than others. People need to teach and be taught the fundamentals of minorities, who they are, how they live, and the situations they face each and every day. Minority groups suffer from acts of discrimination, prejudice, assimilations. Even though society is making strides to help in making these issues better, we still have a long way to go. Three of the greatest challenges I see are the gap in gender pay, the disparities in healthcare amongst minorities, and pluralism.

The gender pay gap has been an issue that has burdened women for many years now, but some people ask, should women be making as much as men? The answer to that is, if they are performing the same job in the same capacity, in the same field, then of course they should. However, women working full time today earn an average of 80 cents for each dollar that men earn, even when factors such as occupation, industry, marital status consideration of their and job tenure. We are not really sure why women haven't been able to close the gender gap, but nobody really disputes that a gender pay gap exist, the arguments typically focus on the actual reason for the difference in pay. Many people believe that there is an actual gender pay gap and the reason it exists is due to gender discrimination. This type of discrimination can affect a woman's ability to achieve an education and essentially her choice of careers. Another reason for the gender pay gap is women are often pushed into lower-paying jobs and are not welcome in the male-dominated professions. Those people who are against closing the gender pay gap believe that the gap exists because of the characteristics associated with each gender. The do not believe it has anything to do with being a man or a woman, but believe the gap is due to gender-related differences in occupational choice, educational attainment, and prior work experience. An example would be that women tend to fill more of the roles of lower-paying jobs such as receptionists and teachers while men fill the roles of higher-paying jobs such as doctors and engineers. Others believe that since every woman has a choice in her education and career, if she enters a lower-paying job than it is a voluntary choice and it is not due to discrimination.

Healthcare disparities are one of the greatest challenges minorities face and unfortunately still exist. The Minorities have decreased access to healthcare, and it is found that Hispanics, Asians and blacks have much difficulty communicating with their doctors about their health issues. The communication goes much more beyond just simple language barriers. There is little access to language interpreters and minorities feel as though their doctors don't listen to them. Many minority groups feel as though they would received better healthcare if they were white. It is true that people who are of the racial ghetto are proven to be less healthy than most other Americans. They suffer from higher mortality rates, and other major diseases. Healthcare disparities include, minorities having to pay too much or more out of pocket, than those of a dominant race. It is also proven that low-income people, regardless of race spend more out of pocket on medical expenses. There are many ways in which healthcare professionals can help in resolving this issue.