Race and ethnicity as social categories
Sociologists treat race as a social construction: the categories people use, and the meanings attached to them, vary by place and time and have no basis in distinct biological groups. Race matters because societies act as though it did, with real consequences for jobs, housing and treatment. Ethnicity refers to shared culture, ancestry, language or religion. A minority group is defined by having less power relative to a dominant group, not necessarily by being fewer in number.
Prejudice and discrimination
Prejudice is a prejudgement or attitude about a group. Discrimination is unequal treatment, which is behaviour. They can occur separately: a person with prejudiced views may never act on them, and an organisation may discriminate through its rules without anyone intending harm. Institutional discrimination is unequal treatment built into the policies and practices of institutions, such as past rules that denied some groups mortgage loans. A stereotype is an oversimplified generalisation about a group.
Patterns of group relations
Sociologists describe a range of outcomes when groups meet: genocide (deliberate destruction of a group), expulsion, segregation (physical separation), assimilation (a minority adopts the dominant culture), pluralism (groups keep distinct identities and coexist) and amalgamation (groups blend into a new one).
Sex and gender
Sex refers to biological characteristics. Gender refers to the social and cultural expectations attached to being a man or a woman, such as which jobs or behaviours are seen as suitable. Because gender is learned through socialisation, it varies across cultures and has changed over time. Gender roles are these expectations. Sexism is prejudice or discrimination based on sex.
Women in many countries have historically had lower average earnings than men. Researchers disagree about how much of the pay gap comes from differences in occupations, hours and experience and how much from discrimination, but both factors appear in studies. A raw gap simply compares average pay, and an adjusted gap tries to compare similar workers in similar jobs.
Theoretical views
Functionalists have examined how roles support stability. Conflict theorists emphasise power and inequality between groups. Interactionists study how race and gender are "performed" and given meaning in daily encounters. Intersectionality is the idea that categories such as race, gender and class overlap, so that people's experiences cannot be understood by looking at each alone.
Worked example
A company's hiring rule requires a physical test unrelated to the job. In practice, fewer applicants from one group pass it.
- No manager holds a prejudiced attitude, so there is no individual prejudice.
- The rule produces unequal outcomes, so there may be institutional discrimination.
- The sociologist asks: is the test linked to the job's real needs? If not, the rule is a barrier.
- Testing can be changed to focus on job-related skills.
The example shows why sociologists look at structures as well as attitudes.