Gender Inequality in Health and in the Workplace

This semester, we began with Chapter 7 - Inferences in Ten Steps to Improving College Reading Skills by John Lanngan, 5th Edition. On pages 299 - 303, we applied our understanding of patterns of organization to a passage from a college textbook: Essentials of Sociology: A Down- to -Earth Approach, Seventh Edition, by James M. Henslin to help us continue to strengthen our skills in this chapter as well as previous chapters in our text.

The reading selection entitled " Gender Inequalities in Health Care and in the Workplace" deals with the following topics:

1. gender discrimination - treating someone (an applicant or employee) unfavorably because of that person’s sex. "Gender" means: being biologically born a male or a female
2. gender gap "gap" in the context of this passage means: differences in outcomes
3. sexual discrimination (sex based discrimination) - same as gender discrimination
4. race - Race means different things to different people.  In the context by which the reading passage was written, we will accept the meaning of race from the viewpoint of a sociologist. Therefore, race is a group with inherited physical characteristics that distinguish it from another group.  Race discrimination means: treating someone unfairly based on personal characteristics associated with race (such as hair texture, skin color, or certain facial features). Color discrimination involves treating someone unfairly because of the color of their skin.

As this can be a very sensitive topic, students should read with an open mind and an open heart.  As we already discovered through the Think - Pair - Share activity, males and females do not always agree on an issue.

However, when we listen to understand, we can allow others to share their viewpoints (whether we agree with them or not) without becoming angry or upset because we ALL bring different background experiences to the table... When we combine our background knowledge (schema) AND information given in the text, this is called INFERENCE.

Remember: Consider the source(s)!!! (Or, as I like to call them, persuasive devices)

• Look at the graphs on pages 301, 302 and 303.                                                                           Note the source.  Is the source reliable? How do you know?
• Read the "text box" on page 300 (NOT the kind on your cell phone, the one used by the author to give the reader additional information on this topic. 
  Is the source reliable? How do you know?