Being part of this class means having a conscience when it comes to social roles and responsibilities. It encourages awareness that previously one could think about but not voice as a concern since it felt awkward. It increases our confidence in facing uncomfortable situations by offering a conclusion through critical thinking. I find the readings and interviews empowering in literature and responsiveness. The book “Focus on Social Problems” is an essential enabler of all these features (Stombler & Jungels, 2016). It infers a lot of social aspects people continue to deem satisfactory, regardless of how they affect others. It awakens our moral spirit on how different life aspects affect other members of society and helps us ask difficult questions. I am now more attentive to some custom behaviors that are actually offensive to various populations.
The backdrop of the problem lies in how unnoticeable some cues are in both professional and social circles. At workplaces, say in education, we find there are fewer women despite their classes performing relatively better or as well as their counterparts. From a social aspect, we have work circles treating some employees indifferently due to changes in their personal lives despite this personnel still managing to perform at the same level as before. Changes include pregnancies and motherhood which leads to others in the workforce being inconsiderate and at times too considerate, both of which are sexist. It makes it harder to deal with the issue when pointing out these cues raises defensive traits in the perpetrators. When your boss seems to be the one conjuring these tendencies, it does not make things easier. People try to be different every other day but the result varies on a case-by-case basis. So, the question raised is can the system be ridden of these behaviors entrenched in the system? Is it possible to be the non-conforming factor of a flawed system and still thrive?
References
Stombler, M., & Jungels, A. M. (2016). Gender Inequality. In Focus on social problems: A contemporary reader. Oxford University Press, USA.