Yirui Jiang

Sociology 101
Project 3
July 27, 2016
Inequality in Education
Individuals have been endeavored equality for many years. Equality is like rights and
freedom, which people will pay everything to gain it. Education is where people gain
knowledge and learn the society. However, it is true that education does not equally treat
everyone. Although all societies and countries try so hard to provide equal platform for
students no matter where they are and who they are, the inequality still exists. Education
should be the key to teach people how to reduce the possibility of inequality in the world, but
education itself owns inequality. The inequality in education exists in gender differences,
economy difference. How sociologists think of the phenomenon of the inequality in
education? This paper will mainly discuss the gender difference and economic difference lead
to the inequality in education and how sociologists think about it.
Inequality in education can be caused by different level of incomes. Mostly, higher
income families have better education for their children. Is it possible to reduce inequality in
education? In the article The connection between Education Income Inequality, and
unemployment, the author Steven Strauss demonstrates the relationship between income and
education. Basically, the higher the education level, the higher the income. For example,
people with professional degrees earned 6x as much as people who did not graduate from
high school. He explains how the different education cause the different income. People
with higher education earn higher salary than people who are less educated. It is not hard to
understand because more professional occupation requires higher degree and better
education. For example, who has earned doctor degree will earn more than a person who just
has degree of high school. This logic is not hard to understand. However, the influence

between education and income is not one-way. Not all people have the same opportunities to
earn as higher degree as they want. In Savage Inequalities written by Jonathan Kozol, the
article has illustrated several examples of how economic difference lead to inequality in
education. Kazol traveled three different level of schools to experience different education
atmosphere. Then he realized that the inequality of education really exist and it is hard to be
changed. Before The teacher went to Solomon, he said go and find the toughest place there
to teach. School in Solomon is where has no toilet paper, no Latin teacher and no lab
equipments. One student there said theres no reason not to have a baby. Theres not much
for me in public school. The school in Solomon can not offer much about academic lessons.
They do not have money to purchase lab equipments for their physical class and they do not
have money to hire a person to install their lab and they do not have money to hire Latino
teachers. Because of poverty, students hardly gain the same learning opportunity as who are
in middle-class or high-class. In a study, it states that Poverty is thus both a cause and an
effect of insufficient access to or completion of quality education. If the problem of poverty
does not solve, the inequality of education will always exist.
Unequal education does not only exist with separation of the rich and the poor but
also in males and females. In early period time, female were not allowed to go to pubic
schools. They were supposed to be at home taking care of the family and children. Especially
in ancient China. Most girls were stayed at home and their mother would teach them about
needle work. Only some high class girls were able to go to private schools. But those schools
only taught girls poems, philosophy and how to become good wives. However, at that time,
boys were supposed to go to schools and teachers taught them about everything, poem,
philosophy, science, arts but nothing about families. Ancient girls at that time went to schools
in order to better assist their husband and could better take care of the families. The
philosophy they have learned was about how to respect seniority and how to become

responsible wive. Even now, the unequal education still exist in gender differences. In the
video Gender Inequality in education, which was made by Carissa Chua, she believed
unequal education exist both in developing counties and in developed countries. In
developing countries mainly when a male goes to school and has a good education while the
female has to stay at home to do housework. But in developed countries, both genders are be
able to go to schools. But the main point is bias in teaching. She believes that most teachers
deny to admit they treat males and females differently, but sadly there is bias. Teachers think
boys are more active and more logical than girls which may cause the result that boys have
better talented in sports, mathematics and sciences. However, teachers think girls are more
quiet and more attentive than boys which cause the result to make people think that girls are
better in arts, languages but not sciences. And as Carissa Chua says that The stereotypes and
gender bias from the teacher can have a negative connotation. This stereotypes may cause
female loss their belief of math or science and also discourage females development of arts.
In the article Gender Bias in Education by Amanda Chapman, she describes her view of
unequal education as in fact, upon entering school, girls perform equal to or better than boys
no nearly every measure of achievement, but by the time they grate high school or college,
they have fallen behind. The bias treatment of teaching has caused the lower achievement of
girls and make girls less comfortable to develop their talent. Therefore, the gender bias in
education is hurting society by reducing the encouragement of females.
The existence of inequality in education due to gender difference and economic
difference has been affected the development of society and sociologists have evaluated this
situation in different opinions. In sociology, there is a global concern called universal access.
The term refers to peoples equal ability to participate in an education system. The
education system is conceptually required to be equal for people to obtain knowledge in same
given opportunities and it is the chance provide for people to change their life and be treated

equally by their abilities, not social status, not parents income, not gender. However, Conflict
theorists insist that education system is unequal and it will not be provided equally. Rather,
they believe that the educational system reinforces and perpetuates social inequalities arising
from differences in class, gender, race, and ethnicity. Conflict theory in sociology sees
different views compared to functionalists and symbolic interactionism. Conflict theorists
believe that peoples life are filled with competitions. The competitions among people are
about obtaining the limited resources, which can be money and power. In the book A primer
Social Problems, the section of Sociological Perspectives on Education illustrates how
conflict theorists think the educative systems make circumstance to learning unequally. As
the section described, most of schools have track systems. They divide students into different
tracks. One is faster tracks which only include students who have higher grades. The other
one is slower tracks which are specially for students who have lower grades. Conflict
theorists evaluate that tracking also helps perpetuate social inequality by locking students
into faster and lower tracks. Worse yet, several studies show that students social class and
race and ethnicity affect the track into which they are placed, even though their intellectual
abilities and potential should be the only things that matter. Conflict theorists strongly
believe that the existence of inequality of education has perpetuated social inequality.
In conclusion, the phenomenon of inequality of education is ubiquity in society. The
inequality can be on the bias of gender and the economic differences. Besides, conflict
theorists strongly believe the unequal educational systems have contributed the inequality of
society and sadly, the educative systems can not achieve equality due to the competitions
among people.

Work Cited
Strauss, Steven. "The Connection Between Education, Income Inequality, and
Unemployment." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, n.d. Web. 27 July 2016.

Kozol, Jonathan. Savage Inequalities: Children in America's Schools. New York: Crown Pub,
1991. Print.
"From AB, with All Rights Reserved." : EDUCATION, INEQUALITY AND POVERTY.
N.p., n.d. Web. 27 July 2016.
Ytsas30890. "Gender Inequality in Education." YouTube. YouTube, 2015. Web. 27 July 2016.
"Gender Bias in Education." Gender Bias in Education. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 July 2016.
"Theoretical Perspectives on Education." Softchalkcloud. OpenStax College, 5 Aug. 2013.
Web. 28 July 2016.
"Sociological Perspectives on Education." Sociological Perspectives on Education. N.p., n.d.
Web. 28 July 2016.