SOC302 Final Paper .pdf - Malak Husseinali 1 How the U.S....

Malak Husseinali 1
How the U.S. Education system reinforces inequalities in regards to gender and race
Historically, education has been hailed as modern society's great equalizer. It is often
credited with transforming the societal role of women from being purely domestic to being
integrated into the professional world, as well as elevating marginalized racial groups out of the
systemic inequality that segregation and racism have created. While this is true to some extent,
the United State’s education system still propagates many of the societal inequalities faced
concerning gender and race. It does so both subtly and systematically. Through hidden
curriculum and implicit biases, the education system allocates resources and builds the
confidence of some students more than others, serving to reinforce gender and race stereotypes
and societal roles. Further, the underlying structure of the U.S. education system reproduces
inequalities more systematically, especially in regard to race. These effects curdle overtime to
produce tangible, macroscopic inequalities between genders and amongst races in the US,
leading to societal and generational gaps in opportunity and achievement. This essay will explore
how the education system perpetuates inequality in the United States based on gender and race,
and how these inequalities continue to propagate throughout our society as a result.
GENDER AND THE EDUCATION SYSTEM
A prime example of the success of the U.S. educational system is often quoted as
bringing women into the professional world. Historically, women's roles were restricted to
domestic life only - at one point in recent history, it was considered “dangerous” and
“unnecessary” for a woman to receive a formal education (Cott 1997). In many ways, the
education system has given women an institution through which to prove to society that they are

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just as capable intellectually as any man, and therefore deserving of careers and lives beyond the
home. Despite a late start, with the first woman to earn a college degree in the U.S. graduating in
1840, women have made large strides in education and achievement. In fact, women have
surpassed men in earning college degrees, with approximately 41.7% of working women in the
U.S. have earned a bachelor's degree as compared to 36.2% of men (Day 2019).
Despite these immense marks of progress that the education system has ushered in for
women, the education system in its current form continues to perpetuate some of the inequalities
faced by women in the present day. As a society, we would like to think that we are not overtly
sexist or misogynistic - however, subtle messaging brought by the undercurrent of society
continues to shape our implicit biases, which can have a tangible impact if they are allowed to
accumulate. As an integral institution in modern-day society, the education system is one such
pipeline that allows implicit biases that affect women to accrue and follow them into adulthood.