CONTEXTUALIZING GENDER, ETHNIC AND CLASS DIVISIONS IN THE 21ST CENTURY

Résumé

As a society and as individuals, we must as a matter of urgency prioritize investing in building and maintaining good relationships and eliminate all forms of divisions among us. This paper attempts to analyze the issues of the interrelationship between gender , one’s ethnicity or race and social class in the 21st century. Gender , race and class are connected categories of social identities of which individuals partake in. These social categories also inform individual experiences in the society. An analysis of this magnitude is not only theoretically necessary but also raises societal issues which is pivotal to our cohabiting as individuals in this 21st century. Our analysis, brings to bear that we have been divided by these social categories and which also has put us into constant war with one another. The communal style of living which fostered the ‘ubuntu’ (brotherhood) style of living in the pre-colonial era is slowly going extinct. Everywhere we turn in our daily lives in this century, we are confronted with the widening gap between both gender occasioned by one’s gender (male or female), one’s ethnicity and social class this instead fostering growth and unity, widens the gap between us. This paper will analyze these social categories with the intention to find out how, where and when they intersect with each other thereby causing unnecessary divisions amongst us. Findings will help erase class divisions and foster unity among us.