As this week's chapter discusses, women in our country are numerically a majority (there are more adult women than adult men), yet women as a group continue to experience properties of a subordinate societal group. In your own words, define and summarize the five characteristics of subordinate groups listed on page 324 of the textbook and the Matrix of Domination figure on page 341. In your opinion, what characteristics in our society are most responsible for the ongoing oppression of this group?

Below is the 5 subordinate group from page 324:

1) Women do experience unequal treatment.

2)Women have physical and cultural characteristics that distinguish them from the dominant

group (men).

3)Membership in the subordinate group is involuntary.

4)Through the rise of contemporary feminism, women have become increasingly aware of

their subordinate status and have developed a greater sense of group solidarity.

5)Women are not forced to marry, yet many women feel that their subordinate status is most

irrevocably defined within marriage.

Below are the matrix of domination on page 341:

Many women experience differential treatment not only because of their gender but also

because of their race and ethnicity.

– These citizens face a subordinate status twice defined.

– African American feminist Patricia Hill Collins has termed this the matrix of

domination

– Whites dominate non-Whites, men dominate women, and the affluent dominate the

poor—race, class, and gender are interconnected.

– Gender, race, and social class are not the only systems of oppression, but

they do profoundly affect women and people of color in the United States.

– Other forms of categorization and stigmatization can also be included in this

matrix, such as sexual orientation, religion, disability status, and age.

– Feminists have addressed themselves to the needs of minority women, but the

oppression of these women because of their sex is overshadowed by the subordinate

status that both White men and White women impose on them because of their race

or ethnicity.

– The question for the Latina (Hispanic woman), African American woman,

Asian American woman, Native American woman, and so on appears to be

whether she should unify with her brothers against racism or challenge them

for their sexism.

– The discussion of gender roles among African Americans has always provoked

controversy.

– Advocates of Black Nationalism contend that feminism only distracts women

from full participation in the African American struggle.

– Native Americans stand out as a historical exception to the North American

patriarchal tradition.

– Southern tribes, for reasons unclear to today’s scholars, usually were

matriarchal and traced descent through the mother.

– The plight of Latinas usually is considered part of either the Hispanic or feminist

movements, and the distinctive experience of Latinas is ignored.

– In the past, they have been excluded from decision making in the two social

institutions that most affect their daily lives—the family and the Church.

– Issues of gender domination must be included to fully understand what women of

color experience.