Facilitator:
Introduction
The society comprise of various groups of people that are created by social, economic and political dimensions. Some people in the society are vulnerable to exploitation because of factors and contingencies characterizing their lives. According to Jones & Reid (2011), groups of people such as children, women, gay, lesbians, and the aged are vulnerable due to their lifestyles and cultural phenomena. Some challenges faced by these individuals are diminutive that the society tends to ignore their consequences. However, actions may eventually emanate from the fact that these people are vulnerable create great tension in the society, especially in the context of human right violation. The vulnerable people in society have a challenge coping with insensitive practices and systems such as tribalism, racism, sexism, classism, and ageism that are exploitive. The consequences of such systems motivate to society to work hard in eliminate them since they are associated with permanent and detrimental effects. The article analyses the effects of the oppressive systems on the vulnerable people in the society especially women while emphasizing the need of eliminating oppressive systems to create a liberal society.
Why oppressive systems
Social set up in the society forms the first base upon which the vulnerable people face oppression. The position of the vulnerable people in the society faces a social backlog as most of them are viewed with lower status especially the women. It is rational that the allocation of roles in the society should portray equality among the people. Paradoxically, this is never the case because some people who are capable of handling advanced roles are never offered the opportunity because of their social status while ones with little ability are entrusted with duties that they cannot handle (Jones & Reid, 2011). Traces of such character deem profound in the social set up where, the weak and vulnerable people perform all activities for the strong and dominant classes. For example, in most societies women are assigned inferior roles regardless of their potential. Knop, Michaels & Riles (2012) emphasize that affirmative action calls for rejection of attributes that limit women feminine roles such like taking care of babies, nursing the sick, and changing nappies. Effects of such chauvinism become evident when development in the society pulls back because not all the people contribute to it. Men are still dominant in the society because social systems favour them. Inability of women to suppress this dominance highlights the greatest challenge of the vulnerable classes in overcoming oppressive systems.
Oppressive systems become hard for the society to eliminate because of the society’s attitude towards the female gender. Biased beliefs are harder to suppress because people have them in mind; thus, affecting their perspectives (Kumra, 2010). Socially, ranking of social classes places the vulnerable people at a disadvantaged level. Naturally, the people in higher classes have some form of command over the people in lower classes. Implications of these beliefs make the vulnerable people to believe that they are destined to low positions, which make them fail to realize the full potential. Economically, the vulnerable classes of people seem to be the poor people in the society. From the cultural grounds, some people cannot own property in the society like the women in most of the cultures. Imperatively, such people remain at the base of the economic rank, and they can hardly advance. Lack of economic prowess forms the base upon which the vulnerable people face oppression. Politically, the vulnerable people lack backing from the society for them to rule at the expense of the people in higher classes. The meaning of the whole paradigm forms a block strong enough to thwart any efforts from the women and other vulnerable groups to advance in leadership. Social, political, economic, and cultural beliefs play major roles in the worldview of the vulnerable people hence making the effects of the oppressive systems more repressive. However, Maria, Yolanda & Ma Jose (2001) argue that some people come up to affirm the position of the vulnerable in the society in a bid to make them have a voice.
Levels of oppression to women
Oppression to the vulnerable women in the society occurs in different levels depending on the people executing the oppression, the scope of oppression and the aim of the oppression (Royo-Vela, Aldás-Manzano & Ines Küster-Boluda, 2007). The first level of oppression to women in the society entails individual oppression. In individual oppression, women face oppression individually without involving the rest of the society or other vulnerable people with the aim of thwarting some attribute that the male dominance views as dangerous or threatening. Individual oppression aims to retain some power over the women and exploit them in all possible ways so that they remain among the minority in the society, allowing the male gender remain dominant. The interpersonal level of oppression to the women ensures that any plans by women to form strong interpersonal links, groups, and unions do not thrive at any cost (Royo-Vela, Aldás-Manzano & Ines Küster-Boluda, 2007).
Furthermore, institutional oppression to the women assures that they get no chance to advance and get enlightenment, which may lead to their eventual breakthrough into the elite class. According to Morrison, Morrison, Pope & Zumbo (1999), institutional oppression of the women occurs when a certain institution that pulverises the efforts of women to assert into the society and become tough to eliminate. The male gender overrides the female gender because of presence of institutions that discourage women from advancing. The male and other oppressive systems ensure that women have no opportunity of accessing resources and skills that they need to develop their endeavour. Similar to the institutional dominance, most of the dominances come from the cultural levels. These include racism, sexism, colourist, sizes, ageism, and colonialism, which befall people depending on the beliefs that the society has over such traits.
Features of oppression to the vulnerable people
Oppressive systems present various features, which outline the impact of such systems. Firstly, oppressive systems are consequential. Adoption of oppressive systems results to serious consequences to different groups of people in the society (Royo-Vela, Aldás-Manzano & Ines, 2007). The consequences of the oppressive systems are felt at individual, institutional and social levels. Some of the social oppression practices are pervasive and systematic. At the social and institutional level, the oppressive activities aim at affecting a wide range of people. These aspects explain why the oppressive activities run throughout generations when the society fails to institute ideal measures for curbing them. At the individual and interpersonal levels, the oppressive systems deem exploitative and power based. Most of the individuals force the existence of the oppressive features on the vulnerable people because they want to retain some form of control over them (Naz et al., 2011).
McDermid et al. (2002) insist that most of the vulnerable have something which acts as a weakness ever time they want to advance hence some individuals struggle to exploit them basing on the same fact. Most of the systems of oppressions of the vulnerable people are persistent. When a group of people, believed to possess something in common face a certain type of treatment, say oppression at a point in time, the excitement of the other people will overpower the desires of the vulnerable hence the treatment may persist for some time. The dominant people feel that, if the vulnerable is empowered, they are likely to threaten their position hence ensuring that they remain at lower social levels is essential. Due to the desires of the dominant people to continue dominating, the vulnerable people are mistreated in order to remain weak so that the system of the society does not change. Most of the levels of oppression of the vulnerable people lead to marginalization and powerlessness. The vulnerable people in the society face denial of freedom to act and marginalization whereby they cannot find the ground of assertion into the line of life with the other people (Maria, Yolanda & Manuel, 2004).
The feelings derived from such marginalization lead people to rebel against the dominant class and eventually; violence sparks among different classes. Marginalization and freedom denial lead to violence in cases where the oppression appears excessive. Scholars agree to the fact that all levels of oppression to the vulnerable people like the women aim at making them powerless (Klimley, 2008). Powerlessness among the women means that they cannot have the muscle to fight against the male dominance hence the vulnerability situation persists.
Oppression analysis worksheet
Levels of oppression along with their features rely on each other, intersecting to produce the ultimately desired goal by the dominant class. Occurrence of one of the features may have an effect on an individual who convince other vulnerable people to adopt oppressive habits. Various steps must come to effect so that the oppressive nature of the society on the vulnerable people does not persist. According to Dutta (2008), the society must work towards fair distribution of resources so that no people own large deposits of resources, which give them control over the other people. Roles have to change so that people have liberality to deal in different areas to avoid situations where some people have fixed roles that pin them to easy criticism.
Conclusion
The vulnerable people in society face tough decisions on the way to adopt in order to match the expectations of people who support them to better their positions. Oppressive systems affect the women in many ways. The status of women lowers when they do not deal effectively with the oppressive systems. Most of the women currently assert into the male-dominant world although more efforts appear necessary. This affirms the need of promoting advocacy that can eliminate the challenge of oppressive systems while empowering women overcome the problem associated with such systems.
References
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