Question

How can hegemonic ideas be used to justify social inequality?

Answer 1

Hegemonic ideologies are used across societies to justify and reinforce existing inequalities in terms of class and gender inequality. For instance, hegemonic masculinity as an idea has been reified by social institutions such as law, family, workplace, etc to explain the dominance of a Male centric worldview where men are seen as genetically more powerful, skilled and therefore legitimate controllers and executors of power at the evel of economy, politics, and even society and women are seen as weaker sections of society who need to be under the tutelage of more powerful men. Such a hegemonic structure is at work in the inequality of wealth and economic opportunities as fewer women are given positions of executives in corporate organisations, government structures and this in turn creates division of wealth where men may get more wages than their female counterparts for the same amount of work done as they are seen as the rightful income earners for the family.