How Gray Areas in Work Culture Drives Racial Inequality

business people walking on the meeting table as if on a podium

T here was once a time when it was perfectly unremarkable for employers to hang signs declaring “Whites Only Need Apply” when advertising for open positions. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 made that illegal, but that doesn’t mean work has since become an equitable space. Today, work drives racial inequality through its cultural, social, and relational aspects—what I refer to as “the gray areas.” Gray areas exist apart from the specific expectations and duties that are required for a given job, and because of this, they are much more amorphous, ambiguous, and difficult (though absolutely possible) to change. They can inform how we gain employment, how those jobs are done, what norms and values are given priority in a workplace, or how we advance or leave a company.

Take for example an airline pilot, whose job is to fly passengers safely from one location to another. Pilots are expected to have the technical skills and know-how to do this job effectively, but no one simply lands in the cockpit out of nowhere. How do pilots learn that a particular airline is hiring? How do they gain information that helps them succeed in the job interview? How do they navigate an environment where they must fit in with copilots, flight attendants, and other crew members? How do they know when there are opportunities for advancement? How can they get the necessary support to move into supervisory roles?

These processes all exist apart from the basics of flying passengers from one location to another. Many commercial pilots, for instance, move into these jobs after stints in the armed services, meaning they can rely on the connections and networks they build in those spaces to learn about position openings and generate referrals. Cultural norms in the airline industry promote strict hierarchies that both reflect military structure and define clear relationships between pilots, copilots, and flight attendants. Additionally, the relationships that pilots build with others in the field can determine their opportunities for certain positions and with specific airlines. These aspects of work are distinct from the requirements of the job, yet they matter significantly because they constitute a core component of how we work today.

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To some degree, gray areas have always been a part of how we work. Humans are social creatures, and our jobs entail more than just our basic responsibilities and assigned duties. During the Industrial Revolution of the 1800s, personal ties likely gave some workers leverage over other job candidates when looking for factory work. In the post-Fordist workplace of the 1950s, managers created an environment that prized efficiency, speed, and productivity, and the focus on these criteria surely benefited employees who could adhere to these ideals. Work has always been about more than just the job, and gray areas have long functioned to shape and determine how work gets done, and to maintain some inequities.

Today, however, gray areas take on greater significance. For one thing, in the service-driven, highly specialized, tech-based economy in which we now live, relationships and networks matter more than ever. They determine how we learn about potential jobs, who gets serious consideration for them, how performance in those jobs is evaluated, and who has access to and information about other positions when it’s time to move on. Cultural dynamics matter more too, as organizations often prioritize teamwork and collaborative initiatives as key parts of how work is designed. No matter how technically skilled, the product engineer who doesn’t have connections to anyone in Silicon Valley and doesn’t work well with others will have a hard time landing a job at Facebook. Today, gray areas are nearly—or sometimes equally—as important as one’s capacity to perform the technical requirements of a job.

And even among organizations with cultures that vary from those that focus explicitly on diversity to those that are studiously colorblind, a common thread is the fact that many workplaces still build organizational cultures that are uncomfortable for Black workers—or even oblivious to the challenges they face.

Over the course of my career as a sociology professor, I’ve spoken to nearly 200 Black workers in a variety of fields. A common thread among many of them is their sense that organizational norms and cultures are rarely constructed with their experiences in mind.

Take, Constance, for instance. (Her name has been changed to protect her privacy.) Petite and caramel-skinned, with neatly braided hair and a quiet, serious demeanor, she has a bit of a protective shell to her that I suspect comes from many years as the lone Black woman in professional spaces. She works as a professor of chemical engineering at one of the top research universities in the country. Chemical engineers have access to enormous labs and complicated-looking stainless steel equipment that I find both confusing and intimidating. But these are far more comfortable spaces for Constance, who told me about some of her current projects in terms simple enough that I almost understood what she was talking about.

As a chemical engineer, Constance does not work in one of the departments where her colleagues are likely to engage in researching or teaching issues related to race. Most of her departmental colleagues are, like her, scientists who focus on the natural world of metals, particles, and chemicals. Yet departmental norms and politics encourage teamwork and collaboration, particularly between faculty and graduate student researchers and between faculty who can work together to produce results. In Constance’s experience, the department could be construed as a clan culture where employees are encouraged to foster ties and connections, make decisions by general consensus, and communicate effectively.

work inequality essay

Despite this clan culture, Constance’s department does not engage in much discussion of matters of race or pay attention to the kind of challenges that Black students or faculty might encounter. This is not to say that departments in the natural sciences are necessarily able to develop a culture free from bias.

While colleagues prefer to focus on their scientific endeavors, publications, and attempts to secure external funding, Constance still encounters difficulties that seem directly related to her position as a Black woman in this setting. She has had undergraduate students openly speculate that she doesn’t understand her own research, colleagues who ignore her when she sees them off campus, and proposal reviews that reflect clear racial and gender bias. She told me about one of her most memorable cases of egregious behavior from a white male colleague: “I’ve had a man call me out of nowhere and tell me my stuff wouldn’t work and then publish a paper on the same thing. We hadn’t met—we’ve still never met.”

In a department where the norm is to avoid talking about race or racism, these issues go unnoticed. Constance remarked that most of her departmental colleagues refused even to acknowledge openly racist teaching evaluations she received or casual stereotyping from peers. They were oblivious to the stonewalling and general uninterest she faced when trying to establish the collaborative relationships that are necessary for scientists in her field. “You can’t go and complain about racism every time something happens that’s bad, because nobody’s going to believe you,” Constance noted with frustration. “They want proof. And then when you tell people what happens to you, they want to tell you how it wasn’t racist. They’re not going to experience your perspective, so there’s no point in going down that road.”

For Constance, this dynamic—knowing full well that racism impedes her while colleagues implacably refuse to recognize this fact—is disorienting and unsettling. She is positive that her department’s culture overlooks the racial biases that make it harder for her to thrive and succeed in her job. But having this experience doubted and ignored is infuriating. As a result, Constance often second-guesses herself. Other times, she struggles to identify when and where her own personality quirks—being somewhat shy, introverted, at times uncomfortable speaking up—are an issue, and when racial (and gender) bias is at fault. She doesn’t doubt her grasp of the science and the legitimacy of her ideas, but she does face an ongoing challenge of trying to fit into a workplace that, because of its gray areas, isn’t hospitable to Black women. And by being mired in colorblind discourse, the organizational culture at her university only aids in perpetuating this.

Given that Black workers often do this “identity work” of concealing their authentic selves to avoid evoking whites’ racial stereotypes, Constance’s desire to avoid being a curiosity or a standout because of her hair, music interests, or entertainment preferences is expected. She reflected that at another social event with colleagues, an old rock song from the 1980s came on, “and they were all like, ‘Wow, remember this song?’ And I was like, ‘I don’t know this song, I’ve never heard it.’ But they were like, ‘You don’t know it?’ All surprised. And I was like, ‘Don’t you realize that when we came up it was Black radio or white radio and you listened to one or the other? No, I’ve never heard this song!’ But I didn’t say that. Because again, masquerade.”

I laughed a little bit as Constance recounted this story because I found it relatable. I recalled my own white fifth-grade classmates’ condescension in the cafeteria one day when the topic of our parents’ musical preferences came up and I told them that we did not own any Beatles records because my parents’ tastes ran more toward Anita Baker, Luther Vandross, and Billy Ocean—none of whom were artists they recognized. (My mother did once share that she appreciated that the Rolling Stones were at least honest about copying Black musicians like Little Richard and Chuck Berry, but at the time it did not seem helpful for me to introduce this into the lunchroom discussion.) Feeling like a racial oddity isn’t fun at any age, so I could appreciate Constance’s annoyance at a similar event in her adulthood.

Her story also underscores how, for many Black workers, these cultural divides are deep and long-standing. It’s not just that Constance had different musical tastes in childhood and presumably now in the present day from many of her white co-workers; it’s that these tastes and preferences are built out of and reinforced by entertainment media, peer groups, sports, and other institutions such that activities, hobbies, and even music that are associated with whites are normalized and unremarkable, while cultural products and work by people of color are depicted as niche and unrepresentative.

When the organizational culture of a company purports to be a race-blind meritocracy, Black workers like Constance wear the mask as a result.

Adapted excerpt from Gray Areas . Reprinted with the permission of the publisher Amistad, an imprint of HarperCollins. Copyright © 2023 by Adia Harvey Wingfield.

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Research Roundup: How Women Experience the Workplace Today

  • Dagny Dukach

work inequality essay

New studies on what happens when women reach the top, the barriers they still face, and the (sometimes hidden) stresses they deal with.

What will it take to make gender equity in the workplace a reality? It’s a complicated question, with no easy answers — but research from a wide array of academic disciplines aims to expand our understanding of the unique challenges and opportunities women face today. In this research roundup, we share highlights from several new and forthcoming studies that explore the many facets of gender at work.

In 2021, the gender gap in U.S. workforce participation hit an all-time low . But of course, substantial gender disparities persist in pay, leadership representation, access to resources, and many other key metrics. How can we make sense of all these different dimensions of gender equity in the workplace?

work inequality essay

  • Dagny Dukach is a former associate editor at Harvard Business Review.

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Human Rights Careers

5 Essays to Learn More About Equality

“Equality” is one of those words that seems simple, but is more complicated upon closer inspection. At its core, equality can be defined as “the state of being equal.” When societies value equality, their goals include racial, economic, and gender equality . Do we really know what equality looks like in practice? Does it mean equal opportunities, equal outcomes, or both? To learn more about this concept, here are five essays focusing on equality:

“The Equality Effect” (2017) – Danny Dorling

In this essay, professor Danny Dorling lays out why equality is so beneficial to the world. What is equality? It’s living in a society where everyone gets the same freedoms, dignity, and rights. When equality is realized, a flood of benefits follows. Dorling describes the effect of equality as “magical.” Benefits include happier and healthier citizens, less crime, more productivity, and so on. Dorling believes the benefits of “economically equitable” living are so clear, change around the world is inevitable. Despite the obvious conclusion that equality creates a better world, progress has been slow. We’ve become numb to inequality. Raising awareness of equality’s benefits is essential.

Danny Dorling is the Halford Mackinder Professor of Geography at the University of Oxford. He has co-authored and authored a handful of books, including Slowdown: The End of the Great Acceleration—and Why It’s Good for the Planet, the Economy, and Our Lives . “The Equality Effect” is excerpted from this book. Dorling’s work focuses on issues like health, education, wealth, poverty, and employment.

“The Equality Conundrum” (2020) – Joshua Rothman

Originally published as “Same Difference” in the New Yorker’s print edition, this essay opens with a story. A couple plans on dividing their money equally among their children. However, they realize that to ensure equal success for their children, they might need to start with unequal amounts. This essay digs into the complexity of “equality.” While inequality is a major concern for people, most struggle to truly define it. Citing lectures, studies, philosophy, religion, and more, Rothman sheds light on the fact that equality is not a simple – or easy – concept.

Joshua Rothman has worked as a writer and editor of The New Yorker since 2012. He is the ideas editor of newyorker.com.

“Why Understanding Equity vs Equality in Schools Can Help You Create an Inclusive Classroom” (2019) – Waterford.org

Equality in education is critical to society. Students that receive excellent education are more likely to succeed than students who don’t. This essay focuses on the importance of equity, which means giving support to students dealing with issues like poverty, discrimination and economic injustice. What is the difference between equality and equity? What are some strategies that can address barriers? This essay is a great introduction to the equity issues teachers face and why equity is so important.

Waterford.org is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving equity and education in the United States. It believes that the educational experiences children receive are crucial for their future. Waterford.org was founded by Dr. Dustin Heuston.

“What does equality mean to me?” (2020) – Gabriela Vivacqua and Saddal Diab

While it seems simple, the concept of equality is complex. In this piece posted by WFP_Africa on the WFP’s Insight page, the authors ask women from South Sudan what equality means to them. Half of South Sudan’s population consists of women and girls. Unequal access to essentials like healthcare, education, and work opportunities hold them back. Complete with photographs, this short text gives readers a glimpse into interpretations of equality and what organizations like the World Food Programme are doing to tackle gender inequality.

As part of the UN, the World Food Programme is the world’s largest humanitarian organization focusing on hunger and food security . It provides food assistance to over 80 countries each year.

“Here’s How Gender Equality is Measured” (2020) – Catherine Caruso

Gender inequality is one of the most discussed areas of inequality. Sobering stats reveal that while progress has been made, the world is still far from realizing true gender equality. How is gender equality measured? This essay refers to the Global Gender Gap report ’s factors. This report is released each year by the World Economic Forum. The four factors are political empowerment, health and survival, economic participation and opportunity, and education. The author provides a brief explanation of each factor.

Catherine Caruso is the Editorial Intern at Global Citizen, a movement committed to ending extreme poverty by 2030. Previously, Caruso worked as a writer for Inquisitr. Her English degree is from Syracuse University. She writes stories on health, the environment, and citizenship.

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About the author, emmaline soken-huberty.

Emmaline Soken-Huberty is a freelance writer based in Portland, Oregon. She started to become interested in human rights while attending college, eventually getting a concentration in human rights and humanitarianism. LGBTQ+ rights, women’s rights, and climate change are of special concern to her. In her spare time, she can be found reading or enjoying Oregon’s natural beauty with her husband and dog.

Gender Inequality Essay

500+ words essay on gender inequality.

For many years, the dominant gender has been men while women were the minority. It was mostly because men earned the money and women looked after the house and children. Similarly, they didn’t have any rights as well. However, as time passed by, things started changing slowly. Nonetheless, they are far from perfect. Gender inequality remains a serious issue in today’s time. Thus, this gender inequality essay will highlight its impact and how we can fight against it.

gender inequality essay

  About Gender Inequality Essay

Gender inequality refers to the unequal and biased treatment of individuals on the basis of their gender. This inequality happens because of socially constructed gender roles. It happens when an individual of a specific gender is given different or disadvantageous treatment in comparison to a person of the other gender in the same circumstance.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Impact of Gender Inequality

The biggest problem we’re facing is that a lot of people still see gender inequality as a women’s issue. However, by gender, we refer to all genders including male, female, transgender and others.

When we empower all genders especially the marginalized ones, they can lead their lives freely. Moreover, gender inequality results in not letting people speak their minds. Ultimately, it hampers their future and compromises it.

History is proof that fighting gender inequality has resulted in stable and safe societies. Due to gender inequality, we have a gender pay gap. Similarly, it also exposes certain genders to violence and discrimination.

In addition, they also get objectified and receive socioeconomic inequality. All of this ultimately results in severe anxiety, depression and even low self-esteem. Therefore, we must all recognize that gender inequality harms genders of all kinds. We must work collectively to stop these long-lasting consequences and this gender inequality essay will tell you how.

How to Fight Gender Inequality

Gender inequality is an old-age issue that won’t resolve within a few days. Similarly, achieving the goal of equality is also not going to be an easy one. We must start by breaking it down and allow it time to go away.

Firstly, we must focus on eradicating this problem through education. In other words, we must teach our young ones to counter gender stereotypes from their childhood.

Similarly, it is essential to ensure that they hold on to the very same beliefs till they turn old. We must show them how sports are not gender-biased.

Further, we must promote equality in the fields of labour. For instance, some people believe that women cannot do certain jobs like men. However, that is not the case. We can also get celebrities on board to promote and implant the idea of equality in people’s brains.

All in all, humanity needs men and women to continue. Thus, inequality will get us nowhere. To conclude the gender inequality essay, we need to get rid of the old-age traditions and mentality. We must teach everyone, especially the boys all about equality and respect. It requires quite a lot of work but it is possible. We can work together and achieve equal respect and opportunities for all genders alike.

FAQ of Gender Inequality Essay

Question 1: What is gender inequality?

Answer 1: Gender inequality refers to the unequal and biased treatment of individuals on the basis of their gender. This inequality happens because of socially constructed gender roles. It happens when an individual of a specific gender is given different or disadvantageous treatment in comparison to a person of the other gender in the same circumstance.

Question 2: How does gender inequality impact us?

Answer 2:  The gender inequality essay tells us that gender inequality impacts us badly. It takes away opportunities from deserving people. Moreover, it results in discriminatory behaviour towards people of a certain gender. Finally, it also puts people of a certain gender in dangerous situations.

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Alondra Nelson.

“The ability to start something new and to imagine how we as social scientists might do our work differently is tremendously exciting,” said Alondra Nelson.

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Need for moral revolution

Social scientist, former Biden official Alondra Nelson says work of new Center for Race, Inequality and Social Equity can help shape policy, progress

Christy DeSmith

Harvard Staff Writer

In 2016, President Barack Obama delivered a historic speech at Hiroshima’s Peace Memorial Park that recalled a tragic past but saw an imperative for a better future.

“He didn’t apologize for the United States’ role in nuclear warfare,” Alondra Nelson said. “What he said is that the scientific revolution that led to the splitting of an atom requires a moral revolution, as well.”

Nelson, the Harold F. Linder Professor of Social Science at the Institute of Advanced Study, was the featured speaker this month for the launch of Harvard’s Center for Race, Inequality and Social Equity Studies (CRISES). Founding members of its executive committee and supporters from various social science departments gathered at William James Hall to hear the former director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) discuss how research like theirs can help shape policy and progress alike.

“The ability to start something new and to imagine how we as social scientists might do our work differently is tremendously exciting,” Nelson said.

Lawrence D. Bobo , CRISES founding director and Social Sciences Dean, opened the event with a bit of background on the new center. “As many will recognize, the name is a tip of the hat to W.E.B. Du Bois and ‘The Crisis’ magazine he launched for the NAACP,” said Bobo, who got the idea for the center in 2020 amid the pandemic’s unequal impacts and news of a Minneapolis police officer murdering George Floyd.

Du Bois wrote that his aim was to publish news, opinion, and cultural expression to “show the danger of race prejudice.” Likewise, CRISES will lean into empirically grounded, methodologically rigorous social science research that illuminates racial realities while “informing and guiding the attainment of a world without invidious ethno-racial inequality,” said Bobo, who also holds the title of W.E.B. Du Bois Professor of the Social Sciences.

“As many will recognize, the name is a tip of the hat to W.E.B. Du Bois and ‘The Crisis’ magazine he launched for the NAACP.” Lawrence D. Bobo

work inequality essay

The kickoff proved a perfect occasion for Nelson’s remarks on the country’s move toward greater emphasis on data-driven, evidence-based policymaking. Obama was the first U.S. president to appoint a chief data scientist while opening up access to raw information collected by the federal government. This work continued in 2018 with passage of the Evidence Act , championed in part by former Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan, which bolstered the collection and use of statistical measures to evaluate policymaking.

As surprising as it might seem to some, Nelson indicated that the academic community was “not really involved” in bringing about this change. “It was happening in the tier of think tanks and non-academic research organizations.”

The social scientist also detailed recent government efforts to improve equity. She noted that President Biden took office in 2021 with a first-day Executive Order on Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government. A week later came his Memorandum on Restoring Trust in Government Through Scientific Integrity and Evidence-Based Policymaking.

As head of the OSTP under Biden, Nelson immediately saw the urgency of building bridges with academics who specialize in equity. “It was shocking to hear colleagues in government, many with Ph.D.s in social science, say they actually had no engagement with scholars in the social sciences,” Nelson shared.

One of those bridges took the form of the Analytics for Equity Initiative , piloted by the National Science Foundation. It directly links social scientists to federal agencies with unanalyzed data, while also providing guidance on the types of research questions policymakers want answered. Already, the program has yielded studies on everything from improving occupational safety across demographics to tracking the effects of air pollution on maternal and child health in underserved communities.

“These are projects you can imagine folks at CRISES taking on,” Nelson said.

On the CRISES executive committee are Harvard faculty members Caroline Elkins , professor of history and African and African American studies and Thomas Henry Carroll/Ford Foundation Professor of Business Administration at the Business School; Taeku Lee , Bae Family Professor of Government; Ellis Monk , professor of sociology; Orlando Patterson , John Cowles Professor of Sociology; Robert J. Sampson , Woodford L. and Ann A. Flowers University Professor; Guy-Uriel Charles , Charles Ogletree, Jr. Professor of Law and faculty director of Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice; Mary C. Waters , John L. Loeb Professor of Sociology; Mahzarin R. Banaji , Richard Clarke Cabot Professor of Social Ethics; Tommie Shelby , Caldwell Titcomb Professor of African and African American Studies and of Philosophy; and Sandra Susan Smith , professor of sociology, director of the Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy, and Daniel and Florence Guggenheim Professor of Criminal Justice at Harvard Kennedy School. Bobo has also brought on director of administration and operations Meenakshi Verma-Agrawal and research scholar Jennifer Perry.

The center’s agenda includes topical conferences, workshops, and more guest speakers. CRISES also plans to hire postdoctoral researchers, much like those appointed by Harvard’s Inequality In America initiative , while providing space for faculty to delve into topics related to racial transformation. An immediate project is designing, implementing, and analyzing the inaugural CRISES survey on race, diversity, and democracy in the U.S.

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The Biggest Unforced Error in Sports: Tennis’ Inequality Problem, Explained

work inequality essay

TUCKER GAUSS & GRIFFEN SHUFELDT – FEBRUARY 15TH, 2024

Tennis fans are, fundamentally, very simple people. We (yes, I proudly count myself among them) enjoy watching a small, fluffy yellow ball fly across a net for hours on end. We can’t even count properly: each game’s scoring starts at love, then jumps to 15, 30, randomly decides to move to 40 instead of 45, and then ends before it truly begins. However, while tennis fans may be simple people, its core problems are decidedly not simple. Evidently for economic experts, the income distribution for players is just as broken as the sport’s scoring system. The 100th ranked player in the world earns a small fraction of the top players in the game (see: Figure 1). Although, the lower-ranked players are not the only victims of the dysfunctional tennis system, as the $10 million prize money for the top earning player in 2022 (Carlos Alcaraz) was equivalent to only the 146th highest-earning player in the NBA or the 202nd player in the NFL.

work inequality essay

In short, tennis has an inequality problem. 

Rankings Go Up By One, But Earnings Go Up By Tenfold 

It’s 2014. Novak Djokovic and Fernando Verdasco, two professional tennis players, seem to lead pretty similar lives. Both participate in Grand Slams, the four biggest tournaments in tennis. Both secure major sponsorships from clothing and sports brands. Both competed against Rafael Nadal in famous 5-set epics at the Australian Open in 2009 and 2012 (if anyone has about twelve hours to spare, please watch these masterpieces). Sure, Djokovic performs much better—sitting atop the tennis rankings while Verdasco is outside the top 30. Nonetheless, the picture looks eerily similar, right?

These similarities end when both players open their wallets. That year, Djokovic’s prize earnings were over $7 million, while Verdasco won closer to $700,000. Comparable athletes, but the earnings for one athlete were tenfold the other. 

It’s not like this in other pro sports. The difference between the 32nd and 1st highest-paid players in the MLB, for instance, was 62%. Again, contrast that with the enormous 1000% gap in tennis. 

One may recall the Lorenz Curve, a graphical representation of inequality in a country (see: Figure 2). A 45° line signifies a completely equal world where everyone has the same income, and the distance between this and the Lorenz Curve demonstrates the inequality of income distribution. As the curve bows out further and the area of A increases, the curve approaches complete inequality .

work inequality essay

The Lorenz Curve usually serves as a tool for hotly-contested debates on the efficacy of the European welfare state versus corporate favoritism in America (or other discussions way more important than my silly tennis fixation). However, this economic principle is shockingly revealing when applied to sports. Just among the top 30 earners, the concentration of wealth in tennis is far clearer than in other major sports (see: Figure 3).

work inequality essay

So, why does this inequality exist? More importantly, how can fans, players, and stakeholders address it?

ATP, ITF, Grand Slams…Too Many Cooks In the Kitchen

One significant cause is the lack of a unified governing body in tennis. Football has the NFL, basketball has the NBA, and baseball has the MLB—all of these sports resolved their management problems long ago and now reap the benefits. Meanwhile, tennis is stuck in an archaic system: the four Grand Slams govern themselves, the International Tennis Federation manages the Olympics and Davis Cup, and the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) manages all other tournaments. 

This is the athletic equivalent of playing with a wooden racket in 2023. It’s honestly absurd.

The consequences are dire, too. Tennis players receive a mere 17.5% of the $2.2 billion in revenue that the sport generates annually. For those keeping score at home, NFL players earn 47%, NBA players earn 50%, and Premier League players earn 61% (see: Figure 4). Marxian economists may be licking their lips, eager to cite this disparity as yet another example of the capitalist bourgeoisie depriving workers of their fair earnings under the Labor Theory of Value. In truth, tennis’ broken management system is the likely culprit, as tournaments are left to independently maintain courts, preserve stadium contracts, advertise events, and attract players without the financial support of a unified body.

work inequality essay

What Do Uber Drivers and Tennis Players Have in Common?

Another serious obstacle to pay equality in 2023: the lack of labor protections for players. Other sports such as football, baseball, and basketball regard their players as employees, thereby guaranteeing them healthcare insurance, pensions, antitrust protections , and other rights. Additionally, substantial labor unions represent players in these sports, ensuring further protections. For instance, the NFL’s Collective Bargaining Agreement is continually negotiated and renewed to adapt to the players’ changing needs, such as a 20% minimum pay increase in 2020. This monopsony model of labor, with one employer and one representative body for employees, often improves labor outcomes by balancing negotiation power dynamics and guaranteeing better payments.  

These don’t exist to the same extent in tennis. Under current labor laws, tennis players are independent contractors like Uber drivers and independent physicians. This designation has its benefits, such as empowering players to determine their own schedules, coaches, and sponsorships. However, the more realistic spin to this story—pun fully intended—is that players bear the entire financial burden of travel costs, housing, training, healthcare, and other necessities. 

As a result, most players struggle to make a consistent living. Take world #195 Noah Rubin for instance. Based on earnings estimates for a similarly ranked player, Rubin made approximately $199,000 in 2019. This seems fantastic on the surface. However, after paying for taxes, travel, and equipment, Rubin only took home about $60,000 . For reference, the median household income in the US was actually higher at $68,703 that year. As independent contractors, tennis players suffer from inequality to the extreme. As Rubin’s experiences demonstrate, the economic equivalents of multimillionaire celebrities and truck drivers can compete on the same court.

Even the protected ranking system, which preserves player rankings in the event of illness, injury, or leave, is a bandaid over a bleeding wound. The protected rankings only last 12 months , and returning players are expected to immediately compete at the top tournaments against the best players to maintain their position. Further, players earn nothing during their layoffs, placing pressure upon them to return as soon as possible. This often prevents players from properly rehabilitating in an optimal, low-pressure environment for recovery.  

Tennis Balls and Pay Inequality Are BOTH Circular

Despite its glaring flaws, tennis’ supposedly meritocratic system seems perfect to the libertarians in the room. The free market picks the winners and losers, not an overruling bureaucracy. Commentator Cliff Drysdale seems to agree , celebrating the “purity” of winners earning more than losers. This neglects a crucial detail: tennis is far from a meritocracy.

Tennis players move up in the ranking system by accumulating points , which they receive for advancing in different tournaments. Tournaments are tiered based on the points they distribute: 2,000 for winning a Grand Slam, 1,500 for winning the ATP Finals, 1,000 for Masters, and then 500s, 250s, and Challenger tournaments at the bottom. Only higher-ranked players qualify for the higher-level tournaments, artificially allocating earnings opportunities for the top players at the expense of the bottom-ranked players. This is particularly noticeable between main ATP events and Challenger or ITF Men’s tournaments (see: Figure 5). (Side note: most readers will observe a glaring gap between the male ATP and the Women’s Tennis Association, or WTA—I’ll get to that soon, don’t worry.) With more points and higher rankings come better prize money and sponsorship deals, which in turn perpetuates tennis’ wealth disparities.  Thus, the inherent structure of player rankings is designed to favor the top players and continually support them with chances to maintain their rankings, making it even more difficult for lower-ranked players to break through. 

work inequality essay

A 2001 decision to shift Grand Slams from 16-seeds to 32-seeds further exacerbated the issue. Expanding the number of seeds at tournament draws protects the top players from facing better players in the opening rounds, limiting early-round upsets. Furthermore, during the COVID pandemic, the ATP decided to freeze rankings to accommodate for global shutdowns and the suspension of major tournaments, including Wimbledon. While this was initially a sensible decision, the rankings freeze lasted until August 15, 2022 . This prevented better players from rising and protected top players. For example, under normal circumstances, Roger Federer should have left the top 100 in 2021, but instead remained in the top 5 despite not playing since early 2020. Again, these decisions artificially inflated the success of the top players.

This all creates a circular, self-perpetuating cycle whereby the top players have chance after chance to stay on top. Just as economic mobility occurs through changes in individual and generational wealth over time, economic mobility in tennis relies on shifts in rankings to reward more talented, hard-working players. In the last few decades, though, institutions seeking to protect the interests of top players have limited mobility for rising players . 

For talented young players hoping to establish themselves, this perpetual inequality is reaching breakpoint. Not only do new athletes have to manage the enormous expenditure of tennis training due to the emphasis on technical proficiency, making the sport especially difficult , but they have to move up the rankings in a broken system. Worse, most breakthrough players have no choice but to sacrifice higher education in order to advance their games. A mere 13 out of the ATP top 100 played in college, meaning that young tennis players lack the economic security of a degree that their counterparts in football or basketball likely possess. The cards are stacked against potential stars, many of whom ultimately quit due to tennis’ extensive financial burdens. 

Regrettably, Predictably, Women’s Equality Is Still Years Away

Sigh . As part of this discussion on income inequality within each of the respective tours, it’s painfully obvious that inequality between the tours persists (see: Figure 6). Although the Grand Slams provide equal prize money to men and women, thanks in large part to Billie Jean King and the historic Battle of the Sexes match in 1973, the same cannot be said for most of the lower Masters 1000 and 500 tournaments. While these events provide less revenue and points, they remain an essential portion of most tennis players’ schedules and incomes. Thus, the gender pay gap in tennis closely mirrors that of the US economy: 80 cents on the dollar .

work inequality essay

The likely reason for this widening gap? Masters 1000 tournaments, the second-highest paying events on the tennis schedule, which comprise a major portion of earnings for players with top 20 rankings. Canada, Cincinnati, and Rome are all mandatory Masters 1000s, possessing comparable earnings significance as Slams yet without the equal pay protections.

Looking solely at the elite money-makers in tennis, only one female player —Serena Williams—is among the top 50 highest-paid athletes in 2023. The top male tennis player, Roger Federer, lies a whopping 40 spots above her. To add salt to the wound, Serena retired last year—ending both her career and prospects for equal pay in the near future. This gap reflects an interesting dynamic in the tennis gender pay gap: financial disparities are more significant for elite players. In 2022, five of the top six earners in tennis were men. While lower-ranked players earn similar amounts in both the male ATP and the WTA, the top earners are generally separated by millions of dollars in prize money (see: Figure 7). 

work inequality essay

Close observers of the US economy probably just did a double take. Just like in tennis, gender wealth disparities in the US are more significant for high-earners than in any other income bracket (see: Figure 8). While it may be rare to find someone who mourns the relative losses of multimillionaires, these inequalities nonetheless reflect the profound barriers that remain towards achieving full parity between men and women. To use another tennis analogy, it’s not enough to put men and women on the same courts—they also need to have similar rackets, strings, and balls in order to both succeed, and prize money differences systematically deprive women of equality of opportunity.

work inequality essay

Is the (Wimbledon) Grass Greener on the Other Side?

Inequality is like a tennis racket: it’s multilayered, with numerous strings from different sources intersecting to create new patterns and dynamics. Tennis’ issues are similarly multifaceted, with problems ranging from a fractured management structure to the ranking system itself. While solutions to these profound flaws may take decades to come to fruition, solutions are beginning to emerge in 2023.

Most notably, current world #1 Novak Djokovic launched the Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA) as an independent players organization guided by the principle of collective bargaining. The PTPA leads negotiations with the ATP to advocate for better working conditions, more equal pay distributions, and improved anti-doping appeals processes. Since its founding in 2020, the PTPA responded to criticisms from US Open champion Dominic Thiem by including female players, maintaining a full-time staff, and clarifying its goals. In essence, the PTPA is now here to stay.

Additionally, the ATP continues to serve up game-changing solutions ( wink wink ) to income inequality. Recently, the organization increased prize money for 250 and 500 level tournaments by 80% and 60%, respectively. Further, a 2022 deal will enact profit-sharing between tournaments and players in addition to prize money awards. Masters 1000s will allow independent auditing of their financials, increase prize money by 2.5% each year from 2023 to 2053, and provide players with a share of tournament profits. 

In a masterful stroke of redistributive genius, 2024 will also be the first year of a minimum wage in tennis. In a radical shift from the current system’s variability, this trial initiative guarantees $300,000 for the top 100, $150,000 for ranks 101 to 175, and $75,000 for players from 176 to 250. Players who do not achieve these minimums through prize money and sponsorships will receive subsidies from the ATP, closely modeling universal basic income experiments in Portugal, Finland, and Kenya. The ATP will also expand protections for injured players who participate in fewer than nine tournaments a year. This injury protection initiative establishes thresholds of $200,000, $100,000, and $50,000 for the top 100, 175th, and 250th ranked players, respectively. While not perfect, especially for the 101st ranked player who misses out on $150,000, these are meaningful steps towards more equal pay.

Billie Jean King can also hold her head up high, as the ATP and WTA have made genuine progress in achieving gender pay equality in recent years. Talks to merge the ATP and WTA—antitrust concerns be damned—are more prominent than ever, with support even coming from the now-retired Roger Federer . This proposal has the potential to reduce wealth inequalities by consolidating sponsorship, broadcasting, and management for tournaments. Notably, the ATP and WTA recently struck a deal to achieve pay equality across all tennis events by 2033. It’s a decade away, but promising nonetheless.

Featured Image Source: The Denver Post

Disclaimer: The views published in this journal are those of the individual authors or speakers and do not necessarily reflect the position or policy of Berkeley Economic Review staff, the Undergraduate Economics Association, the UC Berkeley Economics Department and faculty, or the University of California, Berkeley in general.

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Inequality in Society: Conflict and Functionalism Theories Essay

Introduction, conflict and functionalism theories, challenge to social equality.

There is no question that inequality is prevalent in all sorts of human society. No matter the level of human development, inequality seems to be existent. It is even present in simple cultures where there is minimal variation in wealth.

Some individuals in such cultures may have privilege because of their prowess in certain skills such as hunting, medicine or access to ancestral power. In modern societies, inequality manifests in social and economic classes, power, income, access to health facilities, academic, gender and other forms. Social economical classes are the most common in most societies and have attracted attention from many sociologists. Many societies try to address the class issue but with little success.

Even socialist and communist governments that try to eliminate social economic classes fail to achieve equality. In Canada today, inequality is evident in various forms. Social economic classes, income variation, health, academic, ethnic, gender and other forms of inequality are obvious in the country. In the essay, I will join other sociologists in trying to address the persistent question “why inequality exist?”

Inequality, also referred to as social stratification, has been a core subject to sociologists for many years (Macionis and Linda 2010). Sociologists try to understand, explain and prescribe solutions to the issue of inequality. Despite of major sociologists such as Max Weber, Karl Marx and others trying to prescribe solution to inequality, the issue continues to persist. Marx was critical of capitalism and accused it of existence of social classes.

On the other hand, Weber agreed with Marx that economic interests led to social classes but viewed social stratification in terms of class, prestige and power. There are mainly two schools of thought to the issue of inequality: conflict and functional theories. To understand why inequality exists, it is helpful to review the divergent positions presented by the two theories and try to come up with a reconciling position.

Conflict and functionalism theories are the main theories trying to provide answers to why inequality exists in the society. The two theories take fundamentally different approaches to explain the issue. Functionalism theory views inequality as unavoidable and important to the society while conflict theory considers inequality to result from conflict and coercion in the social system (Andersen and Taylor 2006).

To functionalism sociologists, society is a system of parts with each part having useful contribution to the system. According to the theory, society can be compared to human body where various parts such as lungs, hands, heart, and eyes contribute to functionality of the body as a whole.

The way the social system maintains itself is of more interest to functionalist sociologists than specific interactions between the different parts of the system. To functionalists, inequality is unavoidable and leads to some good to the society. The theory assumes that any pattern in social system has its good purposes. Considering occupations, functionalists justify inequality in rewards by asserting that the rewards reflect the importance of the different occupations to the system.

For instance, functionalists would explain the high rewards and respect given to some occupations such as doctors, scientists and judges as compared to other occupations such farming and garbage collections, by saying that the former occupations are more important to the society as a whole. In addition, they would claim that such occupations require much talent, effort and education. Therefore, the high reward is meant to encourage individuals to take the pain to occupy such important positions.

Conflict theory provides the other extreme explanation to inequality in society. Unlike functionalism theory, conflict theory compares society to war. Conflict theory sociologists consider the society to be held together by conflict and coercion among members of the society.

According to Ridney (2001), conflict theory likens society to battlefield where members compete for control of limited resources and power. Unlike functionalists that stratify the society to functional parts that cooperate for the good of the society, conflict theory views society as consisting of competing parts (Rigney 2001).

The theorists, led by Karl Marx, consider social classes to result from blocked opportunities rather than talent and effort. While functionalists justify unequal rewards for different occupations as a way to utilize important talents and abilities, conflict theorists consider stratification in the society to limit utilization of talents from lower class. To conflict theorists, stratification in the society does not have positive contribution to the society.

Conflict and functionality theories on inequality shed light into causes of social stratification but do not completely explain the situation. The society can be viewed both as functional parts and as competing parts. Doctors, lawyers, scientists, carpenters, farmers, garbage collectors, cooks and other occupations are important to the society.

As functionalists argue, some occupations such as medicine require more effort and many years of preparation. It is therefore reasonable to reward doctors, judges and other such occupations highly to motivate individuals to occupy them. It is also natural to give respect and honor to individuals with unique and important skills. For instance, if a country has a single neurosurgeon, the surgeon would be valued and respected without asking for it.

However, it should be appreciated that other occupations that are considered less important, such as farming, are vital to sustainability of a society. Functionalism therefore makes sense when the society is considered as a system without deep consideration of individual members of the system. For instance, the theory cannot provide a convincing explanation to why some individual strive for wealth and power, since amassing wealth and power is not always good for the society.

Conflict theory provides a more practical explanation to inequality. Competition is a central thing in the society. Individuals compete for scarce resource, recognition, power and prestige (Macionis 2001). Considering scenario of a school, students compete for attention from their teacher, to be included in their school’s base-ball team, to top their class academically, to win scholarship for high education and many other things.

At individual lever, a student chooses an occupation mostly not by its contribution to the society but by reward and prestige that would come with it. In business, an individual is mostly motivated by the power and prestige that go along with wealth rather than importance of their service to the society. Conflict theory can explain competition in school, business, politics, and other occupation and social stratification that result. Bottom-line to stratified society, in fact, is the human propensity to gain dominion over others.

Attaining social equality is a major objective for human right bodies across the globe. However, that objective is not easy to achieve considering various manifestation of inequality in the world. In Canada, despite of various steps taken to ensure equality in various forms, inequality persists.

Social equality implies all people in a society having equal status. At minimum social equality implies equal rights to all individual in a society. The state however is not easy to achieve mostly because of historic inequality that already exist. For instance, although Canadian constitution guarantees equal rights to quality health and education, there is evident inequality in health and education.

Individuals in upper social economic classes have resources to access high standard of health services and afford quality education for themselves and for their children. Limited interaction between individuals from different social class makes it hard to achieve equality.

Individuals in upper social class tend to relate more with individuals in the same social class while individuals in other social classes do the same. Therefore, there is little chance for an individual to cross over from on social class to another (Horowitz 1997). In addition, individuals in privileged social class have resources, power and influence to maintain the status quo of inequality.

Division of labor has high contribution to inequality. Different occupations attract varying rewards and therefore contribute to inequality. Occupations such as medicine, engineering and law tend to attract high rewards as compared to other occupations as gardening. Even in occupations requiring relatively equal years of training, rewards seem to vary (Loseke 1999).

For example, despite of going through almost equal years of training, a teacher is likely to earn less as compared to an engineer. In addition, division of labor leads to some occupations being considered superior to others therefore promoting social stratification.

Individuals from different social economic classes may understand inequality differently. A wealthy individual can consider social inequality proportional to creativity and effort that an individual exerts in his endeavors. The rich may consider their fortune to result from their hard work and consider poverty to result from laziness and lack of initiative. On the other hand, a poor person can view social stratification to result from social injustice.

In conclusion, there is no obvious answer to why inequality exists in society. Inequality continues to exist even in countries with high level of human development as Canada. Functionalism and conflict theories can however help understand social stratification. To functionalists, social stratification is not necessarily evil but serves an important function in the society. On the other hand, conflict theory explains inequality to result from competition in society.

Without regard to how inequality comes about, it is obvious that high level of inequality is dehumanizing and can lead to social evils such as crime. It is therefore important to minimize inequality as much as possible. To promote social equality, an enabling environment that exposes all individuals to equal opportunities is necessary.

Andersen, Margaret and Howard Taylor. 2006. Sociology: the essentials . New York: Cengage Learning.

Horowitz, Ruth.1997. “Barriers and Bridges to Class Mobility and Formation: Ethnographies of Stratification”. Sociological Methods and Research 25 (1):495-538.

Loseke, Donileen. 1999. Thinking about Social Problems: An Introduction to Constructionist Perspectives . New York: Aldine de Gruyter.

Macionis, John and Linda Gerber. 2010. Sociology, 7 th Canadian edition. Toronto: Pearson Education Canada.

Macionis, John. 2001. Sociology , 8 th edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Rigney, Daniel. 2001. The Metaphorical Society: An Invitation to Social Theory . Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

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IvyPanda. (2019, November 27). Inequality in Society: Conflict and Functionalism Theories. https://ivypanda.com/essays/inequality-in-society/

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IvyPanda . "Inequality in Society: Conflict and Functionalism Theories." November 27, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/inequality-in-society/.

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'Inequality in funding' driving public school exodus as private schools continue to lift enrolments

Students in private school uniforms with jackets sitting outside in the sunshine.

Private school enrolments have soared for the third straight year as parents leave the public system in record numbers in favour of independent or Catholic schools. 

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has released new data for 2023 that shows the trend to private schools is growing even as interest rate rises and cost of living pressure eat into budgets.

Across primary and high school, private school enrolments (Catholic and independent) grew by 2.5 per cent.

Meanwhile, public schools grew by just 0.3 per cent, a small improvement from last year when public school enrolments actually fell .

Australia-wide, 1.5 million students now attend private schools with 2.6 million in the public system.

In the five years to 2023, independent school enrolments grew by 14 per cent, Catholic schools by 4.8 per cent and public schools by 0.7 per cent.

Lindisfarne Anglican Grammar School at Tweed Heads, south of the Gold Coast, is typical of the faith-based schools driving the increase in high growth suburban and regional areas.

Parents sacrifice for better opportunities

Mother of three Wendy Boquest enrolled all her children at Lindisfarne after starting their education in the public sector.

Wendy Boquest smiling in front of a screen.

She said the opportunities, values and community at the private school were incomparable.

"We decided to go private for the opportunities this school would give our kids, not just from a curriculum perspective," she said.

"My oldest son is about to head off to Munich for an international conference on democracy."

It's a financial sacrifice for Ms Boquest but one she said is worth making.

"You'd do anything for your kids. Other things will take second place to just giving them those few years of a really good quality education," she said.

Principal Stuart Marquardt in front of a screen that says "the Lindisfarne way".

Principal Stuart Marquardt said last year the school grew by about 10 per cent as 166 new students took the school's headcount to 1,857.

"Parents will make incredible sacrifices and one of the things parents rate very highly is quality education," he said.

"So for   a lot of parents it's a struggle, we recognise that."

He said parents making the change were often motivated by values and the school emphasised its Christian faith.

"A lot of the messaging here at the school is about developing a person of substance, a person of character, a person who can make good decisions when no one is watching and I just think our Christian values give a solid foundation," Mr Marquardt said.

The education divide 

Private school lobby groups celebrated the figures and said it showed parents welcomed having a choice.

"Every parent deserves the right to choose the best school for their child and family," Independent Schools Australia CEO Graham Catt said. 

"While independent schools have seen the strongest growth, all three school sectors are critical to delivering the best educational outcomes for Australian children."

However, public education advocates said the new data was evidence of continued funding inequity.

Productivity Commission data released last week  showed government funding for private schools grew by 37 per cent over the last decade, compared to just 23 per cent at public schools.

Private schools also averaged 12.7 students per teacher compared to 13.4 at public schools.

Woman smiles while working on laptop.

Dr Emma Rowe from Deakin University said the way schools were funded in Australia was fundamentally flawed and created segregation between students of different economic backgrounds.

"Education is not a consumer product, it's not the same as a car," she said.

"If you fix equitable funding, you'll also help to fix segregation."

Dr Rowe said the quality of education and type of subjects offered to students in well-funded private schools created more disparities, with students at public school competing with each other for funding and basic maintenance of facilities.

"There are certain practices that other countries do [like] you shouldn't be allowed to receive government funding if you charge over a certain amount for it," she said. 

"There should be caps on charging parent tuition fees because education is actually tied to social mobility."

Dr Rowe said most parents chose schools that gave their children the best chance at life opportunities and connections, so without appropriate funding for public schools, the move to private education would continue.

"You're only going to have rich kids in certain jobs," she said.

"Like AFL, I feel is now dominated by kids from private schools and those top sporting careers are now getting funnelled.

"If you don't go to a private school, you don't get access to those sporting careers.

"Do we really want a society where it's only the rich kids competing against one another? It's not really fair."

Many public schools 'struggling', union says

Teachers' unions also point to figures revealed on the ABC's 7.30 program that show just 1.3 per cent of public schools are funded to the minimum recommended by the Gonski review, compared to 98 per cent of private schools.

About 40 per cent of private schools actually receive more than their Gonski entitlements at a cost to taxpayers of $3.2 billion.

Australian Education Union (AEU) president Meredith Peace said this gave parents a difficult choice. 

"I think many parents would like their children to go to their local public school in their local community," she said. 

The federal government went to the last election with an "aspiration" that public schools would finally reach their Gonski minimum funding levels more than a decade after the landmark report.

As it negotiates a new funding deal with the states, the AEU said giving public schools the money they needed to function well should be a priority. 

"Because government has made decisions not to fund public schools to their own standards, that has meant many of our public schools are struggling to provide the additional support that they should be able to provide," Ms Peace said. 

"It could be things like smaller class sizes, extra support staff in classrooms alongside teachers, specialist support in terms of psychologists, speech therapists and so on."

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Miss Manners: Writer hates talking about work in social settings

Dear Miss Manners: I am a writer. When I am asked about my occupation in social settings, I am always hesitant to answer. More often than not, the person is not only curious about the entire publishing process, from idea to print, but they also have a book idea they want to pitch. For example: “I have a great idea for a book! I just need a writer.” I was even asked once to help someone’s child write a college paper!

I am proud of the work I do, but rarely take on outside projects, and certainly not at a cocktail party. I work with several publishers, and therefore editors, and do not feel inclined to provide, for example, the name/contact information of my editor, nor to answer “how much something like that pays” and “how do I get my stuff published?”

I have a professional website, but some of the topics I write about are controversial, so I hesitate to give out that address outside of a professional setting. It’s getting so that I dread meeting new people, though I actually love socializing! Help!

It is an unfortunate truth that every profession has its social impositions. Doctors are asked to give free medical advice, lawyers to dispense legal counsel and performers to perform. Miss Manners assures you that no one is under obligation to do so, if able to say — politely, with a slightly tired smile — “I’m not on duty tonight.”

However, it is a telltale sign of amateurs to volunteer these things for an unwitting (and usually unwanting) audience. So perhaps rather than saying you are a writer, you could say instead, “I write.” This subtle distinction might lead people who do not know you to consider it a hobby and leave you alone. That is, if you are willing to trade tiresome professional requests for amused condescension.

Dear Miss Manners: We are hosting a birthday party for our child. We have neither requested nor forbidden presents. We’re happy to accept them, but also happy to just enjoy the company of the attendees.

If our child does receive gifts, is it polite to open them at the party so that the givers can enjoy his delight? Or is it better to set any presents aside, so we don’t show them off or make it seem like gifts were expected? Which is more gracious? Regardless, we will send out thank-you notes with our son’s participation, which is usually some cute scribbles.

Opening presents at children’s birthday parties is a generally expected ritual, but increasingly optional. Done with the proper amount of preparation, however, it can, as you say, be delightful. It is also a chance to teach children what not to say (“I already have that!”) and to be gracious even when they do not feel like it (“But I wanted the red one, not blue!”).

Given that your son is already being taught to send thank-you letters, Miss Manners has no doubt that if you choose to open presents during the party, he will be charming. She would instruct others, however, to weigh the possibility of its not going so well and proceed accordingly.

New Miss Manners columns are posted Monday through Saturday on washingtonpost.com/advice . You can send questions to Miss Manners at her website, missmanners.com . You can also follow her @RealMissManners.

© 2024 Judith Martin

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I’m a Neuroscientist. We’re Thinking About Biden’s Memory and Age in the Wrong Way.

President Biden seated in a chair holding a stack of what looks like index cards.

By Charan Ranganath

Dr. Ranganath is a professor of psychology and neuroscience and the director of the Dynamic Memory Lab at the University of California, Davis, and the author of the forthcoming book “Why We Remember: Unlocking Memory’s Power to Hold On to What Matters.”

The special counsel Robert K. Hur’s report, in which he declined to prosecute President Biden for his handling of classified documents, also included a much-debated assessment of Mr. Biden’s cognitive abilities.

“Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview with him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”

As an expert on memory, I can assure you that everyone forgets. In fact, most of the details of our lives — the people we meet, the things we do and the places we go — will inevitably be reduced to memories that capture only a small fraction of those experiences.

It is normal to be more forgetful as you get older. Generally, memory functions begin to decline in our 30s and continue to fade into old age. However, age in and of itself doesn’t indicate the presence of memory deficits that would affect an individual’s ability to perform in a demanding leadership role. And an apparent memory lapse may or may not be consequential, depending on the reasons it occurred.

There is forgetting, and there is Forgetting. If you’re over the age of 40, you’ve most likely experienced the frustration of trying to grasp that slippery word on the tip of your tongue. Colloquially, this might be described as forgetting, but most memory scientists would call this retrieval failure, meaning that the memory is there but we just can’t pull it up when we need it. On the other hand, Forgetting (with a capital F) is when a memory is seemingly lost or gone altogether. Inattentively conflating the names of the leaders of two countries would fall in the first category, whereas being unable to remember that you had ever met the president of Egypt would fall into the second.

Over the course of typical aging, we see changes in the functioning of the prefrontal cortex, a brain area that plays a starring role in many of our day-to-day memory successes and failures. These changes mean that as we get older, we tend to be more distractible and often struggle to pull up words or names we’re looking for. Remembering events takes longer, and it requires more effort, and we can’t catch errors as quickly as we used to. This translates to a lot more forgetting and a little more Forgetting.

Many of the special counsel’s observations about Mr. Biden’s memory seem to fall in the category of forgetting, meaning that they are more indicative of a problem with finding the right information from memory than Forgetting. Calling up the date that an event occurred, like the last year of Mr. Biden’s vice presidency or the year of his son’s death, is a complex measure of memory. Remembering that an event took place is different from being able to put a date on when it happened, which is more challenging with increased age. The president very likely has many memories, even though he could not immediately pull up dates in the stressful (and more immediately pressing) context of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

Other “memory” issues highlighted in the media are not so much cases of forgetting as they are of difficulties in the articulation of facts and knowledge. For instance, in July 2023, Mr. Biden mistakenly stated in a speech that “we have over 100 people dead,” when he should have said, “over one million.” He has struggled with a stutter since childhood, and research suggests that managing a stutter demands prefrontal resources that would normally enable people to find the right word or at least quickly correct errors after the fact.

Americans are understandably concerned about the advanced age of the two top contenders in the coming presidential election (Mr. Biden is 81, and Donald Trump is 77), although some of these concerns are rooted in cultural stereotypes and fears around aging. The fact is that there is a huge degree of variability in cognitive aging. Age is, on average, associated with decreased memory, but studies that follow up the same person over several years have shown that although some older adults show precipitous declines over time, other super-agers remain as sharp as ever.

Mr. Biden is the same age as Harrison Ford, Paul McCartney and Martin Scorsese. He’s also a bit younger than Jane Fonda (86) and a lot younger than the Berkshire Hathaway C.E.O., Warren Buffett (93). All these individuals are considered to be at the top of their professions, and yet I would not be surprised if they are more forgetful and absent-minded than when they were younger. In other words, an individual’s age does not say anything definitive about the person’s cognitive status or where it will head in the near future.

I can’t speak to the cognitive status of any of the presidential candidates, but I can say that, rather than focus on candidates’ ages per se, we should consider whether they have the capabilities to do the job. Public perception of a person’s cognitive state is often determined by superficial factors, such as physical presence, confidence and verbal fluency, but these aren’t necessarily relevant to one’s capacity to make consequential decisions about the fate of this country. Memory is surely relevant, but other characteristics, such as knowledge of the relevant facts and emotion regulation — both of which are relatively preserved and might even improve with age — are likely to be of equal or greater importance.

Ultimately, we are due for a national conversation about what we should expect in terms of the cognitive and emotional health of our leaders.

And that should be informed by science, not politics.

Charan Ranganath is a professor of psychology and neuroscience and the director of the Dynamic Memory Lab at the University of California, Davis, and the author of “ Why We Remember: Unlocking Memory’s Power to Hold On to What Matters .”

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here’s our email: [email protected] .

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