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Poverty, social mobility and discrimination Against women in the United States
In the United States, a person is considered poor if their annual income is below the poverty

threshold, also known as the poverty line. The poverty threshold is a federal poverty measure

used by census buraeu.it is updated yearly. The poverty level is not measured depending on

whether a person or family is poor or lives in poverty because the census bureau does not include

welfare benefits as an individual’s income in their reporting. Many Americans of low income

have been raised out of the poverty level. In the 2818 census, the poverty rate was 11.8 percent,

which is 0.5 percent lower than 12.3 percent in 2017. The rate has reduced by three percentage

since 2014. Approximately 38.1 million people lived in poverty in the United States. The poverty

rates for children have gone down from 17.4 percent in 2017 to 16.2 percent in 2018. For the

adults aged between 18-64, the rate has also decreased from 11.1 percent to 10.7 percent.

Although the American economy has grown twice in size, the United States government still

uses a considerable share of about $5 trillion to help the American citizens to pay for medication,

school fees, food, and recreation. Those who benefit from the shares include the elderly,

employed individuals, people with disabilities, and unemployed people. According to recent

research, half of the American citizens' shares of the economic pie has reduced. The percentage

of the pie distributed to the top earners has increased twice while the share for the bottom half

has diminished since 1980. In more than three decades, the income of many Americans has

remained stagnant, while those of the top officials have tripled.

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Social mobility is the movement of people or groups from one social status to another.

The movements can either be lower, higher, and cannot be said to be wrong or right or even

perfect. Social mobility was introduced by Potirim Sorokin, who was a sociologist and a political

activist in America. He published it in his book ‘Social and Cultural Mobility’. Depending on

how the community is developed, societies differ in terms of movement possible, and the rate of

movement changes from period to another. There are different forms of social mobility,

including Horizontal, vertical, upward, downward, inter-generational, intra-generational

mobility.

To increase social mobility, first, I should avoid dropping out of school and promote school

choice. I should not attend or force my family members to attend failing schools. Secondly, I

should invest more in health to support social mobility from my generation to another.

Movement from places of low income to better areas can also increase my social mobility. Better

neighborhoods can change my life by offering excellent job opportunities.

Several obstacles can hinder improvements and an increase in social mobility. The first obstacle

is social, economic status. Poverty directly influences a person's education and earnings. The

second challenge is the lack of education. Educated individuals have the upper hand in getting

better jobs that pay higher wages. The other obstacle is inequality. Inequality in society in terms

of access to education, taxes, and benefit policies can handicap the poorer and less educated

families.

In our society today, not everyone has an equal chance for social mobility because of the

differences in economic status, lack of educations by some people, poverty in some

communities. Inequalities in our society is also a factor that hinders equal chances of social

mobility y to everyone.
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Discrimination against women in the United States is still a challenge. Approximately 42 percent

of women, that is, four in ten women in the United States has undergone and experienced

discrimination at workplaces based on gender. The female worker also earns less than male

colleagues even they perform a similar task. Based on a survey, among the adults, the female

workers are twice as likely as men to have faced different forms of discrimination at their places

of work. Women are also more likely to experience sexual harassment at their job places.

Women still don't have equal education opportunities in the United States as men. Those who are

educated are also reported to have higher rates than uneducated women.

Based on the video, in the past, women had limited working opportunities. They could only

work as a waitress, a secretary, and also as a model. The models face sexual harassment. The

misuse of women images in advertising is also increasing in our society. Women's images are

being photoshopped to look attractive to the viewers. In the ads, women tend to look like

cartoons, while men seem to be normal. The advertisements make women look thinner while

men look bigger. Lightening of women's skin in an ad is also a form of discrimination, as it

shows that black skin is not attractive. Misuse of women's body parts is also seen in the

commercials. Some ads go ahead and describe female body parts in a negative way. For

example, too flat, too pointy, and too-small breasts. Men's Body a rarely being mentioned in the

ads. Men are less likely to be raped, harassed, and objectified. The body language of women and

girls is always passive and submissive. Little girls are even sexualized, while boys are

encouraged to be tough and look at girls like sex objects.

In my opinion, women face many forms of discrimination than men. In the ads, the women's

body parts are being misused in the advertisement. The advertisements sexualize women to make

them look thinner and light-skinned.

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References
http://federalsafetynet.com/uspoverty-level.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/06/business/economy/a-bigger-economic-pie-but-a-smaller-
slice-for-half-of-the-us.html
https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2019/demo/p60-266.html
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/social-mobility-memos/2015/06/02/space-place-race-six-
policies-to-improve-social-mobility/