Understanding Diversity and Inequality in American Politics

1. Advanced Placement United States Government & Politics The American Political Landscape

2. Ethnocentrism • Selective –perceptions based on background, attitudes, biases • Inability to appreciated the difference in point of view based on differing cultures.

3. Cleavages: Reinforcing and Cross-cutting • Reinforcing Cleavages: political conflict becomes more intense and there is greater polarization in society

4. Cross-cutting cleavages • Cross-cutting cleavages: instances where differences don’t reinforce each other. *ex. American diversity-lessens political conflict because individuals have multiple allegiances

5. Elements of Diversity • Geography • Sectional differences • Social and economic differences • Race and ethnic differences • Gender and sexual orientation • Religious differences

6. Poverty • The 2009 Poverty Guidelines for the48 Contiguous States and the District of Columbia • Persons in family Poverty guideline • 1 $10,830 • 2 $14,570 • 3 $18,310 • 4 $22,050 5 $25,790

9. Geography and Politics

11. Race and Ethnicity • African Americans • 13 percent of the population. • Hispanics • 10 percent of the population. • Asians • 4 percent of the population. • Native Americans • 1 percent of the population.

12. The Gender Gap • In 2000 there were 3 female governors, 13 female senators, and 58 members in the House of Representatives. • Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore received 12 percent more female votes than the Republican candidate George W. Bush.

13. Congress and the Gender Gap

14. Politics and the Gender Gap

15. Gender Gap on Political Issues

16. Gender Gap and Wages

17. The Gender Gap (con’t.) • Sixty-four percent more women than men work at or below the minimum wage. • Men and women do not earn comparable wages even when education levels are equivalent.

19. The Gender Gap • Women earn 78 cents on the dollar • MBA grads-women earn 4,600 less • One year out of college, women make 80% of male counterpart’s salary in same occupation • 3% of fortune 500 CEOs

20. Women are in the majority of all college graduates and law school graduates but less than a third are politicians or partners in law firms. • Closing the gap could increase GDP by 9% • Women hold 17 percent of the seats in Congress, well below Europe’s 22 percent and far behind the Nordic countries’ 42 percent

21. The surge of women running as anti-abortion conservatives reflects a “war over who gets to define what feminism means.”

22. In 2008, 6 percent more men than women supported the GOP presidential nominee John McCain. (White men, in particular, have tended to vote more conservatively than almost any other demographic group.)

23. Women’s Issues • Politics & Women • Reproductive Rights • Workplace Issues • Health care • Parenting & Caregiving

24. Sexual Orientation • Roughly 10 percent of Americans identify themselves as homosexual. • Vermont, 2000, 1st state to permit same-sex couples to form ‘civil unions’.

26. American “Unity” Melting Pot Vs. Salad Bowl Analogies

27. Implications... • Religion • Income, wealth • Occupation • Social Class • Age • Education