Includes bibliographical references. Ore, T. E. (Ed.). (2009). The social construction of difference and inequality: Race, class, gender, and sexuality (4th ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill.

Part I: Constructing Differences -- Race and Ethnicity -- Social Class -- Sex and Gender -- Sexuality -- Part II: Maintaining Inequalities: Systems of Oppression and Privilege -- Social Institutions: Family -- Social Institutions: Education -- Social Institutions: Work and Economy -- Social Institutions: The State and Public Policy -- Social Institutions: Media -- Language and Culture -- Violence and Social Control -- Part III: Experiencing Difference and Inequality in Everyday Life -- Part IV: Resistance and Social Change

Teaching about issues and inequality in a culture that focuses on individualism can be a very daunting task. Having been raised in such a culture, students in my classes often arrive with little knowledge of the systematic nature of inequality in society. While they may be aware of their own experiences of disadvantage (and perhaps privilege), they are generally not aware of how structural arrangements in society result in systems of difference and inequality. This book, which focuses on how race, class, gender, and sexuality are socially constructed as categories of difference and are maintained as systems or inequality, is an effort to help students move toward a more systematic understanding.