ABSTRACT
Economies and inequality are inevitably intertwined. Inequality results from the unequal distribution of access to status and material or symbolic resources, which are limited and not easy to generate. It takes money to make money – the poor do not have the means to escape poverty. Economic structures are not “innocent bystanders” in this story: structures and logics of economic organization, recruitment, reward, and reproduction give advantages to social groups with disproportionate resources and power, such as control of property and decision-making. Managers and owners receive higher wages than employees and a cut of profit; males and whites are more likely to have better or more powerful jobs and higher wages than women and non-whites. Structures of inequality, in turn, shape the economy. If white, middle-class males hold economic power, hiring white, middle-class males for elite positions will seem natural. This discrimination may be due to personal prejudices – men with low opinions of women, whites who believe non-whites are inferior. Discrimination may be “institutional,” embedded in or an outcome of impersonal rules. Until recently, professional sports and sports reporting were male-dominated: physical activities were the domain of the physical sex, men. News executives believed few would take women’s sports or women reporting on sports seriously, and they feared viewers would reject the combination of women and sports.
