ABSTRACT
Race, class, and gender matter because they continue to structure society in ways that value some lives more than others. Currently, some groups have more opportunities and resources, while other groups struggle. Race, class and gender matter because they remain the foundations for systems of power and inequality that, despite our nation’s diversity, continue to be among the most significant social facts of people’s lives. Thus, despite having removed the formal barriers to opportunity, the United States is still highly stratified along lines of race, class, and gender…. For years, social scientists have studied the consequences of race, class, and gender inequality for different groups in society. [We] explore how race, class, and gender operate together in people’s lives. Fundamentally, race, class, and gender are intersecting categories of experience that affect all aspects of human life; thus, they simultaneously structure the experiences of all people in this society. At any moment, race, class, or gender may feel more salient or meaningful in a given person’s life, but they are overlapping and cumulative in their effects.
