ABSTRACT
The concept of societal tolerance and the idea of social hypocrisy are one and the same, to this way of thinking. Tolerance has nothing to do with the positive acceptance of the term, with its suggestion of comprehension and its reference to democratic pluralism. The present study of social tolerance of unemployment therefore takes those inequalities and gender relations into consideration as an explanatory factor for the Spanish unemployment situation. The reasons advanced in defence of this argument revolve around the idea that women’s socialisation does not instil in them the scientific and technical mentality. Social exclusion is sometimes described as a breakdown of both the individual’s participation in society and society’s payments to the individual. In Spain, as in other European Union countries, the social outcasts are probably to be found among the usual marginal groups, including ethnic minority groups (such as Gypsies), drug abusers, former prison inmates, prostitutes, etc.
