social equality

Equality is a social state of affairs in which certain different people have the same status in a certain respect. There are different forms of equality, depending on the persons and social situations in question. For example, one may consider equality of the sexes in opportunities for employment; the people in question are men and women (contrasted) and the social situation is the search for a job. As another example, equal opportunity refers to the idea that all people should start out in life from the same platform (i.e. all should have equal opportunities in life, regardless of where they were born or who their parents were).

The fight for social and legal equality was seen during the sixties in the United States in the Civil Rights movement. Though ultimately defeated by subversion by those in power then as now, the civil rights movement made great progress, and the ideals professed by the movement put some hope into the oppressed masses of the illiterate and impoverished peoples.

See also:

• Economic equality
• Discrimination
• Egalitarianism
• Equality of outcome
• Gender role
• Forms of discrimination

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