Gender, class, race, and culture emerge as formative social constructs that influence, support, or hinder development and human potential across the human lifespan. Additionally, these constructs are widely known and variously expressed by different cultures and societies throughout the course of Western history.

Mosaic showing theatrical masks of Tragedy and Comedy. Roman artwork, 2nd century CE.

Discussions of gender, race, class, and culture are made in this course, realizing that the definitions given will be constructed differently within each reader, and that our constructions will change over time as our internal constructions of reality and our external environments change. Definitions for these constructs are changing, even as this is written, because they are both well-established in some general ways, but also open to modifications on all fronts as our cultures redefine them. Just think about how our new understandings of gender in the past 20 years have reshaped the culture. Even the scientific community is reexamining its views on the biological basis of race and ethnicity in light of the genome project (Bonham, Warshauer-Baker, & Collins, 2005). Specific definitions of these concepts will be the focus of Discourse 1 in this module.

In addition, it is important to reflect on the intersection of these concepts, because if one factor has an impact, it is even truer that multiple factors have an exponential impact on human development. More about this topic will be covered in the last module of the course. How could it be that although black males were nominally given the right to vote in 1870 with the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, women in the United States were not given the right to vote until 1919 with the passage of the 19th Amendment? If you were a black female in the mid-1800s your voting rights were denied due to your race; if you lived in the early 1900s they would be denied due to your gender.

A corollary to this primary focus will be to look more closely at what the treatment of gender, class, and race in society says about the views of people in different eras and their understanding of human nature as “good” or “bad.” This involves reflecting on whether human nature, as a whole, is perceived to be essentially flawed or not.

For example, how do we reflect on presentations of humans, such as that in Genesis (the first book of the Bible), as “fallen creatures” doomed to destructive behavior? Does this seem truer than a perspective that human nature is essentially good but often thwarted from reaching its full potential by lack of opportunity and adequate nurture and support? How does one position or the other align with, and support, different political, economic, or class views?

To encourage reflection on these definitions, this will be a discussion topic for the second week of Module 1.