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Collins

Collins' Concept of the "Matrix of Domination"

Race, gender and class inequalities are inescapable in everyday life whether it is through the economy, the division of household labor or health care. Collins (1998) explains her concept for the "matrix of domination" explaining how all the parts are interrelated and work like a system. She portrays the idea that race, sex, and class are all topics that work together in the theory of oppression. We as individuals often view our situation in the negative one sided light instead of looking at it like we are lucky compared to some and how if we worked together we could help each other.
This idea is best said in a quoted from Collins (1998:32) "…we typically fail to see how our thoughts and actions uphold someone else's subordination. Thus white feminist routinely point with confidence to their oppression as women but resist seeing how much their white skin privileges them." The problem Collins says is that then African American's turn on white women because they view them as white power when the truth is that both are part of the same struggling group, women, suffering from oppression. If they joined together they could accomplish more for women as a whole. As stated before inequalities are everywhere and institutions are no exception.
The home institution is a main example of gender inequality. The division of household labor is unequal as shown by statistics gathered by surveying men and women. They were asked "Who is responsible for the doing the house hold duties of the house?" This survey was conducted by General Social Survey and shows that 76% of women said that they are solely
responsible for the housework in their household. Then in a following survey men and women were asked if they thought the division of labor they were experiencing was fair, which was show above, with women having the most responsibility. The statistics say that 79.3% of men and 74% of women feel that it is fair the way the...