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I was in a heated debate with some friends of mine who got very upset with me for calling women a minority. I know that there are equal numbers of men and women (if not more women), and historically speaking, "minority" means a smaller group and it has the root "minor." But I'm wondering if the definition of minority has not shifted to mean a group of people not holding power? I've heard women called this before, so I didn't just make it up.
Technically, of course, the word "minority" means the smaller part of a group, i.e., less than 50 percent. People sometimes do refer to women as a minority, but only because they get lumped in with other true minorities -- African Americans, Latino Americans, etc. As one who works in politics, I tend not to refer to women as a minority but rather as simply women. It's easy to talk about the various challenges women face as a group, and the need to do a better job engaging women in the economy and the society, and all the public policy stuff related to that, without using the word "minority."
Another interesting part of this is that demographic trends indicate that the largest group -- Caucasians -- will be a minority very soon, if they aren't already. But so will every other ethnic group. No group will make up 50% of the American population. We'll just have major minorities and minor minorities, I guess.
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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