Few topics of discussion in college classrooms have reached the pervasiveness of race and gender as they play themselves out in the streets and halls of commerce and government, but they are discussed from a pathological or deadly perspective. It should come as no surprise to anyone that when the political left gets a hold of an idea, it quickly gravitates to two of Karl Marx’s greatest concepts: inequality and oppression. On Today’s Vanntage Point, I want to look at the historical roles played by men and women, but this time, I am going to use a functionalist perspective to contrast against the pathological view of Marx’s Conflict perspective that has come to dominate political discourse in the West. This promises to be a hot topic for discussion, so I hope you’ll join me.