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The article focuses on issues related to equality for blacks and women in the U.S. The relative size of a minority group directly influences the course of its progress toward equality with the majority and the consequences of this progress. Looking at the differences in comparative occupational distributions for males and females, and blacks and whites, we suggest that the degree of structural change required to incorporate blacks and females into the occupational system is quite different, based on the relative numbers in each group. Since an analogy is only a resemblance in some aspects between items which are otherwise unlike one another, the notion of similarity must not be carried too far. Specific differences which have also been neglected are discussed. The intent of this paper is simply the reintroduction of information which has been neglected in recent lines of research. Viewing women as a minority provides the framework for understanding much of the current research on women's roles and the "women's movement."