Divinity and the necessity of suffering

The doctor I shadow once a week asked me to read the Book of Job to gain insight into why God created suffering.

I understand there are two standard Christian explanations of evil and suffering - in short, (1) it is a moral challenge for mankind and (2) it is a necessary consequence of freedom. Basically, without bad things, God would have designed a world that would have remained stuck in Eden. Growth, knowledge, enlightment, compassion, even love - everything that defines our humanity - only come with working through the ethical problems that are consequence of our freedom.

And what about suffering that affects only women or only people of color? How can genocide or sexual oppression be compatible with a universe created by a Christian god? Perhaps God is testing us as a species, and so mass suffering of individuals because of how they were born - with 2 X chromosomes or with brown skin, God's own desire - is just part of the price we as a species must pay. History pretty clearly bears out a striking contradiction to how we understand Providence to work on earth: more often than not the tyranical and greedy come out on top. These are the ones who get the power, the property and the sex. And so how are the faithful or the ones regardless of faith who act a model citizens to the best of their flawed, human nature, rewarded?