Chapter 8

Social Class and Social

Stratification

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 Chapter Outline
• Social Differentiation and Social Stratification
• The Class Structure of the United States: Growing
Inequality
• The Distribution of Income and Wealth
• Analyzing Social Class
• Diverse Sources of Stratification
• Social Mobility: Myths and Realities
• Why Is There Inequality?
• Poverty

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Social Differentiation and Social Stratification (1 of
3)

• Social differentiation is how different statuses

develop in any group, organization, or society.
• Social stratification is a relatively fixed, hierarchical
arrangement in society by which groups have different
access to resources, power, and perceived social
worth.

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Social Differentiation and Social Stratification (2 of
3)

Social class differences make it seem as if some people

are living in two different societies.

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Social Differentiation and Social Stratification (3 of
3)

• Social stratification is a system of structured social

inequality.
– All societies have a system of social stratification.
– Complex societies often stratify according to social
class.
 This is influenced by occupation, income, education,
race, gender, region of residence, ethnicity, national
origin, and even age.

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 Estate, Caste, and Class

• Stratification systems are usually categorized into one

of these three types:
1. Estate is a system in which a small elite group (owners
of property and power) has total control over resources.
2. Caste is a system where status is assigned based on
ascribed status (given at birth).
3. Class is a system based on ascribed and achieved
statuses.

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 The Class Structure of the United States:
Growing Inequality (1 of 2)
• Class divisions in the United States are real, and
inequality is growing.
• More apparent since 2008 because of a financial crisis
and national recession.
• For many people, achieving “the American Dream” is
no longer a possibility.

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The Distribution of Income and Wealth (1 of
2)

The class structure in the United States means very

different living conditions for those of vast wealth and
everyone else.

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 The Class Structure of the United States: Growing
Inequality (2 of 2)

• Economic restructuring: the decline of

manufacturing jobs in the United States.
– These structural changes are having a profound effect
on the life chances of people in different social classes.
– Many in the working class once employed in
manufacturing jobs are now in lower-wage jobs (such as
fast food), if they work at all.

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 The Distribution of Income and Wealth (2 of
2)
• Income is the amount of money brought into a
household from various sources during a given period.
– Income growth has been greatest for those at the top of
the population.
– For everyone else, income has either been relatively flat
or grown at a far lesser rate.
• Wealth is the monetary value of everything one
actually owns.
• Socioeconomic status: social class position is
primarily measured in economic terms

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 Analyzing Social Class (1 of 4)
• Status attainment is how people end up in a given
stratified position.
– Class origins, educational level, and occupation
produce class location.
• One’s socioeconomic status (SES) is derived from
several factors:
– income, occupational prestige, and education

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 Analyzing Social Class (2 of 4)
• Occupational prestige is the perceived, subjective
rank assigned to an occupation;
– This is associated with number of years of formal
education and degrees.
• Occupations cluster in ranks such as:
– High: physicians, professors, judges
– Middle: electricians, insurance agents
– Low: maids, garbage collectors

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 Analyzing Social Class (3 of 4)
• Educational attainment: the total number of years of
formal education.
• The U.S. class system: upper, upper-middle, middle,
lower-middle, and lower class (which includes the
urban underclass).

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 Analyzing Social Class (4 of 4)
• Urban underclass: likely to be permanently
unemployed and without much economic support.
– Has little or no opportunity for movement out of the
worst poverty
– May become dependent on public assistance or illegal
activities

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 Diverse Sources of Stratification (1 of 2)

• A woman’s class status used to be based on her

husband’s or father’s social position.
– Even with comparable educations to men, women are
employed in lower wage jobs and lower prestige
occupations than men.
• In 2017, when the median income for men working
year-round and full-time was $52,146, the median
income of women working year-round, full time was
$41,977— 80% of men’s income.

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 Diverse Sources of Stratification (2 of 2)

• 17.5% of U.S. children (almost 13 million) live in

poverty.
• 9.2% of those in the U.S. over 65 years old are poor.
• Most elderly live comfortably due to pensions and
Social Security.

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 Social Mobility: Myths and Realities
• You may be able to climb up the ladder if others allow
you to, or if you achieve it, but others may push you
down or up a rung or two.
– This is called social mobility.
– People usually stay on, or close to, the rung they
started on.

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 Class Consciousness
• Class consciousness is the perception of:
– the existence of a class structure
– your shared identification with a given class
• Are Americans class conscious?
– Because of the widespread belief that mobility is
possible, people in the United States tend not to be very
conscious of class.

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 Why Is There Inequality?
• Marx classified people in two social classes:
– Bourgeoisie are the owners of the means of production.
– Proletariat are the workers, those who sell their labor for
wages; also referred to as the exploited masses.
– He also classified the petty bourgeoisie (small business
owners) and the lumpen proleteriat (jobless).

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 Max Weber: Class, Status, and Party (1 of 2)

• Weber saw three dimensions to stratification:

– class (the economic dimension);
– status (or prestige, the cultural and social dimension);
and,
– party (or power, the political dimension).
• Weber is thus responsible for a multidimensional view
of social stratification because he analyzed the
connections between economic, cultural, and political
systems.

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 Max Weber: Class, Status, and Party (2 of 2)
Table 8-2 Functionalist and Conflict Theories of Stratification
Interprets Functionalism
Inequality The purpose of inequality is to motivate
people to fill needed positions in society.
Reward system Greater rewards are attached to higher
positions to ensure that people will be
motivated to train for functionally important
roles in society.
Classes Some groups are rewarded because their
work requires the greatest degree of talent
and training.
Elites The most talented are rewarded in
proportion to their contribution to the social
order.
Class consciousness/ Beliefs about success and failure confirm
ideology the status of those who succeed.
Poverty Poverty serves economic and social
functions in society.
Social policy Because the system is basically fair, social
policies should only reward merit.
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Conflict Theory
Inequality results from a system where those
with the most resources exploit and control
others.
Inequality prevents the talents of those at the
bottom from being discovered and used.
Classes conflict with each other as they vie for
power and economic, social, and political
resources.
The most powerful reproduce their advantage by
distributing resources and controlling the
dominant value system.
Elites shape societal beliefs to make their
unequal privilege appear to be legitimate and
fair.
Poverty is inevitable because of the exploitation
built into the system.
Because the system is basically unfair, social
policies should support disadvantaged groups.
 Poverty
• Despite a high average U.S. standard of living, poverty
afflicts millions of people.
• Poverty line: amount of money needed to support the
basic needs of a household
– Below this line, one is considered officially poor.
– Almost 40 million poor people in the United States
(12.3% of the population)

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 Who Are the Poor? (1 of 2)

• Feminization of
poverty: large
proportion of the poor
are women/children.
• The poor are racially
diverse, diverse in age,
and diverse in region.
Figure 8.9 Poverty Status by Family
and Race (2017)

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 Who Are the Poor? (2 of 2)
• Hundreds of thousands of homeless people:
Approximately 550,000 on any given night
– Increase in homelessness over the past two decades

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 Causes of Poverty
• Myth that success requires only individual motivation
and ability.
• “Culture of poverty” argues major causes of poverty
are absence of work values and the irresponsibility of
the poor.
– Most of the able-bodied poor do work, even if only part-
time.
• The underlying causes of poverty are the
economic/social changes in the United States.

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 Welfare and Social Policy
• The welfare policy: Temporary Assistance for Needy
Families (TANF).
– TANF has a life-time limit of five years for people to
receive aid.
– All recipients must find work within two years.
– Those without work in two years may be required to do
community service for free.

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 Chapter Summary
• What different kinds of stratification systems exist?
• How do sociologists define class?
• How is the class system structured in the United
States?
• Is there social mobility in the United States?
• What analyses of social stratification do sociological
theorists provide?
• How do sociologists explain why there is poverty in the
United States?
• What current policies address the problem of poverty?

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 Question 1
Social _____ is the process by which different statuses in
any group, organization, or society develop.
A.differentiation
B.stratification
C.hierarchy development
D.estate creation

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 Answer 1
B. stratification

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 Question 2
Which theory states that the major causes of poverty are
the absence of work values and the irresponsibility of the
poor?
A.The feminization of poverty
B.Living wage theory
C.The culture of poverty
D.None of the above

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 Answer 2
C. The culture of poverty

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 Question 3
In the United States, the _____ is the amount of money
needed to support the basic needs of the household, as
determined by the federal government.
A.subsistence level
B.poverty line
C.survival level
D.minimum wage

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 Answer 3
B. poverty line

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