sociology paper 2 - inequality (booklet 1s)

Social class - workplace / income - Royal commission on the distribution of income

1. the poorest 20% receive less than half the average final income, while the richest 20% recieve double the average

2. changes in taxation by conservative Government in 1979-97 increased income inequality

3. this was how income tax was lowered from 80 to 40% and VAT increased from 8 to 17.5%

Social class - workplace / income - Institute for fiscal studies

1. income inequality is at the worst level since 1940

2. in 2007, the top 0.1% received 4.3% of income

3. the top 10% recieve 40% whilst the poorest 10 hold 3%

shows labour government widened income inequality

Social class - workplace / income - Weber

1. classes develop from the market situation (buying and selling labour power) in capitalist economies. the propertyless group (middle and working class) have skills which they can sell on for different prices

2. middle class have an advantaged market situation compared to working classes

3. significant differences within social classes as well as between them e.g. a middle class doctor has a better market situation to a middle class social worker

Social class - workplace / income - Lockwood

market situation - middle class have greater job security and work fewer hours

work situation - social relationships at work are closer in middle classes

status - middle classes have a higher degree of prestige to manual workers

Social class - education - Youth Cohort Studies

lower educational attainment for lower classes, seen with:

1. differences in private, grammar and oversubscribed schools

2. achieve lower grades at Key Stages and GCSE

3. leave post compulsory education

4. do not have the ability for prestigious universities

Social class - education - Bourdieu

the education system is biased towards dominant class culture and devalues knowledge and skills of working class

1. education’s function is social reproduction and education discrimination is seen towards working classes as they lack the cultural capital to succeed

2. a major function of education is ‘eliminating working class from higher level education’

Social class - education - Gillborn and Youdell

1. teachers see ability as fixed and it can be measured

2. working class pupils had discrimination from teachers as many complained about the ‘certain peers were favoured over others’ and ‘clever’ middle class children were punished less

this led to

1. working class children places in lower sets

2. less likely to be entered into higher level GCSE exams and had no change of achieving the highest grades

Social class - education - Keddie

1. knowledge seen as approporiate by teachers was based around abstract and general from compared to concrete information, with middle classes having more abstract knowledge

2. the higher the social class, the higher set pupils were placed into, with perceived ability and social class being linked

3. teachers withheld higher grade inowledge from lower stream pupils, being denied higher level knowledge

4. teachers perceived middle class pupils as ideal pupils

Social class - media- Neo-Marxists

1. editors and journalists act as gatekeepers that choose what makes the news and what doesn’t

2. as they come from middle class backrounds, the news shown reflects middle class values.

3. e.g. Neo Marxist criticise media like the BBC for not being ‘objective’

Social class - media- Glasgow Uni Media Group

1. TV favours the upper and middle classes

2. language used describing middle classes favours them e.g. working class actions use negative words such as ‘threat and demand’ while middle classes use positive words such as ‘offer’

3. middle class media professionals set the agenda of important issues and political coverage centres around the choice of middle-class viewpoints

Social class - media- Cohen

Lower working class boys are culturally included, in showing material success in media, but are economically excluded from the labour market

1. they cannot achieve their success due to cultural deprivation

2. they therefore suffer with status frustration, turning to delinquent subcultures e.g. stealing and vandalism

3. solves status frustration as they gain high status from other members

Social class - media- Becker

1. lower income backgrounds are more likely to be labelled as deviant compared to higher incomes

2. once they are labelled, others see them only as that, which Becker calls a master status

3. labelling also causes the group to see themselves in term of the label, producing a self-fulfilling prophecy

Social class - health - The Black Report

first study into social class and rated of morbidity and mortality

1. higher social classes had lower rates compared to working classes

2. life expectancy increaed 2 years for middle classes from 1970 to 2000, while lower classes increased 1.4 years showing a difference

Social class - health - Lobstein

1. looked at unhealthy and healthy food in London

2. healthy food cost less in affluent areas

3. unhealthy food costing less in poorer areas

4. poorer people were more likely to pay more for healthy food

Gender - workplace - Equal opportunities report

horizontal segregation - men and women concentrated in different types of occupation e.g. Women in personal services and men in manufacturing

1. women tend to receive less pay and status in these jobs compared to men’s jobs

vertical segregation - men dominate in higher levels of occupations compared to women

1. this creates a ‘glass ceiling’, where promotion seems possible, but discrimination restrictions creates barriers of promotion

Gender - workplace - Barron and Norris

dual market labour theory:

1. primary labour market - well paid, secure jobs

2. secondary labour market - poorly paid, insecure jobs

3. women tend to be concentrated in the secondary labour market and it is difficult to transfer markets

Gender - workplace - Campbell

1. there has been a rapid decline in manufacturing jobs and industries and rise in service industries

2. led to working class unemployment, especially for men, who in the past were able to express masculinity through physical labour.

3. unemployment also meant they could not carry otu the work as the breadwinner and supporting their family

Gender - workplace - Mac and Ghail

• heavy manual work provided men with a strong sense of male pride, with these jobs disappearing, new jobs tend to be based around services and telecommunications, with this showing a feminisation of the labour market

• this has created insecurities for males, which has formed a ‘crisis of masculinity’ as they are not comfortable with alternative male identities

Gender - education - Youth Cohort Studies

females outperform their male counterparts in every stage of the education system

1. e.g. there was a 9.6% gender difference in 2006 for males and females achieving 5 or more GCSE grades

2. at A level young women outperform young men, with them also getting better degrees

Gender - education - Francois

1. boys are disciplined more harshly and frequently

2. girls fit the stereotype of an ideal pupil

3. unlike the 70’s, boys no longer believed they were more able than girls

4. boys were keen not be regarded as ‘swots or nerds’ as it goes against their hegemonic masculinity

Gender - education - Stanworth

study into A level classes in the humanities department:

attitudes displayed disadvantaged girls, such as:

1. teachers found it difficult to remember girls in their classes

2. teachers had stereotypical views of what female students did in the future

3. pupils felt boys got more attention than girls

4. boys were more likely to join classroom discussions and seek help

Gender - education - Lobban

there is a bias against girls in books, out of 176 stories, there was 36 more heroes than heroines and girls were given domestic roles

1. this is supported by best who examined a sample of 132 book and found little had changed since Lobban's research

Gender - media - Kilbourne

media presents women as mannequins: tall and thin, with small waists and long legs, with perfect faces and hair

this image is used for cosmetics ads, health products and improving body appearance to benefit the male gaze, rather than the self-esteem of women

Gender - media - Wolf

images of women in media (especially print) has a particular beauty ideal, with the idea that women should treat their bodies as a project in need of improvement.

This ideal is especially found in Pornography and newspapers, with women being seen as sex objects for the Male gaze.

Gender - media - Connel

cultural expectations about gender roles are dominated by hegemonic definitions of masculinity, with 2 broad ideas being:

1. paid work is central to male’s role and identity, with them being the breadwinner and heads of households being responsive for economic security and being ambitious and aggressive

2. females are categorised as homemakers mothers and carers, confined to a life of the family, home and relationships and expected to be less rational

Gender - media - Tuchman et al

symbolic annihilation - the way in which women’s achievements are often not reported or are condemned by mass media.

Gender - Family - Duncombe and Marsden

‘triple shift’ of paid employment, housework and emotional work (management of feelings within the family)

Gender - family - Oakley

gender inequality stems from early socialisation into traditional gender roles - for married women, they are locked into the mother housewife role by factors such as

1. early socialisation

2. patriarchal ideology

3. banning of child labour

4. restriction on the employment of women

women in a week did 77 hours of domestic work.

Gender - family - Barlow et al

1. 1 in 5 children are born into an unmarried couple, fathers rarely have legal rights over the children, even if they are providing financial support

2. the father under law cannot take the child on a foreign holiday, provide medical consent and no legal right to custody

3. many are unaware of the lack of rights, with political actions being placed for fathers e.g. Fathers for Justice

Gender - family - DV Men

1. 1 in 6 men will be victims of domestic violence at some stage in their life

2. for centuries, domestic violence against men has gone hidden, with victims no increasingly speaking out and looking for support by there seems to be a bias towards women

3. abusive women often use bias of the Family Courts to inflict emotional and financial abuse against men

ethnicity - workplace - Barron and Norris

‘dual labour market' theory

primary labour market - well paid, secure jobs

secondary labour market - poorly paid, insecure jobs

Ethnic minorities are more commonly found in the secondary labour market

ethnicity - workplace - Home Office

Even with educational qualifications, minorities are still les able to gain employment

known as Ethnic penalty

e.g.

1. White unemployment - 5%

2. black employment - 14%

3. Pakistani and Bangladeshi ethnic minorities are most likely to live in poverty in the UK

ethnicity - workplace - Cabinet office

1. reacial discrimination plays a part in the position of ethnics in the labour market

2. ethnics are in low paid and low status jobs e.g. Bangladeshi’s earn ½ of what white men do

3. African women find finding work harder than white women and often forced to take lower levels jobs

ethnicity - workplace - Davidson

Women face a glass ceiling ( invisible barrier to promotion)

ethnic minorities gain an concerete ceiling impossible to break through due to racism and sexism

ethnicity - education - Coard

African Caribbean boys perform the worst in GCSE’s

1. due to racism from teachers and too focused on a white British culture, making them feel inferior

2. the low expectations from teachers results in a self-fulfilling prophecy

ethnicity - education - Wright

1. found considerable racial discrimination in the classroom of primary schools

2. Asian children excluded from discussion due to assuming their poor command of English, using simplistic language when they did

3. Asian girls seemed invisible to their teachers and received less attention than other students

ethnicity - education - Archer and Francis

1. Chinese children do so well because their parents place great emphasis on their child’s educational success

2. the observer - found Chinese parents spend £100,000 on teaching children ‘Britishness# for Oxbridge exams

3. known as tiger parenting

ethnicity - education - Modood

1. Chinese and Indians do the best in education because they have high cultural capital and focus on success

2. due to emphasis on migrants to prove their position and opportunities for their children, with high value being placed on them

ethnic minorities more likely to:

1. score above national average

2. gain 5 or more A-C grades

3. continue into higher education

ethnicity - media - Hall

Black males are presented by the media to be a threat to ‘social order’

1. panics in the 70’s demonised young black males despite no evidence of increasing %’s

helped capitalism due to

1. justifying force to suppress groups

2. blame immigrants rather than capitalism

ethnicity - education - Van Dijk

news presented ethnic minorities to be a threat to white majority, seen with:

1. immigrants - supply of jobs and housing

2. refugees / asylum seekers - abusing welfare state and taking advantage of the economy

3. Muslims - Islamophobia

ethnicity - education - Akinti

media ignores culture, interests and contribution of diverse black audiences, rather focusing on ‘bad news’ such as:

1. crime

2. AIDs in Africa

   1. underachievement in schools

ethnicity - education - Agbetu

black people in the media are seen in involvement in:

1. sports

2. crime

3. entertainment

where seen as perpetrators rather than victims

ethnicity - crime - official statistics

black groups are over-represented in prison populations,

04-05, they made up

• 2.8% of population but…

• 13.5% of prison population

Asian groups are also similar:

• 4.7% of population but…

• 5.4% of prison population

in comparison, white British people are under-represented

ethnicity - crime- Hood

black men are 5% more likely than white men to be sent to prison

average sentence was 3 months longer

the difference was greater amongst South Asian men

ethnicity - crime - MacPherson report

study into Stephen Lawrence’s murder

found the police were institutionally racist, with a recommendation of changes needed:

1. establish performance indicator for handling racist influence and satisfaction rates

2. training of family and witness officers

3. racial awareness training

4. recruitment of ethnic minorities

ethnicity - crime- Reiner

police have developed a ‘canteen culture’, with characteristics such as:

1. a thirst for action

2. isolation from the public

3. racism

explains why black groups are 5X more likely to be stopped and search compared to white counterparts