HSB Chapter 5

Social Stratification

The ranking of people in any given society by class, status, gender, ethnicity, age, etc. that persists through generations

Stratified Society

A society in which there in an unequal distriution of rewards or valuables among its members

Origins of Stratification

Developed around 5,000 years ago.

Hunter-Gatherer societies had little stratification; they were small, nomadic, and reliant on each other without enough wealth to create a divide between “wealthy” and “poor”; power was equalized because the welfare of the entire community depended on everyone sharing resources - there was SOME stratification based on age and sex; adults had power of children, men over women.

Stratification in Horticultural/Pastorial Societies (farming)

Stratification emerged naturally because people had reliable food for the first time; wealth was based on ownership of cultivated plants and pastures and bred animals

Stratification in the Industrial Age

Technological advances made it possible for the rich to become richer and the poor found it difficult to rise above their system; more elaborite and flexible social stratification systems grew and had a large impact on social class development.

Stratification in the Post-Industrial Age

Societies focused more on the production and consumption of goods. Before, middle-class individuals coud support their families by working in factories or jobs that require competitive levels of post-secondary education to get a middle-class job

Closed System

A system with strict boundaries between different social positions

Ascribed Status

A social position assigned to a person without regard for his or her characteristics or talents. Eg. slavery or Indian caste system

Open System

A system in which the boundaries between social positions are more flexible

Achieved Status

A social position attained by a person largely through his or her own effort

Social Mobility

The movement of individuals or gorups from one level in a stratification system to another

Intergenerational Mobility

Social movement experienced by family members from one generation to the next

Intragenerational Mobility

Social movement of individuals within their own lifetime

Slavery

The most extreme form of social stratification; a closed system in which people are owned by otehrs and are treated as property with little to no control over their lives

Origins of Slavery

Originated with the development of agriculture and the division of labour; social inequality became intensified between labourers and employees when humans introduced specialized tasks into their way of life/work. Society came to value some jobs over others.

Earliest cases of slavery date back to about 2100 BCE and has been identified as a system of social stratification all over the world.

It still takes many forms around the world; human trafficking, bonded labour, forced labour, sex trafficking. 12-27 million people are caught in some form of slavery. ¾ victims are female, ½ are children.

Caste System

A system of social inequality in which a person’s permanent social status is determined at birth based on their parents’ ascribed characteristics; shapes a person’s occupation, marriage, social life, and belief system - used by India and South Africa

Occupation in Caste System

Many generations of a family perform the same type of work for their whole lives.

Marriage in Caste System

People are only allowed to marry within their own ethnic or social group

Social Life in Caste System

Caste systems guide everyday life so people only sprend time and socialize with “their own kind”

Belief Systems in Caste System

Cultural and religious beliefs and values sustain and uphold caste systems; the value of the system is internalized from birth so that individuals do not question their status.

Apartheid

An official policy of racial segregation formerly practised in South Africa involving political, legal, and economic discrimination against non-whites

Class System

More open than slavery or caste systems with vaguely defined boundaries between classes

Horizontal Mobility

When people experience a gain or loss in position and/or income that doesn’t produce a change in their place in the class structure

Veritcal Mobility

When people experience a gain or loss in position and/or income that causes movement up or down the class structure.

Weber on Class, Status, and Power

Accepted the importance of class as a major source of inequality and conflict. Insisted that no single characcter totally defines a person’s positio within the stratification system. In addition to class, he identified status and power as important dimensions of social inequality. Used “class” to refer to people with a similar level of welath and income. S

Status Group

A group of people who have the same prestige or lifestyle.

Eg. doctors/lawyers/university professors, shop attendants/bartenders

Funcitonalist Perspective of Social Inequality

Inequality is not only inevitable but positive and necessary for society to function properly.

Emile Durkheim - believed that individuals identify with society as a whole and see themselves as part of the bigger picture.

Kingsley Davis and Wilbert Moore

Functionalist Perspective on Social Inequality

All societies have important tasks that need to be accomplished and certain positions that have to be filled and some are more important for society’s survival; thus, the most important positions should be filled by the most qualified people. More qualified generally means more talent, extensive training, or both, and thus should be highly rewarded.

Essentially the greater the functional importance, the higher the reward.

Logic behind this is that unequal distribution of resources motivated people to aspire to do the most significant work possible and to work better, harder, and longer

Meritocracy

A society where people are judged on their inidividual abilities rather than their family connections

Davis and Moore’s ideal society type

Melvin Tumin and the Principles of Social Stratification

Argued that the importance of a position isn’t always determined by a high salary or level of prestige - for example, Signey Crosby’s season salary for 2011-2012 was $9 million whereas the prime minister’s was $315,462

Suggests that economic rewards and prestige aren’t the only means of encouraging people to fill important positions; personal pleasure and intrinsit satisfaction also motivate people to enter particular careers; ability doesn’t determine a person’s success and gender and class are better predictors of who obtains positions associated with wealth, power, and prestige

Symbolic Interactionist Perspectice of Social Inequality

Proposed by George H. Mead

Looks at human interaction/behaviour from a microsociological point of view, examining individual actions, behaviours, and understandings. People interact with each other by interpreting and defining the languange and actions of others and attaching meaning to them. Focuses on the interaction among people based on mutually understood symbols and helps understand how people are socialized to accept the existing stratification strucutre.

Sees power as relative; something that is negotiated between people with different capacities and interests - there is a mutual understanding among people that they are part of a hierarchical system and they accept it.

People are taught that a person’s social class is the result of talent and effort; those on top have worked hard and used their abilities and those on the bottom lack the talent or motiviation to succeed - leads to the conclusion that it isn’t fair to challenge the system and people come to accept it.

Social Class

A segment of societ whose members hold similar amounts of resources and often share values, norms, lifestyle, education, and type of work

Upper Class

3-5% of Canadians

Those who own substantial amounts of wealth. Much of this wealth is inherited, with only a select few earning their fortunes.

Middle Class

40-50% of Canadians

Usually represented in lots of media and TV and advertising is often targeted towards this population because they represent a majority.

Often referred to as “white collar” workers because they have professional, managerial, or administrative jobs.

Have relatively high-paying, secure occupations that offer generous benefit allowances, many of them within the public sector.

Working Class

30% of Canadians

People who sold their labout to owners of factories for wages.

Sometimes known as “blue collar” workers because of the manual labour their job requires (eg. factory workers, technicians, mechanics, tradespeople, etc.)

Some require little formal training while others need a lot of technical schooling and expertise.

Are traditionally paid less than middle class, but this has been changing.

The line between working and middle class is sometimes unclear; consumer goods, children education, scholarships, etc. are quite similar

Lower Class

15-20% of Canadians

The lowest or no income - unstable and insecure life

Might work part-time jobs with income enough to cover only necessities, might be supported by welfare payments.

Some can’t access better work because of disability, lack of training, age barriers, family responsibilities, etc. and are unable to acquire goods and services, often going hungry and relegated to rental housing in poorer neighbourhoods.

Will sometimes try to improve their situation by taking low paying or part time jobs; can result in cuts in welfare or other social support payments and the loss of medical and other benefits.

Poverty will often pass through generations; children from poorer families may leave school before they get the skills to get a good job, resulting in their children being unable to complete education because of a lack of financial support

The Occupy Movement

Started on Wall Street on September 17, 2011

Meant to protest economic and social inequalities

Spread throughout the US, Canada, and Europe (as well as some other countries)

The main idea was the idea of disparity between the elite few who own and earn significantly more wealth and income and the average person

Reached Canada by October 9, 2011

Movement was initiated by Adbusters and followed the slogan “We are the 99%”

Born out of frustration for what was occurring on Wall Street (US financial sector) and in Washington

The Occupy Wall Street Movement was meant to “expand anywhere people were frustrated with their political and economic systems and wanted change”

Canadians and Americans believe that income inequality has grown as wealth has become more concentrated in the hands of a few

There is doubt about whether the American Dream is still possible (that if you work hard and are responsible, no matter the circumstances of your birth, you will have the chance to pursue your dreams and ambitions

The Occupy Movement protests were used to gain the media’s attention to help effect change

Incmome

The amount of money received

Wealth

The economic resources possessed

Quintiles

Fifths or 20% of a total population

Top quintile is one-fifth of people with the highest income and it goes down from there (in 2005 richest quintile held 69% of the nation’s wealth)

Economic Inequality

If Canada was equal, each quintile would have 20% of the income; the lowest quintile has 4.9% of what it would receive in a perfectly equal society

Disposable Income

The income left over after paying for necessities such as food, clothing, and accomodation

Absolute Poverty

The deprivation of resources that are often considered essential: enough food and fresh water and a safe place to live are some examples

Relative Poverty

Measuring the deprivation of some people against those who have more

Low Income Cut-Offs (LICO)

A statistical measure by Stats Canada instead of an official poverty line that is a means of identigying economic equality (commonly known as “haves” and “have notes”. Uses the amount a hosuehold spends on food, shelter, and clothing to define who’s poor

If a family spends 64% or more of their after-tax income on the basics, they are considered poor

Ethnicity and Race in Inequality

Poverty rates for visible minorities are three times higher than the White population; 19.8% of visible minority families live in poverty

People from ethnic groups with the highest years of schooling would earn the most income

Those with higher incomes tend to have higher life expectancies

The richest 10 percent of the population lives an average of 7.4 years longer than the poorest 10 percent

In 1985, Asian, Black, British, and Jewish Canadians had the average years of schooling while Indigenous communities had the lowest; this correlates with income

2006: 16.2 percent of Canadians belonged to a visible minority group; minority men were 24% more likely to be unemployed than white men, minority women were 48% more likely to be unemployed than white men and earned only 55.6% of what white men earned

Aboriginal people are the most disadvantaged; ½ live below the low-income cut-off and some live in extreme poverty

Low average earnings of ethnic groups can be attributed to racist and discriminatory employment and hiring practices

Social Background in Inequality

Working-class men and women have lower levels of post-secondary schooling than their counterparts in the middle class

• Lower income means working class students have more difficulty financing the cost of post-secondary education

Education and studying are not a major part of working class life and culture

Individuals’ parents who didn’t finish high school have a 1 in 5 chance of attending university

Likelihood of attending university when one parents attended is about 1 in 2

• For women, this an increase of 50.4% in 1991 to 61.7% in 2000

• For men, they were 48.7% and 52.5%

Parental income and education are strongly related to children’s school success

Attawapiskat, Ontario - Case Study

James Bay Ontario

Living in a state of emergency started October 11 in Third World conditions

Residents living in makeshift tents and shacks without heat, electricity, and indoor plumbing

At least 90 people were living in construction workers’ portables equipped with only two washrooms and four showers among them; some used buckets and stuff

They were in these living places because they had to move out of their homes because of mold and stuff

The only difference between Third World conditions and Attawapiskat was the temperature; the state of emergency was declared as the temperature dropped to -20C

Red Cross brought them heavy sleeping bags and stuff but there was no government response

Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan claimed that they had no knowledge of the conditions despite having visited several times

Discussion of if government should have intervened and whos responsibility it was and stuff

Gender in Inequality

Men have higher average incomes than women despite same education and same jobs

In 2008, women earned 83.3 cents for every dollar earned by men

Disproportionate number of women in senior management, and middle management

Men were three times more likely to hold a senior management position from 1997 to 2009

Conference Board of Canada blames the lack of progress on gendered choices in education, stereotyped ideas about leadership, women's lack of mentoring and preparation, discomfort with self-promotion, inhospitable organizational cultures, and harassment (as well as motherhood and children)

One women have children, many choose part time work or shortened hours and more time off

Educational requirement of jobs has increased and single mothers have found it difficult to obtain necessary qualifications; the difficulty and expenses of raising a child frequently make it financially unfeasible for many single mothers to seek employment

Tracey Robinson: vice-president of marketing and sales with Canadian Pacific Railway that has achieved both professional and personal goals.

• She works 60 houts a week, is on the road ⅓ of the time and has four children

Women want to feel satisfied about their work but also other things in their life; it’s not that women are ill-equipped for top jobs, but are choosing not to toss everything aside to climb the corporate ladder

Glass Ceiling

An invisible but real barrier through which the next stage or level of advancement can be seen but not reached by a section of qualified and deserving employees; used to describe the pay gap between men and women

Authority of the Male Standpoint

Proposed by Dorothy Smith.

Laws, legal system, and language are premised on the male view

This is so internalized that women have difficulty speaking and writing in a voice that includes their gender

This is because the male standpoint is seen as universal

“A man’s body gives credibility to his utterance; a woman’s body takes it away from her”

Accepting the male standpoint as universal excludes and silences women

Ideology and the Relations of Ruling

Proposed by Dorothy Smith.

Expanded on Marxist concept of ideology

Smith indicates that what’s believed is conditioned by the cultural vehicles and women have very little control

Ideological notions become organized and embedded into our consciousness

It would be easier for women to have authority if the person of people they are trying to govern accept as legitimate the women’s version of the world and if they dismiss or suppress their own version of the world as inadequate

Smith believes that until the everyday experiences of women and workers and all other marginalized groups are taken into account, sociology will continue to reflect the male standpoint and the relations of the ruling

Age in Inequality

Canada’s population is aging

Results in a need for responsive policies, programs, and services to serve thr growing number of Canadian seniors

A lot of older people continue to live under very difficult economic conditions

33.8% of unattached women and 26.1 percent of unattached men over the age of 65 lived below the poverty line

Older people are often retired and no longer gain income from employment

Older people tend to spend whatever sayings they may have accumulated over their working lives

Seniors (after children and youth) are the largest group living in poverty in North America

When older people are able to work, they generally work for minimum wage

Physical and Mental Disability in Inequality

Historically, people with disabilities were excluded from participating in mainstream society, especially in the workforce

Canada’s Constitution Act in 1982 (and the support of Coalition of Provincial Organization of the Handicapped) let people with disabilities be included in the equity clause

Today, handicapped people are entitled to equal access to housing, employment, and public accommodations

Many people with disabilities now find themselves participating actively and fully in work and social activities

The percentage of people with disabilities with jobs raising throughout the years grew, but people with disabilities continue to face prejudice and discrimination