Soci 2071-Social Stratification-Powerpoint

Addis Ababa University - Sociology 2071: Social Stratification

Chapter 1: Overview of Social Stratification

1.1. Origin: Natural and Social

Social stratification has been prevalent for ages, emerging as a social institution at a certain level of social evolution and development.
Hunting and food gathering societies exhibited individual levels of social differentiation, such as:
- A top-hunter gaining higher status due to skills.
- Differentiation based on age and sex.
Limited population growth, less developed production technologies, and nomadic lifestyles in these societies prevented substantial economic surpluses and wealth accumulation.
These simpler societies had social differentiation but lacked the institution of social stratification.
Social stratification emerged with the development of complex societies after the domestication of plants and animals.
Complex societies are always stratified, characterized by many full-time specialized roles.
Hunting and gathering societies typically involved everyone in primary food gathering activities.
The division of labor was mainly by sex, with almost all adults of the same sex having similar day-to-day tasks.

1.1. Origins of stratification: natural vs. social

Gumplowicz, Oppenheimer, and others believed stratification originated from the conquest of one group by another.
The conquering group established itself as the upper class, dominating the conquered lower class.
Cecil North considered conquest conducive to privilege, asserting that class divisions didn't appear with a peaceful mode of life.
Sorokin disagreed, stating that conflict facilitates but does not originate stratification.
Stratification exists in both peaceful and warlike societies.
He attributed social stratification to inherited individual differences and differences in environmental conditions.
Racial differences, accompanied by cultural dissimilarity, also lead to stratification, as seen in India's caste system due to racial and cultural invasions.
Race is a significant factor in the American stratification system.
Spengler argued that stratification is based on scarcity.
Scarcity arises when society differentiates positions in terms of functions and powers, assigning rights and privileges to them.
This makes some positions more desirable, grading them by rewards; e.g., few corporation presidencies or government executive offices.
Stratification evolves from the allocation of scarce privileges and powers.
In complex societies, division of labor includes full-time specialists like potters, weavers, traders, merchants, and blacksmiths.
Social complexity is universally accompanied by political specialization, with formal leaders and agents managing collective affairs.
Complex societies are always strongly stratified, while simpler societies are egalitarian or based upon achieved roles.

1.1. Defining Social Stratification

Population distribution varies from poor to wealthy, creating social stratification.
Stratification can be open (e.g., social class) or closed (e.g., Indian caste system).
Open stratification systems allow individuals to move between strata.
Closed systems have rigid boundaries, making it difficult to change social positions.
Societies stratify members using economic criteria, sex, age, race, religion, lineage, or other criteria.
Historically and sociologically, no classless society exists.
All societies exhibit ranking systems categorizing members into higher or lower positions.
Stratification is inherent in social life.
Every society categorizes individuals into social groups, which determines their value as defined by society.
Differences in values and statuses engender stratification.
Social stratification describes the relative social position of persons within a social unit.
It's derived from the Latin "stratum," referring to socioeconomic tiers based on wealth, income, status, occupation, and power.
Modern Western societies broadly classify stratification into upper, middle, and lower classes, each with subdivisions.
Social strata may be delineated by kinship ties or caste relations.
Stratification involves unequal distribution of rights and privileges.
Giddens (2001) defines social stratification as structured inequalities between social groupings.
Inequalities arise from classifying groups, generating unequal distribution of societal resources (income, power), favoring privileged individuals and families.
Advantages and disadvantages arise from roles or group memberships.
Social class classifies individuals into hierarchies based on wealth, income, race, education, and power, rating some higher than others in opportunities and privileges.
Social stratification simply means inequality between different groups of people across almost all cultures and societies.
Social stratification has very complex concepts worldwide.
Social stratification groups people into different social classes according to birth, race, economic position, culture, ethnicity, wealth, income, occupation, education, and gender.
It is a system through which people are ranked – one above another.
This rank creates a class or division in the society.
Social stratification meaning includes categorization of individuals based on order, group, hierarchy, wealth or occupation.
Social stratification = social ranking.
Social stratification is society's categorization of people into groups based on socioeconomic factors like wealth, income, race, education, ethnicity, gender, occupation, social status, or power.
Stratification is the relative social position of persons within a social group, category, geographic region, or social unit.

1.2. Basic Concepts of Social Stratification

1.2. Social stratification in ancient times

Social stratification is also historical process.
It emerged as a social instituution of societies at a certain level of social evolution and social development.
The hunting and food gathering societies had individual levels of social differentiation.
For example, a top-hunter acquired higher status due to his personal qualities or skills which society considered to be mystical or divine in origin; or differentiation could be in terms of age and sex of the members of the society.
But owing to the limits on the popuation growth due to less developed production technologies and precarious and often nomadic nature of these societies, their social structure was quite simple endowed as it was with elementary skills among people for communication (limited language vocabulary), simple technologies, elementary forms of belief systems, and rules of social control
Such societies did not produce any substantial economic surpluses and accummulation of wealth for any member was impossible.
Such simpler societies did have social differentiation, but were withold the institution of social stratification.

Evolutionary process

Social stratification as a institution evolved when the technologies of production under went basic changes.
Innovations of animal husbandry and agriculture necessitated more complex technologies and settled forms of community life.
These economies also began to generate economic surpluses and accumulation of wealth either in the form of cattle or food production.
With assured food grains, populatioion began to grow as never before and barter and exchange, or commodities began to take place on a larger scale.
In course of time, tools of exchange were invented which could reflect values of commodities in a growth of sections of societies who had more control on wealth and power.

Continued

With development of relatively complex technologies and division of labour, not only specialized groups emerged but a division between the rural and urban centres also came into existence in course of time.
The complexity of social structure necessitated more elaborate institutions of social control over the emerging new social realities such as institutionalized form of religion, strata of functionaries specialized into differentiated form of work, culture specialists and the ruling classes etc.
The instition of social stratification came into being as a result of an evolutionary functional necessity at such a historical moment.
Formal stratification developed first in tribal scale societies that preceded states.
The classic chiefdom occupies an intermediate position between simple and complex societies, as we have observed before.
A chiefdom has some degree of division of labor by ascriptive category, but the idiom of kinship is still strong; in theory at least, a chief is just the eldest male in the most senior lineage.
Social stratification as an institution evolved when the technologies of production under went basic changes.
Innovations of animal husbandry and agriculture necessitated more complex technologies and settled forms of community life.
These economies also began to generate economic surpluses and accumulation of wealth either in the form of cattle or food grains.
With assured food grains, population began to grow as never before and barter and exchange, or commodities began to take place on a larger scale.
In course of time, tools of exchange were invented which could reflect values of commodities in a growth of sections of societies who had more control on wealth and power.
With development of relatively complex technologies and division of labour, not only specialized groups emerged but a division between the rural and urban centres also came into existence in course of time.
The complexity of social structure neccesitaed more elaborate institutions of social control over the emerging new social realities.
Such as institutionalized form of religion, strata of functionaries specialized into diferent forms of work, culture specialists and the rulling classes etc.
The institution of social stratification came into being as a result of an evolutionary functional necessity at such a historical moment.

Social classes in Ancient Greek

In Ancient Greek, the society was divided into social classes each with its own privileges, responsibilities limitations.
The Greeks believed that a person’s social position is determined by ancestry and birth.
There were three major groups in Greek society:
1. At the top of the hierarchy were citizens consisted of free men and women and had full rights;
2. below were the citizens who were the metics, who were free men and women who lived in Greek but were not citizens, and
3. at the bottom were the slaves who were owned by the citizen and did not have any rights.

Continued

In Ancient Greek, there were three main classes: the Upper class, the Middle class and the Lower class.
1. The upper class or the aristocracy consisted of wealthy landowners and high-ranking officials. They had high social status and enjoyed considerable privileges and power. They had great political influence as they dominated the highest positions in government.
2. The middle class or the yeomanry consisted of farmers, artisans and merchants. They were not as wealthy as the aristocrats but they were well respected and had more influence than the lower class.
3. The lower class represented the poorest members of the society and consisted of daily laborers, slaves and poor urban residents. They had little social and economic power and hence were found at the bottom of the social hierarchy.
Overall, the Greek society was characterized by a great deal of inequality in terms of wealth, power and social influence.

Plato's Social Classes

In the Republic, Plato divides social classes into three categories.
These categories were Rulers (philosopher, kings), Guardians, and Craftsmen.
These classes work together to ideally create Utopia.
Plato believes social order must be maintained in order to have a fully functional society.
These social classes are similar to the Feudal System, and modern day social classes. Each class has its own role, which if not carried out can disrupt the flow of society.
Within each social class all men, women, and children had their own roles that they also had to fulfill.
Rulers, otherwise known as “True Guardians” held the most worthy role, although not the most important.
Their social metallic property was gold.
The Rules were leaders and philosophers who kept society in order. To fulfill this role one must be specially educated in specifically math and dialect.
Plato believed that rulers must live in poverty, with any possessions they do have held in common. The very things, then, that mean the most to commoners will be denied to the rulers.
The next class were the Guardians, otherwise known as “auxiliaries”.
As the name implies, they were soldiers or warriors. They were responsible for defending the city from invaders, and for keeping peace. They enforce convictions and ensure that rules were obeyed. Their metallic property was silver.
Although not as worthy or as looked up to as Rulers, the Guardians held what is considered the most important role in society, much as in modern day society.
Although ancient Greek Society was dominated by the male citizen, with his full legal status, right to vote, hold public office, and own property, the social groups which made up the population of a typical Greek city-state or polis were remarkably diverse.
Women, children, immigrants (both Greek and foreign), labourers, and slaves all had defined roles, but there was interaction (often illicit) between the classes and there was also some movement between social groups, particularly for second-generation offspring and during times of stress such as wars.
The society of ancient Greece was largely composed of the following groups:
- male citizens - three groups: landed aristocrats (aristoi), poorer farmers (perioikoi) and the middle class (artisans and traders).
- semi-free labourers (e.g the helots of Sparta).
- women - belonging to all of the above male groups but without citizen rights.
- children - categorised as below 18 years generally.
- slaves - the douloi who had civil or military duties.
- foreigners - non-residents (xenoi) or foreign residents (metoikoi) who were below male citizens in status.

Social Classes

Although the male citizen had by far the best position in Greek society, there were different classes within this group.
Top of the social tree were the 'best people', the aristoi. Possessing more money than everyone else,
This class could provide themselves with armour, weapons, and a horse when on military campaign.
The aristocrats were often split into powerful family factions or clans who controlled all of the important political positions in the polis.
Their wealth came from having property and even more importantly, the best land, i.e.: the most fertile and the closest to the protection offered by the city walls.
A poorer, second class of citizens existed too.
These were men who had land but perhaps less productive plots and situated further from the city, their property was less well- protected than the prime land nearer the city proper.
The land might be so far away that the owners had to live on it rather than travel back and forth from the city. These citizens were called the perioikoi (dwellers-round-about) or even worse 'dusty- feet' and they collected together for protection in small village communities, subordinate to the neighbouring city.
As city populations grew and inheritances became ever more divided amongst siblings, this secondary class grew significantly.
A third group were the middle, business class. Engaged in manufacturing, trade, and commerce, these were the nouveau riche.
However, the aristoi jealously guarded their privileges and political monopoly by ensuring only landowners could rise into positions of real power.
However, there was some movement between classes.
Some could rise through accumulating wealth and influence, others could go down a class by becoming bankrupt (which could lead to a loss of citizenship or even being enslaved).
Ill-health, losing out on an inheritance, political upheavals, or war could also result in the 'best' getting their feet a little dusty.

Women

Female citizens had few rights in comparison to male citizens.
Unable to vote, own land, or inherit, a woman's place was in the home and her purpose in life was the rearing of children.
Contact with non-family males was discouraged and women occupied their time with indoor activities such as wool-work and weaving.
Spartan women were treated somewhat differently than in other states, for example, they had to do physical training (nude) like men, were permitted to own land, and could drink wine.
Women citizens had to marry as a virgin and marriage was usually organised by the father, who chose the husband and accepted from him a dowry.

Continued

If a woman had no father, then her interests (marriage prospects and property management) were looked after by a guardian (kurios), perhaps an uncle or other male relative.
Married at the typical age of thirteen or fourteen, love had little to do with the matching of husband and wife.
Of course, love may have developed between the couple but the best that might be hoped for was philia - a general friendship/love sentiment; eros, the love of desire, was to be found elsewhere, at least for the male.
Marriages could be ended on three grounds. The first and most common was repudiation by the husband (apopempsis or ekpempsis).
No reason was necessary, only the return of the dowry was expected.
The second termination cause was the wife leaving the family home (apoleipsis) and in this case the woman's new guardian was required to act as her legal representative. This was, however, a rare occurrence and the woman's reputation in society was damaged as a result. The third ground for termination was when the bride's father asked for his daughter back (aphairesis), probably to offer her to another man with a more attractive dowry. This last option was only possible, however, if the wife had not had children.
If a woman was left a widow, she was required to marry a close male relative in order to ensure property stayed within the family.

Continued

Women, of course, were also present in the various other non-citizen classes. The group for which we have most information is that of sex-workers. Women were here divided into two categories. The first and perhaps most common was the brothel prostitute (pornē).
The second, was the higher-class prostitute (hetaira).
These latter women were educated in music and culture and often formed lasting relationships with married men.
It was also this class of women that entertained men (in every sense) at the celebrated symposium.

Children & Adolescents

Children of citizens attended schools where the curriculum covered reading, writing, and mathematics.
After these basics were mastered, studies turned to literature (for example, Homer), poetry, and music (especially the lyre).
Athletics was also an essential element in a young person's education.
At Sparta, boys as young as seven were grouped together under the stewardship of an older youth to be toughened up with hard physical training.

Continued

In Athens, young adult citizens (aged 18-20) had to perform civil and military service and their education continued with lessons in politics, rhetoric, and culture.
Girls too were educated in a similar manner to boys but with a greater emphasis on dancing, gymnastics, and musical accomplishment which could be shown off in musical competitions and at religious festivals and ceremonies.
The ultimate goal of a girl's education was to prepare her for her role in rearing a family.
An important part of a Greek youth's upbringing involved pederasty - for both boys and girls.
This was a relationship between an adult and an adolescent which included sexual relations but in addition to a physical relationship, the older partner acted as a mentor to the youth and educated them through the elder's worldly and practical experience.

Labourers

Greek society included a significantly larger proportion of labourers than slaves.
These were semi-free workers, wholly dependent on their employer.
The most famous example is the helot class of Sparta.
These dependents were not the property of a particular citizen - they could not be sold as a slave could - and they often lived with their families.
Generally, they formed arrangements with their employer such as giving a quantity of their produce to the farm owner and keeping the rest for themselves.
Sometimes the quota required may have been high or low, and there may also have been some extra benefits to the serfs such as protection and safety in numbers.
However, the serf-class or helots could never achieve any real security as they were given little or no legal status and harshly treated, even killed in regular purges (especially in Sparta), in order to instil a fear which would ensure continued subordination to the ruling class.
In certain periods such as war, helots were required to serve in the armed forces and, fighting well, they could even earn an escape from their lot and join the intermediary social groups which existed below the level of full-citizen and included such individuals as children with parents of mixed status (e.g. father- citizen, mother-helot).

Slaves

In Greek society, slaves were seen as a necessary and perfectly normal part of city-life.
Acquired through war and conquest, kidnap and purchase, slaves were simply amongst life's losers.
There were even intellectual arguments from philosophers like Aristotle, which propounded the belief that slaves were demonstrably inferior, a product of their environment and inherited characteristics.
Greeks persuaded themselves that it was they who had the best environment and characteristics and the purest bloodline and were, therefore, born to rule.
It is impossible to say with accuracy how many slaves (douloi) there were in Greek society and what proportion of the population they made up. It is unlikely, due to the costs, that every single citizen had their own slave but some citizens undoubtedly owned many slaves.
Accordingly, estimates of the slave population in the Greek world range from between 15 and 40% of the total population.
However, a defence speech made in a court case in Athens by Lysias, and hints from others such as Demosthenes, strongly suggest that if every citizen did not have slaves then they certainly desired them and to be a slave owner was considered a measure of social status.
Slaves were not only owned by private individuals but also by the state, which used them in municipal projects such as mining or, as in the case of Athens, the police force.
The relationship between slaves and owners seems to have been much as in any other period of history with a mix of contempt, distrust, and abuse from the owners and contempt, theft, and sabotage from the enslaved. Source material is always from the viewpoint of the slave owner but there are references in literature, particularly in Greek comedy, of friendship and loyalty in at least some owner-slave relationships.
Whilst the flogging of slaves is commonly referred to in Greek plays, there were also treatises written extolling the benefits of kindness and incentives in slave management.
Slaves worked in all spheres and over 200 hundred occupations have been identified.
These include working in the home, in agriculture, industry workshops (e.g.: making shields, food, clothes and perfumes), mines, transport, retail, banking, entertainment, in the armed forces as attendants to their owner or as baggage carriers, as rowers in naval vessels or even as fighters.
Farms were generally small affairs with even the richest citizens tending to own several small farms rather than one large estate, therefore, slaves were not concentrated into large groups as in later ancient societies.
For slaves there was, at least for some, a glimmer of hope to one day achieve their freedom.
There are instances when slaves, particularly those involved in manufacturing and industry, living separately from their owners and given a certain financial independence, could pay for their freedom with money they had saved.
Also, slaves in the army were sometimes given their freedom by the state following their victorious exploits.

Foreigners

Aside from slaves, most Greek poleis would have had a number of free foreigners (xenoi) who had chosen to re-locate from other areas of Greece, the Mediterranean, and the Near East, bringing with them skills such as pottery and metalworking.
These foreigners usually had to register their residence and so became a recognised class (lower in status than the full- citizens) called the metics (metoikoi).
In return for the benefits of 'guest' citizenship they had to provide a local sponsor, pay local taxes, sometimes pay additional taxes, contribute to the costs of minor festivals, and even participate in military campaigns when necessary.
Despite the suspicions and prejudices against foreign 'barbarians' which often crop up in literary sources, there were cases when metoikoi did manage to become full citizens after a suitable display of loyalty and contribution to the good of the host state.
They then received equal tax status and the right to own property and land.
Their children too could also become citizens. However, some states, notably Sparta, at times actively discouraged immigration or periodically expelled xenoi.
The relationship between foreigners and local citizens seems to have been a strained one, particularly in times of wars and economic hardship.

1. BASIC CONCEPTS OF SOCIAL STRATIFICATION

Social stratification is concerned with inequalities and structures of power relations.
It examines the division of people into layers or strata based on socio- economic factors.
Sociologists posited that the layering of people is an inevitable feature of the social world.
People stand in all sorts of social relationships to others. These social relationships are hierarchical as opposed to non-hierarchical or egalitarian.
Persons can occupy various social positions.
Although divisions are often based on gender, religion, or race and ethnicity, the present entry focuses largely on socioeconomic inequalities, for the most part leaving other forms of social inequality to other entries.

1.3. Social stratification in modern society

In modern Western societies, social stratification is defined in terms of three social classes: an upper class, a middle class, and a lower class; in turn, each class can be subdivided into an upper-stratum, a middle-stratum, and a lower stratum.
A social stratum can be formed upon the bases of kinship, clan, tribe, or caste, or all four.

1. BASIC CONCEPTS OF SOCIAL STRATIFICATION

1.4. Social Inequality

In every society, some people have valued resources-money, housing, education, health, and power-more than others. Such patterns are commonly called social inequality.
Social inequality is taken to include differences on many levels: income, resources, power, status, social capital, as well as in levels of social inclusion and exclusion.
Social inequality is “the condition where people have unequal access to valued resources, services and positions in society”.
It is broader than just wealth inequality because it also includes factors like discrimination and access to government support.
The patterns of unequal access to social resources are commonly called social equality.
Social resources can be divided into three forms of capital
- (A). Economic capital:- They are in the form of material assets and income.
- (B). Cultural capital:- They are in the form of education and stattus
- (C). Social capital:- They are in the form of network of contracts and social associations.
Social inequalities are social becuase they are not about individuals but about groups.
They are social and not economic although there is a strong link between social and economic inequality.
Social inequalities are systematic and structured as there is a definite pattern to social inequalities.
When social inequality occurs, there is an uneven distribution of resources between individuals or groups, and this happens in almost all societies.
These resources and rights go from education, to power, status and so on.
When social inequality occurs, there is an unequal distribution of and unequal access to material and non- material goods:
Material goods could be income, but also things like housing.
Non-material social goods refer to intangible things such as access to social networks or social status.
Social inequality is a multi-faceted approach to uneven differences in access to resources for different social positions or statuses within a group or society.
Social inequality is the result of social hierarchy or stratification, with class, gender, race, ethnicity, or sexuality being part of the experience of social inequality.
It’s also an inevitable feature of society.

Social inequality

Some social inequality reflects differences in people themselves-their varying abilities and efforts.
For example, the difference between husband and wife becomes socially important when a husband carries out his responsibilities as the head of the family according to the culture of the society and the wife becomes submissive as a result.
Here, the difference between the two is significant because it is rooted in their relationship.
In term of inequality, husband has higher social status than his wife, one that allows him to perform certain actions that his wife is not allowed to carry out (and vice versa).
Determining the structures of social stratification arises from inequalities of status among persons.
The degree of social inequality determines a person's social stratum.
Apart from the natural differences, human beings are also differentiated according to socially approved criteria.
Socially differentiated men are treated as socially unequal from the point of view of enjoyment of social rewards like status, power, income etc.
That may be called social inequality. The term social inequality simply refers to the existence of socially created inequalities.
All societies arrange their members in terms of superiority, inferiority and equality.
We may observe this inequality in almost all cultures and societies.
It refers to the differences and inequalities in the socioeconomic life of people in a given society.
It represents the ranking of individuals or social positions and statuses in the social structure.
It refers to hierarchical arrangement of people into different classes or strata which is the division of a population into two or more layers, each of which is relatively homogenous, between which there are differences in privileges, restrictions, rewards and obligations
Thus, dimensions like gender, sexuality, ethnicity or class all impact on being able to access, or not, social goods and resources as well as opportunities.
Social inequality is important because it has an impact on people’s life chances, in their living conditions, their work opportunities and the overall life outcomes of both individuals and groups.

Examples of social inequality.

Wealth inequality:
- Wealth plays a major role in social perpetuating inequality.
- People with higher net worth have greater access to resources, can out-bid poorer people for access to limited resources, and can buy access to people in power.
Income inequality:
- Income inequality functions in a similar way to wealth inequality, but refers to unequal distribution of money in the workforce.
- For example, the wage differential between CEOs and workers has spiked in recent decades, which has exacerbated social inequalities.
Access to basic education:
- Access to basic education is unequal when wealthier neighborhoods have better primary schools, or when lack of public transit to schooling acts as a substantial barrier for poorer people.
Access to higher education:
- Inequal access to education can be a result of factors such as geographical barriers and financial barriers.
- Without higher education, it is harder to achieve social mobility.
Age inequality:
- Also known as ageism, this refers to discrimination against people based on their age.
- For example, it occurs in relation to access to employment for those over the age of 50.
Deprived neighborhoods:
- Deprived neighborhoods are an example of how it is not only individuals who suffer inequality.
- Sometimes, whole areas can be affected by the unequal distribution of rights and resources.
- This happens, for example, when some neighborhoods have restricted access to hospitals and transport.
Housing inequality:
- Having access to a house, or living in sufficient accommodation, is both a cause and a consequence of social inequality.
- Living in a social housing, for example, is related to being at the bottom of the social hierarchy.
Racial inequality:
- Inequality based on race can be a result of systemic and intergenerational racism, a discriminatory attitude by which access to rights has not been distributed equally across people of different races, and which has been passed down through generations of deprivation.
Gender inequality:
- Inequality based on gender is called sexism, a discriminatory attitude by which women are more likely to be worse off in the equality scales.
- For example, they tend to earn less than men for the same jobs.
Health access inequality:
- Inequal access to healthcare is most starkly shown by the rural-urban divide (where rural people often need to travel to cities to receive care) and the class divide, where working-class people often find funding to be a barrier to access to quality care.
Caste systems:
- Traditional caste societies deny access to jobs based on your ascribed status at birth.
- Furthermore, they may deny people from marrying one another across castes.
Geographical inequality:
- Geographical inequality can be within a nation (e.g. the rural-urban divide) as well as globally (e.g. developing vs developed nations).
Citizenship status:
- People may face limited protections based upon their citizenship. Non-citizens are denied human rights like access to a lawyer, we might start to consider citizenship status as a dimension of inequality in a society.
Child poverty:
- People born into poverty can experience malnutrition, poorer educational results, and lower overall lifetime earnings on average.
Power and status inequality:
- Access to powerful people is unequally distributed. People who are privileged on the social hierarchy have higher social status and consequently have more access to people in powerful political and corporate positions. There is also inequal power distribution between men and women.
LGBTQ+ Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer discrimination:
- Historically, LGBT people have faced discrimination that has affected their ability to do many things heterosexual people can access, including starting and raising a family, and accessing healthcare as spouses.
Intergenerational inequality:
- This occurs when one generation in society has had greater access to resources than others at similar points in their lives.
- For example, in the UK and Australia, baby boomers had free higher education, which was denied to future generations who had to pay for it. This affected future generations’ prospects in a way that did not affect baby bookers.
Service inequality:
- Unequal access to services can be seen across many vectors of society, including the rural-urban divide and rich-poor divide.
Discriminatory laws:
- Laws that entrench discrimination, such as segregation laws, can be a source of social inequality.
Indigenous inequality:
- First nations groups have long suffered from inequal access to resources in society. One demonstration of this is the lack of clean drinking water in many first nations communities in Canada.

1. BASIC CONCEPTS OF SOCIAL STRATIFICATION

1.5. Social Hierarchy

Every society is segmented in to different hierarchies.
Hierarchy is a basic element of social life.
Social stratification is the allocation of individuals and groups according to various social hierarchies of differing power, status, or prestige.
In virtually all societies, some people are regarded as more important than others (more worthy of respect than others), either within the society as a whole or in a certain situations.
Social stratification is the segmentation of society into different hierarchical arrangement or strata.
A social hierarchy is a ranking system that organizes society so that some people have greater social status than others.
Social hierarchies are means by which societies rank, classify, and distribute privileges and roles to their