3.2: Social Inequality and How It's Created:

WEALTH AND INCOME:

WEALTH:

• Refers to the ownership of financial savings and of things that can be bought and sold to generate income

• Includes: stocks and shares in companies, pensions, land, houses, art, jewelry, etc.

• It is often inherited and indicates social class position

• In the UK, the wealthiest 10% of adults own about 40% of wealth while least wealthy 10% own about 1% of wealth --> unequal distribution of wealth

INCOME:

• Sum of earnings from work and other sources 

• Includes: social security, pensions, interest on building society and bank accounts, dividends on shares, etc.

• Since taxes and other deductions have to be made, people receive disposable incomes which is the amount people can directly spend or save

• Income plays a significant role in life chances (richer=bigger house, high-paying job)

INEQUALITIES IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES:

• The government tried to help the poorer by providing for them (e.g.: money) which is known as welfare state

• It was done to make society more equal however it backfired and inequality increased

• More equal societies include Japan, Norway, Sweden, and Finland

• Wilkinson and Pickett in The Spirit Level argued that aspects of society are not decided by how wealthy a country is but by how equal or unequal it is

• The gap between the rich and the poor includes:

1. Physical and mental health and obesity

2. Educational performance

3. Levels of violence

4. Lack of opportunities for social mobility

GOVERNMENT MEASURES TO REDUCE INEQUALITY:

• Modern industrial societies see themselves as meritocracies which is a society in which individuals achieve the level that their talents and abilities deserve

• Due to not wanting inequality to be extreme, welfare is applied to some extent through taxation and contribution for those in need

• Welfare occurs due to:

1. Moral: it is wrong to let rich people prosper and look down on poor people who cannot find food

2. Political: fear of a rebellion from the working class

• Redistribution of wealth and power reduces class struggle

CRITICIZMS OF GOVERNMENT MEASURES:

• • Right-wing politicians argue that welfare state is too expensive and can create a culture of dependency (people depend on the benefits given)

  • Welfare states criticized by conservative and right-wing politicians and writers since:

1. Encourages dependency culture so people don't look after themselves

2. Generous payments discourages unemployed people to look for jobs

3. Expensive because it provides for more people (not just people in need)

4. Risk of producing an underclass (rely on welfare)

5. System is open for abuse and can become a nanny state

• Marxists and left-wing politicians see welfare as bribing and softening harsh effects of capitalism so reduces the demands for radical change

• Governments also reduce inequality by:

1. Progressive taxation: richer people pay more taxes than poorer people

2. Providing free goods/services for poorer members of society

3. Providing state education to ensure poor people get educated too

4. Setting a minimum wage

5. Equal opportunities legislation to remove discrimination against minorities (age, sex, gender, disability, religion, etc.)

THE PROBLEMS OF DEFINING WEALTH AND POVERTY:

• The groups who are most likely to live in poverty include:

1. Lone parents and their children

2. Unemployed people (especially long-term unemployed people)

3. People dependent on welfare benefits

4. Low-paid workers

5. Chronically ill or disabled people

6. Refugees, asylum seekers, and recently arrived immigrants

7. Women, children, and older people

• When defining poverty, it is important to look at the relative and absolute poverty

1. Relative poverty:

• It is being poor in relation to others in the same society

• Example: not having a certain desire such as a washing machine that is considered essential in that society

• They have the basic necessities of life but have a lower standard of living than people in that society

2. Absolute poverty:

• It is living without some if not all of the basic necessities of life (food, drink, shelter, sanitation, health, education, and information)

HOW TO CALCULATE THE POVERTY LEVEL?

1. Having an income which is less than 60% of the median income. This way poverty becomes closely connected to inequality

2. Calculated from the total costs of the necessities of life (used by Peter Townsend). Townsend noticed that what people called necessities change over time such as the need for a refrigerator 

• The level below which people are considered poor in a particular society is called the poverty line

THE CAUSES OF POVERTY:

• It can occur due to:

1. Not having paid work

2. Being in low-paid work

3. Receiving benefits that still leave people below the poverty line

4. Cycle of poverty (inherited by previous generation)

• Cycle of poverty refers to families that have been in poverty for at least 3 generations since the factors that cause poverty don't change (people don't have the resources to escape poverty and lack social and cultural capital). As a result, they end up in poverty trap (unable to escape from poverty)

• The cycle continues since:

1. The poor cannot afford to travel to cheap supermarkets so they use expensive local shops

2. They cannot afford to buy in bulk which is cheaper

3. They cannot afford home insulation so they pay for a lot of fuel

4. They cannot afford facilities to take up opportunities

5. They are unable to borrow money from the bank

• One explanation of the cycle of poverty is culture of poverty (when poor people have set of values that keep them in poverty) such as:

1. Low levels of education

2. Unable to plan for the future

3. Desiring immediate gratification

4. Fatalism

5. Depending on others

6. Not using resources like banks

SOCIAL EXCLUSION: 

• Social exclusion: people who are systematically excluded from rights, opportunities, and resources available to others

• They can miss out on:

1. Housing

2. Employment

3. Health care

4. Transport

• Governments need to provide financial help and include people who are excluded

• However, welfare benefits can make social exclusion worse

SOCIOLOGICAL THEORIES AND POVERTY:

1. Functionalists:

• They see inequality as a positive thing since society has to reward some people more than others

• If everyone were to be paid the same, no one would take up unpleasant jobs which still needs to be done like cleaning the streets and bathrooms

2. Marxists:

• They see inequality as inevitable consequences of capitalism

• Capitalists pay their workers as little as possible and introduce automation to increase their profits

• Bourgeoisie can also have a reserve army or labor which means having people working for you until their presence is no longer needed

3. Right-wing thinkers:

• They blame the poor for being poor

• Poverty caused by culture not society

4. Feminists:

• Believe that more women are in poverty than men (feminization of poverty)

• Due to lone mothers, being paid less than men, and limited employment opportunities

CONSEQUENCES OF BEING RICH OR POOR IN A GLOBAL CONTEXT:

• The global measure of poverty/absolute poverty is living on less than US $1.25 per day

• Many of the world’s poorest people live in countries with economic growth such as India and China. They face risks like:

1. Living in slums with no security and risk of the government bulldozing their home

2. Living in rural areas with limited access to education and health

3. Political instability and civil wars affect the poor the most since they cannot escape

4. Climate change 

• Global bourgeoisie have a higher standard of living than the majority of the world’s population due to their lifestyle 

ETHNICITY:

WHAT IS ETHNICITY?

• It is another word for race and is divided biologically

• One common division is Caucasoid (White), Negroid (Black), and Mongoloid (Asian)

HOW THIS LED TO INEQUALITY?

• Racial prejudice: it is the belief that a racial group is superior to another and could be used to discriminate people (e.g.: denying them a promotion)

• Institutional racism: it is built into the way that an organization or a system works

• Racial inequality was found during the colonial period when European rulers formed privileged elite (top of the stratification system)

• It was also found in South Africa during the apartheid system

FUNCTIONALISM AND ETHNICITY:

• Newly arrived immigrants groups who are ethnically distinct need to become assimilated (gradually lose their cultural identity and adopt the values of the host community)

• The aspects of assimilation include:

1. Socioeconomic status: more likely to get a low paying unskilled job first but get a better skilled one over time

2. Residential concentration: when immigrants first arrive to the host society, they are more likely to live in areas among people who share the same culture. Overtime, they spread out

3. Language attainment: newly arrived immigrants will speak their mother language over the host’s which changes over time

4. Intermarriage: marrying outside immigrant community

• Discrimination may make it impossible to improve the socioeconomic status

MARXISM AND ETHNICITY:

• Marxists see racism as a result of the capitalist economic structure 

• The ruling class convince the working that any issues they go through are the fault of the immigrants thus scapegoating (when individuals are blamed/punished for something that isn’t their fault) them

RIGHT-WING VIEW; THE UNDERCLASS:

• They find minority ethnic groups as an underclass which are characterized by:

1. Multiple deprivations such as low income, unemployment, poor housing and education, etc.

2. Social marginality (lack power so less aware of their rights)

3. Fatalism

4. Dependency on the welfare state

• It can be made up of lone parents and old people depending on state pensions

• Some right-wing thinkers believe that the underclass is mainly a Black phenomenon

• Charles Murray argued that African-Americans are less intelligent than other Americans so their culture leads to illegitimacy, single parenthood, and inadequate socialization

ETHNICITY, EDUCATION, EMPLOYMENT, AND HOUSING:

• All these factors can contribute to discrimination

• In education, teachers can stereotype the ethnic pupils as lazy so the students may believe it and perform poorly

• In employment, ethnic minorities can be denied a job even if they have the qualifications for it

• In housing, informal segregation when members of minorities planning to move to a new area are made aware that they will not be welcome

GENDER:

EFFECTS OF GENDER ON LIFE CHANCES:

• The most basic ascribed status is your gender (either male or female) and can be affected by patriarchy

• In patriarchal societies, men have a higher status and power than women 

• Ways in which women's life chances can be affected from men:

1. They have triple the burden of work: income, domestic labor (work within the house), and emotional work (e.g.: taking care of her kids)

2. They earn less than men even for the same work

3. Women's health differs due to pregnancy and childbirth

4. They experience violence (domestic, genital mutilation called circumcision, etc.)

5. In some countries, boys are preferred so females are aborted as fetuses

6. Girls are less likely to go to school than boys

7. Girls are more likely to marry young and end their education. Early pregnancy can cause health issues

8. Women are more likely to live in poverty than men

9. Women live longer on average of 5 years

CHANGING ROLE OF A WOMAN IN MODERN I.S.:

• They now play a greater role in the workforce as well as being a mother yet still face discrimination

• Men have taken on greater housework responsibility

• Women are more likely to work part-time which can affect promotion opportunities

FEMINISM AND GENDER INEQUALITY:

• Recall the different types of feminists (liberal, radical, Marxist) here

• Black feminists (African-American and African-Caribbean) see racism and ethnicity as part of the explanation of the situation of ethnic minority women

• Many feminists felt like feminism was too negative or that women are too attached to their nuclear family (husband and the kids)

• Many women scared other women by telling them how chasing a career is sacrificing the joys of motherhood

GENDER DISCRIMINATION AND EMPLOYMENT:

• During pre-industrial societies, the family was the unit of production and there was no housewife role

• During the industrial revolution, men and their kids worked. However, when the age restriction for working was applied, it was only men who worked

• There were restrictions on female employment. Ann Oakley sums up the effects of industrialization as:

1. Men were separated from the daily domestic routine (helping around the house)

2. Women and children became economically dependent on men (their income)

3. Housework and childcare became isolated from other work

• The numbers of women working increased significantly due to:

1. Under the influence of feminist ideas (being unhappy as a housewife and wanting to work)

2. Women wanted to work

3. More girls saw their future in terms of work instead of being a housewife

4. Changed occurred so that skills and jobs traditionally associated with women became more numerous and valued

5. Laws that prevent sex discrimination led to changes

6. Changing attitudes in the workplaces

7. More female role models

TYPES OF SEGREGATION:

1. Vertical segregation: when women and men work in the same workplace, women tend to have lower levels of the hierarchy. Example: many teachers are women but mainly the head teachers are men

2. Horizontal segregation: women tend to have different occupations than men. Example: women are found a lot in kindergarten as teachers while men in high school

• Both of these together create a gendered division of labor (the job is divided based on gender)

WOMEN WORKING:

• They are most likely to work when they're childless and least likely to work when they have a child under the age of 5

• The time spent away from work has fallen sharply

• Maternity leave and pay reduced the loss of income women experienced when having children

• Laws in the UK that increased equality include:

1. The Equal Pay Act 1970: women should get paid the same as men if they're doing the same work

2. The Sex Discrimination Act 1975: women should get equal access to jobs and promotions

• Women also experience glass ceiling which is the unseen barrier that seems to prevent women from achieving the highest positions at work. Aspects include:

1. Women who apply for promotions but are not seen as serious candidates

2. Women who have not seen these positions before so employers see appointing women as risky

3. The appointments are made by men who can have sexist attitudes

4. The small group of men may not want to work with women 

5. A woman may be seen as a threat since she can do a better job than men

6. Men believe that since women have other responsibilities such as her family, she cannot be present at certain times (example: the weekend)

• Women who broke through the glass ceiling claimed that they were put at jobs where there was a high risk of failing or they were not given the resources to do a good job

CONSEQUENCES OF GENDER INEQUALITIES:

1. Women are likely to have lower pensions than men due to inequality in earnings

2. Women are more vulnerable to poverty due to low payments

EXPLANATIONS OF GENDER INEQUALITIES AT WORK:

• Women's position as being due to their labor market position:

1. They have discontinuous careers due to childbirth

2. They're usually the secondary breadwinners

3. They're less geographically mobile than men (if she got a job abroad, its unlikely the entire family will move)

4. The existing large reserve of employable women keeps the wages down

5. Cultural factors like men should not work for a woman

• Functionalists say that women lack commitment due to putting their family before their job. However, this cannot explain why they end up in lower positions than men despite being more qualified

• Marxist and Marxist feminists use the ideas of deskilling and reserve army of labor

• Radical feminists see women's positions at work as an example of the patriarchy. They see that marriage and motherhood reduce a woman's chances of success at work

MEN:

• Sylvia Walby argued that due to sociology being only about men in the past, this made women be seen as a deviant minority while men as gender neutral

• Both men and women's roles changed over time

• Barbara Ehrenreich argued that in the USA some men began rejecting controversial masculine roles before women rejected feminine roles in the 1970s

• Traditional male roles have become even more difficult in recent years because:

1. Working-class masculinity had been threatened by the decline of the manufacturing industry (unemployment rose)

2. Violence and sexual abuse of women and children by men has become more visible

3. The value of a man in a family is frequently questioned

4. Feminism has brought masculinity into question 

5. Dominance of heterosexual White men is challenged by feminism, Black and gay radical politics

The possible reactions to the changing situations in Rutherford's POV:

1. Retributive man: the man reasserts traditional masculinity 

2. New man: he acknowledges his emotions and shares domestic work

SOCIAL CLASS:

WAYS OF DEFINING SOCIAL CLASS:

• It is possible for individuals to believe that they belong to one social class when sociologists believe they belong to another one

1. FUNCTIONALIST EXPLANATION OF CLASS:

• American sociologists Kingsley Davis and Wilbert E. Moore argue that social class is inevitable since stratification emerges due to individuals being ranked

• Class is a function (all work needs to be done). More talent=higher paying job

• Conflicts about the haves and have-nots is kept in check by everyone accepting the common value system which justifies unequal distribution of wealth, power, etc.

2. MARXIST EXPLANATION OF CLASS:

• Bourgeoisie own means of production while the proletariats become wage slaves

• Marx didn't believe the middle class would exist (either people rise to the upper class or go down to the working class)

• Lumpenproletariat are the lower end of society who didn't work such as criminals and beggars

3. WEBERIAN EXPLANATION OF CLASS:

• He had 2 similarities to Marx: 

1. Class is situated in the economic structure of societies

2. They see conflict between groups is inevitable

• However, he saw that the middle class had an importance and that power and status do not always go together

4. FEMINISM EXPLANATION OF CLASS:

• Many studies were gender blind and based class categorization on the male breadwinner (head of the household)

• Some research now includes individual (each person classified separately) or joint classifications (both partners taken into consideration together)

• Some sociologists stated women were more economically dependent on men. However, feminist sociologist Michelle Stanworth stated that in some households, the woman's income is essential to living. She also mentioned in some families, the woman is the main breadwinner

• There are dual-class families where the man and the woman have different classes but together have a higher class

MEASURING CLASS:

• Factors that should be taken account:

1. Wealth

2. Income

3. Housing

4. Occupation

5. Level of education and qualifications

6. Status

7. Lifestyle

OCCUPATION:

• Occupation is closely connected to income, status, and living standards 

• Occupational structure: the hierarchy of occupations in a society

• They can be either manual (involving physical effort) such as an electrician which are known as blue-collar jobs or non-manual (involving mental work) such as a sales representation which are known as white-collar jobs

• Some problems include:

1. Those who are so wealthy they do not need to work

2. They miss out on other important aspects of inequality such as how much wealth people have

3. Many people have other sources of income

4. Many women are in routine non-manual work

THE UPPER CLASS:

• It's the highest class in society that is wealthy enough not to need to work

• Peter Saunders argues that it is too small to count as a class but deserves special attention because of immense wealth and power

• There are three groups:

1. The landowning aristocracy: consists of people with titles and inherited wealth like the royal family

2. Pop aristocracy: consists of people who make money in sport, the media and entertainment. Their income is unpredictable and limited to a period in life

3. The entrepreneurial rich: consists of people involved in business as owners

• Elites theorists argue that the top groups in society derive their power not from wealth but from their occupation of the top jobs

MIDDLE CLASS:

• They're divided into three parts:

1. Petty bourgeoisie or old middle class: include small business owners, self-employed people, etc.

2. Upper middle class: include professionals and managers, specialists, etc.

3. Lower middle class: include routine clerical and service sector jobs, nurses, etc. (white-collar workers)

• Giddens argues that there is only one middle class which is different from the upper in terms of not owning means of production and from the working by its possession of educational or technical qualifications

THE PROLETARIANIZATION DEBATE:

• Proletarianization: theory that the lower levels of the middle class are becoming working class (essentially a Marxist idea)

• Groups that have been proletarianized: 

1. Clerical and administrative workers in offices

2. Shop and sales workers

3. Higher groups such as teachers

• New working class: new class formed by lower middle-class workers merging with the traditional working class. Proletarianization involves:

1. Formerly middle class jobs having lower status than they used to have

2. Middle class wages falling relatively to working-class wages

3. Conditions of employment changing (e.g.: job security)

4. Jobs have less autonomy (managers exercise more control and there is less freedom over)

5. Work changing through automation

6. Workers in these jobs are starting to think of themselves as working class

THE WORKING CLASS:

• Divided into: skilled, semi-skilled, and unskilled and are usually blue-collar

• Mechanization reduced the number of manual jobs so fall in employment

• Due to the shift towards a white-collar economy, living standards rose but the differences between classes remained

EMBOURGOISIEMENT DEBATE:

• Embourgeoisement: the theory that the higher levels of the working class are becoming middle class (anti-Marxist since if class divisions are disappearing, no class conflict or revolution)

THE UNDERCLASS:

• It includes disadvantages and marginalized group at the bottom of society 

• There is no agreement on who belongs to the underclass but they're mainly below the working class and in some way cut off from it

• The underclass miss out on some things everyone else takes for granted

• The groups in the underclass include:

1. Long-term unemployed people

2. People dependent on state pensions

3. People dependent on benefits

4. Disaffected teenagers without qualifications or prospects

• However, this term is criticized since:

1. It is vague

2. In some uses, it implies that the members are at fault to be a part of it

3. It lumps together different phenomena (e.g.: pensioners and disaffected teenagers have little in common)

4. It implies that the underclass is stable

• The American Charles Murray states that signs of emerging underclasses are:

1. Growth in illegitimacy (births to unmarried mothers)

2. A rise in crime rate

3. Unwillingness to take jobs

SOCIAL MOBILITY BETWEEN CLASSES:

• Social mobility is the movement between classes. They types are:

1. Upward: moving up the class ladder (e.g.: working to middle)

2. Downward: moving down the class ladder (e.g.: middle to working)

3. Block: the movement of the whole class (e.g.: proletarianization) 

4. Individual: movement of the individual/family from one class to another

5. Intergenerational: between generations (e.g.: working class parents work hard for their children to be in the middle class)

6. Intragenerational: within one generation (e.g.: man starts his job in the working class but works his way up to manager)

• Upward mobility is more common that downward due to fewer unskilled manual jobs and more middle class jobs

• In meritocracy, we find both upward and downward mobility

FACTORS THAT LEAD TO SOCIAL MOBILITY:

1. Getting education and qualifications to improve mobility chances

2. Getting a promotion

3. Marrying someone of a different class

4. Changes in wealth

PERSPECTIVES ON MOBILITY:

• Marxists see social mobility as a safety valve (if people couldn't move, they would get frustrated so if they can move, this reduces class conflict)

• Right-wing believe that most middle-class jobs will be taken by those from the middle class origins since they are more talented

• It has become harder to move up the career ladder since there are higher qualifications and few second chances

IS CLASS STILL IMPORTANT?

• The media sees class as less important. In sociology, the importance of it has been questioned by the ideas of:

1. We are all middle class now

2. Consumption is more important than production in shaping our identities

3. Meritocracy

4. Class has been overtaken by other inequalities such as gender, ethnicity, etc.

NOTES DONE BY FARIDA SABET

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