Caste System
In India, birth into a particular family often determines one's caste position, which in turn established one's social position, work, and range of marriage partners. At the bottom of this system is one group�the untouchables�that is so low that its membe
Social Stratification (Overall)
The pattern of structured inequities. These structured systems of inequality are crucial to the understanding of human groups because they are important determinants of human behavior and because they have significant consequences for society and its memb
The Universality of Social Stratification
Inequality is a fact of social life. All known societies have some system of ranking individuals and groups along a superiority-inferiority scale. A form of slavery continues as workers in some situations are virtually imprisoned by their employers, worki
Social Differentiation
People differ in age, physical attributes, and what they do for a living. The process of categorizing people by age, height, occupation, or some other personal attribute is called social differentiation.
Social Stratification
When people are ranked in a vertical arrangement (hierarchy) that differentiates them as superior or inferior, we have social stratification. Social stratification refers, in essence, to structured social inequality. The term structured refers to stratifi
Difference Between Social Differentiation and Social Stratification
The key difference between differentiation and stratification is that the process of ranking or evaluation occurs only in the latter. What is ranked and how it is ranked are dependent on the values of the society.
Social Stratification and Differential Rewards
Social patterning of stratification is also found in the distribution of rewards in any community or society, because that distribution is governed by social norms. The hierarchies of stratification�class, race, and gender�place groups, individuals, and f
Social Stratification and Socialization
Patterned behavior is also achieved through the socialization process. Each generation is taught the norms and values of the society and of its social class.
Life chances
Life chances refer to the chances throughout one's life cycle to live and to experience the good things in life. Life chances are most significant because they are those things that (1) better-off people can purchase and which poor people would also purch
Class, Race, and Gender- Macro or Micro?
Class, race, and gender are macro structures of inequality that shape our micro worlds
The Family and Social Stratification
Traditionally, the family has been viewed as the principal unit in the class system because it passes on privilege (or lack thereof) in wealth and resources from generation to generation.
Life chances are affected by race and gender inequalities as well a
Social Class
When a number of people occupy the same relative economic rank in the stratification system, they form a social class. People are socially located in a class position on the basis of income, occupation, and education, either alone or in combination. In th
Privilege/ Class Privilege
The job or occupation that is the source of the paycheck connects families with the opportunity structure in different ways. This connection generates different kinds of class privileges for families. Privilege refers to the distribution of goods and serv
Racial and Ethnic Stratification
Racial and ethnic stratification refers to systems of inequality in which some fixed group membership, such as race, religion, or national origin, is a major criterion for ranking social positions and their differential rewards. Racial and ethnic hierarch
Race
Race is socially defined on the basis of a presumed common genetic heritage resulting in distinguishing physical characteristics.
Ethnicity
Ethnicity refers to the condition of being culturally rather than physically distinctive. Ethnic peoples are bound together by virtue of a common ancestry and a common cultural background. A racial group that has a distinctive culture or subculture, share
Gender
Gender, like race and class, is a basic organizing principle of society. From the macro level of the societal economy, through the institutions of society, to interpersonal relations, gender shapes activities, perceptions, roles, and rewards. Gender is th
Sex-Gender System
The stratification system that assigns women's and men's roles unequally is the sex-gender system. It consists of two complementary yet mutually exclusive categories into which all human beings are placed. The sex-gender system combines biologically based
Sex Roles
Sex roles refer to behaviors determined by an individual's biological sex.
Gender Roles
Gender roles are social constructions; they contain self-concepts and psychological traits, as well as family, occupation, and political roles assigned dichotomously to each sex.
Patriarchy
Patriarchy is the term for forms of social organization in which men are dominant over women. Patriarchy is infused throughout US society.
The Intersection of Class, Race, and Gender
The hierarchies of class, race, and gender do not stand alone. They are interrelated systems of stratification. Economic resources, the bases of class, are not randomly distributed but vary systematically by race and sex.
Matrix of Domination
These systems of inequality form what sociologist Patricia Hill Collins (1990) calls a matrix of domination in which each of us exists. The existence of these intersections has several important implications.
1) People experience race, class, gender, and
Order Theory of Stratification
Adherents of the order model begin with the fact that social inequality is ubiquitous and apparently unavoidable phenomenon. They reason that inequality must, therefore, serve a useful function for society.
The argument, as presented in the classic statem
Kingsley Davis and Wilbert Moore
Creators of the order theory of social stratification.
Conflict Theory of Social Stratification
The conflict perspective assumes that stratification reflects the distribution of power in society and is therefore a major source of discord and coercion. It is a source of discord because groups compete for scarce resources and because the powerless, un
Deficiency Theories of Social Stratification
Some categories of people are systematically disadvantages in the US, most especially the poor, non-Whites, and women. Is there some flaw within these groups that explains their inferiority? Or, is it the structure of society that blocks their progress wh
Herbert Spencer and Social Darwinism
In 1882, the British philosopher and sociologist Herbert Spencer came to the US to promote a theory later known as social Darwinism. He argued that the poor were poor because they were unfit.
Social Darwinism has generally lacked support in the scientific
Arthur Jensen and Biological Inferiority
Arthur Jensen, professor emeritus of educational psychology at the University of California, has argued that there is a strong possibility that Blacks are less well endowed mentally than are Whites. From his review of the research on IQ, he claimed that a
Richard Herrnstein and Biological Inferiority
The late Richard Herrnstein, a Harvard psychologist, agrees with Jensen that intelligence is largely inherited. He goes one step further, positing the formation of hereditary castes based on intelligence. For Herrnstein, social stratification by inborn di
Meritocracy
Social stratification by ability. Proposed by Richard Herrnstein.
Charles Murray and Biological Inferiority
Charles Murray, along with Herrnstein, wrote The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life, a revival of Social Darwinism. Their claim, an update of Herrnstein's earlier work, is that the economic and social hierarchies reflect a singl
Important Social Consequences of the Biological Determinism Argument
First, biological determinism is a classic example of blaming the victim. By blaming the victim, this thesis claims a relationship between lack of success and lack of intelligence. This relationship is spurious because it ignores the advantages and disadv
How Do IQ Tests Discriminate Against the Poor?
IQ tests discriminate against the poor in many ways. They discriminate obviously in the language that is used, in the instructions that are given, and in the experiences they assume the subjects have had. The discrimination can also be more subtle. IQ tes
The Culture-of-Poverty Hypothesis
The culture-of-poverty hypothesis contends that the poor are qualitatively different in values and lifestyles from the rest of society and that these cultural differences explain continued poverty. Most important is the contention that this deviant cultur
Edward Banfield and the Culture-of-Poverty Hypothesis
The late Edward Banfield, an eminent political scientist, argued that the difference between the poor and the nonpoor is cultural�the former have a present-time orientation, while the nonpoor have a future-time orientation. He did not see the present-time
Critics of the Culture-of-Poverty Hypothesis
Critics of the culture-of-poverty hypothesis argue that the poor are an integral part of US society: they do not abandon the dominant values of the society, but rather, retain these while simultaneously holding an alternative set of values. This alternati
Elliot Liebow
Elliot Liebow (1967), is his classic study of lower-class Black men, has taken this view (a critical view of the culture-of-poverty hypothesis). For him, street corner men strive to live by American values but are continually frustrated by externally impo
What Is The Prevailing View on Poverty?
Most people in the US, however, believe that poverty is a combination of biological and cultural factors.
What Is The Reality of Poverty?
Contrary to common belief, most poor people are poor only temporarily; their financial fortunes rise and fall with widowhood, divorce, remarriage, acquiring a job with decent pay or losing one, or other changes affecting economic status.
Structural Theories: Institutional Discrimination
Michael Harrington (1963), whose book The Other America: Poverty in the US was instrumental in sparking the federal government's war on poverty, says that the structural conditions of society are to blame for poverty, not the poor. When the customary ways
Institutional Discrimination and Education
Most good jobs require a college degree, but the poor cannot afford to send their children to college. Scholarships go to the best-performing students. Chlidren of the poor usually do not perform well in school, primarily because of low expectations for t
Institutional Discrimination and Health Care
The poor are also trapped because they get sick more often and stay sick longer than do the more well-to-do. The reasons, of course, are that they cannot afford preventive medicine, proper diets, and proper medical attention when ill. The high incidence o
The Political Economy of Society
The basic tenet of capitalism�that who gets what is determined by private profit rather than by collective need�explains the persistence of poverty. The primacy of maximizing profit works to promote poverty in several ways:
1) Employers are constrained to