Social Class

Question 1

Social Class

Answer 1

A division of a society based on social and economic status.

Question 2

Subjective nature of class.

Answer 2

Includes both the subjective and objective criteria e.g 
Class consciousness, class wealth-income-education and occupation.

Question 3

Marx explanation of social class inequality.

Answer 3

Argues that there are inequalities in society based on social class differences. He claims that to improve society and make it fairer there needs to be large-scale change.

Question 4

Bowels and Gintis explanation of social class inequality.

Answer 4

The education system effectively disguises the fact that economic success runs in family and that privilege breeds privilege.

Question 5

Borurdieu explanation of social class inequality.

Answer 5

Bourdieu argues that higher education systems preserve uneven social system by favouring certain cultural heritages and disregarding others.

Question 6

Wilkinson explanation of social class inequality.

Answer 6

Life expectancy is lower in more unequal nations because inequality of itself has a bad effect of the health of people who live in more unequal societies.

Question 7

Weberian Theory

Answer 7

Weber identified three dimensions of stratification. Class, status, party.

Question 8

Weber(class)

Answer 8

Market- how much you can sell your work for.

Work situation- your position within the division of labour

Question 9

Weber(status)

Answer 9

The power a person gains from the aspects of identity they have. E.g a straight white man.

Question 10

Weber(party)

Answer 10

The power you gain from group membership. E.g unions, John Prescott.

Question 11

Social class

Answer 11

A group of people within a society who posses the same social economic status.

Question 12

Functionalist explanation of social class in work.

Answer 12

Social inequalities in the workplace merely reflect on the meritocratic nature of modern societies.

Question 13

Functionalist Parsons and Bales (1995)

Answer 13

Referred to as men having the “instrumental” practical role while women have the “expressive” caring role.

Question 14

Functionalist Durkheim

Answer 14

Durkheim believed that as societies advance, they make the transition from mechanical to organic solidarity.

Question 15

Functionalist Davis and Moore

Answer 15

Davis and Moore believed that rewarding more important work with higher levels of income, prestige, and power encourages people to work harder and longer.

Question 16

New Right and social class.

Answer 16

They believe the controversial nuclear family is essential to having a stable ordered society and any move away from it could lead to social breakdown and disorder.

Question 17

New Right Murray

Answer 17

He believed that government policies have encouraged the members of this underclass to become dependent on benefits.

Question 18

New Right Saunders

Answer 18

Saunders, said that it was possible not to have stratification, but that society would struggle without it. He believed the best way to organise society was to have unequal rewards.

Question 19

Feminist (Benson 1972)

Answer 19

Argues that a wife keeps her husband in good running order by feeding and caring for him.

Question 20

Feminist Ansley(1976)

Answer 20

States that women being the “takers of shit” as husbands return from work and use them to take their frustrations out as they can’t do it to employers.

Question 21

Postmodernism Beck

Answer 21

He argues that the risk which is inherent in modern society would contribute towards the formation of a global risk society.

Question 22

Postmodernism Pakuisi

Answer 22

He believes social class is dead.

Question 23

Postmodernism Walters

Question 24

Different waves of feminism.

Answer 24

Liberal, Marxist, radical, intersectional

Question 25

Liberal feminism and gender (Oakley)

Answer 25

When children are younger they socialise differently depending on the gender which taught through imitation.

Question 26

Marxist feminism (Benson)

Answer 26

women’s domestic work and wage labour were essential to the flow of capitalist production.

Question 27

Costa and James (gender)

Answer 27

Focused on domestic division of labour + made the cause they domestic which is unpaid added to the economy. And argued that domestic work should infect be paid.

Question 28

Radical feminism(Delphy and Lenard)

Answer 28

emphasise the importance of work. In their view it is men, rather than capitalists as such, who are the prime beneficiaries of the exploitation of women’s labour.

Question 29

Johnson(gender)

Answer 29

suggest that when women become wage earners, they can gain power in the family structure and create more democratic arrangements in the home, although they may still carry the majority of the domestic burden

Question 30

Millet (gender)

Answer 30

men have institutionalised power over women, and that this power is socially constructed as opposed to biological or innate.

Question 31

Intersectional theory (Walby)

Answer 31

believes that paid employment remains a key structure for disadvantaging women in Britain. Today, men continue to dominate the best paid jobs and women are still paid less than men, and do more part-time work. Many women choose not to work, or work part-time because of poor job opportunities.1

Question 32

Preference Theory (Hakim)

Answer 32

In modern affluent societies, virtually all women have a genuine choice between family work and market work.

Question 33

Functionalist gender (parsons)

Answer 33

argued that men were the instrumental leader while women were the expressive leader and that both were necessary. So men carried out discipline and earned money, while women cared and nurtured and raised children.

Question 34

Functionalist (Murdock)

Answer 34

noted that in most pre-industrial societies, men are expected to do tasks that require physical strength, such as hunting and warfare, while women are expected to do tasks that require more emotional nurturing, such as taking care of children.

Question 35

New right (gender) schlafly

Answer 35

men and women are fundamentally different. “we must redesign society to become gender neutral and that men must shed their macho image and remake themselves to become househusbands”.

Question 36

New Right (Murray)

Answer 36

Murray utilised the term ‘underclass’ to refer to individuals who lack employment, income or an education. He believed that these individuals have become surplus to requirements in developed economies due to globalisation

Question 37

New Right (Bowlby)

Answer 37

infants have an instinctual need for maternal love and that disruption of their attachment to mother has disastrous consequences for their emotional development.

Question 38

Challenges to Functionalist and New Right (Stanko)

Answer 38

1 in 4 women and 1 in 7 men report a physical assault by a partner in
their lifetime. approximately 10% women experience domestic violence in any given year.