Social Inequalities Flashcards
Goldthorpe
Social Class Inequality:
Rule of relative hope
Working Class boy 1x chance of reaching Service Class
Intermediate Class boy 2x chance of reaching Service Class
Already Service Class boy 4x chance of remaining in Service Class
Parsons
Functionalist Social Class Inequality:
Social stratification reflects value consensus
Most argue entrepreneurs and executives deserve high rewards as they contribute most to society
This means social class is meritocratic
Davis and Moore
Functionalist Social Class Inequality:
Stratification is functionally necessary
Role allocation: ensures most important position filled with most able people by offering high rewards
Role selection: ensures people in roles perform to high standards as many depend on them
Tumin
Social Class Inequality:
High pay of some jobs reflect power rather than societal agreement they deserve it
Passion can motivate more than money
Stratification creates hostility (striking)
Marx
Marxist Social Class Inequality:
Workers exploited by employers who seek to keep wages low and profits high
Capitalism suffered from a series of inherent problems: polarisation of class, alienation and economic crisis
Murray, New Right Social Class Inequality
New Right Social Class Inequality:
Creation of underclass due to welfare-dependency
Poorly socialise children who underachieve at school
Westergaard and Resler
Marxist Social Class Inequality:
Argues there is little evidence class divisions are disappearing
Suggests they are widening
Braverman
Marxist Social Class Inequality:
Polarisation coming true
Middle class workers becoming deskilled by machines
Results in proletarianisation of middle class where they share the same position as the working class
Saunders
New Right Social Class Inequality:
Stratification is not inevitable
Degree of inequality is functional to motivate people to compete as long as there is equal opportunity
Critical of attempts by left-wing governments to try to equalise society and sees them as misguided
Rowlingson and Mullineux
Neo-Marxist Social Class Inequality:
Wealth inequalities can affect mental and physical well being
The government should take greater action to redistribute wealth
Gramsci
Neo-Marxist Social Class Inequality:
Hegemony of ruling class through persuasion
Media/education controls minds to ensure stability
Marcuse
Neo-Marxist Social Class Inequality:
Media binds us with false needs which diverts our attention from social issues
Moral panics and klarna
Althusser
Neo-Marxist Social Class Inequality:
Meritocracy is a myth
Masses are forced to blame themselves for failure
Weber
Weberian Social Class Inequality:
Propertied upper class: wealthy owners of big businesses
Property-less white-collar workers: better market situation than manual workers due to skill and education
Petty bourgeoisie: own small businesses
Manual working class: poorest market situation
Power determined by status, party and social class
Abbott, Feminist Social Class Inequality
Feminist Social Class Inequality:
Critical of traditional theories like Hope-Goldthorpe scale
Ignores women have a different experience
Arber et al
Feminist Social Class Inequality:
The Surrey Occupation Scale differentiates between women in different occupational classes more effectively
Roberts
Feminist Social Class Inequality:
We can no longer assume women share class with male partners
Women’s life chances more likely to depend on education/career than partner’s job
Paluski and Walters
Postmodern Social Class Inequality:
In advanced capitalist society, we are stratified by cultural differences rather than economic
People more likely to group themselves according to symbolic values over income
Beck
Postmodern Social Class Inequality:
Class conflict in industrial society was concerned with distribution of wealth
Postmodern society is economically advanced and most people have enough to meet basic needs
We have become concerned with new problems which has created a risk society where the central problem is managing things like climate change
People have become individualised and, when they act collectively, it’s to change things politically due to shared concern
Francis
Education and Gender Inequality:
Boys dominate classroom
Girls receive less attention
Spear
Education and Gender Inequality:
Girls are pushed away from science subjects
Leads to girls not having qualifications for top jobs
Hakim
Employment and Gender Inequality:
Men and women are employed in different industries
There is both horizontal and vertical segregation in employment
Preference Theory:
Women have preferences and make rational choices on employment
They are overrepresented in part-time work as they place value on housework and childcare
Women have three groups of priorities:
Home-centred: family and children (20%)
Adaptive: diverse with women who want to combine work and family (60%)
Work-centred: priorities public area/career (20%)
Chant
Income/Wealth and Gender Inequality:
Women are prone to time poverty due to multiple areas of unpaid work they engage in
This means they are unable to take part in activities that would give them access to higher returns
Li and Devine
Social Mobility and Gender Inequality:
Women are less likely to be upwardly mobile and more likely to be downwardly
Found of Black and African Caribbean women there is a 20% fall in full time employment
Surveys of young muslim women found employer discrimination toward hijabis
Heath and Li
Social Mobility and Gender Inequality:
Social mobility inequality further exaggerated by ethnicity
Black Caribbean and Chinese women experience lower rates of upward mobility than male counterparts
Savage
Social Mobility and Gender Inequality:
Men are 40% more likely to climb the career ladder
Joseph Rowntree Foundation
Poverty and Gender Inequality:
Found that poverty definitions were complex and went beyond finance
Mothers often concerned about children and gave up food
Farrell
Work/Income and Male Inequality:
Glass cellar where the bottom professions are occupied by men
Warin et al
Family and Male Inequality:
Studied 95 families in Rochdale where most believed father should be the breadwinner
Fathers feel under pressure to provide and may feel frustrated that they can’t do so
Murdock
Functionalist Gender Inequality:
Studied gender roles in 200 societies
Women always located in home due to biological function of child bearing and inability to do strenuous tasks due to physique
Parsons and Bales
Functionalist Gender Inequality:
Built on Murdock’s work
Men have instrumental roles while women have expressive roles
Different experiences in labour market and public
Rastogi
Functionalist Gender Inequality:
Human capital theory
Wage gap/employment can be explained through men/women having a difference in knowledge, competency, attitude and behaviour
Income varies according to investment in human capital and it’s meritocratic
Schlafly
New Right Gender Inequality:
Women’s roles: feminists view women’s roles as inferior when, in fact, they are simply better at different things and there are clear differences between the sexes
Family: most women don’t want to be ‘liberated’ from the family and the traditional family is the most functional way of raising children
Employment: feminists label motherhood as the least attractive role a woman can choose when in fact, a mother receives better satisfaction than a businesswoman
Walby
Feminist Gender Inequality:
Six patriarchal structures
The state
The household
Paid employment
Cultural institutions
Sexuality
Violence against women
Intersectional Gender Inequality:
Combines systems of patriarchy, capitalism and racism
Patriarchy is not fixed and evolves with society
Previously, women suffered from ‘private patriarchy’ where they were limited to the home
Now they suffer from ‘public patriarchy’ as women have entered the public world but continue to suffer from inequality
Stacey
Evaluation of Walby:
She over emphasises the influence of social structure on behaviour
Women can negotiate systems and play an active role in resisting them
Engles
Marxist Gender Inequality:
Women’s subordinate position is a result of private property and nuclear family
Capitalism brings rising inequality where men have control over women by passing on private property to men as their heirs
Resulted in nuclear family which promoted monogamy and restricted women’s sexuality to promote property rights
Ansley
Marxist Gender Inequality:
Argues women assume the role of absorbing frustration/anger of husbands who are exploited at work
‘Women are the takers of shit’
Benston
Marxist Gender Inequality:
Women are the ‘reserve army of labour’ hired when economy is prospering but laid off during recession
Women change jobs more frequently than men and more likely to work part-time so are more vulnerable during recession
Feeley
Marxist Gender Inequality:
Family ideology
Women reproduce next generation of workers and socialise them into norms/values that benefit capitalism
Family teaches children to submit to parental authority that is patriarchal, emerging from capitalist hierarchy
Dalla Costa and James
Marxist Gender Inequality:
‘Domestic labour debate’ draws attention to unpaid housework and caring work that women contribute to economy
Highlighted needs for wages for domestic work as capitalism relies on women
Barron and Norris
Neo-Marxist Gender Inequality:
Dual labour market
Primary labour is secured through well paid jobs with good promotion prospects
Secondary labour has poor security and is where women are centred
Mirza
Ethnicity and Gender Inequality:
Study on black girls found they developed strategies to deal with disadvantages
Didn’t accept racist attitudes of teachers and challenged their low expectations
Johnson
Violence and Gender Inequality:
Patriarchal terrorism
Violence is the result of ‘patriarchal traditions of men’s right to control “their” women’
Radical feminists point to level of domestic violence across the world
Miles
Neo-Marxist Ethnic Inequality:
Ethnic minority groups are at the bottom of the stratification system due to racism
Racialised class fractions within classes by which ethnic minorities and White people of the same class have different experiences
Racism means white middle class may not accept ethnic minorities to have the same status as them
Connolly and Keenan
Racism and Ethnic Inequality:
Conducted survey of Northern Ireland and found ¼ of all respondents were unwilling to accept ethnic minorities as a resident in their local area
Health and Rothon
Racism and Ethnic Inequality:
31% of adults claimed to be racially prejudice
They argue over past 30 years there’s been greater education and therefore less racism
Patterson
Functionalist Ethnic Inequality:
Host-Immigrant Model
Argues inequality of ethnic minorities is temporary as we live in a meritocratic society where they must climb up the career ladder
Immigrants cause fear in host culture -> resentment due to competition for scarce resources -> immigrants assimilate into host culture
Park
Functionalist Ethnic Inequality:
Conflicts in norms and values will disappear as immigrant culture becomes absorbed in host culture
Cox
Marxist Ethnic Inequality:
Focuses on racism and argues it’s generated by capitalism to exploit labour power
Historically generated by colonialism to justify exploitation so if capitalism had not developed, racial prejudice may not have
Castles and Kosack
Marxist Ethnic Inequality:
In Britain, the capitalist class can use ethnic minorities as cheap labour (a reserve army)
Having a surplus of labour power keeps wages low as there is a weaker bargaining position of existing workers
Murray, New Right Ethnic Inequality
New Right Ethnic Inequality:
Growing underclass in US and UK which has led to increased unmarried black, single mothers and youth without interest in getting a job
Children grow up ill schooled and behaved
Sewell
New Right Ethnic Inequality:
Absence of male role model in family makes young African Caribbean boys more vulnerable to peer pressure
Form of black masculinity reinforced by media with gangster rap emphasising street culture
2001, 57% of African Caribbean families with dependent children were headed by a lone parent
Back
Postmodern Ethnic Inequality:
21st century has created hybrid identities which aren’t fixed
Young people played with different cultural masks and styles through inter-ethnic friendships and marriages
Abbot et al
Black Feminism and Ethnic Inequality:
Feminism is ethnocentric
Victim ideology which views black women as helpless victims of sexism/racism
Theoretical racism in which black women write about experience separate to feminist theory
Brewer
Black Feminism and Ethnic Inequality:
Race, class and gender are simultaneous forces
Each inequality reinforces/multiplies other inequalities
Mirza, Black Feminism and Ethnic Inequality
Black Feminism and Ethnic Inequality:
Need for distinct black feminism
Challenges distorted assumptions of dominant groups by drawing on their experiences and the view that black women are passive victims
Connell
Black Feminism and Ethnic Inequality:
Links black feminism to post-colonial feminism
Gender inequalities became embedded in attitudes
Feminism must develop to challenge western dominance of feminism
Platt
Social Mobility and Ethnic Inequality:
Examined ONS longitudinal study from 1971-91
Found Indians were able to maintain high status across generations but Caribbeans had slipped
Health and Li
Social Mobility and Ethnic Inequality:
40 years of data
43% of white men and 45.6% of white women moved from the class of their father
34.3% of first generation Pakistani/Bangladeshi men and 27.6% of women
Rowlingson and McKay
Income/Wealth and Ethnic Inequality:
White British people in managerial positions had greater wealth than other ethnic groups
Black people had considerably lower wealth than other groups
Alcock
Poverty and Ethnic Inequality:
Ethnic minority groups experience material deprivation
Leads to social exclusion and isolation
Flaherty et al
Poverty and Ethnic Inequality:
Reasons for high rates of poverty among ethnic minorities:
Unemployment
Low-skilled with low paid jobs
Deprived areas where they lack job/educational opportunities
Poor quality, cramped housing
Difficulties with benefits
Wood et al
Employment and Ethnic Inequality:
Discrimination in favour of white names over equivalent applications from ethnic minority groups was 29%
Battu and Sloane
Employment and Ethnic Inequality:
Ethnic minorities are more likely to be unemployed
Many are doing jobs that they are overeducated for
Davidson
Employment and Ethnic Inequality:
The Concrete Ceiling
There is embedded discrimination that prevents ethnic minority women being promoted
Weber
Weberian Ethnic Inequality:
Status and power are in the hands of the majority (White people)
This makes it more difficult for ethnic minority group to compete equally for jobs, housing benefits
Rex and Tomlinson
Weberian Ethnic Inequality:
Ethnic minority experiences can lead to poverty which is reinforced by racism
Ethnic minorities form an underclass beneath White working class where they experience disadvantage in labour market, housing and education
A Black underclass has been created that has been socially excluded from the standard of living of society which can erupt in things like riots
Barron and Norris
Neo-Marxist/Weberian Ethnic Inequality:
Dual labour market
Primary labour is secured through well paid jobs with good promotion prospects
Secondary labour has poor security and is where ethnic minorities are centred
Kagan
Old Age Inequality:
Activity and Aging in a Colombian peasant village
Old remained socially and economically active and were well valued
Gentleman
Old Age Inequality:
Outlines day in a care home in Ipswich
Even with good care and safe environment, lack of visits and boredom is unpleasant
Dawd
Social Mobility and Age Inequality:
Youth culture is largely reliant on new technology
The elderly have become ‘strangers in their own land’
Parsons
Functionalist Age Inequality:
Youth culture is often associated with a time of turmoil and rebellion
It acts as a bridge from childhood to adulthood and this rebellion can lead to integration later on
Parsons and Eisenstadt
Functionalist Age Inequality:
Youth is a time for individuals to grow up and learn new adult roles which are imperative for society’s stability
Eisenstadt
Functionalist Age Inequality:
Different age groups learn new roles that lead to further cohesion and solidarity
Statham
Huge amounts of childcare provided through grandparents
Cummings and Henry
Functionalist Age Inequality:
Disengagement theory
With ageing, a person’s abilities deteriorate and there is a mutual need for individual to be relieved from their roles for both them and society
This helps manage possible social instability
Kidd
Marxist Age Inequality:
Elderly’s labour power is no longer of use to capitalism so they are seen as a drain of resources through healthcare and wealth. This is justified by cultural stereotypes.
As a result, elderly more likely to be in poverty and suffer from ill-health
Phillipson
Marxist Age Inequality:
Logic of capitalism is about exploiting workers and consumers for profit
Elderly are neglected as they no longer have disposable income or spending power
Elderly/youth are used as a reserve army of labour
Althusser
Marxist Age Inequality:
State provision for young and old through pensions and child benefits means the state creates dependent groups as they will legitimate the power of the ruling class
Therefore, things like welfare are used as ideological state apparatus
Townsend
Marxist Age Inequality:
Capitalism’s requirement to continually renew the workforce means elderly are denied access to social resources that status depends on
Kincaid
Marxist Age Inequality:
Motivation of workforce is maintained by unequal rewards
Low wages form the base of this
Standards of pay and conditions at bottom of hierarchy influence pattern of wages further up
Arber and Ginn
Feminist Age Inequality:
Factors such as age affect women’s power and status
Older women face inequalities that older men don’t
Brannen
Feminist Age Inequality:
Sandwich/pivot generation suffer a dual burden in the family
Women have to look after both elderly parents and children
Sontag
Feminist Age Inequality:
Older women are less likely to be in high profile/visible roles in the media
Itzin
Feminist Age Inequality:
Women face a double standard in status where there’s relies on reproduction but men’s relies on employment
Women’s status devalues after childbearing age
Older women also face pressure of resisting signs of ageing through cosmetics but men do not
Gannon
Feminist Age Inequality:
Differences in ageing process are more to do with lifestyles and expectations placed on women rather than biology
Androcentric = male hormones seen as a norm and female’s as a problem
Men and women have different lifestyles due to socialisation
Oakley
Feminist Age Inequality:
Women and children are interlinked and interdependent with similar inequality
Women are often responsible for caring for children which restricts them
5 ways children are seen to be disadvantaged:
Adults speak for children
Childhood issues ignored in sociology
Children lack same rights as adults
Children have to conform to demands of adults
Society is adult-centred
Parkin
Weberian/Social Action Age Inequality:
Some ages suffer from negatively privileged status groups
Elderly are socially segregated through invisibility of positive portrayal in the media and retirement from work
Havinghurst
Interactionist/Social Action Age Inequality:
Activity theory where staying mentally/physically active increases happiness
Inequality is more about social interaction than just age
Victor
Interactionist/Social Action Age Inequality:
Society sees the elderly as lonely, unable to learn, having poor health and being dependent on others
This becomes reality because of labelling
Cohen
Interactionist/Social Action Age Inequality:
Youth face negative portrayal in the media like Mods and Rockers
This leads to moral panics
Turner
Social Action Age Inequality:
Exchange theory
Age discrimination is understood in terms of status which is relative to society
High status in the West means material goods which elderly/youth don’t have
‘Reciprocity-maturation curve’ shows groups that are dependent have low status
Gerontocracy provides high status for elderly
Spencer
Social Action Age Inequality:
Samburu Society
Studied Maa-speaking populations of East Africa
There was a gerontocratic system which granted power to older men and delayed marriage for younger men
Hepworth and Featherstone
Postmodern Age Inequality:
The life course has been deconstructed by two processes
Dedifferentiation: differences between different stages of life course become unclear
Deinstitutionalisation: institutions become less associated with maintaining different phases of the life course
Laczko and Phillipson
Postmodern Age Inequality:
Researched early retirement and found inequality faced by some elderly people was due to wealth and not ageing itself
Blaikie
Postmodern Age Inequality:
Discusses idea of positive ageing which agrees with the idea of active and leisure-based pursuits
Powell and Biggs
Postmodern Age Inequality:
Growing tech to fight ageing
This allows the elderly to continually recreate themselves
