Social stratification refers to the division of society into hierarchical social classes. It is a characteristic of all societies and persists over generations, even as the criteria used to rank members may differ between societies. Social class is determined by factors like wealth, power, and prestige, and plays a major role in determining one's life chances and choices related to education, health, work, criminal justice outcomes, and social mobility. While societies tend to promote the idea of meritocracy and the American Dream, research shows social class is often reproduced from one generation to the next through mechanisms like cultural and social capital.

1. Introduction to Sociology
The Real World: Chapter 7
Social Class:
The Structure of Inequality

2. Introduction
• ALL societies separate members into different
groups.
• Social stratification: division of society into
groups arranged in a social hierarchy.
• What are some ways that society can
separate its members?
• Think about your class and/or group
• American: heterosexual male WASP

3. Social Stratification:
Four Basic Principles
• It is a characteristic of society, rather than a
reflection of individual differences.
• It persists over generations.
• Different societies use different criteria for
ranking their members.
• It is maintained through common beliefs
widely shared among members of the society.

4. Systems of Stratification
• Slavery
• Human Trafficking
• Caste
• Enforced by religion or law
• Social Class
• Socioeconomic status (SES)

5. Social Class in America
• Class Activity: What defines each social class
in America?
• Upper Class
• Middle Class
• Upper-Middle Class (professionals or “new
money”)
• Working Class (lower middle class?)
• Working Poor
• Underclass

7. Social Class in America: Problems
• Status Inconsistency: serious differences among
the different elements of an individual’s SES
• Teachers
• The myth of the middle class
• Most Americans belief they are middle class even
though statistically speaking, this class is comprised
of only 44% of society
• Roseanne versus The Middle
• The shrinking middle class: expected gain in food
service, customer service, retail sales, clerical work,
and private security

8. Theories of Social Class:
Conflict Theory
• “The history of the world is the history of
class struggle.” –Karl Marx and Frederick
Engels, The Communist Manifesto
• Karl Marx: owning the means of production is
the only basis for social relationships
• Bourgeoisie versus the proletariat
• Max Weber: Marx’s theory is too limiting;
class status is the product of wealth, power,
and prestige

10. Theories of Social Class:
Structural Functionalism
• Stratification is a necessary part of society
used to create interdependence among
society’s members
• Meritocracy: system in which those who are
the most “meritous” will rise to the top and
those who are less so will sink to the bottom
• Rule by those who deserve to rule
• Severing rewards from performance leads to low
productivity (anti-Communist)

11. Theories of Social Class:
Postmodernism
• Pierre Bourdieu: social reproduction is the
tendency of social classes to remain relatively
stable as social class status is passed from one
generation to the next.
• Cultural Capital: children inherit tastes, habits, and
expectations from their parents, and this capital
either helps or hinders them as they become
adults
• Shapes how others view a person (“fit in”)
• There is evidence that about half of all children will
wind up with the same SES as their parents

12. Theories of Social Class:
Symbolic Interactionism
• Systems of inequality are constructed through
everyday interactions (microsociology)
• David Sudnow (1972): split-second judgments about
who people are and which social status they occupy
based on appearance
• Aaron Cicourel (1972): make inferences about the
status of others when we encounter them in different
social situations or locations
• Erving Goffman (1956): presentation of self and one’s
SES (“living room scale”)

13. Life Chances
• Social class is the single best indicator of
one’s life chances.
• Education
• Thinking, belief
• Social interaction (including marriage partner)

14. Life Choices: Family
• People tend to marry someone whose social
and cultural backgrounds are similar to their
own, mainly because they are more likely to
encounter people like themselves.
• The average age of first marriage for women
with high school diplomas is 25, while for
women with graduate degrees it is thirty. The
age at which people start a family and the
number of children they have are also related
to social class.
• Number of children reflect social class

15. Life Choices: Health
• Those at the bottom of the social class ladder are
the least likely to obtain adequate nutrient, shelter,
clothing, and health care, and are thus more prone
to illness. They often cannot afford to see a
doctor, fill a prescription, or go to the hospital.
• Those who occupy a higher class are more likely
to simply “feel” healthier
• Regardless of age, race, or gender, people with more education
were more likely to report being in “good” or “excellent” health.
• Higher class are more likely to exercise
• Why?

16. Life Choices: Education
• Who has access to education and how good is that
education?
• Schools with low-income students often receive fewer
resources, have greater difficulty attracting qualified teachers,
and enjoy less support from parents.
• Social class background influences attitudes toward
education.
• If trends continue, there will be fewer jobs for students with
only a high school education. Unfortunately, not all students
are prepared or can afford higher education.
• Proprietary schools and predatory habits toward the working
class.
• Rise in student loan debt to over $1 trillion at the end of 2011.

17. Life Choices: Work
• Members of different social classes, with unequal
educational opportunities, tend to work in different
types of jobs. Members of lower classes generally
experience difficulties in the job market and may
endure periods of unemployment or
underemployment (working in a job that doesn’t
pay enough to support a person’s needs, or that
doesn’t make full use of his/her skills).
• Members of the working class work for wages in a
variety of blue-collar jobs; they experience
problems with factory shutdowns, layoffs, plant
closings, and economic downturns

18. Life Choices: Criminal Justice
• People of lower classes are more likely to
encounter the criminal justice system,
whether as a perpetrator or victim of crime
than those in higher SES
• There are also differences in how crimes are
prosecuted
• Punishments for different classes
• Legal representation

19. Social Mobility
• The movement of individuals or groups within
the hierarchal system of social classes
• Closed System: little to no opportunity for
movement
• Open System: ample opportunity for movement
• No system is completely open or closed
• Most Americans believe that mobility (or lack
thereof) is largely one’s own fault

20. Social Mobility
• Intergenerational Mobility: movement
between social classes that occurs from
one generation to the next.
• Intragenerational Mobility: movement
between social classes that occurs over
the course of an individual’s lifetime.
• Horizontal Social Mobility: occupational
movement within a social class
• Vertical Social Mobility: upward or
downward mobility

21. Social Mobility
• Structural Mobility: changes in the social
status of large numbers of people due to
structural changes in society
• Nursing: education
• Education: gender
• Historical Events: Great Depression or Great
Recession

22. Poverty: Definitions
• Relative Deprivation: poverty is defined in
relation to others in society
• Absolute Deprivation: people are unable to
meet minimal standards for food, shelter,
clothing, and health care

23. Poverty: Federal Poverty Line
• How do we measure poverty? In America the
federal poverty line (an absolute measure of
annual income) is frequently used to determine
who should be categorized as poor
• Created in 1964 by economist Mollie Oshansky
based on the cost of food, shelter, and clothing
• Due to the difficulty of calculating shelter and clothing,
she simply took the cost of a “minimally nutritional
diet” from the Department of Agriculture and
multiplied the number by three (a third for food, a third
for shelter, a third for clothing)
• Now the Consumer Price Index (CPI) is used

24. 2012 Poverty Guidelines for the
48 Contiguous States and the District of Columbia
Persons in family/household Poverty guideline
1 $11,170
2 $15,130
3 $19,090
4 $23,050
5 $27,010
6 $30,970
7 $34,930
8 $38,890
For families/households with more than 8 persons,
add $3,960 for each additional person.

25. Poverty: Welfare
• Does Social Welfare help?
• “Welfare, Children, and Families: A Three-City
Study” showed that getting off welfare does bring
positive results, but often they are not strong
enough to serve much of an incentive

26. Explaining Poverty
• Personal Initiative: people are poor because
they lack ambition
• Culture of Poverty: poor children are
socialized not to strive for anything and
accept their poverty
• Structures of Inequality: poverty is caused by
national and international factor that no one
individual has any control over
• Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich

27. The Invisibility of Poverty
• Residential Segregation
• Public housing
• Political Disenfranchisement
• Self-inflicted?
• Homelessness
• Political invisibility
• Social invisibility

28. The American Dream
• Meritocracy Fallacy: though we believe
that rewards are distributed based on
merit, the truth is most people will not
move from their social class, but when
movement occurs, it is more based on
ethnicity, class, or gender rather than merit
• Society of Debt
• Does the American Dream really exist?