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Sociology
Eleventh Edition
Richard T. Schaefer
Chapter 9:
Stratification and Social Mobility in
the United States
© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Stratification and Social Mobility in
the United States
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Slide 2
Systems of Stratification
Sociological Perspectives
on Stratification
Is Stratification Universal?
Stratification by Social Class
Social Mobility
Social Policy and Stratification:
Rethinking Welfare in North America
and Europe
© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Systems of Stratification
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Any stratification system may include
elements of more than one type
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Slide 3
Ascribed status: social position assigned to
person without regard for that person’s
unique characteristics or talents
Achieved status: social position attained by
person largely through his or her own effort
© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Slavery
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Slide 4
Slavery: most extreme form of legalized
social inequality
Castes: hereditary systems of rank,
usually religiously dictated, that tend to
be fixed and immobile
© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Castes
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Estates
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Slide 5
Estate system: associated with feudal
societies in the Middle Ages
Class system: social ranking based
primarily on economic position in which
achieved characteristics can influence
social mobility
© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Social Classes
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Rossides (1997) uses five-class model to
describe U.S. class system
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Slide 6
Upper class
Working class
Upper-middle class
Lower class
Lower-middle class
© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Figure 9-1: The 50 States: Haves and Have-Notes
Source: 2005 census data presented in American Community Survey 2006:Tables R1701, R2001.
Slide 7
© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Figure 9-1: The 50 States: Haves and Have-Notes
Source: 2005 census data presented in American Community Survey 2006:Tables R1701, R2001.
Slide 8
© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Figure 9-2: Household Income in the
United States, 2005
Source: DeNavas-Walt et al. 2006:31.
Slide 9
© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Karl Marx’s View of
Class Differentiation
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Social relations depend on who controls
the primary mode of production
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Slide 10
Capitalism: economic system in which
the means of production are held largely
in private hands and the main incentive
for economic activity is the accumulation
of profits
Bourgeoisie: capitalist class; owns the
means of production
Proletariat: working class
© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Karl Marx’s View of
Class Differentiation
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Exploitation of the proletariat will
inevitably lead to the destruction of the
capitalist system
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Slide 11
Class consciousness: subjective
awareness of common vested interests and
the need for collective political action to bring
about change
False consciousness: attitude held by
members of class that does not accurately
reflect their objective position
© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Research in Action
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9-1: The Shrinking Middle Class
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Does your family belong to the middle class?
If so, in what generation did your family achieve
that status, and how?
 Are your parents struggling to maintain a
middle-class lifestyle?
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Slide 12
For the nation as a whole, what are the
dangers of a shrinking middle class?
© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Max Weber’s View of Stratification
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No single characteristic totally defines
a person’s position within the
stratification system
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Slide 13
Class: group of people who have similar
level of wealth and income
Status group: people who have the
same prestige or lifestyle
Power: ability to exercise one’s will
over others
© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Interactionist View
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Interested in the importance of social
class in shaping a person’s lifestyle
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Slide 14
Veblen: those at the top of the social
hierarchy typically convert part of their
wealth into conspicuous consumption
Behavior judged to be typical of lower class
is subject to ridicule and even legal action
© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Is Stratification Universal?
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Slide 15
Inequality exists in all societies—even
the simplest
Functionalists and conflict sociologists
offer contrasting explanations
© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Functionalist View
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Davis and Moore state society must
distribute members among a variety of
social positions
Stratification is universal and social
inequality necessary to motivate people
to fill functionally important positions
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Slide 16
Does not explain the wide disparity between
the rich and the poor
© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Conflict View
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Human beings prone to conflict over
scarce resources such as wealth, status,
and power
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Powerful maintain status quo by defining and
disseminating the dominant ideology
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Slide 17
Dominant ideology: set of cultural beliefs and
practices that helps to maintain powerful social,
economic, and political interests
Stratification is major source of societal
tension and conflict that will inevitably lead
to instability and social change
© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Lenski’s Viewpoint
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Slide 18
Economic system change as level of
technology becomes more complex
Emergence of surplus resources greatly
expands possibilities for inequality in
status, influence, and power
Allocation of surplus goods and services
reinforces social inequality
© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Table 9-1: Sociological Perspectives on
Social Stratification
Slide 19
© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Measuring Social Class
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Objective method: class is largely
viewed as a statistical category
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Slide 20
Occupation
Education
Income
Place of residence
Prestige: respect and admiration an
occupation holds in society
Esteem: reputation specific person has
earned within an occupation
© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Measuring Social Class
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Gender and Occupational Prestige
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Multiple Measures
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Slide 21
Studies of social class tended to neglect the
occupations and incomes of women as
determinants of social rank
Advances in statistical methods and
computer technology multiplied the factors
used to define class under objective method
© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Table 9-2: Prestige Rankings of Occupations
Note: 100 is the highest and 0 the lowest
possible prestige score.
Source: J. Davis et al. 2005:2050–2051.
Slide 22
© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Wealth and Income
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Income in U.S. distributed unevenly
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Slide 23
0.5% of U.S. population receive income of
$500,000 or more
90% of nation’s population received income
of less than $100,000 in 2005
Compared to people in other countries, U.S.
population less concerned about reducing
income differentials at bottom of distribution
Wealth in U.S. more unevenly distributed
than income
© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Figure 9-3: U.S. Income Distribution, 2005
Source: Dykman 2006: 48–49, based on data from
Bureau of Labor Statistics, Internal Revenue Services,
The State of Working America 2006/2007, Salary.com,
and Forbes.com.
Slide 24
© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Figure 9-4: Distribution of Wealth in the United
States, 2001
Note: Data do not add up to 100 percent due to rounding.
Source: Wolff 2002.
Slide 25
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Poverty
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Approximately one out of every nine
people in U.S. live below poverty line
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Slide 26
Absolute poverty: minimum level of
subsistence that no family should live below
Relative poverty: floating standard by which
people at the bottom of a society are judged
as being disadvantaged in comparison to the
nation as a whole
© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Poverty
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Who Are the Poor?
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Slide 27
Found in urban and rural areas
Since World War Two, increasing proportion
of poor have been women
Not a static social class
Wilson and colleagues used underclass to
describe the long-term poor who lack training
and skills
© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Poverty
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Explaining Poverty
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Gans argues
Presence of poor people means society’s dirty
work performed at low cost
 Poverty creates jobs for those who serve
the poor
 Identification and punishment of poor upholds
conventional social norms
 Existence of poor people guarantees higher
status of more affluent
 Poor often absorb costs of social change
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Slide 28
© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Figure 9-5: U.S. Minimum Wage Adjusted for
Inflation, 1950–2006
Note: In 2007 the federal minimum wage was raised to $5.85 with provisions for $6.55 in 2008 and $7.25 in
2009. Some states Legislate different standards. Minima as of 2005 were actually lower in two states (KS and
OH) and higher in 16 states (AK, CA, CT, DE, FL, HI, IL, MA, ME, MN, NJ, NY, OR, RI, VT, WA) and the District of
Columbia.
Source: Author’s estimate and Bureau of the Census 2005a:413.
Slide 29
© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Figure 9-6: Poverty in Selected Countries
Note: Data are for 2000 except for Germany (2001) and Mexico (2002). Poverty threshold is 50 percent of
nation’s median income.
Source: Förster and d’Ercole 2005:36.
Slide 30
© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Table 9-3: Who Are the Poor in the United States?
Note: Data are for 2005, as reported by the Bureau of the Census in 2006.
Source: DeNavas-Walt et al. 2006.
Slide 31
© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Sociology in the Global Community
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9-2: It’s All Relative: Appalachian Poverty
and Congolese Affluence
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Slide 32
Have you ever lived or traveled to a foreign
country where income and living standards
were very different from those in the U.S.?
If absolute measures of poverty, such as
household income, are inconsistent from one
country to the next, what other measures
might give a clearer picture of people’s
relative well-being?
© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Life Chances
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Life chances: opportunities to
provide one’s self with material
goods, positive living conditions,
and favorable life experiences
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Slide 33
In times of danger, affluent and powerful
have better chance of surviving
Class affects people’s vulnerability to
natural disasters
Hope for improvement from Internet hurt by
digital divide
© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Open versus Closed
Stratification Systems
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Open and closed stratifications systems
indicate social mobility in a society
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Slide 34
Open system: position of each individual
influenced by the person’s achieved position
Closed system: allows little or no possibility
of moving up
© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Types of Social Mobility
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Social mobility: Movement of individuals
or groups from one position in a society’s
stratification system to another
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Slide 35
Horizontal mobility: movement within same
range of prestige
Vertical mobility: movement from one
position to another of a different rank
Intragenerational mobility: social position
changes within person’s adult life
© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Social Mobility in the United States
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Slide 36
Occupational Mobility
The Impact of Education
The Impact of Race and Ethnicity
The Impact of Gender
© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Sociology on Campus
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9-3: Social Class and financial Aid
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How many students are receiving some form
of financial aid?
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Slide 37
How many have a scholarship and how many
have a loan?
Aside from a reduction in individual social
mobility, what might be the long-term effects
of the shortage of need-based financial aid?
© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Rethinking Welfare in North
America and Europe
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The Issue
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Governments searching for right solution
to welfare
How much subsidy should they provide?
 How much responsibility should poor assume?
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Slide 38
© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Rethinking Welfare in North
America and Europe
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The Setting
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Shifts in U.S. welfare program in 1996 ended
long-standing guarantee of assistance to
every poor family
Most countries devote higher proportions of
expenditures to
Housing
 Social security
 Welfare
 Health care
 Unemployment compensation
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Slide 39
© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Rethinking Welfare in North
America and Europe
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Sociological Insights
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Slide 40
Many sociologists view debate over welfare
reform from conflict perspective
Conflict theorists urge policymakers to look
closely at corporate welfare: tax breaks,
direct payments, and grants the government
makes to corporations
© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Rethinking Welfare in North
America and Europe
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Policy Initiatives
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Slide 41
Too soon to see if “workfare” will be
successful
Prospect for hard-core jobless faded
In North America and Europe, people
beginning to turn to private means to support
themselves
Solutions frequently left to the private sector,
while government policy initiatives at the
national level all but disappear
© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.