1. 8 Social Class and Social Stratification
Andrew Holbrooke/Corbis News/Corbis
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

2. Chapter Outline Social Differentiation and Social Stratification
The Class Structure of the United States: Growing Inequality
The Distribution of Income and Wealth
Analyzing Social Class
Social Mobility: Myths and Realities
Why Is There Inequality?
Poverty
Photo caption: Girls in gangs are rapidly becoming a reality, thus demonstrating the influence of deviant communities.
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

3. Social Differentiation and Social Stratification
Social differentiation is how different statuses develop in any group, organization, or society.
Social stratification is a relatively fixed, hierarchical arrangement in society by which groups have different access to resources, power, and perceived social worth.
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

4. Social class differences make it seem as if some people are living in two different societies.
Alex Segre/Alamy
AP Images/Don Ryan

5. Social Differentiation and Social Stratification
Social stratification is a system of structured social inequality.
All societies have a system of social stratification.
Complex societies often stratify according to social class.
This is influenced by occupation, income, education, race, gender, region of residence, ethnicity, national origin, and even age.
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

6. Estate, Caste, and Class
Stratification systems are usually categorized into one of these three types:
Estate is a system in which a small elite group (owners of property and power) has total control over resources.
Caste is a system where status is assigned based on ascribed status.
Class is a system based on ascribed and achieved statuses.
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

7. The Class Structure of the United States: Growing Inequality
Class divisions in the United States are real, and inequality is growing.
More apparent recently because of national recession.
Only 17% of the public thinks that children today will be better off than their parents.
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

8. The class structure in the United States means very different living conditions for those of vast wealth and everyone else.
©Vladimir Korostyshevskiy/Shutterstock.com
davelogan/iStockphoto.com

9. The Class Structure of the United States: Growing Inequality
Economic restructuring: the decline of manufacturing jobs in the United States.
These structural changes are having a profound effect on the life chances of people in different social classes.
Many in the working class once employed in manufacturing jobs are now in lower-wage jobs, if they work at all.
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

10. The Distribution of Income and Wealth
Income is the amount of money brought into a household from various sources during a given period.
Income growth has been greatest for those at the top of the population.
For everyone else, income has either been relatively flat or grown at a far lesser rate.
Wealth is the monetary value of everything one actually owns.
Socioeconomic status: social class position is primarily measured in economic terms
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

11. Analyzing Social Class (slide 1 of 4)
Status attainment is how people end up in a given stratified position.
Class origins, educational level, and occupation produce class location.
One’s socioeconomic status (SES) is derived from certain factors:
income, occupational prestige, and education
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

12. Analyzing Social Class (slide 2 of 4)
Occupational prestige is the perceived, subjective rank assigned to an occupation;
This is associated with years of education and degrees.
Occupations cluster in ranks such as:
High: physicians, professors, judges
Middle: electrician, insurance agent
Low: maids, garbage collectors
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

13. Analyzing Social Class (slide 3 of 4)
Educational attainment: the total years of formal education.
The U.S. class system: upper, upper middle, middle, lower middle, and lower class. 17
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

14. Analyzing Social Class (slide 4 of 4)
Urban underclass: likely to be permanently unemployed and w/out much economic support.
Has little or no opportunity for movement out of the worst poverty
May become dependent on public assistance or illegal activities
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

15. Diverse Sources of Stratification (slide 1 of 2)
A woman’s class status used to be based on her husband’s or father’s social position.
Even with comparable educations to men, women are employed in lower wage jobs and lower prestige occupations than men.
In 2013, when the median income for men working year-round and full-time was $50,033, the median income of women working year-round, full time was $39,157, 78% of men’s income.
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

16. Diverse Sources of Stratification (slide 2 of 2)
20% of U.S. children live in poverty.
9.5% of those in the U.S. over 65 years old are poor.
Most elderly live comfortably due to pensions and Social Security.
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

17. Social Mobility: Myths and Realities
You may be able to climb up the ladder if others allow you to, or if you achieve it, but others may push you down a rung or two.
This is called social mobility.
People usually stay on, or close to, the rung they started on.
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

18. Class Consciousness Class consciousness is the perception of:
the existence of a class structure
your shared identification with a given class
Are Americans class conscious?
Because of the widespread belief that mobility is possible, people in the United States tend not to be very conscious of class.
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

19. Why Is There Inequality?
Marx classified people in two social classes:
Bourgeoisie are the owners of the means of production.
Proletariat are the workers, those who sell their labor for wages; also referred to as the exploited masses.
He also classified the petty bourgeoisie (small business owners) and the lumpen proleteriat (jobless).
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

20. Max Weber: Class, Status, and Party
Weber saw three dimensions to stratification:
class (the economic dimension);
status (or prestige, the cultural and social dimension); and,
party (or power, the political dimension).
Weber is thus responsible for a multidimensional view of social stratification because he analyzed the connections between economic, cultural, and political systems.
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

21. Poverty
Despite high average U.S. standard of living, poverty afflicts millions of people.
Poverty line: amount of money needed to support the basic needs of a household
Below this line, one is considered officially poor.
More than 45 million poor people in the U.S. (14.5% of the population)
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

22. Who Are the Poor? (slide 1 of 2)
Feminization of poverty: large proportion of the poor are women/children.
The poor are racially diverse, diverse in age, and diverse in region.
Figure 8.9 Poverty Status by Family and Race
Note: Families with children under 18 present.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau Historical Income
Tables, Table POV-02, People in Families, by Family
Structure, Age, and Sex, Iterated by Income-to-Poverty
Ratio and Race: Washington, DC: U.S. Census
Bureau.
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

23. Who Are the Poor? (slide 2 of 2)
Thousands of homeless: 444,000 to 842,000 on any given night, depending on how you count them.
Increase in homelessness over the past two decades
Child poverty in the United States is higher than one would
expect for such an otherwise materially well-off nation.
Steve Debenport/Getty Images
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

24. Causes of Poverty
Myth that success requires only individual motivation and ability.
“Culture of poverty” argues major causes of poverty are absence of work values and the irresponsibility of the poor.
Most of the able-bodied poor do work, even if only part-time.
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

25. Welfare and Social Policy
The underlying causes of poverty are the economic/social changes in the U.S.
The new welfare policy: Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF).
TANF has a life-time limit of five years for people to receive aid.
All recipients must find work within two years.
Those without work in two years may do community service for free.
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

26. Chapter Summary What different kinds of stratification systems exist?
How do sociologists define class?
How is the class system structured in the United States?
Is there social mobility in the United States?
What analyses of social stratification do sociological theorists provide?
How do sociologists explain why there is poverty in the United States?
What current policies address the problem of poverty?
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

27. Question 1
Social _____ is the process by which different statuses in any group, organization, or society develop.
differentiation
stratification
hierarchy development
estate creation
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

28. Answer 1 B. stratification
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

29. Question 2
Which theory states that the major causes of poverty are the absence of work values and the irresponsibility of the poor?
The feminization of poverty
Living wage theory
The culture of poverty
None of the above
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

30. Answer 2 C. The culture of poverty
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

31. Question 3
In the United States, the _____ is the amount of money needed to support the basic needs of the household, as determined by the federal government.
subsistence level
poverty line
survival level
minimum wage
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

32. Answer 3
B. poverty line
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.