Why stratification exist

Tumin believed social stratification prevented qualified people from attempting to fill roles Tumin For example, an underprivileged youth has less chance of becoming a scientist, no matter how smart she is, because of the relative lack of opportunity available to her.

The Davis-Moore thesis, though open for debate, was an early attempt to explain why stratification exists. The thesis states that social stratification is necessary to promote excellence, productivity, and efficiency, thus giving people something to strive for. Davis and Moore believed that the system serves society as a whole because it allows everyone to benefit to a certain extent. These people are protesting a decision made by Tennessee Technological University in Cookeville, Tennessee, to lay off custodians and outsource the jobs to a private firm to avoid paying employee benefits.

Private job agencies often pay lower hourly wages. Is the decision fair? Conflict theorists are deeply critical of social stratification, asserting that it benefits only some people, not all of society. Stratification, conflict theorists believe, perpetuates inequality. Conflict theorists try to bring awareness to inequalities, such as how a rich society can have so many poor members.

Many conflict theorists draw on the work of Karl Marx. People were divided by a single line: they either owned factories or worked in them. Proletariats were the workers who performed the manual labor to produce goods. Upper-class capitalists raked in profits and got rich, while working-class proletariats earned skimpy wages and struggled to survive. With such opposing interests, the two groups were divided by differences of wealth and power.

Marx saw workers experience deep alienation, isolation and misery resulting from powerless status levels Marx Marx argued that proletariats were oppressed by the money-hungry bourgeois. Today, while working conditions have improved, conflict theorists believe that the strained working relationship between employers and employees still exists. Capitalists own the means of production, and a system is in place to make business owners rich and keep workers poor.

According to conflict theorists, the resulting stratification creates class conflict. Symbolic interactionism is a theory that uses everyday interactions of individuals to explain society as a whole. Symbolic interactionism examines stratification from a micro-level perspective. In most communities, people interact primarily with others who share the same social standing. It is precisely because of social stratification that people tend to live, work, and associate with others like themselves, people who share their same income level, educational background, or racial background, and even tastes in food, music, and clothing.

The built-in system of social stratification groups people together. Housing, clothing, and transportation indicate social status, as do hairstyles, taste in accessories, and personal style. In Western countries, this stratification primarily occurs as a result of socioeconomic status in which a hierarchy determines the groups most likely to gain access to financial resources and forms of privilege.

Typically, the upper classes have the most access to these resources while the lower classes may get few or none of them, putting them at a distinct disadvantage.

A look at wealth stratification in the U. The Federal Reserve attributes this trend to the richest Americans acquiring more assets; the financial crisis that devastated the housing market also contributed to the wealth gap. Social stratification isn't just based on wealth, however. In some societies, tribal affiliations, age, or caste result in stratification.

In groups and organizations, stratification may take the form of a distribution of power and authority down the ranks. Think of the different ways that status is determined in the military, schools, clubs, businesses, and even groupings of friends and peers.

Regardless of the form it takes, social stratification can manifest as the ability to make rules, decisions, and establish notions of right and wrong. Additionally, this power can be manifested as the capacity to control the distribution of resources and determine the opportunities, rights, and obligations of others.

Sociologists recognize that a variety of factors, including social class , race , gender , sexuality, nationality, and sometimes religion, influence stratification. As such, they tend to take an intersectional approach to analyzing the phenomenon. This approach recognizes that systems of oppression intersect to shape people's lives and to sort them into hierarchies.

Consequently, sociologists view racism , sexism , and heterosexism as playing significant and troubling roles in these processes as well. In this vein, sociologists recognize that racism and sexism affect one's accrual of wealth and power in society. The relationship between systems of oppression and social stratification is made clear by U. Census data that show a long-term gender wage and wealth gap has plagued women for decades , and though it has narrowed a bit over the years, it still thrives today.

A survey of young adults in the U. They also have 8. These findings show that education clearly plays a role in social stratification, but race intersects with academic achievement in the U. The Pew Research Center has reported that completion of college is stratified by ethnicity. This data reveals that systemic racism shapes access to higher education , which, in turn, affects one's income and wealth. It is Thanksgiving dinner, and your family and other relatives are gathered around a very large table.

Having taken a few sociology courses, you subscribe to the structural explanation for poverty presented in this chapter. A silence sets over the table, and everyone is staring at you, wondering what you will say in response to your cousin.

What do you say? Summary Almost all societies are stratified according to wealth, power, prestige, and other resources the societies value. Societies are often categorized into systems of stratification according to the degrees of inequality and vertical social mobility that characterize them. Systems of stratification include slave societies, caste societies, and class societies, with class societies the most open in terms of vertical social mobility.

Classless societies exist in theory, according to Karl Marx and other thinkers, but have never been achieved in reality. Certain social democracies in Western Europe have succeeded in limiting their degree of inequality while preserving political freedom.