Social Stratification

• Meritocracy


  A system where rewards and privileges are based on individual talent and effort rather than social background
• Modern capitalist society is open and meritocratic
• Individuals can become socially mobile and are rewarded only for their talents and ambitions
• Socio-economic class

  A system of social stratification where people are divided into different groups based on their wealth, income, education, occupation, and social status
• A system of social stratification should be based on unequal rewards and privileges
• Davis & Moore believed that such systems are part of a functional society and role differentiation by skill was a universal necessity
• Marx believed that the trade of society was determined by the way in which the economy was organised
• In capitalist society, those who own the means of production (the capitalist class) exploit their workers
• Because they did not own the means of production, the workers could survive only by selling their labour
• Women from all social classes are affected - they frequently suffer the dual burden of paid employment and domestic labour, but working class women often work long hours for low pay
• People in poverty are either excluded from the labour market (e.g. the disabled, the chronically sick and the elderly) or they are in a weak position (e.g. those with no marketable skills or qualifications)
• An individual's educational opportunities and future career, health and life expectancy are all impossible to separate from the social class in which they are born
• Limited social mobility is a mechanism that the capitalist class uses to preserve itself
• The capitalist economic system needs to maintain a pool of cheap labour
• The welfare state is a mechanism through which capitalism can reproduce itself
• Feminists argue that the welfare state reinforces patriarchy by encouraging the nuclear family and discouraging single parenthood
• Divorce and single parenthood can lead to poverty
• Women at the head of single parent families have 'economic vulnerability'
• Power and authority


  The ability to influence the behaviour of others and get them to do what you want, even if they don't want to
• Democratic societies are managed for the benefit of all
• Power and authority are based on rules and regulations
• Meritocratic systems ensure that the most able are placed into positions of power and authority
• In modern democratic society, power relationships are governed by rules and regulations that protect the best interests of members of society
• Those who abuse power will be removed from positions
• Central and local government, police, judges and military are all instruments of the powerful economic and social groups
• The capitalist class use power to exploit workers' labour
• The workers created the wealth with their labour, but the economic rewards went mostly to the capitalist class who own the means of production
• Patriarchy was based on the household with men deciding and controlling women and girls
• In the modern world, public patriarchy limits women's opportunities and restricts access to positions of power
• Men occupy more positions of power
• Women continue to experience exploitative relationships
• Male violence is widely condoned in British society. Women who seek help after experiencing male violence are humiliated
• Davis and Moore Functionalist theory of stratification


  • Societies must allocate people to different roles-some roles are functionally important (essential for society eg doctors)- this is meritocratic
  • These roles have high status and rewards to attract best people to them
  • Stratification is necessary to ensure the most talented people get best jobs
• Marx's theory of social class


  • Argues there are two main social classes: bourgeoisie and proletariat
  • Bourgeoisie have more power those than own means of production
  • Proletariat are exploited and experience alienation-class conflict exists
  • Bourgeoisie impose their ideology on working class and create false class consciousness
• Weber's theory of social class

  • Classes are formed in the labour market-a class is a group who have similar life chances
  • Classes based both on economic factors and status and power too
• Weber's theory of power and authority

  • Power is based on coercion (use of threat/ violence) or authority (when someone obeys you as they think they should)
  • 3 types of authority: Charismatic, Traditional, Rational legal
• Devine's (1992) Affluent Workers revisited

  • Revisited Luton to see how far WC lifestyles had changed-compared to Goldthorpe's
  • Found WC lifestyles had not changed as much as Goldthorpe suggested
  • Home life not purely home centred and privatised, interviewees did not have a purely instrumental attitude to work, plenty of evidence of solidarity
• Townsend's (1979) relative deprivation theory


  • Developed a deprivation index to measure relative deprivation
  • Found almost 23% of population were in poverty, much higher than 6% (state measure of poverty)
• Murray's (1984) New Right perspective on poverty


  • Argues welfare benefits create dependency-discouraging people to find work, and actually creating more poverty
  • The underclass are a threat to society-a group who drain resources and do not work-associates it with rising crime and single-parent families
• Walby's (1990) Feminist theory on patriarchy


  • Patriarchy is a system of structures in which men dominate and exploit women
  • Includes paid employment, household, culture, sexuality, male violence against women and the state