social inequality

• Welfare states


  Government efforts to reduce the gap between the rich and the poor by expanding social welfare programs
• Welfare states have widened social inequality
• Countries with good economies and more equal societies

  • Japan
  • Sweden
  • Finland
  • Norway
• Wilkinson and Pickett's argument

  Aspects of a society are not defined by its wealth but by the gap between the rich and poor. The larger the gap, the more poorly it will score on measures like educational performance, crime rates, health, and social mobility.
• Government view of inequality


  Governments don't see inequality as a problem itself, but rather don't want it to be extreme. Governments have a duty to ensure the living standards of the poorest are not too low.
• Reasons for introduction and continuation of welfare states

  1. Moral - it is not seen as acceptable for some to be well-off while others are in poverty

  2. Political - to prevent the working class from rebelling against injustice and inequality, and to win support and votes from particular groups by giving them benefits

  3. Functionalist - welfare benefits maintain society's values and prevent it from becoming dysfunctional
• Welfare states in Scandinavian countries

  They provide more benefits, paid for by higher taxes on higher income earners, resulting in relatively low levels of inequality
• In Europe, welfare states have often expanded through democratic parties in order to decrease class struggle and allow redistribution of wealth
• In the USA, the value of individualism encourages people to work and look after themselves, which has apparently been more successful than the European approach
• Right-wing view of welfare states

  They have become too expensive and encourage a 'dependency culture' where people lose the ability to take care of themselves
• Right-wing criticisms of welfare states

  • Encouraging dependency culture
  • Being open to abuse with people fraudulently receiving benefits
  • Becoming too expensive as more people receive benefits instead of only those who need them
  • Discouraging the unemployed from looking for jobs
  • Making the state a 'nanny state' that provides more than is needed
  • Risking the production of an 'underclass' whose values and norms are separate from the rest of society
• Marxist and left-wing view of welfare states

  Welfare states are a 'bribery' to prevent revolution from less fortunate people, softening the harsh economic realities of capitalism
• Government efforts to reduce inequality


  • Progressive taxation
  • Equal opportunities legislation
  • Providing state education
  • Setting minimum wages
• Groups most likely to be poor

  • Lone parents and their children
  • Long-term unemployed people
  • Low-paid workers
  • Refugees, asylum seekers and immigrants
  • People dependent on welfare benefits
  • Chronically ill or disabled people
• Absolute poverty


  Lacking basic necessities such as food, water, sanitation, shelter, health, education, and information
• Relative poverty


  Being poor according to the social context and standards of the society you live in
• One way of calculating poverty is 60% of median income
• Another way is calculating the total cost of necessities, as used by Peter Townsend in his studies on UK poverty, which found that 20% of the UK was in poverty
• Main reasons for poverty


  • Welfare benefits that still leave people below the poverty line
  • Low-paid jobs
  • No paid job
• Cycle of poverty


  Families staying in poverty for three generations because the factors causing it do not change and instead perpetuate it
• Poverty trap


  Being poor is expensive, as people have to spend a lot on essential standard of living (e.g. unable to travel to cheap shops, unable to insulate homes, buying old/second-hand goods, unable to borrow at low interest rates)
• Culture of poverty


  The idea that poor people have a set of values that keep them in poverty (e.g. low literacy and education, fatalism, feeling marginalised, not using resources, needing immediate gratification)
• Research has shown that the poor have the same values as the rest of society, and the 'culture of poverty' is sometimes used by politicians as an excuse not to tackle poverty
• Social exclusion


  Systematically excluding people from rights, opportunities and resources that are available to others (e.g. housing, employment, health, transport)
• To tackle social exclusion, the government needs to find ways to involve socially excluded people more in society, not just provide welfare benefits
• Functionalist view of poverty

  • Sees it as a positive aspect for the functioning of society, as it rewards those with natural abilities and creates workers for undesirable jobs, while increasing social solidarity through charity
• Marxist view of poverty


  • Sees it as an inevitable consequence of capitalism, where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, as capitalists pay the working class as little as possible
• Right-wing view of poverty

  • Blames the poor for being poor, seeing it as a cultural problem rather than a social construction
• Feminist view of poverty

  • Emphasises female poverty, as women are more likely to be paid less than men and have fewer job opportunities
• The world's poorest people face risks like living in areas exposed to flooding and pollution, having temporary homes, being affected first by climate change, and having limited access to health, education and other services
• Women have a triple burden of work - they work for an income, do domestic labour, and take care of children
• In most countries women earn far less than men even for the same work
• Women experience violence including domestic violence and female genital mutilation
• In some countries the preference for boy children has led to the abortion of female foetuses, leading to an imbalance in the population
• Girls are less likely to go to school than boys in many developing countries
• Girls are more likely than boys to marry young, which often ends their education and may lead to health problems if there is an early pregnancy
• Women are more likely to be in poverty than men
• Women live longer on average, about 5 years longer than men in most societies
• Changing role of women in modern industrial societies

  • Women now play a greater part in the workforce
  • The traditional female gender role of housewife and mother has not disappeared but is now more likely to be combined with paid work
  • Men have often taken on a greater share of housework and childcare to accommodate this
• Women still face discrimination in employment - they are more likely than men to work part time, and time away from work when children are born and while the children are young can affect their opportunities for promotion