Session 1: Social Inequality & Stratification
 Describe the concept of stratification and how it links with unequal distribution of
wealth, income, status and power
 Explain the major concepts involved in the analysis of stratification, including class,
status and life chances
 Identify and describe forms of stratification based on class, gender, ethnicity, age
and religion
 Describe different sociological explanations of poverty, the cycle of poverty, the
culture of poverty, structural explanations, welfare dependency, long-term
unemployment and social exclusion.
Quick recap: With your partner, discuss the meanings of the keywords
underlined.
EQ: Explain what sociologists mean by the term social inequality (4 marks)
Social inequality
More power,
wealth, income
and status
Less power,
wealth, income
and status
EQ: Identify two ways in which sociologists decide an individual’s social status. (2
marks)
More power,
wealth,
income and
status
Registrar general’s
scale
Professional occupations
Managerial
Skilled non manual
Skilled manual
Less power,
wealth,
income and
status
Partly skilled
Unskilled
Solicitors,
surgeons,
architects
Teachers, nurses,
pilots
Secretary/receptioni
st
Bus driver, electrician,
hairdresser
Postal worker,
bartenders,
caretaker
Refuse collectors,
cleaners
What are the problems with
using
Measuring
social class
More power,
wealth,
income and
status
NS-SEC class
scale
Higher managerial
solicitor
Higher managerial
Lower managerial
Intermediate
Employers
Less power,
wealth,
income and
status
Lower supervisory
Semi routine
Routine
Never worked
teachers
secretaries
farmers
Car mechanic
Bus driver
cleaner
Unemployed
EQ: Identify two reasons why some occupations have higher status than
others. (2 marks)
Measuring
social class
Why is this better than the Register general’s scale?
Problem’s with the Registrar General’s scale
1) Doesn’t include groups such as…
Students, retired, unemployed…
2) Married women were classed as….
the same as their husbands…
3) Doesn’t reflect other factors such as…
Wealth, status, property…
NS-SEC scale now reflects levels of
authority
Describe one way of measuring social class and
explain how accurate this measurement is. (5)
One way could be using the registrar general’s
scale. For example a surgeon is upper class
professional
They are not accurate because people may
have a professional job but not a lot of money.
This means that it doesn’t take into account
other factors.
For example a newly qualified surgeon may
still be paying off university debt which means
that he does not have the wealth or status of
most upper classes people.
2/2
Identify
3/3
Explain
5/5
Describe one social class and explain how it
could be measured . (5)
One social class could be the upper class
For example people with wealth, status
and power
This could be measured using the
registrar general’s scale
This means that a person’s occupation is
used to judge their class
For example a brain surgeon would be
judged as upper class as they have a
professional job.
2/2
Identify
3/3
Explain
5/5
Exam questions
• Describe one way that social class can be
measured and explain why it is measured
in this way (5)
Keyword check!
What do these three terms mean?
• Ascribed status
• Achieved status
• Social mobility
How do people become
socially mobile?
Social mobility
EQ: Identify two reasons why an individual’s social class
may change during his or her lifetime. (2 marks)
Education
Talent/ ability
Family background
Marriage
Factors affecting
peoples’ ability to
become socially
mobile
Changes in
occupational
structure
Inheritance
Social mobility
Examples of social mobility: 1) Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher
• born 13 October 1925
• served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to
1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990.
•She is the only woman to have held either post.
•Born in Grantham in Lincolnshire, United Kingdom, she read
chemistry at Somerville College, Oxford and later trained as a
barrister.
Thatcher spent her childhood in the town of Grantham in Lincolnshire, where
her father owned two grocery shops. She and her older sister were raised in the
flat above the larger of the two located near the railway line. Her father was
active in local politics and religion, serving as a lay preacher. He came from a
Liberal family but stood—as was then customary in local government—as an
Independent. He lost his post as Alderman in 1952 after the Labour Party won
its first majority on Grantham Council in 1950.
Examples of social mobility: 2) Sir Richard
Social
mobility
Branson
Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson born 18 July 1950
best known for his Virgin brand of over 360 companies.
Branson's first successful business venture was at age 16, when he
published a magazine called Student.
He then set up an audio record mail-order business in 1970. In
1972,
he opened a chain of record stores, Virgin Records, later known as
Virgin Megastores and rebranded after a management buyout as
Zavvi in late 2007.
Richard Branson is the 261st richest person in the world according
to Forbes' 2009 list of billionaires, with an estimated net worth of
approximately £1.5 billion
Branson was born in Blackheath, the son of barrister. His grandfather the
Right Honourable Sir George Arthur Harwin Branson, was a judge of the
High Court of Justice. Branson was educated at Scaitcliffe School (now
Bishopsgate School) until the age of thirteen. He then attended Stowe
School until he was sixteen. Branson has mild dyslexia and had poor
academic performance as a student, but discovered his ability to connect
with others.
EQ: Discuss how far sociologists would agree that improving access to high-quality
education is the most effective way to increase upward social mobility. (12 marks)
What do sociologists think about
social mobility?
Marxists
Functionalists
• Does social mobility
exist?
• Does social mobility
exist?
• Do people have
achieved status or
ascribed status?
• Do people have
achieved status or
ascribed status?
• Who is at the top of the
social hierarchy?
• How do people become
socially mobile?
Theories of social class
Functionalist views on social
class
We live in a meritocracy = through talent
& determination you can become
socially mobile.
Theories of social class
Marxism
• Workers are exploited and alienated from
their work
• The upper class maintain the status quo
using the family, education and religion to
make people think that they should work
hard.
Theories of social class
New Right
People should not get social security
benefits if they do not have a job as it
encourages them to be lazy.
Tax payers money should not be spent on
providing others with job seekers
allowance.
People become dependent on welfare
benefits.
Theories of social class
Feminism
• Women face a glass ceiling at work
• Sexism still exists at work
• Women are still a minority in top jobs
Exam Questions 2
•
•
•
•
Explain what sociologists mean by life chances (4)
Explain what sociologists mean by institutional racism. (4)
Explain what sociologists mean by social exclusion (4)
Explain what sociologists mean by the glass ceiling. (4 marks)
• Describe one way in which governments have attempted to increase
upward social mobility and explain why this may not have been
successful. (5)
• Describe one possible cause of social exclusion and explain why
people often find it hard to escape from this situation. (5)
• Describe one way in which the status of the elderly may be lower
than that of other age groups in society and explain how this may
lead to discrimination against them (5)
Session 2: Life chances & Poverty
Describe and explain the ways in which life chances are influenced by differences
in wealth, income, power and status; and describe and explain the relationship
between such inequalities and social factors such as class, gender and ethnicity.
 Describe different sociological explanations of poverty, the cycle of poverty, the
culture of poverty, structural explanations, welfare dependency, long-term
unemployment and social exclusion.
EQ: Explain what sociologists mean by the poverty
trap. (4)
Benefits such as childcare vouchers and housing benefit are means-tested,
which means they are calculated based on income. Some people find that if they
get a job and their income increases, their entitlement to these benefits will also
stop and sometimes this means that they are actually worse off financially if they
work than if they don’t. This is called the poverty trap as it traps people into
poverty.
EQ: Describe one reason why people find themselves in poverty and explain why it
might be difficult for them to get out of this situation. (5 marks)
Which sectors of society do you think
are more likely to be poor?
•
•
•
•
Single parents
Elderly
Working class/underclass
Ethnic minorities
EQ:
•Describe one social group whose members are more likely than others to
experience poverty and explain why this group is more at risk of experiencing
poverty (5)
•Describe one consequence of child poverty and explain why the problem of child
poverty still exists (5 marks)
The Elderly
People with disabilities
Children and poverty
Women and poverty
Single parents
Ethnicity and poverty
EQ: Describe one way in which ethnicity and social class may be linked and explain the
possible consequences of this link (5)
•
•
•
•
Living on state pension
Limited means of income
Health problems can cause expense
Cost of private healthcare
• More likely to experience discrimination and not get a higher paid
job
• More likely to be in low skilled, low paid manual work – racism/
discrimination
• Culturally seen as socially unacceptable to claim benefits they may
be entitled to
• Under achievement at school – less qualifications – lower paid work
Women
Married women rely husbands
Fewer women have occupational pensions
Women live longer, their pension has to last longer.
Women earn less than men on average.
Women are more likely to be single mums.
• Only one income
• More likely to be in part time, lower paid work to fit around child care
• Benefits not high enough to keep single parents out of poverty, but a
soon as they earn more money they lose their benefits.
children
- Rely on parents income, who may not have
enough money to give them. (don’t work)
- Children in single parent families are more likely
to be in poverty
- Arrival of new children, can push parents into
poverty.
- Young people may be put off going to Uni by the
debt they will accumulate. (Graduates generally
earn more than those without higher educational
qualifications.)
- Disabilities make it difficult to find work,
may be restricted with choice of work/ face
discrimination.
- There are extra costs such as adapting the
home which very expensive.
- Changes by the conservative government
means that benefits were lower for people
with disabilities.
Poverty can be measured by life chances…
Life chances = measurable positive or
negative outcomes across a person’s
lifetime e.g. based on education, health,
income, housing, employment.
•Describe one way in which some minority ethnic groups have fewer life chances
than others and explain why this appears to continue over time. (5 marks)
What would a Marxist
say when asked if life
chances are
distributed unequally
in society?
A: Competition in society creates
winners and losers. The winners
are rich and powerful & have the
best life chances – best education,
healthcare etc. The losers are
poor and have the worst life
chances…
What would a
Functionalist say when
asked if life chances
are distributed
unequally in society?
A: Welfare benefits, free education
and free healthcare mean that
individuals can improve their life
chances if they want to. Hard work
and a sensible lifestyle can turn
these opportunities into better life
chances…
To what extent what sociologists agree that if people
are in poverty they only have themselves to blame (12)
It is peoples own
fault they are in
poverty
It’s not peoples own fault they are in poverty
Culture of poverty
Cycle of
deprivation
Welfare dependency
Unemployment
Social exclusion
Marxist views
Poverty Exam Questions
• Identify two sources of income (2)
• Describe one reason why some sociologists use
relative definitions of poverty and explain why some
politicians might prefer to use absolute definitions. (5
marks)
• Describe one way in which poverty can be defined
and explain the problems with defining poverty in
this way (5)
• Discuss how far sociologists would agree that
poverty is likely to persist from one generation of a
family to the next generation (12)
Session 3: Social issues
Analyse whether Britain is becoming a meritocracy/classless society,
whether class inequality/division has become less significant than
inequalities/divisions based on gender, ethnicity or age.
Starter: Identify two things that the government has done to try to help with each of
these social issues:
•Racism
•Gender inequality
•Age discrimination
•Poverty
EQ:
• Identify two ways in which British governments have tried to reduce
inequalities between different ethnic groups over the last 50 years (2
marks)
•
Describe one way in which governments have attempted to end gender
discrimination in the workplace and explain why this policy might not
have been successful. (5 marks)
•
Discuss how far sociologists would agree that gender discrimination in
the workplace remains an issue in Britain today. (12 marks)
• Describe one way in which the social position of women in Britain has
changed over the last 50 years and explain the reasons for this change
(5)
• Discuss how far sociologists would agree that the growth of an
underclass has led to an increasing number of social problems in Britain
today. (12 marks)
Age
Gender
Ethnicity
Discuss how far
_____is a more significant
cause of poverty/social
division than other
factors… (12)
Welfare dependency
Unemployment
Social class
Exam Questions 3
• Discuss how far sociologists would agree that
modern Britain is a meritocratic society (12)
• Discuss how far sociologists would agree that
Britain is now a classless society (12)
• Discuss how far sociologists would agree that
there is less class inequality now than 50 years
ago. (12 marks)
• Discuss how far sociologists would agree that
there is still a traditional working class in Britain
today. (12 marks)