13.4: The Functionalist Perspective on Education

13.4.1: Socialization

Learning Objective

Examine socialization in three ways – the functionalist perspective, and according to Merton and Parsons

Key Points

• Structural functionalists view the socialization process as one where the values and norms of society are agreed upon by all members of society because there is a “social contract” in effect which protects us from one another and keeps society stable and balanced.
• Socialization refers to the lifelong process of inheriting and disseminating norms, customs and ideologies, providing an individual with the skills and habits necessary for participating within his or her own society.
• The values and norms of society are agreed upon by all members of society because there is a “social contract” in effect which protects us from one another and keeps society stable and balanced.
• Robert K. Merton coined the term “role model” and hypothesized that individuals compare themselves with reference groups of people who occupy the social role to which the individual aspires.
• The key processes for Talcott Parsons for system reproduction are socialization and social control.
• Socialization is supported by the positive and negative sanctioning of role behaviors that do or do not meet these expectations.

Key Terms

social contract

An implicit agreement or contract among members of a society that dictates things that are considered acceptable conduct.

Reference Groups

Groups to which a person may compare himself to.

Example

• One might use a reference group to determine his or her affluence: An individual in the U.S. with an annual income of $80,000, may consider himself affluent if he compares himself to those who earn roughly $35,000 a year. If, however, the same person considers the relevant reference group to be those in the top 0.1% of households in the U.S., those making $1.6 million or more, then the individual’s income of $80,000 would make him or her seem rather poor.

Socialization is a term that refers to the lifelong process of inheriting and disseminating norms, customs and ideologies, providing an individual with the skills and habits necessary for participating within his or her own society . Socialization describes a process that may lead to desirable or moral outcomes. Individual views on certain issues, such as race or economics, may be socialized within a society.

Toddler Socialization

Three-year-old female toddler showing signs of healthy socialization: Having lifted her shirt, she is concentrating on playing at attaching an under-nourished doll to her breast. Her sister is four months old and breast fed on demand.

Functionalist Perspective on Socialization

The Functionalist paradigm describes society as stable and describes all of the various mechanisms that maintain social stability. Functionalism argues that the social structure is responsible for all stability and instability, and that that the social structure is continuously attempting to maintain social equilibrium among all the components of society.

According to functionalists, the socialization process is coercive, forcing us to accept the values and norms of society. The values and norms of society are agreed upon by all members of society because there is a “social contract” in effect which protects us from one another and keeps society stable and balanced. People follow and accept the values and norms of society in order to maintain their own safety as well as maintaining social order.

Robert K. Merton

The term role model generally means any “person who serves as an example, whose behavior is emulated by others. ” The term first appeared in Robert K. Merton’s socialization research of medical students. Merton hypothesized that socialization happens when individuals compare themselves with reference groups of people who occupy the social role to which the individual aspires. Beginning with Merton, sociologists call any group that individuals use as a standard for evaluating themselves and their own behavior a reference group. For example, an individual in the U.S. with an annual income of $80,000, may consider himself affluent if he compares himself to those who earn roughly $35,000 a year. If, however, the same person considers the relevant reference group to be those in the top 0.1 percent of households in the U.S., those making $1.6 million or more, then the individual’s income of $80,000 would make him or her seem rather poor.

Talcott Parsons

Talcott Parsons was heavily influenced by Emile Durkheim and Max Weber, synthesizing much of their work into his action theory, which he based on the system-theoretical concept and the methodological principle of voluntary action. The key processes for Parsons for system reproduction are socialization and social control. Socialization is important because it is the mechanism for transferring the accepted norms and values of society to the individuals within the system. Parsons never spoke about “perfect socialization”—in any society socialization was only partial and “incomplete” from an integral point of view. Socialization is supported by the positive and negative sanctioning of role behaviors that do or do not meet these expectations. A punishment could be informal, like a snicker or gossip, or more formalized, through institutions such as prisons and mental institutions.

Socialization of Direct Marketing

The concept of socialization being used for advertising.

13.4.2: Cultural Transmission

Learning Objective

Analyze the importance of cultural transmission, particularly in terms of learning styles

Key Points

• Learning styles are greatly influenced by how a culture socializes with its children and young people.
• The process by which a child acquires his or her own culture is referred to as enculturation.
• On the basis of cultural learning, people create, remember, and deal with ideas. They understand and apply specific systems of symbolic meaning.
• A meme is “an idea, behavior or style that spreads from person to person within a culture. ” The term was coined by the British evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in The Selfish Gene (1976).
• Intercultural competence is the ability to communicate successfully with people of other cultures.

Key Terms

Intercultural Competence

The ability to communicate successfully with people of other cultures.

Cultural Transmission

The way a group of people or animals within a society or culture tend to learn and pass on new information.

Symbolic Meaning

Meaning that is conveyed through language; when one knows that X means Y.

Example

• While interacting with people from other cultures, an individual generally faces certain obstacles, which are caused by differences in cultural understanding between the two people in question. For example, showing the thumb held upwards in certain parts of the world means “everything’s okay,” while it is understood in some Islamic countries as a rude sexual sign.

Cultural transmission is the way a group of people or animals within a society or culture tend to learn and pass on new information. Learning styles are greatly influenced by how a culture socializes with its children and young people. The key aspect of culture is that it is not passed on biologically from the parents to the offspring, but rather learned through experience and participation. The process by which a child acquires his or her own culture is referred to as “enculturation. ” Cultural learning allows individuals to acquire skills that they would be unable to independently over the course of their lifetimes.

Cultural Transmission for Humans

Cultural learning is believed to be particularly important for humans. Humans are weaned at an early age compared to the emergence of adult dentition. The immaturity of dentition and the digestive system, the time required for growth of the brain, the rapid skeletory growth needed for the young to reach adult height and strength means that children have special digestive needs and are dependent on adults for a long period of time. This time of dependence also allows time for cultural learning to occur before passage into adulthood.

On the basis of cultural learning, people create, remember, and deal with ideas. They understand and apply specific systems of symbolic meaning. Cultures have been compared to sets of control mechanisms, plans, recipes, rules, or instructions. Cultural differences have been found in academic motivation, achievement, learning style, conformity, and compliance. Cultural learning is dependent on innovation or the ability to create new responses to the environment and the ability to communicate or imitate the behavior of others. A meme is “an idea, behavior or style that spreads from person to person within a culture. ” A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols or practices, which can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals, or other imitable phenomena. The term was coined by the British evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in The Selfish Gene (1976).

Intercultural Competence

Intercultural competence is the ability to communicate successfully with people of other cultures. In interactions with people from foreign cultures, a person who is interculturally competent understands culture-specific concepts in perception, thinking, feeling, and acting. The interculturally competent person considers earlier experiences free from prejudices, and has an interest in, and motivation towards, continued learning.

The development of intercultural competence is mostly based on the individual’s experiences while communicating with different cultures. While interacting with people from other cultures, the individual generally faces certain obstacles, which are caused by differences in cultural understanding between the two people in question. Such experiences motivate the individual to work on skills that can help him communicate his point of view to an audience belonging to a completely different cultural ethnicity and background. For example, showing the thumb held upwards in certain parts of the world means “everything’s okay,” while it is understood in some Islamic countries as a rude sexual sign. Additionally, the thumb is held up to signify “one” in France and certain other European countries, where the index finger is used to signify “one” in other cultures. In India and Indonesia, it is often regarded as wishing “all the best.”

13.4.3: Academic Skills and Knowledge

Learning Objective

Examine the implications of academia in society, especially in terms of structure, qualifications and academic capital

Key Points

• Academia is the community of students and scholars engaged in higher education and research.
• Academia is usually conceived of as divided into disciplines or fields of study.
• The degree awarded for completed study is the primary academic qualification. Typically these are, in order of accomplishment, associate’s degree, bachelor’s degree, master’s degree, and doctorate.
• In the United States, “professors” commonly occupy any of several positions in academia, typically the ranks of assistant professor, associate professor, or full professor.
• Academic capital is a term used by sociologists to represent how an individual’s amount of education and other academic experience can be used to gain a place in society.

Key Terms

Academic Capital

A term referring to how an individual’s amount of education and other academic experience can be used to gain a more esteemed place in society.

academia

The scientific and cultural community engaged in higher education and research, taken as a whole.

Examples

• As of August 2007 teaching in tertiary educational institutions is one of the fastest growing occupations, topping the U.S. Department of Labor’s list of “above average wages and high projected growth occupations,” with a projected increase of 524,000 positions between 2004 and 2014.
• Bourdieu’s definition of academic capital is applicable to any individual: even an individual interviewing for a secretarial position would benefit from having more schooling than another candidate

Academia is the community of students and scholars engaged in higher education and research. In Western Europe, universities were founded in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and the European institution of Academia took shape. Monks and priests moved out of monasteries to cathedral cities and other towns where they opened the first schools dedicated to advanced study. In the United States, the term “academic” is approximately synonymous with that of the job title professor, although in recent decades a growing number of institutions include librarians in the category of “academic staff. “

Structure

Academia is usually conceived of as divided into disciplines or fields of study. The disciplines have been much revised, and many new disciplines have become more specialized, researching smaller and smaller areas. Because of this, interdisciplinary research is often prized in today’s academy, though it can also be made difficult both by practical matters of administration and funding and by differing research methods of different disciplines. In fact, many new fields of study have initially been conceived as interdisciplinary, and later become specialized disciplines in their own right. On recent example is cognitive science.

Qualifications

The degree awarded for completed study is the primary academic qualification. Typically, these are, in order of completion, associate’s degree, bachelor’s degree, master’s degree, and doctorate. In the United States, “professors” commonly occupy any of several positions in academia, typically the ranks of assistant professor, associate professor, or full professor. Research and education are among the main tasks of professors with the time spent in research or teaching depending strongly on the type of institution. Publication of articles in conferences, journals, and books is essential to occupational advancement. As of August 2007, teaching in tertiary educational institutions is one of the fastest growing occupations, topping the U.S. Department of Labor’s list of “above average wages and high projected growth occupations,” with a projected increase of 524,000 positions between 2004 and 2014.

Academic Capital

“Academic capital” is a term used by sociologists to represent how an individual’s amount of education and other academic experience can be used to gain a place in society. The term originated in 1979 when Pierre Bourdieu (1930–2002), a prominent French sociologist, used the term in his book, Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste. The book attempts to show how individuals are not defined by social class, but instead by their “social space,” which is dependent on each type of capital the individual has.

Much like other forms of capital, social capital, economic capital, and cultural capital, academic capital doesn’t depend on one sole factor but instead is made up of many different factors, including the individual’s academic transmission from his/her family, status of the academic institutions attended, and publications produced by the individual. Since Bourdieu first coined the term, it has been used widely to discuss many of the implications involved with schooling and the rise of individuals in academia. Numerous studies have been done involving the idea of academic capital, and scholars have disagreed on what counts as academic capital.

Bourdieu’s definition of the term is applicable to any individual. However, it seems that most references to academic capital point solely to professional teachers and researchers within higher education. For example, in 2009, Michael Burawoy defined academic capital as being estimated from an individual’s curriculum vitae, but admitted that it was subjective because some fields of study seem to value certain academic qualities more than others—research.

Oxford University

Academia is the community of students and scholars engaged in higher education and research

13.4.4: Innovation

Learning Objective

Compare the difference between innovation and invention, as well as the pros and cons of each

Key Points

• Innovation differs from invention in that innovation refers to the use of better and, as a result, novel idea or method, whereas invention refers more directly to the creation of the idea or method itself.
• Innovation differs from improvement in that innovation refers to the notion of doing something different rather than doing the same thing better.
• In society, innovation aids in comfort, convenience, and efficiency in everyday life.
• In the organizational context, innovation may be linked to positive changes in efficiency, productivity, quality, competitiveness, market share, and others.
• When an innovative idea requires a better business model, or radically redesigns the delivery of value to focus on the customer, a real-world experimentation approach increases the chances of market success.
• Once innovation occurs, innovations may be spread from the innovator to other individuals and groups. This process can be described using the “s-curve” or diffusion curve. This is known as the process of diffusion.

Key Terms

business model

The particular way in which a business organization ensures that it generates income, one that includes the choice of offerings, strategies, infrastructure, organizational structures, trading practices, and operational processes and policies.

organization

A group of people or other legal entities with an explicit purpose and written rules.

improvement

Increase; growth; progress; advance.

Example

• All organizations can innovate, including hospitals, universities, and local governments. For instance, former Mayor Martin O’Malley pushed the City of Baltimore to use CitiStat, a performance-measurement data and management system that allows city officials to maintain statistics on everything from crime trends to condition of potholes. This system aids in better evaluation of policies and procedures with accountability and efficiency in terms of time and money. In its first year, CitiStat saved the city $13.2 million.

Innovation is the creation of better or more effective products, processes, services, technologies, or ideas that are readily available to markets, governments, and society. Innovation differs from invention in that innovation refers to the use of better and, as a result, a novel idea or method, whereas invention refers more directly to the creation of the idea or method itself. Innovation differs from improvement in that innovation refers to the notion of doing something different rather than doing the same thing better.

Due to its widespread effect, innovation is an important topic in the study of economics, business, entrepreneurship, design, technology, sociology, and engineering. In society, innovation aids in comfort, convenience, and efficiency in everyday life. For instance, the benchmarks in railroad equipment and infrastructure added to greater safety, maintenance, speed, and weight capacity for passenger services. These innovations included wood to steel cars, iron to steel rails, stove-heated to steam-heated cars, gas lighting to electric lighting, diesel-powered to electric-diesel locomotives. By mid-twentieth century, trains were making longer, more comfortable, and faster trips at lower costs for passengers

Organization

In the organizational context, innovation may be linked to positive changes in efficiency, productivity, quality, competitiveness, market share, and others. All organizations can innovate, including hospitals, universities, and local governments. For instance, former Mayor Martin O’Malley pushed the City of Baltimore to use CitiStat, a performance-measurement data and management system that allows city officials to maintain statistics on crime trends to condition of potholes. This system aids in better evaluation of policies and procedures with accountability and efficiency in terms of time and money. In its first year, CitiStat saved the city $13.2 million.

There are several sources of innovation. According to the Peter F. Drucker the general sources of innovations are different changes in industry structure, in market structure, in local and global demographics, in human perception, mood and meaning, in the amount of already available scientific knowledge, etc. When an innovative idea requires a better business model, or radically redesigns the delivery of value to focus on the customer, a real-world experimentation approach increases the chances of market success. Potentially, innovative business models and customer experiences can’t be tested through traditional market research methods. Programs of organizational innovation are typically tightly linked to organizational goals and objectives, the business plan, and to market competitive positioning. One driver for innovation programs in corporations is to achieve growth objectives. Once innovation occurs, innovations may be spread from the innovator to other individuals and groups. This process can be described as using the “s-curve” or diffusion curve. This is known as the process of diffusion.

Innovation Diagram

Innovation 3D – The Innovation Triangle

13.4.5: Child Care

Learning Objective

Analyze the different types of child care in the United States, from parental care to center-based care

Key Points

• It is traditional in Western society for children to be taken care of by their parents or their legal guardians.
• If a parent or extended family is unable to care for the children, orphanages and foster homes are a way of providing for children’s care, housing, and schooling.
• The two main types of child care options are center-based care and home-based care.
• Home-based care typically is provided by nannies, au-pairs, or friends and family.
• In 1995, over thirty-six percent of families of preschoolers with working mothers primarily relied on child care in the home of a relative, family day care provider or other non relative. Almost twenty-six percent of families used organized child care facilities as their primary arrangement.

Key Terms

Home-based care

Child care that occurs in the child’s home as opposed to in a preschool or external institution.

Center-based care

Child care that occurs outside of the child’s home, such as in a preschool.

extended family

A family consisting of parents and children, along with either grandparents, grandchildren, aunts or uncles, cousins etc.

Example

• According to the 1995 U.S. Census Bureau Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), over thirty-six percent of families of preschoolers with working mothers primarily relied on child care in the home of a relative, family day care provider or other non-relative. Almost twenty-six percent of families used organized child care facilities as their primary arrangement.

Child care involves supervising a child or children, usually from infancy to age thirteen, and typically refers to work done by somebody outside the child’s immediate family. Child care is a broad topic covering a wide spectrum of contexts, activities, social and cultural conventions, and institutions. The majority of child care institutions that are available require that child care providers have extensive training in first aid and are CPR certified. In addition, background checks, drug testing, and reference verification are normally required.

It is traditional in Western society for children to be cared for by their parents or their legal guardians. In families where children live with one or both of their parents, the child care role may also be taken on by the child’s extended family. If a parent or extended family is unable to care for the children, orphanages and foster homes are a way of providing for children’s care, housing, and schooling.

Types of Child Care

The two main types of child care options are center-based care and home-based care. In addition to these licensed options, parents may also choose to find their own caregiver or arrange child care exchanges/swaps with another family. In-home care typically is provided by nannies, au-pairs, or friends and family. The child is watched inside their own home or the caregiver’s home, reducing exposure to outside children and illnesses. Depending on the number of children in the home, the children utilizing in-home care enjoy the greatest amount of interaction with their caregiver, forming a close bond. There are no required licensing or background checks for in-home care, making parental vigilance essential in choosing an appropriate caregiver. Nanny and au-pair services provide certified caregivers and the cost of in-home care is the highest of child care options per child, though a household with many children may find this the most convenient and affordable option.

Child Care in the United States

State legislation may regulate the number and ages of children allowed before the home is considered an official daycare program and subject to more stringent safety regulations. Often the nationally recognized Child Development Associate credential is the minimum standard for the individual leading this home care program. Each state has different regulations for teacher requirements. In some states, teaching in a day care center requires an Associates Degree in child development. States with quality standards built into their licensing programs may have higher requirements for support staff, such as teacher assistants. And for Head Start Teachers, by 2012 all lead teachers must have a bachelors degree in Early Childhood Education. States vary in other standards set for daycare providers, such as teacher to child ratios.

According to the 1995 U.S. Census Bureau Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), over thirty-six percent of families of preschoolers with working mothers primarily relied on child care in the home of a relative, family day care provider, or other non relative. Almost twenty-six percent of families used organized child care facilities as their primary arrangement .

13.4.6: Postponing Job Hunting

Learning Objective

Examine the reasons why a person would job hunt and the common methods used

Key Points

• The immediate goal of job seeking is usually to obtain a job interview with an employer which may lead to getting hired.
• Common methods of job hunting are finding a job through a friend or an extended business network, personal network, online social network service, or employment website.
• Many job seekers research the employers to which they are applying. Some employers see evidence of this as a positive sign of enthusiasm for the position or the company.

Key Terms

social networking

The use of Internet communities to network and communicate using shared interests, related skills, or geographical location between consumers and businesses.

outplacement

The process of helping to find new employment for redundant workers, especially executives.

Examples

• Contacting as many people as possible is a highly effective way to find a job. It is estimated that 50% or higher of all jobs are found through networking.
• Contacting as many people as possible is a highly effective way to find a job. It is estimated that 50% or higher of all jobs are found through networking.

Job hunting is the act of looking for employment, due to unemployment or discontent with a current position. The immediate goal of job seeking is usually to obtain a job interview with an employer which may lead to getting hired. The job hunter typically first looks for job vacancies or employment opportunities. As of 2010, less than 10% of U.S. jobs are filled through online ads.

Common methods of job hunting are finding a job through a friend or an extended business network, personal network, or online social network service; using an employment website; looking through the classifieds in newspapers; using a private or public employment agency or recruiter; looking on a company’s web site for open jobs, typically in its applicant tracking system; going to a job fairs; using professional guidance such as outplacement services that give training in writing a résumé, applying for jobs, and how to be successful at an interview .

Jobseekers in Ethiopia

Job seekers in central Addis Ababa, Ethiopia review advertised opportunities.

Many job seekers research the employers to which they are applying, and some employers see evidence of this as a positive sign of enthusiasm for the position or the company, or as a mark of thoroughness. Information collected might include open positions, full name, locations, web site, business description, year established, revenues, number of employees, stock price if public, name of the chief executive officer, major products or services, major competitors, and strengths and weaknesses.

Contacting as many people as possible is a highly effective way to find a job. It is estimated that 50% or higher of all jobs are found through networking. Job recruiters and decision makers are increasingly using online social networking sites to gather information about job applicants, according to a mid-2011 Jobvite survey of 800 employers in the U.S. Job seekers need to begin to pay more attention to what employers and recruiters find when they do their pre-interview information gathering about applicants, according to this 2010 study by Microsoft, “Online Reputation in a Connected World.”

13.4.7: Gatekeeping

Learning Objective

Discuss the concept and implications of the gatekeeping process and censorship

Key Points

• Originally focused on the mass media with its few-to-masses dynamic, theories of gatekeeping also now include the workings of face-to-face communication and the many-to-many dynamic now easily available via the Internet.
• Gatekeeping was formally identified in Kurt Lewin’s publication, Forces Behind Food Habits and Methods of Change (1943).
• Censorship is the suppression of speech or other public communication that may be considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or inconvenient as determined by a government, media outlet, or other controlling body.

Key Terms

censorship

The use of state or group power to control freedom of expression, such as passing laws to prevent media from being published or propagated.

Gatekeeping

Gatekeeping is practiced by gatekeepers, people who control access to something, for example, via a city gate. In the late twentieth century, the term came into metaphorical use, referring to individuals who decide whether a given message will be distributed by a mass medium.

information

Things that are or can be known about a given topic; communicable knowledge of something.

Example

• Outside of media organizations, individuals can also act as gatekeepers, deciding what information to include in an email or in a blog, for example.

Gatekeeping is the process through which information is filtered for dissemination, be it publication, broadcasting, the Internet, or some other type of communication. As an academic theory, it is found in several fields, including communication studies, journalism, political science, and sociology. Originally focused on the mass media with its few-to-masses dynamic, theories of gatekeeping also now include the workings of face-to-face communication and the many-to-many dynamic now easily available via the Internet.

The Gatekeeping Process

According to Pamela Shoemaker and Tim Vos, gatekeeping is the “process of culling and crafting countless bits of information into the limited number of messages that reach people everyday. ” Gatekeeping as a news process was identified in the literature as early as 1922, though not yet given a formal theoretical name. Gatekeeping was formally identified in Kurt Lewin’s publication, Forces Behind Food Habits and Methods of Change (1943).

Kurt Lewin

Lewin was an influential behavioral and organizational psychologist who proposed the Phases of Change Model.

Lewin identified several parts of the gatekeeping process in his 1943 article. These parts include:

1. Information moves step by step through channels. The number of channels varies and the amount of time in each channel can vary.

2. Information must pass a “gate” to move from one channel to the next.

3. Forces govern channels. There may be opposing psychological forces causing conflict that creates resistance to movement through the channel.

4. There may be several channels that lead to the same end result.

5. Different actors may control the channels and act as gatekeepers at different times.

Censorship

Censorship is the suppression of speech or other public communication that may be considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or inconvenient as determined by a government, media outlet, or other controlling body. It can be done by governments and private organizations or by individuals who engage in self-censorship. It occurs in a variety of different contexts including speech, books, music, films and other arts, the press, radio, television, and the Internet. Censorship occurs for a variety of reasons including national security; to control obscenity, child pornography, and hate speech; to protect children; to promote or restrict political or religious views; to prevent slander and libel; and to protect intellectual property.

13.4.8: Replacing Family Functions

Learning Objective

Examine the different types of families and the changing face of family roles

Key Points

• Single parent families usually refers to a parent who has most of the day to day responsibilities in the raising of the child or children who is not living with a spouse or partner, or those who are not married.
• Cohabitation is an arrangement where two people who are not married live together in an intimate relationship, particularly an emotionally and/or sexually intimate one, on a long-term or permanent basis.
• Gay and lesbian couples are categorized as same sex relationships. In 1989 Demark was the first nation allow same sex couples to get married to provide equal rights to all citizens.
• Singlehood is a family that contains a person who is not married or in a common law relationship.

Key Terms

Single Parent Families

Families in which the children are primarily raised by one parent rather than by both parents.

cohabitation

An emotionally and physically intimate relationship that includes a common living place and which exists without legal or religious sanction.

singlehood

The state of being single (unattached or unmarried).

Examples

• The number of married couples raising children has decreased over the years. In Canada, married and common law couples with children under the age of 25 represented 44% of all families in 2001.
• Gay and lesbian couples are categorized as same sex relationships. In 1989 Demark was the first nation allow same sex couples to get married to provide equal rights to all citizens.

The sociology of the family examines the family as an institution and a unit of socialization. Sociological studies of the family look at demographic characteristic of the family members: family size, age, ethnicity and gender of its members, social class of the family, the economic level and mobility of the family, professions of its members, and the education levels of the family members.

Current Studies

Currently, one of the biggest issues that sociologists study are the changing roles of family members. Often, each member is restricted by the gender roles of the traditional family. These roles, such as the father as the breadwinner and the mother as the homemaker, are declining. Now, the mother is often the supplementary provider while retaining the responsibilities of child rearing. In this scenario, females’ role in the labor force is “compatible with the demands of the traditional family. ” Sociology studies the adaptation of males’ role to caregiver as well as provider. The gender roles are increasingly interwoven.

Alternate Family Forms

The number of married couples raising children has decreased over the years. In Canada, married and common law couples with children under the age of 25 represented 44% of all families in 2001. This statistic has lowered since 1991, when married and common law couples raising children under the age of 25 represented 49% of all Canadian families. There are various other family forms that are becoming increasingly common.

A single parent family usually refers to a parent who has most of the day-to-day responsibilities in the raising of the child or children, who is not living with a spouse or partner, or who is not married. The dominant caregiver is the parent with whom the children reside the majority of the time; if the parents are separated or divorced, children live with their custodial parent and have visitation with their noncustodial parent. In western society in general, following separation a child will end up with the primary caregiver, usually the mother, and a secondary caregiver, usually the father.

Cohabitation is an arrangement where two people who are not married live together in an intimate relationship, particularly an emotionally and/or sexually intimate one, on a long-term or permanent basis. Today, cohabitation is a common pattern among people in the Western world. More than two-thirds of married couples in the U.S. say that they lived together before getting married.

Gay and lesbian couples are categorized as same sex relationships . In 1989, Demark became the first nation to allow same sex couples to get married. After this, many nations, such as Canada and Spain, began to allow same sex marriage. Some states in the United States have changed their laws to allow same sex marriages, but 30 states have yet to amend their laws .

Lesbian Couple

Gay and lesbian couples are categorized as same sex relationships.

A singlehood family contains a person who is not married or in a common law relationship. He or she may share a relationship with a partner, but lead a single life style.

13.5: The Conflict Perspective on Education

13.5.1: Social Control

The conflict theory perspective towards education focuses on the role school systems may play in implementing social control.

Learning Objective

Discuss the use of school system and media as a means of exercising social control within a given society

Key Points

• Conflict theory assumes that the ideas of a society are the ideas of the ruling class.
• Social control refers generally to societal and political mechanisms or processes that regulate individual and group behavior, leading to conformity and compliance to the rules of a given society, state, or social group.
• Schools can further goals of social control by socializing students into behaving in socially acceptable ways. By means of social control, students are taught the boundaries of acceptable behavior.
• Informal social control is exercised by a society without explicitly stating these rules, and is expressed through customs, norms, and mores.
• Social control may be enforced using informal sanctions, which may include shame, ridicule, sarcasm, criticism and disapproval. Social control may also be enforced using formal sanctions.
• Education may maintain social control through various mechanisms, such as indoctrination, informal sanctions and formal sanctions.
• By means of social control, students are taught the boundaries of acceptable behavior.
• Education may maintain social control through various mechanisms, such as indoctrination, informal sanctions and formal sanctions.

Key Terms

Acceptable behavior

Behavior that conforms to social mores and norms.

Formal social control

Societal and political mechanisms or processes that regulate individual and group behavior, leading to conformity and compliance to the rules of a given society, state, or social group undertaken by the state through legal action.

indoctrination

Instruction in the rudiments and principles of any science or belief system; information.

Example

• In extreme cases sanctions may include social discrimination and exclusion. For example, schoolmates may enforce gender norms by ridiculing boys who undertake actions considered feminine, such as writing poetry or dancing.

Conflict Theory

Conflict theory assumes that the ideas held by a society are the ideas of the ruling class. The ruling class uses schools, along with the media and other means of communication, to disseminate ideas that will support its continued rule. Given this assumption, the conflict perspective often focuses on the role school systems may play in influencing public opinion, or implementing social control.

Social control refers generally to societal and political mechanisms or processes that regulate individual and group behavior, leading to conformity and compliance to the rules of a given society, state, or social group. Schools can further goals of social control by socializing students into behaving in socially acceptable ways . Some may consider this type of socialization a form of indoctrination. In any case, the social values that are present in individuals are products of informal social control. It is exercised by a society without explicitly stating these rules and is expressed through customs, norms, and mores. Individuals are socialized consciously or subconsciously.

Schools as Agents of Socialization

Schools can further goals of social control by socializing students into behaving in socially acceptable ways.

Enforcement

Social control may be enforced using informal sanctions, which may include shame, ridicule, sarcasm, criticism and disapproval. In extreme cases sanctions may include social discrimination and exclusion. For example, schoolmates may enforce gender norms by ridiculing boys who undertake actions considered feminine, such as writing poetry or dancing. Informal sanctions can have a powerful effect; individuals internalize the norm, which becomes an aspect of personality.

Social control may also be enforced using formal sanctions. Formal sanctions may be used in a large group in which an individual can choose to ignore the sanctions of other individuals. This form of control usually takes the form of government action. Government and organizations use law enforcement mechanisms and other formal sanctions, such as fines and imprisonment. In schools, formal sanctions may include detention, suspension, or other formal punishments.

By means of social control, students are taught the boundaries of acceptable behavior. They carry these lessons with them into everyday life and, later, into careers. Thus, the social control lessons learned in school may prepare students, for example, to be a docile proletariat in a capitalist economy.

Social Control

Signs warning of prohibited activities; an example of social control

13.5.2: Tracking Systems

Tracking sorts students into different groups depending on academic ability; however, other factors often influence placement.

Learning Objective

Analyze the characteristics, advantages, and disadvantages of tracking systems for students

Key Points

• According to the conflict perspective, capitalism requires that many students be trained to join the working class while a few must be trained to join the ruling capitalist class. One way schools screen and allocate classes of students is by sorting them into different tracks.
• In a tracking system, students are educated with other students of the same ability level and their education differs depending on the track to which they are assigned.
• Tracking systems vary by extent, specificity, and flexibility. Traditionally, students were divided into academic, general, and vocational tracks.
• Advantages of tracking may include the ability of teachers to focus instruction, the potential for students only to be compared to others of similar ability, and the opportunity for high-achieving students to advance more quickly.
• Disadvantages of tracking may include tracking based on student background instead of ability, poor quality of instruction in lower tracks, and stigmatization of students in lower tracks.
• Detracking has been proposed as a more equitable alternative to tracking.

Key Terms

tracking

An educational system in which the entire school population is assigned to classes according to whether the students’ overall achievement is above average, normal, or below average and in which students attend academic classes only with students whose overall academic achievement is the same as their own.

Conflict Perspective

perspectives in social science based on Conflict Theory, that emphasize the social, political, or material inequality of a social group.

allocating

setting aside for a purpose

Example

• Gamoran’s study (1992) shows that students are more likely to form friendships with other students in the same tracks than students outside of their tracks. Since low-class and minority students are overrepresented in low tracks with Whites and Asians generally dominating high tracks, interaction among these groups can be discouraged by tracking.

From the conflict perspective, schools play a role in screening and allocating people and their abilities. Advanced capitalist economies require that many students be trained to join the working class while a few must be trained to join the ruling capitalist class. One way schools may begin to sort and differently train classes of students is by sorting them into different tracks.

Tracking sorts and separates students by academic ability. In a tracking system, the entire school population is assigned to classes according to whether the students’ overall achievement is above, at, or below what is average. Students attend academic classes only with students whose overall academic achievement is the same as their own. Tracking is one of the predominant organizing practices of American public schools, and has been an accepted feature in the country’s schools for nearly a century.

Characteristics

Defined tracks often mirror class divisions in society. Thus, traditionally, students were tracked into academic, general, and vocational tracks. Academic tracks prepare students for advanced study and professions such as medicine or law, whereas general and vocational tracks were meant to prepare students for middle or working class life. Students in academically advanced tracks study higher mathematics, more foreign languages, and literature. Students in less academic tracks acquire vocational skills such as welding or cosmetology, or business skills, such as typing or bookkeeping. Students are usually not offered the opportunity to take classes deemed more appropriate for another track, even if the student has a demonstrated interest and ability in the subject. Today, few schools use tracking systems that so overtly differentiate upper, middle, and working class skills. Instead, many secondary schools now base track levels on course difficulty, with tracks such as basic, honors, or college-prep.

Tracking systems vary widely in their characteristics. Some may extend to the entire school system so that students follow a track that begins in elementary school and continues until high school graduation. Other schools may use tracking only for certain classes or subjects. Systems may also vary in their flexibility and the opportunities for mobility given to students. In some cases, placement is based entirely on student preferences. In other cases, test scores may be used to determine a student’s track. Counselors may also work with students to choose a particular class that in turn puts them on a given track. Parents and peers may influence academic choices even more than guidance counselors by encouraging students with similar backgrounds (academic, vocational, ethnic, religious, or racial) to stay together. Other times, students are placed into tracks without any knowledge or input into the process.

Advantages

Proponents of tracking say that tracking allows teachers to better direct lessons toward the specific ability level of the students in each class. Research suggests that tracking produces substantial gains for gifted students in tracks specially designed for the gifted and talented, meeting the need for highly gifted students to be with their intellectual peers in order to be appropriately challenged. However, average and low achieving students may benefit more from being in a mixed ability classroom.

Since tracking separates students by ability, students’ work is only compared to that of similar-ability peers. Thus, tracking may have emotional benefits for students: it may prevent damage to self-esteem that could result from comparisons with the work of higher ability students or inflating the egos of the high-ability students when compared to low-ability students. Tracking can also encourage low-ability students to participate in class. Since high self-esteem is correlated with high academic achievement, tracking should, theoretically, promote academic success. However, the awareness by the student of being placed into a low track might lower self-esteem, counteracting this benefit.

Disadvantages

From the conflict perspective, tracking’s primary function is not necessarily to promote learning; it is the allocation of students into specific areas of the labor market. Although track assignment is theoretically based on academic ability, other factors often influence placement. When tracking is based not on ability but instead on student background, it becomes a form of segregation and discrimination. Students in lower tracks may receive poorer quality instruction, with less-experienced teachers being assigned to low-track classes. Lessons taught in low-track classes often lack the engagement and comprehensiveness of the high-track lessons, putting low-track students at a disadvantage for college because they do not gain the knowledge and skills of the upper-track students.

Tracking can also result in a stigmatization of low-track students. This stigmatization can have a negative impact on students’ academic performance; for example, students placed in low tracks may lose confidence in their abilities, and their low confidence may be reinforced by teachers’ low expectations and their stigmatization by peers. Some research suggests that students in lower tracks are more likely to drop out of school or participate in criminal activities.

Vocational track

Students in a vocational track may learn skills such as wood working.

13.5.3: The Credentialized Society

Credentialism refers to the common practice of relying on earned credentials when hiring staff or assigning social status.

Learning Objective

Explain the use of credentialism in today’s society as a means of social mobility and job security

Key Points

• Credentialism is common in employment decisions, especially for white collar jobs.
• Credential inflation occurs when the value of a credential declines because too many potential employees possess the credential.
• In his 1979 book The Credential Society, sociologist Randall Collins examined the connection between credentialism and stratification.

Key Terms

The Credential Society

A 1979 book by Randall Collins which argues that public schools are social institutions that teach and reward middle class values of competition and achievement.

credential inflation

The process by which credentials lose value as more and more people earn a particular credential.

society

a long-standing group of people sharing cultural aspects such as language, dress, norms of behavior and artistic forms

credentialism

The common practice of relying on earned credentials when hiring staff or assigning social status.

Examples

• Common examples of credentials are academic diplomas, academic degrees, certifications, security clearances, and licenses.
• Besides attesting to one’s abilities, credentials may also grant the holder access to restricted areas, information, or activities. For example, security clearances and press passes are credentials that grant access to otherwise restricted areas. A medical license is a credential that grants the ability to practice an otherwise restricted activity.

Credentialism refers to the common practice of relying on earned credentials when hiring staff or assigning social status. Instead of directly evaluating an individual’s abilities, evaluators study that person’s credentials as a shortcut to estimate their competencies. Besides attesting to one’s abilities, credentials may also grant the holder access to restricted areas, information, or activities. For example, security clearances and press passes are credentials that grant access to otherwise restricted areas. A medical license is a credential that grants the ability to practice an otherwise restricted activity.

Credentials are attestations of qualification, competence, or authority issued to an individual by a third party with a relevant or de facto authority to do so. Common examples of credentials are academic diplomas, academic degrees, certifications, security clearances, and licenses . Credentials are often represented by documents, such as diplomas, certificates, or membership cards.

A diploma

A diploma is a type of credential.

The academic world makes very extensive use of credentials, such as diplomas, certificates, and degrees, in order to attest to the completion of specific training or education programs by students, and to attest to their successful completion of tests and exams. Receiving these credentials often leads to increased economic mobility and work opportunity.

Employers also commonly use credentials. For example, an employer may require a diploma, professional license, or academic degree. In a credential society, such certifications may become more important than actual skills or abilities. In some cases, employers may require formal credentials, such as an advanced academic degree, for a job that can be done perfectly well by applying skills acquired through experience or informal study. This type of credentialism is common in white-collar jobs, which require workers to have difficult-to-measure skills such as critical thinking. Rather than measure or evaluate those skills directly, employers assume that anyone able to earn a credential must possess those skills.

Credential Inflation

Over time, credentials may lose value, especially as more and more people earn that credential. This process is referred to as credential inflation. When credentials are inflated, they give individuals less advantage on the job market. A good example of credential inflation is the decline in the value of the U.S. high school diploma since the beginning of the twentieth century, when it was held by less than 10% of the population. At the time, high school diplomas attested to middle-class respectability, and for many years even provided access to managerial level jobs. More recently, however, the high school diploma barely qualifies the graduate for manual or menial service work.

Another indicator of credential inflation is the relative decline in the wage differential between those with college degrees and those with only high school diplomas. Jobs that were open to high school graduates a century ago now routinely require not just a bachelor’s degree, but a master’s degree as well—without an appreciable change in required skills.

The Credential Society

According to sociologist Randall Collins, understanding credentialism can help explain class-based differences in educational attainment. In his 1979 book The Credential Society, Collins argued that public schools are socializing institutions that teach and reward middle class values of competition and achievement. In this system, Anglo-Protestant elites are selectively separated from other students and placed into prestigious schools and colleges, where they are trained to hold positions of power. By teaching middle class culture through the public education system, the elite class ensures a monopoly over positions of power, while others acquire the credentials to compete in a subordinate job market and economy. In this way, schools of medicine, law, and elite institutions have remained closed to members of lower classes.

13.5.4: The Hidden Curriculum

To succeed in college, students must learn a second, hidden curriculum to meet unstated academic and social norms.

Learning Objective

Examine Synder’s idea of hidden curriculum and the effects it has on students and professors in higher education

Key Points

• In 1970, Benson Snyder, a dean at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, published a book called The Hidden Curriculum.
• According to Snyder, the hidden curriculum goes beyond the explicit demands of the formal curriculum.
• Creativity and wonder are stifled as students shift their exclusive focus to earning high grades and giving correct answers.
• As a result of conflict over the hidden curriculum, students experience intense personal anxiety, depression, and alienation.

Key Terms

selective negligence

A strategy adopted by students to succeed in education, in which they selectively neglect portions of their formal schoolwork in order to glance at all of it.

The Hidden Curriculum

A book published in 1970 by Benson Snyder, a dean at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, that argues that the college experience is inherently marked by conflict between students and instructors as students struggle to meet unstated academic goals.

curriculum

The set of courses, coursework, and content, offered at a school or university.

Example

• To succeed, students must adapt and often resort to ploys and stratagems to cope with the requirements they face. For example, students may adopt a strategy of selective negligence. within the first month of classes, many students discover they cannot conceivably complete all the work assigned them; consequently, they must selectively neglect portions of the formal schoolwork.

In 1970, Benson Snyder, a dean at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, published a book called The Hidden Curriculum. In it, he argued that the college experience is inherently marked by conflict between students and instructors. In this conflict, students struggle to meet unstated academic and social norms, or a hidden curriculum. Those who master the hidden curriculum excel while those who do not often fail, no matter their academic abilities.

According to Snyder, the hidden curriculum goes beyond the explicit demands of the formal curriculum. The goals and requirements of the hidden curriculum are unstated, but inflexible. They concern not what students learn but how and when they learn. The hidden curriculum is rooted in professors’ assumptions and values, students’ expectations, and the social context in which both professors and students find themselves. To succeed, students must adapt and often resort to ploys and stratagems to cope with the requirements they face. For example, students may adopt a strategy of selective negligence. Within the first month of classes, many students discover they cannot conceivably complete all the work assigned them; consequently, they must selectively neglect portions of the formal schoolwork. Education becomes a grueling competition rather than an enjoyable quest for knowledge. Creativity and wonder are stifled as students shift their exclusive focus to earning high grades and giving correct answers. Students, Snyder maintains, increasingly view their education as a type of game they must master.

As a result of conflict over the hidden curriculum, students experience intense personal anxiety, depression, and alienation. Some, even the most gifted, are turned off to education altogether. Students may feel frustration and anger at professors who deny them high grades, who object to creativity, and who demand that students fall in line with the hidden curriculum. But typically students must contain this anger or direct it inward. Students may judge themselves harshly, and those judgments may be reinforced by peers and professors.

No part of the university community, writes Snyder, desires the end result created by this process. The professors, too, are distracted and pressured, whether by the need to maintain institutional prestige or by the sheer frenzy of activity interrupting their creative cycles. Yet everyone, professors included, becomes locked into the competition.

Opening Convocation at Brown University

These students are just beginning their college education, where they may also have to learn a hidden curriculum.

13.5.5: Tilting the Tests: Discrimination by IQ

IQ is meant to measure intelligence but its validity as a measure of intelligence has been debated.

Learning Objective

Discuss the various explanations for the IQ gap, ranging from genetic to environmental factors

Key Points

• The concept of intelligence itself may be culturally variable.
• Although some find evidence of a race-based IQ gap, others argue that race is not a causal variable and that race-based IQ differences are in fact caused by other differences correlated with race, such as health, wealth, and educational disparities.
• Socioeconomic status can affect many aspects of life, and therefore seems like a likely environmental influence on intelligence.
• Systemically disadvantaged minorities, such as the blacks in the United States, generally perform worse in the educational system and in intelligence tests than the majority groups or less disadvantaged minorities.
• Several studies have proposed that a large part of the IQ gap can be attributed to differences in quality of education.
• Peer groups and family can influence behavior and values.
• Peer groups and family can influence behavior and values.

Key Terms

IQ gap

The gap in average IQ scores between populations, usually measured along racial lines, though with much disagreement.

Environmental factors

Factors that come from one’s environment, upbringing, or social situation, rather than biology.

intelligence

Capacity of mind, especially to understand principles, truths, facts or meanings, acquire knowledge, and apply it to practice; the ability to learn and comprehend.

Examples

• Some researchers have raised more serious questions about the validity of IQ tests for measuring intelligence, especially across cultures. For example, IQ tests may be inappropriate for measuring intelligence in non-industrialized communities, because they focus on modern, rational-style thinking, a type of reasoning that is common in the modern industrial West but may be alien to other cultures.
• Furthermore, the relationship between genetics and environmental factors is likely complicated. For example, the differences in socioeconomic environment for a child may be due to differences in genetic IQ for the parents, and the differences in average brain size between races could be the result of nutritional factors.

Intelligence is commonly measured using intelligence quotient (IQ) tests, which are meant to be a general measure of intelligence. However, IQ tests only measure a narrow band of the broad spectrum of intelligence, excluding factors such as creativity or emotional intelligence. Some researchers have raised more serious questions about the validity of IQ tests for measuring intelligence, especially across cultures. For example, IQ tests may be inappropriate for measuring intelligence in non-industrialized communities, because they focus on modern, rational-style thinking, a type of reasoning that is common in the modern industrial West but may be alien to other cultures. Although some find evidence of a race-based IQ gap, others argue that race is not a causal variable and that race-based IQ differences are in fact caused by other differences such as health, wealth, and educational disparities.

The IQ Gap

In the United States, IQ tests have consistently demonstrated a significant degree of variation between different racial groups. On average, IQ scores are highest among Asian Americans, lower among whites, and lowest among blacks. Yet these IQ gaps are only observed in average scores and say very little about individuals. Plus, IQ scores show considerable overlap between these group scores, and individuals of each group can be found at all points on the IQ spectrum. Thus, the implications of the IQ gaps are unclear. And while the existence of racial IQ gaps is well-documented, researchers have not reached a consensus as to their cause. In general, explanations fall into one of two camps: genetic explanations and environmental explanations.

Genetic Explanations

Explanations of ethnically innate intelligence were fairly common early in the twentieth century, with the rise of the American eugenics movement. But after World War II, they quickly fell out of favor over fear of being associated with Nazism. Today, even those who believe intelligence may have some genetic component tend to acknowledge the importance of environmental effects as well.

Many researchers are reluctant to adopt genetic explanations of the IQ gap because of their historical and political implications. The connection between race and intelligence has been a subject of debate in both popular science and academic research since the inception of intelligence testing in the early twentieth century. But even before IQ tests were invented, claims of race-based intelligence gaps were used to justify colonialism, slavery, and racial eugenics. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, much of the “scientific” evidence for racial intelligence gaps came from measurements such as brain size or reaction times.

The first IQ test was created between 1905 and 1908 and revised in 1916, during a time when Americans were quite concerned about an influx of new immigrants. Different nationalities were sometimes thought to comprise different races, especially nationalities newer to the United States, such as the Irish, the Slavs, and the Italians. Alfred Binet, the developer of these tests, warned that they should not be used to measure innate intelligence or to label individuals . Despite his warnings, the tests were used to evaluate draftees for World War I, and researchers found that people of southern and eastern European backgrounds scored lower than native-born Americans. At the time, such data was used to construct an ethnically based social hierarchy, one in which immigrants were rejected as unfit for service and mentally defective. It was not until later that researchers realized that lower language skills by new English speakers affected their scores on the tests.

Alfred Binet

Alfred Binet was a French psychologist who invented the IQ test.

Environmental Explanations

Researchers have suggested a wide array of environmental factors that might influence intelligence. In general, these factors are not mutually exclusive with one another: more than one of them may come into play at the same time. In fact, some may even directly contribute to others. Furthermore, the relationship between genetics and environmental factors is likely complicated. For example, the differences in socioeconomic environment for a child may be due to differences in genetic IQ for the parents, and the differences in average brain size between races could be the result of nutritional factors.

Socioeconomic Environment

Socioeconomic status can affect many aspects of life, and therefore seems like a likely environmental influence on intelligence. People who grow up in a community with lower socioeconomic status may have fewer enrichment opportunities (like going to museums) or a less stimulating home environment, as well as unequal access to health care, nutritious food, and quality education. But research suggests that differences in socioeconomic status cannot entirely explain the IQ gap. In part, this is because the effects of socioeconomic status are hard to isolate and measure, and are probably not independent of intelligence itself.

13.5.6: Staking the Desk: Unequal Funding

Because schools are funded by property taxes, schools in poor areas receive less funding then schools in wealthier areas.

Learning Objective

Examine the inequality in public school systems and the implications for a student’s future

Key Points

• In the United States, most public schools are funded primarily through local property taxes.
• According to the American dream, children should be able to use their education to achieve upward mobility.
• Educational deficits resulting from inequality also affect future life trajectories.
• Colleges tend to draw students from a relatively advantaged background because of their high costs and stiff academic requirements for enrollment.
• Because colleges want to maintain their rankings in various college ranking systems, colleges favor students with higher standardized test scores and aggressively recruit them using “merit” scholarships.

Key Terms

public school

A publicly administered school.

Upward mobility

A change in a person’s social status resulting in that person rising to a higher position in the status system.

property taxes

Taxes levied by the government on landowners’ property.

Example

• In 2000, affluent students, students who could otherwise afford to pay for college, received “merit” scholarships worth 82% of the need-based aid received by students with the lowest family incomes.

In the United States, most public schools are funded primarily through local property taxes. As a result, schools in wealthier neighborhoods have substantially larger budgets, which translates into better facilities, better teachers, and better resources. Whereas some people laud education as the great equalizer, others observe the effects of school funding schemes and conclude that they actually reinforce inequality and stratification. According to the American dream, children should be able to use their education to achieve upward mobility. But unequal school funding may afford students from poorer families fewer opportunities, reinforcing the status quo.

Educational deficits resulting from inequality also affect future life trajectories. Colleges tend to draw students from a relatively advantaged background because of their high costs and stiff academic requirements for enrollment. What’s more, because colleges want to maintain their rankings in various college ranking systems, colleges favor students with higher standardized test scores and aggressively recruit them using “merit” scholarships. In 2000, affluent students, students who could otherwise afford to pay for college, received “merit” scholarships worth 82% of the need-based aid received by students with the lowest family incomes. In other words, affluent students who can pay for college often do not have to because the advantages they received attending better elementary, middle, and high schools translated into higher standardized test scores, which are attractive to universities when it comes to recruiting. As a result, there is less funding available for students who actually need it. This ends up reinforcing the existing status hierarchy by keeping the affluent wealthy, and the poor unable to attend college.

Property Tax and School Funding

Since school funding is often based on property taxes, poorer neighborhoods may have less money available for schools.

13.5.7: The Bottom Line: Family Background

Student achievement is highly correlated with family characteristics, including household income and parental educational attainment.

Learning Objective

Examine the various factors within family background that give students an advantage in the educational realm

Key Points

• Wealthy students benefit from family background characteristics.
• The monetary advantages of unequal school funding are frequently coupled with the advantage of having a safe, supportive, and intellectually enriching home environment that comes with wealth.
• Educational deficits resulting from inequality also affect future life trajectories. Colleges tend to draw students from a relatively advantaged background because of their high costs and stiff academic requirements for enrollment.

Key Terms

household income

The total income of all members of a household.

parental educational attainment

The level of education achieved by one’s parents.

Example

• Children who attend better-funded public schools tend to be more successful than those who attend more poorly funded public schools.

Not only do wealthier students tend to attend better-funded schools, but they often also benefit from family background characteristics. The monetary advantages of unequal school funding are frequently coupled with the advantage of having a safe, supportive, and intellectually enriching home environment that comes with wealth. So it is not surprising that children who attend better-funded public schools tend to be more successful than those who attend more poorly funded public schools.

In fact, family background may be even more important than school funding. Evidence suggests that the lifetime educational possibilities of most kids are set by the time they are six years old. This is due to the fact that several family background characteristics are very strong predictors of future educational attainment, including parental support, parental expectations for schooling, household income, and parental educational attainment, with the last two being the most important factors. Researchers can actually predict a child’s lifetime educational attainment by using background characteristics observed when the child is in the first grade, and these predictions turn out to be just as good, or even better, at predicting educational attainment as similar predictions based on observations made when the student is in high school.

Educational deficits resulting from inequality also affect future life trajectories. Colleges tend to draw students from a relatively advantaged background because of their high costs and stiff academic requirements for enrollment. What’s more, because colleges want to maintain their rankings in various college ranking systems (e.g., U.S. News & World Report), colleges favor students with higher standardized test scores and aggressively recruit them using “merit” scholarships. In 2000, affluent students, students who could otherwise afford to pay for college, received “merit” scholarships worth 82% of the need-based aid received by students with the lowest family incomes.

13.6: The Symbolic-Interactionist Perspective on Education

13.6.1: Ray Rist’s Research

Ray Rist, a sociologist, found that social class contributed to the perceptions of teachers and was a predictor of scholastic success.

Learning Objective

Examine the relationship between social class and academic achievement

Key Points

• In 1970, Ray Rist published a study on the relationship between the socioeconomic status of children and their educational evaluation.
• In his study, Rist observed how a classroom teacher placed her students in three learning groups. The “fast learners” were grouped at the front of the class, while the “slow learners” sat at the back.
• Interestingly, Rist noticed that social class was a predictor of placement. Middle class students made up the group of “fast learners,” while lower class students made up the other two groups.
• From his data, Rist concluded that each child’s journey through school was determined by the eighth day of kindergarten. The labels given to these children by their kindergarten teacher set them on a course of action that could possibly affect the rest of their lives.

Key Terms

Ray Rist

a sociologist who, in 1970, published a study on the how the socioeconomic statuses of school children could affect their educations

self-fulfilling prophecy

a prediction that, by being voiced, causes itself to come true

Example

• There are a number of ways social class can affect a teacher’s perception of his or her students. A teacher might, for example, conflate sloppy dress with a general lack of organizational skills. A child from a poor household might wear lower-quality, ill-fitting, or even damaged clothing, and a teacher might interpret this as demonstrating general carelessness on the part of the child. This type of subconscious assessment can lead a teacher to underestimate a poor student’s diligence and skill.

Ray Ristwas a sociologist who, in 1970, published a report linking the socioeconomic status of children to their educational achievement. Through observations of classrooms, Rist demonstrated that a student’s socioeconomic status affected how teachers perceived that student’s aptitude at very early ages. These early perceptions came to inform how the students viewed themselves, and had impacts on their eventual educational success.

Social Class and Academic Success

Although public schools are free and open to all children, there are still educational setbacks for children of a lower social class. In his 1970 article, “Student Social Class and Teachers’ Expectations: The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy of Ghetto Education,“ Ray Rist observed an African American classroom with an African American teacher. He discovered that after only eight days in the classroom, the teacher felt that she knew her students’ abilities well enough to assign them to separate worktables. To Table One, she assigned those she considered “fast learners.” These students sat at the front of the class, closest to her. “Average” students were placed at Table Two, and the “slow learners” were placed at Table Three in the back of the classroom.

Interestingly, Rist found that social class was the underlying basis for assigning the children to the different tables. Middle class students were placed at Table One, while children from poorer homes were placed at the other two tables. During class, the teacher paid the most attention to the children closest to her, less to Table Two, and least to Table Three. As the year went on, the children at Table One perceived that they were treated better and started viewing themselves as smarter than their peers. They emerged as leaders in class activities and even ridiculed the children at the other tables, calling them “dumb.” Eventually, the children at Table Three stopped participating in classroom activities. By the end of the year, the only children who were satisfactorily completing the daily lessons were those at Table One.

The Eighth Day of Kindergarten

Following the initial year, Rist continued to observe this group of students as they advanced in school. The children’s reputations followed them into second grade, where another teacher reviewed their scores and also divided her class into three groups, the “Tigers,” “Cardinals,” and “Clowns.” These groups were constituted the exact same way, and with the exact same breakdown, as Tables One, Two, and Three. From this research, Rist made the startling conclusion that each child’s journey through school was determined by the eighth day of kindergarten. According to Rist, the labels given to children by their kindergarten teachers set them on a course of action that could possibly affect the rest of their lives .

Students with teacher

Rist’s research showed that teachers judge their students’ abilities after only eight days in the classroom.

13.6.2: Teachers’ Expectations

Teachers’ perception of students’ knowledge and abilities influences classroom processes and student achievement.

Learning Objective

Discuss how a teacher’s perception influences student performance, in terms of expectations and gender stereotypes

Key Points

• The Pygmalion effect refers to the phenomenon in which the greater the expectation placed upon people (such as children, students, or employees) the better they perform.
• The Pygmalion effect is a form of self-fulfilling prophecy.
• Within sociology, the effect is often cited with regard to education and social class.
• Gender stereotyping within classrooms can also lead to differences in academic achievement and representation for female and male students.

Key Terms

Gender Stereotyping

When one believes that an individual will behave in a particular way simply because of his or her sex.

Pygmalion effect

The phenomenon in which the greater the expectation placed upon people (often children, students, and employees), the better they perform.

self-fulfilling prophecy

a prediction that, by being voiced, causes itself to come true

Examples

• The Pygmalion effect was famously applied to the classroom in the Rosenthal-Jacobson study, published in 1968. In this study, Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson showed that if teachers were led to expect enhanced performance from some children, then the children did indeed show that enhancement.
• Teachers usually have higher expectations for students they view as higher achievers and treat these students with more respect. For example, studies have found that when students are split into ability-based groups, the students in the higher-ability groups are more likely to demonstrate positive learning behaviors and higher achievement.
• Gender stereotyping within classrooms can also lead to differences in academic achievement and representation for female and male students. Math and science are often perceived as “masculine” subjects because they lead to success in “masculine” fields, such as medicine and engineering. English and history, on the other hand, are often perceived as “feminine” subjects because they are more closely aligned with “feminine” jobs, such as teaching or care work.

How teachers perceive students’ knowledge and abilities influences classroom processes and student achievement. In other words, when teachers believe students will be high achievers, those students achieve more; conversely, when teachers believe students will be low achievers, those students tend to achieve less. This is a case of a self-fulfilling prophecy, or the Pygmalion effect.

The Pygmalion Effect

The Pygmalion effect refers to the phenomenon in which the greater the expectation placed upon people (often children or students and employees) the better they perform. The effect is named after Pygmalion, a Cypriot sculptor in a narrative by Ovid in Greek mythology, who fell in love with a female statue he had carved out of ivory after it became human due to his wishes. The Pygmalion effect is a form of self-fulfilling prophecy, and, in this respect, people will internalize their negative label, and those with positive labels succeed accordingly. Within sociology, the effect is often cited with regard to education and social class.

The Pygmalion effect was famously applied to the classroom in the Rosenthal-Jacobson study, published in 1968. In this study, Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson showed that if teachers were led to expect enhanced performance from some children, then the children did indeed show that enhancement. This influence can be beneficial as well as detrimental depending on which label an individual is assigned. The purpose of their study was to support the hypothesis that reality can be influenced by the expectations of others. Rosenthal posited that biased expectancies can essentially affect reality and create self-fulfilling prophecies as a result. In this experiment, Rosenthal predicted that, when given the information that certain students had higher IQs than others, elementary school teachers may unconsciously behave in ways that facilitate and encourage the students’ success.

Gender Stereotyping

How might teachers’ expectations create a Pygmalion effect? Teachers usually have higher expectations for students they view as higher achievers, and treat these students with more respect. For example, studies have found that when students are split into ability-based groups, the students in the higher-ability groups are more likely to demonstrate positive learning behaviors and higher achievement. Teachers’ expectations may also be gendered, perhaps explaining some of the gender achievement gap. Gender stereotyping within classrooms can also lead to differences in academic achievement and representation for female and male students. Math and science are often perceived as “masculine” subjects because they lead to success in “masculine” fields, such as medicine and engineering. English and history, on the other hand, are often perceived as “feminine” subjects because they are more closely aligned with “feminine” jobs, such as teaching or care work. Research on the stereotype threat has shown that gender stereotypes decrease the mathematical self-esteem of many female students, and that this lack of academic confidence leads to anxiety and poorer performance on math exams. Therefore, these stereotypes can influence student achievement in these areas.

Gender-specific evaluations from teachers are implicit; usually the teachers have no idea that they are favoring one gender over the other until they are shown concrete evidence, such as a video recording of their classroom. However, even though the discrimination is implicit, it still has negative effects on both male and female students.

Teacher-student Monument

The teacher-student monument in Rostock, Germany honors teachers.

13.7: Issues in the U.S. Education System

13.7.1: Unequal Access to Education

Access to education varies by geographic location, race, gender, and class.

Learning Objective

Describe the upsides and downsides to the current educational system in the U.S.

Key Points

• In the United States, as in most countries, people with more education tend to enjoy higher economic status, power, prestige, and levels of income.
• Dropout rates are higher in certain locations and among minorities.
• In some areas, the best high schools are private high schools that may be out of reach for poorer students who cannot afford the tuition.
• U.S. public schools lag behind the schools of other developed countries in the areas of reading, math, and science.

Key Terms

minority

Categories of persons who hold few or no positions of social power in a given society.

dropout rates

Dropout rates are a measurement of the proportion of students who drop out, that is, who leave a school for practical reasons, necessities, or disillusionment with the system from which the individual in question leaves.

Examples

• In high school, economic, family, and social demands may lead some students to drop out before finishing. Thus, sociologists have observed that dropout rates vary among different social groups. For instance, dropout rates are lowest among Asian Americans, followed closely by whites. But Hispanic, black, and Native American students drop out at rates nearly double those of Asian and white students. Overall, the dropout rate has been declining for decades, since at least the 1970s, yet it remains disproportionately high for minority students.
• According to a 2005 report from the OECD, the United States is tied for first place with Switzerland when it comes to annual spending per student on its public schools, with each of those two countries spending more than $11,000 per student. However, the United States is ranked 37th in the world in education spending as a percentage of gross domestic product. All but seven of the leading countries are in the third world and ranked high because education spending makes up proportionally more of a low GDP.

In the United States, as in most countries, people with more education tend to enjoy higher economic status, power, prestige, and levels of income. One might expect, then, that all people would try to maximize their education. After all, education is meant to be the great equalizer by which anyone can climb the rungs of the social hierarchy. However, evidence suggests that certain groups have unequal access to education.

In the United States, public schools provide free education through 12^th grade, but post-secondary college education is not free. Costs include tuition and room and board, even at public institutions. Those who are unable to afford the expense of college, therefore, have unequal access. According to a 2005 report from the OECD, the United States is tied for first place with Switzerland when it comes to annual spending per student on its public schools, with each of those two countries spending more than $11,000. However, the United States is ranked 37^th in the world in education spending as a percentage of gross domestic product. All but seven of the leading countries are in the third world, ranked high because of a low GDP. U.S. public schools lag behind the schools of other developed countries in the areas of reading, math, and science.

Even in high school, economic, family, and social demands may lead some students to drop out before finishing. Thus, sociologists have observed that dropout rates vary among different social groups. For instance, dropout rates are lowest among Asian Americans, followed closely by whites. But Hispanic, black, and Native American students drop out at rates nearly double those of Asian and white students. Overall, the dropout rate has been declining for decades, since at least the 1970s, yet it remains disproportionately high for minority students.

School funding varies by geographic location. In part, the disparities in dropout rates may be a symptom of disparities in access to high quality education. In some areas, the best high schools are private high schools that may be out of reach for poorer students who cannot afford the tuition. Even public schools may receive different rates of funding; in particular, schools in poorer areas tend to receive less funding because school funding is often tied to property taxes. Thus, students who live in poorer areas may have less access to high quality education. One of the biggest debates in funding public schools is funding by local taxes or state taxes. The federal government supplies around 8.5% of the public school system funds, according to a 2005 report by the National Center for Education Statistics. The remaining split between state and local governments averages 48.7% from states and 42.8% from local sources. However, the division varies widely. In Hawaii local funds make up 1.7%, while state sources account for nearly 90.1%.

Trends in reading scores by race, 1970–2004

Reading- ages 9 (light gray), 13 (dark gray), and 17 (black). Trends in reading scores collected by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), with the light-gray line indicating data collection at age 9, dark-gray at age 13, and black at age 17. White, hispanic, and black students all improved their reading scores as they aged. Notably, however, the achievement gap between white vs. black and hispanic students has narrowed over time but has by no means disappeared; white students still show the highest achievement in reading.

13.7.2: English as a Second Language

English as a second language (ESL) refers to the use or study of English by speakers with different native languages.

Learning Objective

Describe some of the difficulties and challenges facing ELL students in the U.S.

Key Points

• English language learners (ELL) must learn to speak and write English in addition to learning substantive content in schools.
• ELL students are often tracked with lower ability students because they have lower standardized test scores, which may inaccurately measure their academic ability.
• ELL students are more likely to drop out. In the U.S., schools may let ELL and other low-scoring students drop out in order to raise average test scores.
• ELL students may have trouble earning the English credits necessary to be accepted into college.
• On average, ELL students come from poorer families than native speakers, which presents an additional barrier to college.
• ESL programs may help ELL students form friendships and encourage social interaction, tolerance, and multicultural values.
• ESL programs may help ELL students form friendships and encourage social interaction, tolerance, and multicultural values.

Key Terms

Standardized Test Scores

A standardized test is a test that is administered and scored in a consistent, or “standard”, manner.

native speaker

A person who grew up with a particular language as their mother tongue.

tolerance

The ability or practice of tolerating; an acceptance or patience with the beliefs, opinions or practices of others; a lack of bigotry.

Example

• In the U.S. over the last twenty years, more than 70% of non-English-speaking school-age immigrants have arrived in the U.S. before they were 6 years old. At this age, they could have been taught English in school and achieved a proficiency indistinguishable from a native speaker. In other countries, such as Russia, France, Spain, and Germany, this approach has dramatically improved reading and math test scores for linguistic minorities.

English as a second language (ESL), English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) and English as a foreign language (EFL) all refer to the use or study of English by speakers with different native languages. Generally, English Language Learners (ELL) are refugees, immigrants, or their children. They must learn English as a Second Language (ESL) in order to function in their new host country. In the U.S. over the last twenty years, more than 70% of non-English-speaking school-age immigrants have arrived in the U.S. before they were 6 years old. At this age, they could have been taught English in school, and achieved a proficiency indistinguishable from a native speaker. In other countries, such as the Russia, France, Spain, and Germany this approach has dramatically improved reading and math test scores for linguistic minorities. Supporters of ESL programs claim they play an important role in the formation of peer networks and adjustment to school and society in their new homes. Having class among other students learning English as a second language relieves the pressure of making mistakes when speaking in class or to peers. ESL programs also allow students to meet and form friendships with other non-native speakers from different cultures, promoting racial tolerance and multiculturalism.

Potential Academic Barriers for ELL Students

Nevertheless, ELL students face predictable difficulties in learning English. Those whose native languages are drastically different from English may find it especially difficult to learn the sounds and grammar of English, while others whose native languages are more similar may have less trouble. But these students also face difficulties unrelated to learning the language itself, including the possibility of having their abilities underestimated, a higher probability of dropping out, difficulty paying for and succeeding in college, and social problems connecting with native speakers. ELL students are often tracked with lower ability students because they have lower standardized test scores, which may inaccurately measure their academic ability.

ELL students are also more likely to drop out of high school. Their higher dropout rates may be due to difficulties in keeping up in mainstream classes or to prior interruptions in their formal education. For example, some ELL students may have spent time in refugee camps where they had no opportunity to attend school. Further, some have speculated that school administrators may actually encourage ELL students to drop out because it may increase the school’s overall average test scores, which may in turn benefit the school (e.g., by ensuring continued funding).

ELL students face additional barriers to pursuing higher education. Most colleges and universities require four years of English in high school, but many will accept only one year of ESL English. ELL students who arrive in the United States relatively late may find it difficult to meet this requirement because they must spend a longer time in ESL English classes in high school, or because they might not arrive early enough to complete four years of English in high school. Consequently, some ELL students lack the required credits to apply for college.

ELL students can also face financial barriers to higher education. Those who do not place high enough on college placement exams often have to enroll in ESL courses at their universities. Often, they must pay fees for these courses in addition to tuition, and these courses may not count as credit towards graduation. These additional fees add to the financial burden faced by ELL students who often come from families of lower socioeconomic status. The latest statistics show that the median household income for school-age ELL students is $36,691 while that of non-ELL students is $60,280.

ELL students often have difficulty interacting with native speakers. ELL students may avoid interactions with native speakers because they are frustrated with or embarrassed by their English ability. Immigrant students often also lack knowledge about popular U.S. culture, which limits their conversations with native speakers to academic topics. In classroom group activities with native speakers, ELL students often do not participate, again because of embarrassment of their English, but also because of cultural differences which value silence and individual work at school over social interaction and talking in class. These interactions have been found to extend to teacher-student interactions as well. In most mainstream classrooms, teacher-led discussion is the most common form of lesson. In this setting, ELL students will fail to participate, and often have difficulty understanding teachers because they talk too fast, do not use visual aids, or use native colloquialisms. ELL students also have trouble getting involved with extracurricular activities with native speakers for similar reasons. Students fail to join extra-curricular activities because of the language barrier, cultural emphasis of academics over other activities, or failure to understand traditional pastimes in their new country.

Displaced Pakistani children learn English as a second language

Displaced Pakistani children located at the Dewan Tent Village attend school in Muzaffarabad, Pakistan. Children are taught English as their second language in the 3rd grade. The United States is participating in a multi-national assistance and support effort led by the Pakistani Government to bring aid to the victims of the devastating earthquake that struck the region on October 8th, 2005. U.S. Navy photo by Photographer’s Mate 2nd Class Eric S. Powell

13.7.3: High School Dropouts

While education can improve life chances, not everyone has equal access to education.

Learning Objective

Recall some of the reasons why students in the U.S. may drop out of high school and the potential consequences of dropping out

Key Points

• The more education people have, the higher their income, the better their life chances, and the higher their standard of living.
• Dropout rates also vary geographically, with the lowest rates in northern states.
• The relationships students have with their peers also influence a student’s likelihood of dropping out.

Key Terms

life chances

Life chances (Lebenschancen in German) is a political theory of the opportunities each individual has to improve his or her quality of life. The concept was introduced by German sociologist Max Weber. It is a probabilistic concept, describing how likely it is, given certain factors, that an individual’s life will turn out a certain way.

Academic Risk Factors

Academic risk factors refer to the performance of students in school and are highly related to school-level problems. These factors include absenteeism, grade retention, special education placement, low performance and grades, and low educational expectations.

Life Chances

The more education people have, the higher their income, the better their life chances, and the higher their standard of living. In general, people with more education tend to earn higher incomes and enjoy a higher standard of living. High school dropouts are much less likely to be employed than those with high school and college degrees. Even earning a four-year degree can raise average weekly income by nearly $400.

Bobby Fischer 1960 in Leipzig

Chess legend Bobby Fischer never finished high school; however, most high school dropouts do not achieve his level of success.

Max Weber used the concept of “life chances” to express an individual’s access to employment opportunities and other resources. In part, life chances are determined by birth. An individual born into a wealthy family will have higher life chances than average because they will have access to greater opportunities from the moment they are born. 

Education also offers a means to improve one’s life chances by improving employment opportunities and making social connections. Thus, the consequences to dropping out can be high, as they significantly decrease the opportunity to improve one’s life chances. In addition to personal costs, dropping out has social costs. Dropouts have a greater likelihood of being arrested. Ultimately, this can lower the average standard of living for society as a whole. According to estimates, the average high school dropout will cost the government over $292,000.

Academic
Risk Factors

Not all students have an equal risk of dropping out. Students at risk for dropout based on academic risk factors are those who often have a history of absenteeism and grade retention, academic trouble, and more general disengagement from school life. Students may also be at risk for dropout based on social risk factors. Members of racial and ethnic minority groups drop out at higher rates than white students, as do those from low-income families, from single-parent households, and from families in which one or both parents also did not complete high school. Dropout rates also vary geographically, with the lowest rates in northern states. The highest dropout rates occur in the south and southwestern United States. 

Why else might students drop out? Sociologists tend to group dropout risk factors into different categories, including academic risk factors and school-level risk factors. Academic risk factors relate to the performance of students in school. School structure, curriculum, and size may increase the exposure of students to academic risk factors. For example, students are more likely to drop out when they attend schools with less rigorous curriculum, when they attend large schools, or when they attend schools with poor student-teacher interactions.

The relationships students have with their peers also influence a student’s likelihood of dropping out. Students who build relationships with anti-social peers or who have deviant friends were more likely to drop out of school early regardless of their achievement in school. Relationships with parents can also influence a student’s decision to stay in school. The better the relationship, as demonstrated through positive interaction and parental involvement, the more likely the student will stay in school. If a student does not have a good relationship with her parents, the student is more likely to drop out even if she has good grades and good behavior.

Students who drop out of school may identify different motivations, including uninteresting classes (a lack of engagement with school life and classes), feeling unmotivated (especially by teachers who did not demand enough or were not inspirational), personal reasons (had to get a job, became a parent, had to support or care for a family member), and academic challenges (felt like they could not keep up, felt unprepared for high school, had to repeat a grade, or graduation requirements seemed out of reach).

Finally, some education researchers have noted that dropout rates may have been exacerbated by policies such as the U.S. No Child Left Behind Act that required schools to use high-stakes standardized testing as an accountability measure. These policies may have inadvertently encouraged students to drop out of high school, since teachers and administrators utilize grade retention as a strategy to improve test scores and ensure positive ratings for the school. As mentioned above, grade retention increases the likelihood that a student will drop out of school.

13.7.4: Violence in Schools

School violence is a serious problem in the United States, and attempts to explain it identify both individual and social risk factors.

Learning Objective

Recall the risk factors for school violence in the U:S. and the two types of bullying

Key Points

• Individual risk factors for school violence include a tendency to externalize problems, or act out, as well as developmental delays, low IQ, and reading problems.
• Social risk factors for school violence include an unstable home environment, violent neighborhoods, and certain characteristics of a school environment.
• A neighborhood environment may contribute to school violence when a community’s high rates of crime or drug use spills over into the classroom.
• Bullying may be committed by one student or a group of students.
• Physical bullying is the most easily identified and includes unwanted physical contact such as pushing, kicking, and tickling. It may also include the use of weapons.
• Verbal bullying is any slanderous statements or accusations that cause the victim undue emotional distress, such as insulting someone’s appearance, laughing at someone, or directing foul language toward someone.
• Emotionally bullying is any form of bullying that damages a victim’s emotional well-being, such as spreading malicious rumors, giving someone the silent treatment, or harassment.

Key Terms

bullying

an act of physically or emotionally intimidating a weaker person to do something, especially through repeated coercion

School Violence

School violence is widely considered to have become a serious problem in recent decades in many countries, particularly violence involving weapons. This includes violence between school students as well as physical attacks by students on school staff.

Examples

• In 2007, a nationwide survey conducted by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention found that, during the 30 days before they took the survey, 5.9% of students had carried a weapon to school and 5.5% of students had skipped school because they did not feel safe.
• Between 1996 and September 2003, at least 46 students and teachers were killed in 27 incidents involving the use of firearms.
• In 2001, students between the ages of 12 and 18 were the victims of 2 million crimes at school, and 62% of those crimes were thefts.

School violence is a serious problem in the United States. This refers to violence between students as well as physical attacks by students on school staff. In 2007, a nationwide survey conducted by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention found that, during the 30 days before they took the survey, 5.9% of students had carried a weapon to school, and 5.5% of students had skipped school because they did not feel safe. In the 12 months before they took the survey, 12.4% of students had been in a physical fight on school property at least once. Between 1996 and 2003, at least 46 individuals were killed in 27 school incidents involving the use of firearms.

While these numbers are alarming, data also shows that most crimes at school are not violent. In 2001, students between the ages of 12 and 18 were the victims of two million crimes at school, but 62% of those crimes were thefts. In part, violence receives more attention because it draws media coverage. For example, school shootings account for less than 1% of violent crimes in public schools, yet nearly every school shooting makes national headlines. Nevertheless, because school violence can have such serious consequences, educators and policymakers take the issue very seriously.

Explanations of School Violence

Attempts to explain school violence have identified several individual and social risk factors. Individual risk factors include a tendency to externalize problems, or “act out,” as well as developmental delays, low IQ, and reading problems. Social risk factors include an unstable home environment, violent neighborhoods, and certain characteristics of a school environment. A home environment may contribute to school violence if, at home, students are exposed to gun violence, parental alcoholism, domestic violence, physical abuse, sexual abuse, or harsh parental discipline. All of these may teach children that criminal and violent activities are acceptable and may increase a child’s tendency to respond to frustration with aggression. A neighborhood environment may contribute to school violence if a community has high rates of crime or drug use. A neighborhood may also expose students to deviant peers or to gangs who contribute to violence inside schools. Finally, school violence tends to be higher in certain types of schools, the characteristics of which are listed below:

• a large male population
• higher grade levels
• a history of disciplinary problems
• a high student-to-teacher ratio
• urban location

Prevention and intervention strategies may target individual students, families, the school community, or society in general. Individual-level strategies target at-risk or aggressive students and teach these students conflict resolution, problem solving, and social skills. Family-based solutions attempt to improve family relationships in order to improve students’ experiences while they are at home. School-wide strategies are designed to modify school characteristics associated with violence. Examples of this would be classroom practices that encourage student cooperation and close interaction with teachers, or the presence of police and law enforcement in schools to discourage violence. Finally, society-level prevention strategies attempt to change social and cultural conditions in order to reduce violence, regardless of where it occurs. For example, society-level strategies might try to reduce the violence portrayed in movies or music.

Bullying

In recent years, one particular type of school violence, bullying, has garnered special attention. Bullying can be committed by one student or a group of students. Typically, a group of bullies takes advantage of, or isolates, one student in particular and gains the loyalty of bystanders who, in many cases, want to avoid becoming victims themselves. Bullies typically taunt and tease their target before physically bullying their target. The targets of bullying are often students who are considered strange or different by their peers to begin with, making the situation harder for them to deal with. Often, victims are targeted based on their appearance, their gender, or their sexual orientation.

Bullying is a common occurrence in most schools. According to the American Psychological Association, “approximately 40% to 80% of school-age children experience bullying at some point during their school careers. ” Bullying can be physical, verbal, and emotional. Physical bullying is the most easily identified and includes unwanted physical contact such as pushing, kicking, tickling, or the like, and may also include the use of weapons. Verbal bullying is any slanderous statements or accusations that cause the victim undue emotional distress. This can include insulting someone’s appearance, laughing at someone, or directing foul language toward someone. Emotionally bullying is any form of bullying that damages a victim’s emotional well-being, such as spreading malicious rumors, giving someone the silent treatment, or harassment. Bullying can also take place over the internet with text messaging. This “cyber-bullying” is particularly pernicious because it can be done anonymously, without detection by parents or authorities.

Bullying

Bullying is an increasingly recognized problem in schools.

13.7.5: Homeschooling

Home schooling is the education of children at home rather than in the setting of a school.

Learning Objective

Sketch generally the different regulations regarding homeschooling which can be found in the United States

Key Points

• Motivations for home schooling vary, but may include dissatisfaction with the school environment, religious or moral reasons, or dissatisfaction with the quality of academic instruction provided in local schools.
• The legal status of home schooling varies by states, but in all cases, homeschooled students must meet certain requirements and are subject to certain assessments to ensure the quality of education.
• Homeschooled students have varying access to resources, including extracurricular activities.

Key Term

home schooling

Homeschooling or home school (also called home education or home-based learning) is the education of children at home, typically by parents but sometimes by tutors, rather than in other formal settings of public or private school.

Examples

• In the United States, about 2.9% of students, or about 1.5 million children, are homeschooled.
• Most homeschooled children are homeschooled only, but about one in five are also enrolled in public or private schools, which they may attend for 25 hours or less each week.

Homeschooling is the education of children at home, typically by parents but sometimes by tutors, rather than in other formal settings of public or private school. In the United States, about 2.9% of students, or about 1.5 million children, are homeschooled. Most homeschooled children are homeschooled only, but about one in five are also enrolled in public or private schools, which they may attend for 25 hours or less each week. By enrolling part-time at a school, homeschooled students can study subjects such as foreign languages and sciences, which may be more difficult to teach at home. They may also be eligible to participate in academic and athletic extracurricular activities.

Motivations for homeschooling vary, but may include dissatisfaction with the school environment, religious or moral reasons, or dissatisfaction with the quality of academic instruction provided in local schools. Surveys suggest that the most common motivations for homeschooling are concern about the school environment (e.g., safety, drugs, or negative peer pressure), a desire to provide religious or moral instruction, and dissatisfaction with academic instruction at other schools. Parents may also choose to homeschool children with special needs that the parent feels the school cannot or will not meet. Other, less common motivations include concerns about family time, finances, travel, and distance.

In the United States education is compulsory. Every state has some form of a compulsory attendance law that requires children in a certain age range to spend a specific amount of time being educated. The most common way for parents to meet these requirements is to have their children attend public school. However, parents have always had some degree of choice in where and how children are educated. Thus, the legality of homeschooling has been debated, and that debate has focused largely on whether it is legal for parents to withhold children from school and educate them in a home setting. Since the 1980s, the focus of the debate has shifted to questions about the distribution of resources and state control over homeschooling. The legality of homeschooling is generally accepted, but debate continues over whether homeschooling communities can access state school funds, facilities, and resources and whether the state can regulate areas like curricula and standardized testing.

Today, homeschooling is legal in all 50 states, although it is regulated in different ways by each state. Homeschooling laws can be divided into three categories. First, in some states, homeschooling is treated like a type of private school. In these states, homeschools are generally required to comply with the same laws that apply to other schools. Homeschools in California, Indiana, and Texas, for example, fall into this category. In other states, the requirements for homeschooling are set by the particular parameters of the compulsory attendance statute. These states’ compulsory attendance laws do not make any specific reference to “homeschooling. ” Homeschools in New Jersey, Maryland, for example, fall into this category. Third, in other states homeschool requirements are based on a statute or group of statutes that specifically applies to homeschooling. In these states, the requirements for homeschooling are set out in the relevant statutes. Often, these statutes refer to homeschooling by another name. For example, in Virginia it is “home instruction,” in South Dakota it is “alternative instruction,” and in Iowa it is “competent private instruction. “

States also differ in the level of resources they make available to homeschooled students. A minority of states require public schools to give homeschooled students access to district resources, such as school libraries, computer labs, extracurricular activities, or even academic courses. In some communities, homeschoolers may meet with a teacher periodically for curriculum review and suggestions. Other states give districts the option of giving homeschooled students access to such resources.

Access to interscholastic athletic competition varies from state to state. Some state athletic associations ban homeschoolers from interscholastic competition, both by prohibiting homeschoolers to compete for a state federation member school as well as by prohibiting member schools to compete against independent teams made up of homeschoolers. In such states, homeschoolers may only compete amongst other homeschoolers or against schools that are not members of the state’s interscholastic athletic federation. Other states allow homeschoolers to compete for the public schools that they would otherwise attend by virtue of their residence. Still other state interscholastic athletic associations allow homeschoolers to organize teams that compete against other established schools, but do not allow homeschoolers to compete on established school teams.

Motivations for homeschooling

Motivations regarded most important for homeschooling among parents in 2007

13.7.6: Standardized Tests

A standardized test is a test that is administered and scored in a consistent manner.

Learning Objective

Argue for or against standardized testing based on the key points attributed to proponents and critics in the text

Key Points

• Standardized tests are one common method by which schools measure students’ academic achievement, and they may also be used to measure students’ progress and teachers’ effectiveness, or in order to assess whether students are ready to progress to the next stage in their education.
• One of the main advantages of standardized testing is that the results can be empirically documented.
• Critics point out that standardized tests actually evaluate three things: what students learn in school, what they learn outside of school, and their innate intelligence.
• Critics worry that standardized tests lead teachers to “teach to the test”.
• Testing bias occurs when a test systematically favors one group over another, even though both groups may be equal on the trait the test measures.
• No Child Left Behind required that states assess educational achievement and allocate resources using standardized tests.
• Testing bias occurs when a test systematically favors one group over another, even though both groups are equal on the trait the test measures.

Key Terms

No Child Left Behind

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) is a United States Act of Congress that came about as wide public concern about the state of education. NCLB is a reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which included Title I, the government’s flagship aid program for disadvantaged students. NCLB supports standards-based education reform based on the premise that setting high standards and establishing measurable goals can improve individual outcomes in education.

standardized tests

A standardized test is a test that is administered and scored in a consistent, or “standard”, manner.

Testing Bias

Testing bias occurs when a test systematically favors one group over another, even though both groups are equal on the trait the test measures.

Example

• In 2001, the United States passed the No Child Left Behind Act, which requires all states to test students in public schools statewide to ensure that they are achieving the desired level of minimum education. Although some states already had statewide standardized testing requirements, for many states, this act required them to create new systems. Because of this, the act reinvigorated debate over the accuracy, efficacy, and justice of relying on standardized tests to measure student achievement.

Standardized tests are one common method by which schools measures students’ academic achievement. These tests may be given periodically and repeatedly to measure students’ progress and teachers’ effectiveness, or they may be given at key points during students’ careers to assess whether they are ready to progress to the next stage in their education—often, the next grade level or college. A standardized test is a test that is administered and scored in a consistent manner. They are designed so that the questions, conditions for administering, scoring procedures, and interpretations are purportedly without bias.

Proponents of Standardized Tests

One of the main advantages of standardized testing is that the results can be empirically documented; the test scores can be shown to have a relative degree of validity and reliability, being generalizable and replicable. Standardized tests allow educators, policymakers, and admissions committees easily and fairly compare results from different students. It may be difficult to account for differences in educational culture across schools, difficulty of a given teacher’s curriculum, differences in teaching style, and techniques and biases that affect grading. This makes standardized tests useful for admissions purposes in higher education, where a school is trying to compare students from across the nation or across the world.

Opponents of Standardized Tests

Critics worry that standardized tests lead teachers to “teach to the test. ” Standardized tests can be useful tools for assessing student achievement, and they can be used to focus instruction on desired outcomes, such as reading and math skills. However, critics feel that overuse and misuse of these tests harms teaching and learning by narrowing the curriculum. While it is possible to use a standardized test without letting its contents determine curriculum and instruction, frequently what is not tested is not taught, and how the subject is tested often becomes a model for how to teach the subject.

Further, standardized tests tend to measure only one sort of knowledge, while discounting creativity and diverse modes of expression. In essence, standardized tests use a one-size-fits-all theory, which is not always an effective way to measure students’ knowledge and comprehension. Students who fail standardized tests may be diagnosed with learning disabilities or disorders instead of recognized for the skills they have, which are consequently left unchallenged and undeveloped.

Finally, critics have expressed concern that standardized tests may create testing bias. Testing bias occurs when a test systematically favors one group over another, even though both groups are equal on the trait the test measures. Critics allege that test makers and facilitators tend to represent a middle class, white background and standardized testing matches the values, habits, and language of the test makers. Students who share that background may have an advantage on standardized tests that has nothing to do with academic achievement or aptitude but is due to shared cultural background.

No Child Left Behind

In 2001, the United States passed the No Child Left Behind Act, which requires all states to test students in public schools statewide to ensure that they are achieving the desired level of minimum education. Although some states already had statewide standardized testing requirements, for many states, this act required them to create new systems. The act reinvigorated debate over the accuracy, efficacy, and justice of relying on standardized tests to measure student achievement.

However, critics charge that standardized tests have become a mandatory curriculum placed into schools without public debate and without any accountability measures of its own. Many feel this ignores basic democratic principles in that control of schools’ curricula is removed from local school boards, which are the nominal curricular authority in the U.S.

The act is especially controversial because it ties funding to standardized test schools. Under the act, students and schools must demonstrate “adequate yearly progress. ” That is, they must show some improvement every year. When a student fails to make adequate yearly progress, schools must provide tutoring or other interventions to help the student improve. When schools fail to show adequate yearly progress, they may lose funding or be taken over by the school board or state.

GED, SAT and ACT

In many places the United States, standardized tests are also used as a graduation requirement. Students must pass a standardized test in order to graduate from high school. The General Educational Development (GED) test, is often used as an alternative to a high school diploma. During high school, students may also take standardized tests as a requirement for applying to college. The most common standardized tests for applying to college are the SAT and ACT.

Multiple Choice Test

Some standardized testing uses multiple-choice tests, which are relatively inexpensive to score, but any form of assessment can be used.

13.7.7: Gender Bias in the Classroom

Gender-based achievement gaps suggest the existence of gender bias in the classroom.

Learning Objective

Analyze both the possible root causes of gender-based achievement gaps and its proposed solutions

Key Points

• Boys outscore girls on most high-stakes tests, including both the math and verbal sections of the SAT.
• Girls may receive negative attention bias from teachers, though much of it may be unintentional.
• Teachers may reinforce gender bias when they give more attention to boys or excuse boys’ behavior with the excuse that “boys will be boys.”
• Single-sex classrooms have been proposed as a solution to gender bias.
• Despite evidence of gender bias, girls outperform boys in reading and writing and have made steady gains in career access.

Key Terms

gender bias

A prejudicial stance towards males or females

achievement gap

The observed and persistent disparity between the performance of groups of students defined by gender, race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status, based on a number of educational measures.

The SAT

SAT Reasoning Test (formerly Scholastic Aptitude Test and Scholastic Assessment Test): a national exam taken annually by high school juniors and seniors.

Example

• Teachers may reinforce gender bias simply by drawing distinctions between boys and girls. For example, lining up students or seating them by gender affirms the idea that boys and girls should be treated differently.

Gender-based achievement gaps (especially in math and science) suggest the existence of gender bias in the classroom.

Although most people would like to believe gender bias in the classroom is no longer a problem, evidence points to a persistent achievement gap between boys and girls. Although girls tend to stay in school longer, have better attendance records, and earn better report card grades, boys outscore girls on most high-stakes tests, including both the math and verbal sections of the SAT. Men also outscore women on standardized tests for graduate school, law school, and medical school.

Dissecting Classroom Gender Bias

If test score gaps are evidence of gender bias, where does that gender bias come from? Numerous explanations have been proposed:

• Women and girls may choose to take fewer advanced math or science courses, or they may be discouraged from doing so.
• Cultural norms could influence girls to prepare for their expected role of keeping a home and nurturing children, though such norms are less stringently enforced than in the past.
• Teachers may interact with boys and girls in ways that reinforce gender roles and gender inequality.

Of course, few teachers would admit to bringing gender bias into the classroom, and much of their influence may be unintentional. Nevertheless, teachers may reinforce gender bias when they give more attention to boys or excuse boys’ behavior with the excuse that “boys will be boys. ” Teachers may also reinforce gender bias simply by drawing distinctions between boys and girls. For example, lining up students or seating them by gender affirms the idea that boys and girls should be treated differently. Teachers may also influence students by the way they give praise, encourage a student to correct or expand an answer, criticize, or accept without evaluating a response. Research suggests teachers are more likely to respond to boys with praise or encouragement, whereas they are more likely to respond to girls by simply accepting or acknowledging a response without evaluating it. Because girls are typically socialized to be quiet and passive, teachers may need to actively encourage their participation in class in order to avoid boy-dominated discussion, or a situation in which boys receive more feedback from and interaction with teachers because they more actively participate in class.

One proposed solution to gender bias in the classroom is to separate boys and girls in single-sex classrooms. Theoretically, single-sex classrooms would help students focus without distracting interactions with children of the opposite gender. They could also decrease pressure on girls who feel nervous participating in boy-dominated class discussion. However, empirical studies give mixed evidence as to the efficacy of single-sex schooling, and critics worry that it constitutes a separate-but-equal form of discrimination.

Career Access

Despite evidence of gender bias, female career access has made steady gains in recent years, due largely to the women’s rights movement. More women are now able to work outside the home; although some may be driven to work not as an expression of liberty or equality, but out of economic necessity. Still, women earn only about 75 cents for every dollar earned by men, and many work in low status, sex-stereotyped occupations. In part, that may be due to the college majors women choose. But why, one might ask, would women be more likely to choose college majors that will not benefit them in careers? Sociologists would point to social influences and cultural expectations.

The “Boy Code”

Further, though most research and debate about gender bias in the classroom focuses on bias against girls, recent evidence suggests that boys may be falling behind girls, especially in literacy. In fact, the latest national test scores, collected by the National Assessment of Educational Progress, show that girls have met or exceeded the reading performance of boys at all age levels; by fourth grade, boys have fallen two years behind girls in their reading and writing skills. The male literacy gap has been attributed to sex-based differences in brain function as well as to social factors like the expectations set by an unwritten “boy code” to discourages boys from expressing emotions. This boy code may make male students less likely to share opinions about literature or express frustrations or difficulties to teachers. Thus, just as social pressures may convince some girls they cannot excel at science or math, social pressures may convince some boys they cannot succeed in reading and writing.

The gendering of school subjects may, in itself, lead to gender bias in the classroom, and, further down the line, gender inequality in the workforce.

Children in a Classroom

Boys and girls learn together in a classroom.

13.7.8: The Gifted

There is no standard definition of “gifted,” nor a standard way of implementing gifted education.

Learning Objective

List the various forms of education for the gifted and the controversies around gifted education

Key Points

• Common forms of education for the gifted have included acceleration, pull-out, cluster grouping and summer enrichment.
• According to the 1972 Marland Report, gifted youth are more likely than average to experience academic failure and develop social and emotional problems.
• Gifted education received federal support during the Cold War, but that support has recently been eroded.
• Controversies exist over the appropriateness of different forms of gifted education and their emotional effects on students.

Key Terms

cluster grouping

Cluster grouping is the gathering of four to six gifted and talented or high achieving students in a single classroom for the entire school day.

gifted

Endowed with special, in particular intellectual, abilities.

pull-out

Gifted students are pulled out of a heterogeneous classroom to spend a portion of their time in a gifted class.

Examples

• The 2002 No Child Left Behind law shifted attention away from gifted students.
• Most recently, the 2002 No Child Left Behind law has shifted attention away from gifted students

Though gifted education programs are widespread, there is no standard definition of “gifted,” nor a standard way of implementing gifted education. Gifted education programs are justified by a two-pronged argument: First, gifted and talented youth are not adequately challenged by the standard curriculum and therefore require accelerated curricula or enrichment activities to reach their full potential. Second, gifted and talented youth are inherently at-risk.

This second argument may seem counter-intuitive, but it has gained general credibility. This argument was formally articulated by the 1972 Marland Report by then U.S. Commissioner of Education S. P. Marland. According to the report, gifted youth are more likely than average to experience academic failure and to develop social and emotional problems. Gifted students may experience social rejection and difficulty making friends, as well as grapple with fear of failure and perfectionism. They may intentionally play down their abilities in order to make friends. They are also more prone to depression, anxiety and disengagement, as well as to behavior problems and drug and alcohol abuse. This may be in part due to a need for stimulation beyond what they receive in a typical classroom.

Since the early 20^th century, definitions of “gifted” have been based on IQ, or intelligence quotient. Different schools may set different cut-offs for defining giftedness, but a common standard is the top 2% of students with an IQ score of about 140 or above. More general definitions of giftedness may also evaluate students’ capability in areas like intellectual, creative, artistic, or leadership capacity, or in specific academic fields. Evaluations may be based on portfolios of student work, classroom observations, and achievement measures.

The 2002 No Child Left Behind law shifted attention away from gifted students. The law aims to bring proficiency of all students to grade level, but critics note it does not address the needs of gifted students who perform above grade level. The act imposes punishments on schools, administrators and teachers when students do not achieve to the plan’s designs, but does not address any achievement standards for high functioning students. This forces schools and teachers to spend their time with low achieving students. As a result of this law, many fear, gifted services have been eroding

Forms of Gifted Education

Gifted education programs take many forms, including a combination of acceleration, pull-out or cluster grouping, and enrichment activities . Acceleration programs may compact curriculum or allow students to self-pace. In compacting, students are pre-tested to determine which skills or content they have already mastered, thus allowing students to skip repetitive practice. This reduces boredom and frees time to work on more challenging material. In self-pacing, students advance at their own speeds. In general, acceleration programs advance students to higher-level material suited to their abilities and preparedness – students may skip grades, skip ahead in particular subjects, or enroll at local community colleges.

Gifted Class

Laura Bush listens to a student talk about sea turtles during a 2006 visit to Banyan Elementary School in Miami, FL, in support of education about parks and the environment.

An alternative to acceleration is pull-out or cluster grouping, in which gifted students are removed from regular classrooms. In pull-out programs, gifted students spend most of the school day with a regular classroom of mixed abilities, but may be pulled out for an hour or part of a day to practice critical thinking drills, creative exercises, or subjects not introduced in standard curriculums. Pull-out programs are generally ineffective at promoting academic achievement since they do not align with the regular curriculum.

Finally, summer enrichment presents gifted students with extra material above and beyond the standard curriculum. Students spend school days with a regular classroom, but also complete enrichment activities given as a modified assignment by the regular classroom teacher. These could include formal programs like Odyssey of the Mind or academic competitions like National History Day. Summer enrichment programs typically operate like summer camps, as students pay a fee to attend and may enroll in programs that typically focus on one subject. In any case, enrichment work is done in addition to regular school work.

Controversy

Controversies concerning gifted education are varied and often highly politicized. They are as basic as agreeing upon the appropriateness of the term “gifted” or the definition of “giftedness. ” For example, does “giftedness” refer to performance or potential? Many students do not exhibit both at the same time. Measures of general intelligence also remain controversial. Early IQ tests were notorious for producing higher IQ scores for privileged races and classes and lower scores for disadvantaged subgroups. Although IQ tests have changed substantially over the past half century, and many objections to the early tests have been addressed by “culture neutral,” IQ testing remains controversial.

Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy

Schools like the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy cater to the needs of gifted students.

13.7.9: Educational Reform in the U.S.

Education reforms aim at redressing some societal ills, such as gender-, and class-based inequities, or instructional ineffectiveness.

Learning Objective

Outline the main motivations for educational reform and the timeline of its various manifestations

Key Points

• Educational reform has been closely tied to efforts to promote democracy.
• Another motivation for reform is the desire to address socioeconomic problems, such as health, wealth and well being, which many people see as having roots in unequal access to education.
• In the 1980s, conservative reformers tried to limit federal involvement in education, and E.D. Hirsch argued education must teach cultural literacy.
• In the 1990s and 2000s, reformers pushed for outcomes-based education with an emphasis on assessment.
• Teachers’ unions are considered by many to be the major barrier to continued reform.
• Persistent issues in educational reform include school funding, school choice, and alternatives to public education.
• Teachers’ unions are considered by many to be the major barrier to continued reform.

Key Terms

cultural literacy

Knowledge of and ability to discuss the history of and major concepts underlying a culture, particularly one’s own and those of one’s peers.

school choice

School choice is a term used to describe a wide array of programs aimed at giving families the opportunity to choose the school their children will attend.

outcomes-based education

Outcome-based education (OBE) is a student-centered learning philosophy that focuses on empirically measuring student performance, which are called outcomes. OBE contrasts with traditional education, which primarily focuses on the resources that are available to the student, which are called inputs.

Examples

• Critics counter that even within a country, districts with the highest levels of funding do not always have the highest achievement levels. For example, in 2007, the Washington, D.C. public school district had the third highest level of funding per student among the 100 biggest school districts. Despite this high level of funding, the school district provides outcomes that are lower than the national average.
• Critics counter that even within a country, districts with the highest levels of funding do not always have the highest achievement levels. For example, in 2007, the Washington, D.C. public school district had the third highest level of funding per student among the 100 biggest school districts. Despite this high level of funding, the school district provides outcomes that are lower than the national average.

Education reform has been pursued for a variety of specific reasons, but, generally, most reforms aim at redressing some societal ills, such as poverty-, gender-, or class-based inequities, or perceived ineffectiveness.

The idea that all children should be provided with a high level of education is a relatively recent idea, and has arisen largely in the context of Western democracy in the twentieth century. In fact, educational reform has been closely tied to efforts to promote democracy. Many students of democracy desire to improve education in order to improve the quality of governance in democratic societies. The necessity of good public education follows logically if one believes that the quality of democratic governance depends on the ability of citizens to make informed, intelligent choices, and education can improve these abilities. In the United States, for example, democratic education was promoted by Thomas Jefferson, who advocated ambitious reforms for public schooling in Virginia.

Another motivation for reform is the desire to address socioeconomic problems, which many people see as having roots in unequal access to education. Starting in the twentieth century, people have attempted to argue that small improvements in education can have large returns in such areas as health, wealth and well being. For example, in developing countries, increases in women’s literacy rates were correlated with increases in women’s health, and increasing primary education was correlated with increasing farming efficiencies and income. Even in developed countries, an individual’s level of education may predict the type of career and level of income that person can expect to achieve.

Other education reforms have been motivated by attempts to improve the effectiveness of instruction. Many modern reforms have attempted to move away from a model of education in which a teacher lectures and delivers facts to a passive student audience. For example, M. Montessori argued that education must take into account the individual needs of each child. John Dewey suggested that effective education poses problems and puzzles that motivate children to learn.

Over the years, education reform has focused on different goals. From the 1950s to the 1970s, many of the proposed and implemented reforms in U.S. education stemmed from the Civil Rights Movement and related trends; examples include ending racial segregation and busing for the purpose of desegregation, affirmative action, and banning of school prayer. In general, these reforms gave more students from more diverse backgrounds access to education.

In the 1980s, the momentum of education reform moved from the left to the right. For example, E.D. Hirsch put forth an influential attack on progressive education. He argued that progressive education failed to teach “cultural literacy,” the facts, phrases, and texts that Hirsch asserted every American had once known and were still essential for decoding basic texts and maintaining communication. Hirsch’s ideas remain significant through the 1990s and into the twenty-first century and are incorporated into classroom practice through textbooks and curricula published under his own imprint.

In the 1990s, most states and districts adopted Outcome-Based Education (OBE) in some form or another. Under OBE, a state would create a committee to adopt standards and choose a quantitative instrument (often, a standardized test) to assess whether the students knew the required content or could perform the required tasks. During this period, the U.S. Congress also set the standards-based National Education Goals (Goals 2000). Many of these goals were based on the principles of outcomes-based education, and not all of the goals were attained by the year 2000 as was intended. The standards-based reform movement culminated in the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. In general, OBE reforms attempt to increase accountability in education. Rather than reforming the educational process, they focus on the effects that process achieves by measuring outcomes (e.g., student achievement).

A central issue for educational reform advocates today is school choice. Debates over school choice focus on advocates’ claim that school choice can promote excellence in education through competition. A highly competitive “market” for schools would eliminate the need to otherwise enforce accountability from the top down. According to advocates, schools would naturally regulate themselves and attempt to raise standards in order to attract students. Most proposals for school choice call for vouchers. Public education vouchers would permit guardians to select and pay any school, public or private, with public funds currently allocated to local public schools. In theory, children’s guardians will naturally shop for the best schools, much as is already done at the college level.

Many attribute the purportedly slow pace of reform in the United States to the strength of teachers’ unions. In some school districts, labor agreements with teachers’ unions may restrict the ability of school systems to implement merit pay and other reforms. In general, union contracts are more restrictive in districts with high concentrations of poor and minority students.

Education Segregation in the U.S. Prior to Brown v. Board of Education

Educational reforms during the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s focused on civil rights, especially desegregation and affirmative action.

12.4: Recent Changes in Family Structure

12.4.1: The Decline of the Traditional Family

Learning Objective

Summarize the prevalence of single parents, cohabitation, same-sex couples, and unmarried individuals

Key Points

• One recent trend illustrating the changing nature of families is the rise in prevalence of single-parent families.
• Cohabitation is an intimate relationship that includes a common living place and which exists without the benefit of legal, cultural, or religious sanction.
• While homosexuality has existed for thousands of years among human beings, formal marriages between homosexual partners is a relatively recent phenomenon.
• Voluntary childlessness in women is defined as women of childbearing age who are fertile and do not intend to have children.

Key Terms

cohabitation

An emotionally and physically intimate relationship that includes a common living place and which exists without legal or religious sanction.

Voluntary Childlessness

Women of childbearing age who are fertile and do not intend to have children, women who have chosen sterilization, or women past childbearing age who were fertile but chose not to have children.

Examples

• The cohabiting population, although inclusive of all ages, is mainly made up of those between the ages of 25 and 34. In 2005, the U.S. Census Bureau reported 4.85 million cohabiting couples, up more than 1,000% from 1960, when there were 439,000 such couples.
• The cohabiting population, although inclusive of all ages, is mainly made up of those between the ages of 25 and 34. In 2005, the U.S. Census Bureau reported 4.85 million cohabiting couples, up more than 1,000 percent from 1960, when there were 439,000 such couples.

Family structures of some kind are found in every society. Pairing off into formal or informal marital relationships originated in hunter-gatherer groups to forge networks of cooperation beyond the immediate family. Intermarriage between groups, tribes, or clans was often political or strategic and resulted in reciprocal obligations between the two groups represented by the marital partners. Even so, marital dissolution was not a serious problem as the obligations resting on marital longevity were not particularly high.

One Parent Households

One recent trend illustrating the changing nature of families is the rise in prevalence of single-parent families. While somewhat more common prior to the twentieth century due to the more frequent deaths of spouses, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the nuclear family became the societal norm in most Western nations. But what was the prevailing norm for much of the twentieth century is no longer the actual norm, nor is it perceived as such.

In the 1960s and 1970s, the change in the economic structure of the United States–-the inability to support a nuclear family on a single wage–-had significant ramifications on family life. Women and men began delaying the age of first marriage in order to invest in their earning power before marriage by spending more time in school. The increased levels of education among women, with women now earn more than 50% of bachelor’s degrees, positioned women to survive economically without the support of a husband. By 1997, 40% of births to unmarried American women were intentional and, despite a still prominent gender gap in pay, women were able to survive as single mothers.

Cohabitation

Cohabitation is an intimate relationship that includes a common living place and which exists without the benefit of legal, cultural, or religious sanction. It can be seen as an alternative form of marriage, in that, in practice, it is similar to marriage, but it does not receive the same formal recognition by religions, governments, or cultures. The cohabiting population, although inclusive of all ages, is mainly made up of those between the ages of 25 and 34. In 2005, the U.S. Census Bureau reported 4.85 million cohabiting couples, up more than 1,000% from 1960, when there were 439,000 such couples. More than half of couples in the United States lived together, at least briefly, before walking down the aisle.

Same-Sex Unions

While homosexuality has existed for thousands of years among human beings, formal marriages between homosexual partners is a relatively recent phenomenon. As of 2009, only two states in the United States recognized marriages between same-sex partners, Massachusetts and Iowa, where same-sex marriage was formally allowed as of May 17, 2004 and April 2009, respectively. Three additional states allow same-sex civil unions, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Vermont. Between May 2004 and December 2006, 7,341 same-sex couples married in Massachusetts. Assuming the percentage of homosexuals in Massachusetts is similar to that of the rest of the nation, the above number indicates that 16.7% of homosexuals in Massachusetts married during that time. Massachusetts is also the state with the lowest divorce rate.

Same sex couples, while becoming increasingly more common, still only account for about 1 percent of American households, according to 2010 Census data. About 0.5 percent of American households were same-sex couples in 2000, so this number has doubled, and it is expected to continuing increasing by the next Census data.

Childfree Couples

Voluntary childlessness in women is defined as women of childbearing age who are fertile and do not intend to have children, women who have chosen sterilization, or women past childbearing age who were fertile but chose not to have children. Individuals can also be “temporarily childless” or do not currently have children but want children in the future. The availability of reliable contraception along with support provided in old age by systems other than traditional familial ones has made childlessness an option for some people in developed countries. In most societies and for most of human history, choosing to be childfree was both difficult and undesirable. To accomplish the goal of remaining childfree, some individuals undergo medical sterilization or relinquish their children for adoption.

Household types in the United States in 2006

This figure shows that roughly 5% of households in the United States are made up of cohabiting couples of various types: heterosexual, gay, or, lesbian.

12.4.2: Change in Marriage Rate

Learning Objective

Recognize changes in marriage patterns

Key Points

• Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people, called spouses, that creates kinship.
• Marriage laws have changed over the course of United States history, including the removal of bans on interracial marriage.
• Of all racial categories considered by the U.S. Census, African-Americans have married the least.
• Of all racial categories considered by the U.S. Census, Hispanics have married the most.
• The average family income for married households is higher than the average family income of unmarried households. However, marriage rates have increased for poverty-stricken populations as well.

Key Terms

wedding

Marriage ceremony; a ritual officially celebrating the beginning of a marriage.

Marriage Laws

The legal requirements that determine the validity of a marriage.

Examples

• According to the United States Census Bureau, 2,077,000 marriages occurred in the United States in 2009. The median age for the first marriage of an American has increased in recent years; the median age in the early 1970s was 21 for women and 23 for men, and rose to 26 for women and 28 for men by 2009.
• As of 2006, 55.7% of Americans age 18 and over were married.
• African Americans have married the least of all of the predominant ethnic groups in the U.S. with a 29.9% marriage rate, but have the highest separation rate which is 4.5%.
• African Americans have married the least of all of the predominant ethnic groups in the U.S. with a 29.9% marriage rate, but have the highest separation rate which is 4.5%.
• According to the 2010 U.S. Census Bureau, the average family income is higher than previous years at $62,770. The percentage of family households below the poverty line in 2011 was 15.1%, higher than in 2000 when it was 11.3%.

Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people, called spouses, that creates kinship. The definition of marriage varies according to different cultures, but is usually an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged. Such a union is often formalized through a wedding ceremony.

Marriage Rates in the United States

Marriage laws have changed over the course of United States history, including the removal of bans on interracial marriage. In the twenty-first century, laws have been passed enabling same-sex marriages in several states. According to the United States Census Bureau, 2,077,000 marriages occurred in the United States in 2009. The median age for the first marriage of an American has increased in recent years; the median age in the early 1970s was 21 for women and 23 for men, and rose to 26 for women and 28 for men by 2009. As of 2006, 55.7% of Americans age 18 and over were married. According to the 2008-2010 American Community Survey 3-Year Estimates, males over the age of 15 have married at a rate of 51.5%. Females over the age of 15 have married at a rate of 47.7%. The separation rate is 1.8% for males and 0.1% for females.

Marriage Trends

African Americans have married the least of all of the major ethnic groups in the U.S., with a 29.9% marriage rate, but have the highest separation rate which is 4.5%. This results in a high percentage of single mother households among African Americans compared with other ethnic groups (White, African American, Native Americans, Asian, Hispanic). This can lead a child to become closer to his/her mother, the only caregiver. Yet one parent households are also more susceptible to economic difficulties. Native Americans have the second lowest marriage rate at 37.9%. Hispanics have a 45.1% marriage rate, with a 3.5% separation rate.

In the United States, the two ethnic groups with the highest marriage rates included Asians with 58.5%, and Whites with 52.9%. Asians have the lowest rate of divorce among the main groups with 1.8%. Whites, African Americans, and Native Americans have the highest rates of being widowed, ranging from 5%-6.5%. They also have the highest rates of divorce among the three, ranging from 11%-13%, with Native Americans having the highest divorce rate.

Marital Status in the United States Chart

This image depicts marital status in the U.S.

According to the 2010 U.S. Census Bureau, the average family income is higher than previous years, at $62,770. Nevertheless, the percentage of family households below the poverty line in 2011 was 15.1%, higher than in 2000 when it was 11.3%.

12.4.3: Unmarried Mothers

Learning Objective

Discuss the factors involved in the increasing number of single-parent households

Key Points

• One recent trend illustrating the changing nature of families is the rise in prevalence of single-parent household.
• The expectation of single mothers as primary caregiver is a part of traditional parenting trends between mothers and fathers.
• In the United States, 27% of single mothers live below the poverty line, as they lack the financial resources to support their children when the birth father is unresponsive.

Key Terms

nuclear family

a family unit consisting of at most a father, mother and dependent children.

Primary Caregiver

The person who takes primary responsibility for someone who cannot care fully for themselves.

Example

• In 1990, 73% of births to unmarried women were unintended at the time of conception, compared to about 44% of births overall.

One recent trend illustrating the changing nature of families is the rise in prevalence of the single-parent household. While somewhat more common prior to the 20^th century due to the more frequent deaths of spouses, the nuclear family became the societal norm in most Western nations. But what was the prevailing norm for much of the 20^th century is no longer the actual norm, nor is it perceived as such.

Since the 1960s, there has been a marked increase in the number of children living with a single parent. The 1960 United States Census reported that 9% of children were dependent on a single parent; this number that has increased to 28% by the 2000 US Census. The spike was caused by an increase in unmarried pregnancies, which 36% of all births by unmarried women, and to the increasing prevalence of divorces among couple.

The prevalence of single mothers as primary caregiver is a part of traditional parenting trends between mothers and fathers. In the United States, 27% of single mothers live below the poverty line, as they lack the financial resources to support their children when the birth father is unresponsive. Although the public is sympathetic with low-wage single mothers, government benefits are fairly low. Many seek assistance by living with another adult, such as a relative, fictive kin, or significant other. Divorced mothers who re-marry have fewer financial struggles than unmarried single mothers, who cannot work for longer periods of time without shirking their child-caring responsibilities. Unmarried mothers are thus more likely to cohabit with another adult. In the United States, the rate of unintended pregnancy is higher among unmarried couples than among married ones. In 1990, 73% of births to unmarried women were unintended at the time of conception, compared to about 44% of births overall.

Single Motherhood

Marisa Beagle, sophomore history major, and her daughter, Noelle, sit in the parking lot of the Salem Campus, where she attends school 45 minutes away from her home in East Palestine, near the Pennsylvania border. Marisa and Noelle, 18 months, live with Marisa’s parents. A single parent, Beagle says it’s tough to attend school and raise a daughter simultaneously, but with the support of her family, she’s able to make it work.

12.4.4: The “Sandwich Generation” and Elder Care

Learning Objective

Describe the challenges of elderly care in the U.S.

Key Points

• The Sandwich generation is a generation of people who care for their aging parents while supporting their own children.
• Elderly care encompasses such services as assisted living, adult day care, long-term care, nursing homes, hospice care, and in-home care, as well as less formalized caretaking, such as by an elder’s grown child.
• Given the choice, most elders would prefer to continue to live in their own homes rather than move to an elder home or caretaking facility.
• Respite care allows caregivers the opportunity to go on vacation or a business trip and know that their elder has good quality temporary care. Without this help, the elder might have to move permanently to an outside facility.

Key Terms

Respite Care

Temporary care that allows caregivers the opportunity to go on vacation or a business trip and know that their elder has good quality temporary care, for without this help the elder might have to move permanently to an outside facility.

sandwich generation

The generation of persons who are the children of baby boomers, whose lifestyle is governed by the fact that they must simultaneously care for the needs of their children and their own elderly parents.

Examples

• According to the Pew Research Center, just over 1 of every 8 Americans aged 40 to 60 is both raising a child and caring for a parent, in addition to between 7 to 10 million adults caring for their aging parents from a long distance. US Census Bureau statistics indicate that the number of older Americans aged 65 or older will double by the year 2030, to over 70 million.
• According to the U.S Department of Health and Human Services the older population—persons 65 years or older—numbered 39.6 million in 2009. They represented 12.9 percent of the U.S. population, about one in every eight Americans. By 2030, there will be about 72.1 million older persons, more than twice their number in 2000.

Elderly care is the fulfillment of the special needs and requirements that are unique to senior citizens. This broad term encompasses such services as assisted living, adult day care, long-term care, nursing homes, hospice care, and in-home care. Because of the wide variety of elderly care found globally, as well as different cultural perspectives on elderly citizens, the subject cannot be limited to any one practice. For example, many countries in Asia use government-established elderly care quite infrequently, preferring the traditional methods of being cared for by younger generations of family members.

Elderly Care in the United States

The form of elderly care provided varies greatly among countries and is changing rapidly. According to the U.S Department of Health and Human Services, the older population—persons 65 years or older—numbered 39.6 million in 2009. They represented 12.9% of the U.S. population, or about one in every eight Americans. By 2030, there will be about 72.1 million older persons, more than twice their number in 2000. In the United States, most of the large multi-facility providers are publicly owned and managed as for-profit businesses. Given the choice, most elders would prefer to continue to live in their own homes. Unfortunately, the majority of elderly people gradually lose functioning ability and require either additional assistance in the home or a move to an eldercare facility. The adult children of these elders often face a difficult challenge in helping their parents make the right choices.

One relatively new service in the United States that can help keep the elderly in their homes longer is respite care. This type of care allows caregivers the opportunity to go on vacation or a business trip and know that their elder has good quality temporary care. Without this help, the elder might have to move permanently to an outside facility. Another unique type of care cropping in U.S. hospitals is called acute care of elder units, or ACE units, which provide “a homelike setting” within a medical center specifically for the elderly.

The Sandwich Generation

The Sandwich generation is a generation of people who care for their aging parents while supporting their own children. According to the Pew Research Center, just over 1 of every 8 Americans aged 40 to 60 is both raising a child and caring for a parent, in addition to between 7 to 10 million adults caring for their aging parents from a long distance.

Elderly Care

Wishaw General Hospital

12.4.5: Childless Couples

Learning Objective

Discuss the factors involved in voluntary childlessness

Key Points

• To accomplish the goal of remaining childfree, some individuals undergo medical sterilization or relinquish their children for adoption.
• The factors involved in voluntary childlessness include age, income, unmarried status, and higher education.
• Most societies place a high value on parenthood in adult life, so that people who remain childless intentionally are sometimes stereotyped as being “individualistic” people who avoid social responsibility and are less prepared to commit themselves to helping others.

Key Terms

Childfree

Childfree (sometimes spelled child-free), also known as voluntary childlessness, is a form of childlessness. Voluntary childlessness in women is defined as women of childbearing age who are fertile and do not intend to have children, women who have chosen sterilization, or women past childbearing age who were fertile but chose not to have children.

sterilization

A procedure to permanently prevent an organism from reproducing.

Examples

• According to 2004 U.S. Census Bureau data, the proportion of childless women 15 to 44 years old was 44.6%, up from 35% in 1976.
• According to 2004 U.S. Census Bureau data, the proportion of childless women 15 to 44 years old was 44.6 percent, up from 35 percent in 1976.

Childless Couples

Voluntary childlessness in women is defined as women of childbearing age who are fertile and do not intend to have children, women who have chosen sterilization, or women past childbearing age who were fertile but chose not to have children. Individuals can also be “temporarily childless” but want children in the future. The availability of reliable contraception along with support provided in old age by systems other than traditional familial ones has made childlessness an option for some people in developed countries. In most societies and for most of human history, choosing to be childfree was both difficult and undesirable. To accomplish the goal of remaining childfree, some individuals undergo medical sterilization or relinquish their children for adoption.

Factors Involved in Voluntary Childlessness

First, while younger women are more likely to be childless, older women are more likely to state that they intend to remain childless in the future. Thus age plays a significant role in the decision. Further, according to 2004 U.S. Census Bureau data, the proportion of childless women 15 to 44 years old was 44.6%, up from 35% in 1976. The higher a woman’s income, the less likely she is to have children: Nearly half of women with annual incomes over $100,000 are childless. Third, being unmarried is one of the strongest predictors of childlessness.

Research also suggests that married individuals who were concerned about the stability of their marriages were more likely to remain childless. Most studies on this subject find that higher income predicted childlessness. However, some women report that the lack of financial resources was a reason why they decided to remain childless. Childless women in the developed world often express the view that women ultimately have to make a choice between motherhood and having a career. Lastly, the chance of being childless was far greater for never married women (35 to 44 yrs old), 82.5% vs. ever-married (12.9%). Chance of childlessness (age 35 to 44) by education level: graduate or professional degree (27.6%) vs non high school graduate (13.5%), high school graduate (14.3%), some college but no degree (24.7%), associate degree (11.4%), and bachelor’s degree (18.2%). The higher the level of education, the more likely a woman is to remain childless.

Social Attitudes to Remaining Childless

Most societies place a high value on parenthood in adult life, so that people who remain childless intentionally are sometimes stereotyped as being “individualistic” people who avoid social responsibility and are less prepared to commit themselves to helping others. With the advent of environmentalism and concerns for stewardship, those choosing to not have children are also sometimes recognized as helping reduce our impact, such as members of the voluntary human extinction movement . Some childless individuals are sometimes applauded on moral grounds, such as members of philosophical or religious groups, like the shakers.

Voluntary Human Extinction Movement

With the advent of environmentalism and concerns for stewardship, those choosing to not have children are also sometimes recognized as helping reduce our impact, such as members of the voluntary human extinction movement.

Some opponents of the childfree choice consider such a choice to be “selfish.” The rationale of this position is the assertion that raising children is a very important activity. Proponents of child freedom posit that choosing not to have children is no more or less selfish than choosing to have children. In fact, choosing to have children may be the more selfish choice, especially when poor parenting risks creating many long-term problems for both the children themselves and society at large.

Organizations and Political Activism

Childfree individuals do not necessarily share a unified political or economic philosophy, and most prominent childfree organizations tend to be social in nature. Childfree social groups first emerged in the 1970s, most notable among them The National Organization for Non-Parents and No Kidding! in North America. Numerous books have been written about childfree people and a range of social positions related to childfree interests have developed along with political and social activism in support of these interests. The term “childfree” was used in a July 3, 1972 Time article on the creation of the National Organization for Non-Parents. It was revived in the 1990s when Leslie Lafayette formed a later childfree group, the Childfree Network.

12.4.6: Change in Household Size

Learning Objective

Describe different household models

Key Points

• A shared house is a household in which a group of usually unrelated people reside together.
• A group home is a private residence designed to serve children or adults with chronic disabilities or special needs. This type of home usually has a maximum of six residents and a trained caregiver available 24 hours a day.
• A boarding house is a house in which lodgers rent one or more rooms for one or more nights, and sometimes for extended periods of weeks, months and years.
• People who live together in a shared house are called roommates.
• A single room occupancy is a single room dwelling or a multiple-tenant building that houses one or two people in individual rooms.

Key Terms

Group Home

A private residence designed to serve children or adults with chronic disabilities. Typically there are no more than six residents and there is a trained caregiver there twenty-four hours a day.

Single Room Occupancy

A multiple-tenant building that houses one or two people in individual rooms (or to the single room dwelling itself).

roommate

A person with whom one shares an apartment or house (UK: flatmate or housemate).

Household models in Anglophone culture include the single family and varieties of blended families, shared housing, and group homes for people with support needs. Other models of living situations that may meet definitions of a household include boarding houses, a house in multiple occupations in Great Britain, and a single room occupancy in the United States.

Shared Houses

A shared house is a household in which a group of often-unrelated people reside together. The term generally applies to people living together in rental properties rather than in properties in which any resident is an owner-occupier. A shared house is formed when a group of people move into a rental property; typically, one or more of these people has applied to rent the property through a real estate agent, been accepted, and signed a lease. People who live together in a shared house are called roommates. In both developed and developing countries, shared housing is an increasingly popular household model. This is due to a variety of economic and social changes, such as the declining affordability of home ownership, as well as delayed marriage and decreasing marriage rates.

Group Homes

A group home is a private residence designed to serve children or adults with chronic disabilities. Group homes typically have a maximum of six residents and a trained, on-site caregiver available 24 hours a day. Residents of group homes usually have either a chronic mental disorder or a physical disability that prevents them from living independently. They need regular assistance in order to complete daily tasks, such as taking medication or bathing. Other residents may be developmentally disabled, recovering from alcohol or drug addiction, or abused, troubled, or neglected youths. Some residents have behavioral problems that are potentially dangerous to themselves or others and require constant supervision. Since the 1970s, group homes have assumed the role of earlier institutions such as asylums, poorhouses, and orphanages.

Boarding Houses

In a boarding house, lodgers rent one or more rooms for a period ranging from one night to weeks, months, or even years. Common areas of the house are maintained and services like laundry and cleaning may be provided. Boarding houses usually offer bed and board, or at least some meals as well as accommodation. Formerly, boarders would typically share washing, breakfast, and dining facilities; in recent years, individual rooms have tended to have their own washing and toilet facilities.

Single Room Occupancy

A single room occupancy is a single room dwelling or multiple-tenant building that houses one or two people in individual rooms. As the value of urban land has increased, many of these properties have been renovated and made available at higher prices. This has played a role in the displacement of lower-income people who once lived in these properties; it has also been cited as a reason for the visible rise in homelessness across America since the early 1980s.

Boott Boardinghouse Store

Boott Mills Boardinghouse and Storehouse, now restored and part of Lowell National Historic Park. Lowell, Massachusetts

12.4.7: Women in the Labor Force

Learning Objective

Discuss three factors that restrict women’s access to certain occupations

Key Points

• Women have participated in the workforce for as long as men have, yet women have been challenged by inequality in the workforce.
• Historically, women’s lack of access to higher education effectively excluded them from the practice of well-paid and high status occupations.
• Access to higher education remains a significant barrier to women’s full participation in the workforce in developing countries.
• The gender pay gap is the difference between male and female earnings expressed as a percentage of male earnings.
• The feminization of the workplace is a label given to the trend towards greater employment of women and of men willing and able to operate with these more ‘feminine’ modes of interaction.

Key Terms

Wage Gap

The difference between male and female earnings expressed as a percentage of male earnings.

occupation

A regular activity performed in exchange for payment, including jobs and professions.

Feminization of the Workplace

A label given to the trend towards greater employment of women and of men willing and able to operate with these more ‘feminine’ modes of interaction.

Example

• The 2008 edition of the Employment Outlook report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) found that, while female employment rates have expanded considerably and the gender employment and wage gaps have narrowed virtually everywhere, women still have 20% less chance to have a job than men, on average, and they are paid 17% less than their male counterparts.

Women in the workforce earning wages or a salary are part of a modern phenomenon, one that developed at the same time as the growth of paid employment for men; yet women have been challenged by inequality in the workforce. Until modern times, legal and cultural practices, combined with the inertia of longstanding religious and educational conventions, restricted women’s entry and participation in the workforce. Economic dependency upon men has had the same impact, particularly as occupations have become professionalized over the 19^th and 20^th centuries.

Historically, women’s lack of access to higher education had effectively excluded them from the practice of well-paid and high status occupations. Entry of women into the higher professions like law and medicine was delayed in most countries due to women being denied entry to universities and qualification for degrees; for example, Cambridge University only fully validated degrees for women late in 1947, and even then only after much opposition and acrimonious debate.

Barriers to Equal Participation

As gender roles have followed the formation of agricultural and then industrial societies, newly developed professions and fields of occupation have been frequently inflected by gender. Some examples of the ways in which gender affects a field include: prohibitions or restrictions on members of a particular gender entering a field or studying a field; discrimination within a field, including wage, management, and prestige hierarchies; expectation that mothers, rather than fathers, should be the primary childcare providers.

Access to Education and Training

A number of occupations became “professionalized” through the 19^th and 20^th centuries, gaining regulatory bodies, and passing laws or regulations requiring particular higher educational requirements. As women’s access to higher education was often limited, this effectively restricted women’s participation in these professionalizing occupations. For instance, women were completely forbidden access to Cambridge University until 1868, and were encumbered with a variety of restrictions until 1987, when the university adopted an equal opportunity policy. Numerous other institutions in the United States and Western Europe began opening their doors to women over the same period of time, but access to higher education remains a significant barrier to women’s full participation in the workforce in developing countries.

Access to Capital

Women’s access to occupations requiring capital outlays is also hindered by their unequal access to capital; this affects occupations such as entrepreneur and small business owner, farm ownership, and investor. Numerous microloan programs attempt to redress this imbalance, targeting women for loans or grants to establish start-up businesses or farms, having determined that aid targeted to women can disproportionately benefit a nation’s economy.

Discrimination within Occupations

The gender pay gap is the difference between male and female earnings expressed as a percentage of male earnings, according to the OECD. The European Commission defines it as the average difference between men and women’s hourly earnings. There is a debate to what extent this is the result of gender differences, implicit discrimination due to lifestyle choices (e.g., number of hours worked, need for maternity leave), or because of explicit discrimination. The 2008 edition of the Employment Outlook report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) found that, while female employment rates have expanded considerably and the gender employment and wage gaps have narrowed virtually everywhere, women still have 20% less chance to have a job than men, on average, and they are paid 17% less than their male counterparts.

Feminization of the Workplace

In response to the pressure from feminism and cultural trends highlighting characteristics in workers that have culturally been associated with women, feminization of the workplace is a label given to the trend towards greater employment of women, and of men willing and able to operate with these more ‘feminine’ modes of interaction.

OECD Gender Pay Gap

Gender Pay Gap in 19 OECD countries according to the 2008 OECD Employment Outlook report

12.5: Divorce

12.5.1: Divorce and Its Legal Ramifications

Divorce is the final termination of a marital union, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage between the parties.

Learning Objective

Describe fault-based and no-fault divorce systems

Key Points

• Though divorce laws vary among jurisdictions, there are two basic approaches to divorce: fault based and no-fault based.
• Under a no-fault divorce system, divorce requires no allegation or proof of fault of either party; spouses can divorce simply because they no longer wish to remain married.
• Fault-based divorce systems require proof by one party that the other party has committed an act incompatible to the marriage.
• A summary divorce is used when spouses meet certain eligibility requirements or can agree on key issues beforehand. When a summary divorce is issued, the divorce does not go to trial.
• In a divorce mediation session, a mediator facilitates the discussion between the two parties by assisting with communication and providing information and suggestions to help resolve differences.
• For same-sex couples, divorce law is in its infancy and is less than clear on how such unions may be legally dissolved.
• For same-sex couples, divorce law is in its infancy and is less than clear on how such unions may be legally dissolved.

Key Terms

Summary Divorce

When spouses meet certain eligibility requirements or can agree on key issues beforehand to avoid having a trial to dissolve a marriage.

Uncontested Divorces

When the parties can agree and present the court with a fair and equitable agreement, approval of the divorce is almost guaranteed.

Divorce Mediation Session

When a mediator facilitates the discussion between the two parties by assisting with communication and providing information and suggestions to help resolve differences. At the end of the mediation process, the separating parties have typically developed a tailored divorce agreement that can be submitted to the court.

Examples

• Under a no-fault divorce system, divorce requires no allegation or proof of fault of either party. The barest of assertions suffice. For example, in countries that require “irretrievable breakdown,” the mere assertion that the marriage has broken down will satisfy the judicial officer.
• For same-sex couples, divorce law is in its infancy and is less than clear on how such unions may be legally dissolved. For example, if a same-sex couple is married in a state that recognizes gay marriage but returns to reside in a state that does not, they might find themselves in a situation where their own state, in failing to recognize their union will also fail to enable them to divorce.

Divorce is the final termination of a marital union, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage, and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between the parties. Divorce laws vary considerably around the world, but in most countries it requires the sanction of a court or other authority in a legal process. The legal process of divorce may also involve issues of alimony, child custody, child support, distribution of property, and division of debt. Between 1971 and 2011, several countries legalized divorce, the last one being Malta in 2011.

Types of Divorce

Though divorce laws vary among jurisdictions, there are two basic approaches to divorce: fault based, and no-fault based. Under a no-fault divorce system, divorce requires no allegation or proof of fault of either party. The barest of assertions suffice. For example, in countries that require “irretrievable breakdown,” the mere assertion that the marriage has broken down will satisfy the judicial officer. By contrast, fault-based divorce systems require proof by one party that the other party has committed an act incompatible to the marriage. This is termed “grounds” for divorce (popularly called “fault”) and is the only way to terminate a marriage under a fault-based system.

A summary divorce, available in some jurisdictions, is used when spouses meet certain eligibility requirements, or can agree on key issues beforehand. Key factors include a short marriage, no children, and minimal property. When the parties can agree and present the court with a fair and equitable agreement, approval of the divorce is almost guaranteed. These are termed uncontested divorces. If the two parties cannot come to an agreement, they may ask the court to decide how to split property and deal with the custody of their children. Finally, divorce mediation is an alternative to traditional divorce litigation. In a divorce mediation session, a mediator facilitates the discussion between the two parties by assisting with communication and providing information and suggestions to help resolve differences. At the end of the mediation process, the separating parties have typically developed a tailored divorce agreement that can be submitted to the court.

Divorce of Same-Sex Married Couples in the United States

Although marriage was previously defined as a legal union between one man and one woman in the United States, over the past decades several states have begun to consider adopting, or have adopted, legislation which legalizes same-sex marriage. Once legally married, same-sex couples are entitled to the same degree of financial security as their hetero-sexual counterparts, including, but not limited to, the right to receive their spouse’s death benefits, health insurance, life insurance and other protections. For same-sex couples, divorce law is in its infancy and is less than clear on how such unions may be legally dissolved. For example, if a same-sex couple is married in a state that recognizes gay marriage but returns to reside in a state that does not, they might find themselves in a situation where their own state, in failing to recognize their union, will also fail to enable them to divorce.

Divorce Rates in Sweeden

This graph depicts divorce rates in Sweden from 2000 to 2010.

12.5.2: Child Custody Laws

Child custody laws describe the legal and practical relationship between a parent and his or her child.

Learning Objective

Contrast different types of custody

Key Points

• Physical custody involves the day-to-day care of a child and establishes where a child will live.
• If a child lives with both parents, each parent shares “joint physical custody” and each parent is said to be a “custodial parent”.
• Shared custody is an arrangement in which the child lives for an extended period of time with one parent and then for a similar amount of time with the other parent.
• Alternating custody is an arrangement in which the child lives for an extended period of time with one parent and then for a similar amount of time with the other parent.
• A custodial parent is a parent who is given physical and/or legal custody of a child by court order.
• A non-custodial parent is a parent who does not have physical and/or legal custody of his/her child by court order.
• In Troxel v. Granville (2000), the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed that a biological parent holds a fundamental right in choosing how to raise one’s children as they see fit.

Key Terms

Parenting Schedule

A schedule of which divorced parent is responsible for the child at any given point in time.

Troxel v. Granville

A U.S. Supreme Court case (2000) that affirmed that a biological parent holds a fundamental right in choosing how to raise one’s children as they see fit.

Child custody and guardianship are legal terms, which are used to describe the legal and practical relationship between a parent and his or her child, such as the right of the parent to make decisions for the child, and the parent’s duty to care for the child. Following ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in most countries, terms such as “residence” and “contact” have superseded the concepts of “custody” and “access. ” Instead of a parent having “custody” of or “access” to a child, a child is now said to “reside” or have “contact” with a parent. For a discussion of the new international nomenclature, see “parental responsibility. “

Residence and contact issues typically arise in proceedings involving divorce, annulment, and other legal proceedings where children may be involved. In most jurisdictions the issue of which parent the child will reside with is determined in accordance with the best interests of the child standard. Family law proceedings which involve issues of residence and contact often generate the most acrimonious disputes. While most parents cooperate when it comes to sharing their children and resort to mediation to settle a dispute, not all do. For those that engage in litigation, there seem to be few limits.

Types of Custody

Under family law, there are different types of custody. Alternating custody is an arrangement whereby the child lives for an extended period of time with one parent, and then for a similar amount of time with the other parent. While the child is with the parent, that parent retains sole authority over the child. Further, shared custody is an arrangement whereby the child lives for an extended period of time with one parent, and then for a similar amount of time with the other parent. Physical custody involves the day-to-day care of a child, and establishes where a child will live. A parent with physical custody has the right to have his/her child live with him/her. If a child lives with both parents, each parent shares “joint physical custody” and each parent is said to be a “custodial parent. ” Thus, in joint physical custody, neither parent is said to be a “non-custodial parent. “

Custodial and Non-Custodial Parents

A custodial parent is a parent who is given physical and/or legal custody of a child by court order. A child-custody determination means a judgment, decree, or other order of a court providing for the legal custody, physical custody, or visitation with respect to a child. The term includes a permanent, temporary, initial, and modification order. The term does not include an order relating to child support or other monetary obligation of an individual. A non-custodial parent is a parent who does not have physical and/or legal custody of his/her child by court order.

Child Custody Laws in the United States

In Troxel v. Granville (2000), the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed that a biological parent holds a fundamental right in choosing how to raise one’s children as they see fit. Later in the case of O’Donnell-Lamont (2004), the court affirmed an Oregon statute requiring a presumption that the parent acts in the child’s best interests, to be met prior to applying the best interests of the child standard, placing both parties on equal footing.

A New Terminology?

In some places, courts and legal professionals are beginning to use the term “parenting schedule” instead of “custody and visitation. ” The new terminology eliminates the distinction between custodial and noncustodial parents and also attempts to build upon the best interests of the children by crafting schedules that meet the developmental needs of the children. For example, younger children need shorter, more frequent time with parents, whereas older children and teenagers may demand less frequent shifts yet longer blocks of time with each parent.

Child Custody

Residence and contact issues typically arise in proceedings involving divorce, annulment and other legal proceedings where children may be involved.In most jurisdictions the issue of which parent the child will reside with is determined in accordance with the best interests of the child.

12.5.3: Statistical Trends in Divorce

Divorce statistics vary across the world, but on average, first marriages that end in divorce last about eight years.

Learning Objective

Name three important statistical trends in divorce in the U.S.

Key Points

• Success in marriage has been associated with higher education and higher age.
• The growth of divorce rates in the United States have been dropping during the last few decades.
• One study estimated that legal reforms accounted for about 20% of the increase in divorce rates in Europe between 1960 and 2002.

Key Term

Divorce Statistics

Quantitative measures of marriage and marital dissolution.

Examples

• Of the first marriages for women from 1955 to 1959, about 79% marked their 15th anniversary, compared with only 57% for women who married for the first time from 1985 to 1989.
• A 2011 study found a 1% increase in the unemployment rate correlated with a 1% decrease in the divorce rate, presumably because more people were financially challenged to afford the legal proceedings.
• In 2009 in the United States, 2.9% of adults 35–39 without a college degree were divorced, compared with 1.6% with a college education.

Divorce statistics vary across the world. On average, first marriages that end in divorce last about eight years. Of the first marriages for women from 1955 to 1959, about 79% marked their 15^th anniversary, compared with only 57% for women who married for the first time from 1985 to 1989. The median time between divorce and a second marriage was about three and a half years.

Successful Marriages

Success in marriage has been associated with higher education and higher age. 81% of college graduates, over 26 years of age, who wed in the 1980’s, were still married 20 years later. 65% of college graduates under 26, who married in the 1980’s, were still married 20 years later. 49% of high school graduates under 26 years old, who married in the 1980’s, were still married 20 years later. Population studies have found that in 2004 and 2008, liberal-voting states have lower rates of divorce than conservative-voting states, possibly because people in liberal states tend to wait longer before getting married. In 2009, 2.9% of adults 35–39 without a college degree were divorced, compared with 1.6% with a college education.

Divorce in the United States

Divorce rates in the United States have been dropping during the last few decades. Data indicates that marriages have lasted longer in the 21^st century than they did in the 1990’s. The National Center for Health Statistics reports that from 1975 to 1988, in families with children present, wives file for divorce in approximately two-thirds of cases. In 1975, 71.4% of the cases were filed by women, and in 1988, 65% were filed by women. It is estimated that upwards of 95% of divorces in the U.S. are “uncontested,” because the two parties are able to come to an agreement without a hearing about the property, children, and support issues. A 2011 study found a 1% increase in the unemployment rate correlated with a 1% decrease in the divorce rate, presumably because more people were financially challenged to afford the legal proceedings.

Divorce around the World

One study estimated that legal reforms accounted for about 20% of the increase in divorce rates in Europe between 1960 and 2002. In Australia, nearly every third marriage ends in divorce. After reaching a peak divorce rate of 2.7 per 1,000 residents in 2001, the Australian rate declined to 2.3 per 1,000 in 2007. In Japan, divorces were on a generally upward trend from the 1960’s until 2002 when they hit a peak of 290,000. Since then, both the number of divorces and the divorce rate have declined for six years straight.

Marital Status in the United States Chart

This image depicts marital status in the U.S.

12.5.4: Factors Associated with Divorce

Factors that may lead marriages to end in divorce are infidelity, adultery domestic violence, midlife crises, inexperience, and addictions.

Learning Objective

Discuss five factors that may lead marriages to end in divorce

Key Points

• Adultery is voluntary sexual intercourse between a married person and someone other than the lawful spouse.
• Infidelity most commonly refers to a breach of the expectation of sexual exclusivity that is expressed or implied in intimate relationships in many cultures.
• Domestic violence is defined as a pattern of abusive behaviors by one partner against another in an intimate relationship such as marriage.
• A midlife crisis is a term that was coined by Elliott Jaques in 1965 that suggests it is a time when adults come to realize their own mortality and how much time is left in their lives, prompting a sudden change in behavior.
• Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages
• Problem gambling is an urge to continuously gamble despite harmful negative consequences or a desire to stop.

Key Terms

infidelity

Unfaithfulness in marriage or other moral obligation.

Midlife Crisis

A term coined by Elliott Jaques in 1965 that suggests it is a time when adults come to realize their own mortality and how much time is left in their lives, prompting a sudden change in behavior

domestic violence

Violence against another in an intimate relationship such as marriage or domestic partnership.

Numerous studies have tried to determine why 50 percent of marriages in the United States end in divorce within the first 25 years. While not conclusive, the predominate factors that lead marriages to end in divorce are infidelity, adultery domestic violence, midlife crises, inexperience, and addictions such as alcoholism and gambling.

Causes of Divorce

Adultery

Adultery is voluntary sexual intercourse between a married person and someone other than the lawful spouse. Historically, adultery has been considered a serious offense in many cultures. Even in jurisdictions where adultery is not a criminal offense itself, it may still have legal consequences, particularly in divorce cases.

Infidelity

More narrowly, infidelity most commonly refers to a breach of the expectation of sexual exclusivity that is expressed or implied in intimate relationships in many cultures.

Domestic Violence

Domestic violence is defined as a pattern of abusive behaviors by one partner against another in an intimate relationship such as marriage or domestic partnership.

Midlife Crisis

A midlife crisis is a term that was coined by Elliott Jaques in 1965 that suggests it is a time when adults come to realize their own mortality and how much time is left in their lives. A midlife crisis is experienced by many people during the midlife transition when they realize that life may be more than halfway over, prompting a sudden change in behavior.

Marrying Too Young

The age at which a person gets married is also believed to influence the likelihood of divorce. Delaying marriage until one is older or more experienced may provide more opportunity to choose a more compatible partner

Addictions

Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker’s health, personal relationships, and social standing. Problem gambling is an urge to continuously gamble despite harmful negative consequences or a desire to stop. Problem gambling often is defined by whether harm is experienced by the gambler or others, rather than by the gambler’s behavior.

Marriage and Divorce Rates in the U.S. 1990-2007

This graph illustrates marriage and divorce rates in the U.S. 1990-2007. Source: Statistical Abstract, 2009.

12.5.5: Children of Divorce and Impact of Divorce

Sociologists and psychologists have found that the effects of divorce heavily depend on the child’s age at the time the divorce occurs.

Learning Objective

Compare and contrast the effects of divorce on infants and adolescents

Key Points

• Although infants may not understand the exact conflict, they do react to the difference in their parents’ mood and energy change.
• Pre-school aged children often mistake the divorce as their own fault.
• School-aged children have more of a difficult time adjusting to the parental divorce than younger or older children.
• Teens experience some of the same feelings as school-aged children. They feel anger, fear, depression, loneliness, and guilt.
• Sociologists believe that the rise in the number of older Americans who are not married is a result of factors such as longevity and economics.
• Elder women are becoming more and more financially independent which allows them to feel more secure with being alone.

Key Term

longevity

The quality of being long-lasting, especially of life.

Example

• Children of divorced parents are reported to have a higher chance of behavioral problems than those of non-divorced parents. Studies have also reported the former are more likely to suffer abuse than children in intact families and have a greater chance of living in poverty.

Sociologists and psychologists have conducted research that shows the effects of divorce heavily depend on the child’s age at the time the divorce occurs. The child’s gender, personality, the amount of conflicts with the parents, and support of family and friends all contribute to the effects of divorce on a child.

Infants and Pre-School Children

Although infants may not understand the exact conflict, they do react to the difference in their parent’s mood and energy change. Some effects an infant may have include a loss of appetite and an increase in spit up. Pre-school children range from three to five years old and may often mistake the divorce as their own fault. Some of the effects for children at this age may include baby-like behavior such as old toys, a baby blanket, or even wetting the bed. They also may become depressed, uncooperative, or angry.

School-Aged Children and Adolescents

Children at this age have more of a difficult time adjusting to the parental divorce than younger or older children. At this age, children are able to understand the pain they feel due to the separation of their parents, but they are too young to control how they respond to the pain. Often children experience feelings of anger, grief, and embarrassment. In order to deal with the situation and cope, it is important that children become involved in activities with other kids. It is very common for children this age to hope that parents will eventually get back together.

Teens experience some of the same feelings as school-aged children. They feel anger, fear, depression, loneliness, and guilt. Some teens feel as though they must take on new responsibilities such as new chores and taking care of siblings. Teens may also doubt his or her ability to get married or stay married.

Children of divorced parents (those entirely from unhappy families) are reported to have a higher chance of behavioral problems than those of non-divorced parents (a mix of happy and unhappy families). Studies have also reported the former to be more likely to suffer abuse than children in intact families, and to have a greater chance of living in poverty. A 2002 article in Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review discusses a variety of health consequences for children of the unhappy couples that do divorce. Constance Ahron, who has published books suggesting there may be positive effects for children, interviewed ninety-eight divorced families’ children for We’re Still Family: What Grown Children Have to Say About Their Parents’ Divorce. Data from this study, in which she describes the binuclear family, is available at the Harvard Library and online.

Although divorce may be beneficial in some instances, high-conflict divorce (especially during transition periods) is harmful to children. Children who are shuffled back and forth between households, and those who hear their parents bickering and fighting, are likely to suffer the most. The best practice to avoid problems for children is to spend more or equal time with them while minimizing the amount of transitions for the children.

Divorced and Unmarried Elderly

Sociologists believe that the rise in the number of older Americans who are not married is a result of factors such as longevity and economics. Women, especially, are becoming more and more financially independent which allows them to feel more secure with being alone. In previous generations, being divorced or single was seen differently than it is now. This has resulted in less pressure for baby boomers to marry or stay married. Demographers estimate that baby boomers who remain unmarried will face more financial struggles than those who are married.

12.5.6: The Absent Father and Serial Fatherhood

Involved fathers contribute to their children’s development.

Learning Objective

Contrast the role of fathers in different cultures

Key Points

• According to the anthropologist Maurice Godelier, the parental role assumed by human males is a critical difference between human society and that of humans’ closest biological relatives—chimpanzees and bonobos—who appear to be unaware of their “father” connection.
• Stepfathers are males married to biological mothers of children whom they did not create.
• The father complex in psychology is a complex pertaining to a group of unconscious associations, or strong unconscious impulses, which specifically pertain to the image or archetype of the father. These impulses may be either positive or negative.

Key Terms

Father Complex

A complex pertaining to a group of unconscious associations, or strong unconscious impulses, which specifically pertain to the image or archetype of the father.

Maurice Godelier

An anthropologist who studies the differences in fatherhood between humans and apes.

A father is defined as a male parent or individual progenitor of human offspring. The adjective “paternal” refers to a father and comparatively to “maternal” for a mother. Traditionally, fathers act in a protective, supportive and responsible way toward their children. Involved fathers offer developmentally specific provisions to their sons and daughters throughout the life cycle, and are impacted themselves by doing so. According to the anthropologist Maurice Godelier, the parental role assumed by human males is a critical difference between human society and that of humans’ closest biological relatives—chimpanzees and bonobos—who appear to be unaware of their “father” connection.

In many cultures, especially traditional Western, a father is usually the husband in a married couple. Many times, fathers have a very important role in raising offspring, and the title can be given to a non-biological father that fills this role. This is common in stepfathers, or males married to biological mothers. In East Asian and Western traditional families, fathers are the heads of the families, which means that their duties include providing financial support and making critical decisions, some of which must be obeyed without question by the rest of the family members.

The Father complex in psychology is a complex pertaining to a group of unconscious associations, or strong unconscious impulses, which specifically pertain to the image or archetype of the father. These impulses may be either positive or negative. Whereas the idea of the father complex had originally evolved to deal with the heavy Victorian patriarch, by the new millennium there had developed instead a postmodern preoccupation with the loss of paternal authority, or the absence of the father. Alongside the shift from a Freudian emphasis on the role of the father to object relations theory’s stress upon the mother, psychoanalysis tended to single out the search for the father, and the negative effects of the switched-off father.

Father

Many fathers are married to the biological mothers of their children.

12.6: Family Violence

12.6.1: Family Violence

Family violence is defined as a pattern of abusive behaviors by one family member against another.

Learning Objective

Discuss the various types of domestic violence, such as physical or economic, as well as the effects on all people involved

Key Points

• Physical abuse is abuse involving contact intended to cause feelings of intimidation, pain, injury, or other physical suffering or bodily harm.
• Sexual abuse is any situation in which force or threat is used to obtain participation in unwanted sexual activity.
• Verbal abuse is a form of emotionally abusive behavior involving the use of language.
• Economic abuse is a form of abuse when one intimate partner has control over the other partner’s access to economic resources.

Key Terms

Verbal Abuse

A form of emotionally abusive behavior involving the use of language.

Economic Abuse

When one intimate partner has control over the other partner’s access to economic resources.

domestic violence

Violence against another in an intimate relationship such as marriage or domestic partnership.

Examples

• Coercing a person to engage in sexual activity against his or her will, even if that person is a spouse or intimate partner with whom consensual sex has occurred, is an act of aggression and violence.
• Coercing a person to engage in sexual activity against their will, even if that person is a spouse or intimate partner with whom consensual sex has occurred, is an act of aggression and violence.
• 3.3 million children witness domestic violence each year in the US.

Domestic violence is defined as a pattern of abusive behaviors by one partner against another in an intimate relationship such as marriage, dating, family, or cohabitation. In this definition, domestic violence takes many forms, including physical aggression or assault, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, controlling or domineering behaviour, intimidation, stalking, passive/covert abuse, and economic deprivation. Alcohol consumption and mental illness can be co-morbid with abuse, presenting additional challenges in eliminating domestic violence. In general, awareness, perception, definition, and documentation of domestic violence differ widely from country to country, and from era to era.

Forms of Domestic Violence

All forms of domestic abuse have one purpose: to gain and maintain control over the victim. Abusers use many tactics to exert power over their spouse or partner: dominance, humiliation, isolation, threats, intimidation, denial, and blame. Physical abuse is abuse involving contact intended to cause feelings of intimidation, pain, injury, or other physical suffering or bodily harm. Physical abuse includes hitting, slapping, punching, choking, pushing, burning, and other types of contact that result in physical injury to the victim. Physical abuse can also include behaviors such as denying the victim of medical care when needed, depriving the victim of sleep or other functions necessary to live, or forcing the victim to engage in drug/alcohol use against his/her will. Sexual abuse is any situation in which force or threat is used to obtain participation in unwanted sexual activity. Coercing a person to engage in sexual activity against his or her will, even if that person is a spouse or intimate partner with whom consensual sex has occurred, is an act of aggression and violence.

Emotional abuse can include humiliating the victim privately or publicly, controlling what the victim can and cannot do, withholding information from the victim, deliberately doing something to make the victim feel diminished or embarrassed, isolating the victim from friends and family, implicitly blackmailing the victim by harming others when the victim expresses independence or happiness, or denying the victim access to money or other basic resources and necessities. Degradation in any form can be considered psychological abuse.

Verbal abuse is a form of emotionally abusive behavior involving the use of language. Verbal abuse can also be referred to as the act of threatening. Through threatening a person can blatantly say they will harm you in any way and will also be considered as abuse.

Economic abuse is a form of abuse when one intimate partner has control over the other partner’s access to economic resources. Economic abuse may involve preventing a spouse from resource acquisition, limiting the amount of resources to use by the victim, or by exploiting economic resources of the victim.

Effects of Domestic Abuse

3.3 million children witness domestic violence each year in the US. There has been an increase in acknowledgment that children exposed to domestic abuse during their upbringing will suffer in their developmental and psychological welfare. Because of the awareness of domestic violence that some children have to face, it also generally impacts how the child develops emotionally, socially, behaviorally as well as cognitively. Some emotional and behavioral problems that can result due to domestic violence include increased aggressiveness, anxiety, and changes in how a child socializes with friends, family, and authorities. Bruises, broken bones, head injuries, lacerations, and internal bleeding are some of the acute effects of a domestic violence incident that require medical attention and hospitalization.

High amounts of stress, fear, and anxiety are commonly reported by victims still living with their perpetrators. These are known as the psychological effects of domestic violence. Depression is also common, as victims are made to feel guilty for ‘provoking’ the abuse and are frequently subjected to intense criticism. A reported 60 percent of victims meet the diagnostic criteria for depression, either during or after termination of the relationship, and have a greatly increased risk of suicide. Once victims leave their perpetrator, they can be stunned with the reality of the extent to which the abuse has taken away their autonomy. Due to economic abuse and isolation, victims usually have very little money of their own and few people on whom they can rely when seeking help. These are the financial effects of domestic violence. This has been shown to be one of the greatest obstacles facing victims of DV, discouraging them from leaving their abusers.

Family Violence

Kalighat Painting, “Woman Striking Man With Broom,” Calcutta, India, 1875.

12.6.2: Child Abuse

Child abuse is the physical, sexual or emotional mistreatment, or neglect of a child.

Learning Objective

Analyze the differences between and prevalence of each type of abuse against children

Key Points

• Physical abuse involves physical aggression directed at a child by an adult.
• Child sexual abuse is a form of child abuse in which an adult or older adolescent abuses a child for sexual stimulation.
• Neglect is a passive form of abuse in which a perpetrator is responsible to provide care for a victim who is unable to care for himself or herself, but fails to provide adequate care.
• Emotional abuse includes things such as name-calling, ridicule, degradation, destruction of personal belongings, torture or killing of a pet, etc.

Key Terms

Child Sexual Abuse

A form of child abuse in which an adult or older adolescent abuses a child for sexual stimulation.

child abuse

The physical, sexual, or emotional mistreatment of a child.

Examples

• In the U.S., neglect is defined as the failure to meet the basic needs of children: housing, clothing, food, and access to medical care. Researchers found over 91,000 cases of neglect in one year using information from a database of cases verified by protective services agencies.
• Approximately 15% to 25% of women and 5% to 15% of men were sexually abused when they were children.

Child abuse is the physical, sexual, or emotional mistreatment or neglect of a child or children. Different jurisdictions have developed their own definitions of what constitutes child abuse for the purposes of removing a child from his/her family and/or prosecuting a criminal charge. There are four major categories of child abuse: neglect, physical abuse, psychological/emotional abuse, and sexual abuse. Neglect is the most common type of abuse in the United States and accounts for over 60 percent of child abuse cases.

Physical Abuse

Physical abuse involves physical aggression directed at a child by an adult. Most nations with child-abuse laws consider the deliberate infliction of serious injuries, or actions that place the child at obvious risk of serious injury or death, to be illegal. Beyond this, there is considerable variation. The distinction between child discipline and abuse is often poorly defined. Cultural norms about what constitutes abuse vary widely among professionals as well as the wider public. Some professionals claim that cultural norms that sanction physical punishment are one of the causes of child abuse, and have undertaken campaigns to redefine such norms.

Sexual Abuse

Child sexual abuse is a form of child abuse in which an adult or older adolescent abuses a child for sexual stimulation. Effects of child sexual abuse include guilt and self-blame, flashbacks, nightmares, insomnia, and fear of things associated with the abuse. Approximately 15 percent to 25 percent of women and 5 percent to 15 percent of men were sexually abused when they were children.

Emotional Abuse

Out of all the possible forms of abuse, emotional abuse is the hardest to define. It could include name-calling, ridicule, degradation, destruction of personal belongings, torture or killing of a pet, excessive criticism, inappropriate or excessive demands, withholding communication, and routine labeling or humiliation.

Neglect

Neglect is a passive form of abuse in which a perpetrator is responsible to provide care for a victim who is unable to care for himself or herself, but fails to provide adequate care. Neglect may include the failure to provide sufficient supervision, nourishment, or medical care, or the failure to fulfill other needs for which the victim is helpless to provide for himself or herself. The term is also applied when necessary care is withheld by those responsible for providing it from animals, plants, and even inanimate objects. Neglect can have many long-term side effects, such as physical injuries, low self-esteem, attention disorders, violent behavior, and even death. In the U.S., neglect is defined as the failure to meet the basic needs of children: housing, clothing, food, and access to medical care. Researchers found over 91,000 cases of neglect in one year using information from a database of cases verified by protective services agencies.

Child Abuse

Child abuse is the physical, sexual or emotional mistreatment, or neglect of a child.

12.6.3: Spousal Abuse

Spousal abuse can be defined as a pattern of abusive behaviors by one or both partners in an intimate relationship.

Learning Objective

Evaluate the gender differences in domestic violence against both men and women in heterosexual and homosexual relationships

Key Points

• Determining how many instances of domestic violence actually involve male victims is difficult. Male domestic violence victims may be reluctant to get help for a number of reasons, including feeling ashamed because their victimhood negates their masculinity.
• Gender roles and expectations play a role in abusive situations.
• Domestic violence also occurs in same-sex relationships.
• Domestic violence also occurs in same-sex relationships.

Key Terms

Violence against Women

Violence perpetrated against a female victim for reasons having to do with gender expectations.

Violence against Men

Violence perpetrated against a male victim for reasons having to do with gender expectations.

Example

• According to a report by the United States Department of Justice, a survey of 16,000 Americans showed 22.1 percent of women and 7.4 percent of men reported being physically assaulted by a current or former spouse, cohabiting partner, boyfriend, girlfriend, or date in their lifetime.

The relationship between gender and domestic violence is a controversial topic. Debate revolves around the rates at which each gender is subjected to domestic violence and whether abused men should be provided the same resources and shelters that exist for female victims. Some studies suggest that men are less likely to report being victims of domestic violence due to social stigmas. Other sources argue that the rate of domestic violence against men is often inflated due to the practice of including self-defense as a form of domestic violence.

A problem in conducting studies that seek to describe violence in terms of gender is the amount of silence, fear, and shame that results from abuse within families and relationships. Another problem is that abusive patterns can tend to seem normal to those who have lived in them for a length of time. Similarly, subtle forms of abuse can be transparent even as they set the stage for normalizing further abuse. Finally, inconsistent definition of what constitutes domestic violence makes definite conclusions difficult to reach when compiling research.

Violence Against Women

Although the exact rates are widely disputed, especially within the United States, there is a large body of cross-cultural evidence that women are subjected to domestic violence significantly more often than men. In addition, there is broad consensus that women are more often subjected to severe forms of abuse and are more likely to be injured by an abusive partner. According to a report by the United States Department of Justice, a survey of 16,000 Americans showed 22.1 percent of women and 7.4 percent of men reported being physically assaulted by a current or former spouse, cohabiting partner, boyfriend, girlfriend, or date in their lifetime.

Violence Against Men

Determining how many instances of domestic violence actually involve male victims is difficult. Male domestic violence victims may be reluctant to get help for a number of reasons. Another study has demonstrated a high degree of acceptance by women of aggression against men. Some researchers have found a relationship between the availability of domestic violence services, improved laws and enforcement regarding domestic violence, increased access to divorce, and higher earnings for women with declines in intimate partner homicide by women.

Gender roles and expectations play a role in abusive situations, and exploring these roles and expectations can be helpful in addressing abusive situations. Likewise, it can be helpful to explore factors such as race, class, religion, sexuality, and philosophy. However, studies investigating whether sexist attitudes are correlated with domestic violence have shown conflicting results

Same-Sex Relationships

Domestic violence also occurs in same-sex relationships. Gay and lesbian relationships have been identified as a risk factor for abuse in certain populations. In an effort to be more inclusive, many organizations have made an effort to use gender-neutral terms when referring to the act of perpetrating and victimhood.

Historically, little interest has been directed at domestic violence in same-sex relationships. As the gay rights movement has brought gay and lesbian issues into public attention, more research has been conducted on same-sex relationships. A 1999 analysis of 19 different studies of partner abuse concluded that “lesbians and gay men are just as likely to abuse their partners as heterosexual men,” although the study also noted the uncertain nature of much of the contemporary research.

Spousal Violence in Same-sex Relationships

Domestic violence also occurs in same-sex relationships.

Let’s Talk, Not Fight

Colin Henderson’s winning design were displayed on T-shirts and other items at the 2012 Domestic Violence Awareness Rally.

11.4: Women as a Minority

11.4.1: Women as a Minority

Learning Objective

Criticize the notion that sexism does not exist in the contemporary United States based on the text

Key Points

• Sexism is discrimination or prejudice based on sex. In a patriarchal society, sexism is discrimination against women specifically.
• Women’s rights encompasses the entitlements and freedoms for women and girls of all ages in many societies around the world.
• Although women have made great strides in gaining access to education and employment, to this day they continue to face significant hurdles that men generally do not confront.

Key Terms

patriarchal

relating to a system run by males, rather than females

women’s rights

Entitlements and freedoms claimed by women and girls of all ages in many societies in the pursuit of equality with men.

Women are not a statistical minority, as in most societies — they are roughly equal in number to men — but they do qualify as a minority group because they tend to have less power and fewer privileges than men. Underlying this unequal treatment of women is sexism, which is discrimination based on sex — in the context of a patriarchal society, discrimination against women in particular. Discrimination against women is evident in a number of different spheres of society, whether political, legal, economic, or familial. It must, however, be noted that the issue is rarely as simple as that of men versus women. Societies today are home to a variety of different classes, ethnicities, races, and nationalities, and some groups of women may enjoy a higher status and more power relative to select groups of men, depending on factors, such as what racial and ethnic groups they are associated with.

It should be noted that gender discrimination also ties in with race and class discrimination — a concept known as “intersectionality,” first named by feminist sociologist Kimberlé Crenshaw. For example, the intersectionality of race and gender has been shown to have a visible impact on the labor market. “Sociological research clearly shows that accounting for education, experience, and skill does not fully explain significant differences in labor market outcomes. ” The three main domains on which we see the impact of intersectionality are wages, discrimination, and domestic labor. Most studies have shown that people who fall into the bottom of the social hierarchy in terms of race or gender are more likely to receive lower wages, to be subjected to stereotypes and discriminated against, or be hired for exploitive domestic positions. Through the study of the labor market and intersectionality we gain a better understanding of economic inequalities and the implications of the multidimensional impact of race and gender on social status within society.

Sexism

Sexism can refer to three subtly different beliefs or attitudes:

• The belief that one sex is superior to the other
• The belief that men and women are very different and that this should be strongly reflected in society, language, the right to have sex, and the law
• It can also refer to simple hatred of men (misandry) or women (misogyny)

There a number of examples, both historical and contemporary, of women not being granted the same rights and access as men, both historically and in the present day. For instance, U.S. and English law, until the twentieth century, subscribed to the system of coverture, where “by marriage, the husband and wife are one person in law; that is the very being or legal existence of the woman is suspended during the marriage. ” Not until 1875 were women in the United States legally defined as persons (Minor v Happersett, 88 U.S. 162).

In the United States, women were treated as second-class citizens and not given the right to vote until 1920, when the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provided: “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. “

Although women have made great strides in gaining access to education and employment, to this day they continue to face significant hurdles that men generally do not confront. In economics, the term “glass ceiling” refers to institutional barriers that prevent minorities and women from advancing beyond a certain point in the corporate world, despite their qualifications and successes. The existence of a glass ceiling indicates that women, even today, do not enjoy the same opportunities as men.

Women’s Rights

Women’s rights are entitlements and freedoms claimed for women and girls of all ages in many societies. In some places, these rights are institutionalized or supported by law, local custom, and behavior, whereas in others, they may be ignored or suppressed. They differ from broader notions of human rights through claims of an inherent historical and traditional bias against the exercise of rights by women and girls in favor of men and boys.

Issues commonly associated with notions of women’s rights include, though are not limited to, the rights to: bodily integrity and autonomy; vote (suffrage); hold public office; work; fair wages or equal pay; own property; be educated; serve in the military or be conscripted; enter into legal contracts; and to have marital, parental, and religious rights.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted in 1948, advocates “the equal rights of men and women,” and addresses issues of equality. In 1979, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) for legal implementation of the Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. Described as an international bill of rights for women, it went into effect on September 3, 1981. The UN member states that have not ratified the convention are Iran, Nauru, Palau, Somalia, Sudan, Tonga, and the United States. Niue and the Vatican City, which are non-member states, also have not ratified it.

The Convention defines discrimination against women as follows:

Any distinction, exclusion or restriction made on the basis of sex which has the effect or purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment, or exercise by women, irrespective of their marital status, on a basis of equality of men and women, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural, civil, or any other field.

11.4.2: The Origins of Patriarchy

Learning Objective

Argue in favor of either a sociobiological or social constructionist explanation of patriarchy

Key Points

• There are both sociobiological and social constructionist explanations of patriarchy.
• Sociobiological explanations use human biology and genetics to explain male control, while social constructionist explanations say that individuals, male and female, actively construct gender roles.
• According to social constructionist theories, gender roles are created by individuals within a society who choose to imbue a particular structure with meaning.

Key Terms

gender roles

Sets of social and behavioral norms that are generally considered appropriate for either a man or a woman in a social or interpersonal relationship.

social constructionism

The idea that social institutions and knowledge are created by actors within the system, rather than having any inherent truth on their own.

patriarchy

The dominance of men in social or cultural systems.

The origins of patriarchy are closely related to the concept of gender roles, or the set of social and behavioral norms that are considered to be socially appropriate for individuals of a specific sex. Much work has been devoted to understanding why women are typically thought to inhabit a domestic role while men are expected to seek professional satisfaction outside of the home. This division of labor is frequently mapped onto a social hierarchy in which males’ freedom to venture outside of the home and presumed control over women is perceived as superior and dominant. As such, rather than working to destablize the historical notion of patriarchy, much literature assess the origins of patriarchy, or a social system in which the male gender role acts as the primary authority figure central to social organization, and where fathers hold authority over women, children, and property. It implies the institutions of male rule and privilege and entails female subordination.

Though less popular in modern academic circles, there has been a traditional search for biological explanations of gender roles. Before the nineteenth century, this conversation was primarily theological and deemed patriarchy to be the “natural order. ” This took on a biological trope with Charles Darwin’s ideas about evolution in The Origin of Species. In this work, Darwin explained evolution from the biological understanding that is now the accepted scientific theory. Biologists such as Alfred Russel Wallace quickly applied his theory to mankind. To be clear, though, the line of thought called Social Darwinism, or the application of evolutionary principles to the development of human beings and our social practices, was never promoted by Darwin himself. With the popularization of the idea of human evolution, what had previously been explained as a “natural order” for the world morphed into a “biological order. “

The modern term for using biological explanations to explain social phenomena is sociobiology. Sociobiologists use genetics to explain social life, including gender roles. According to the sociobiologists, patriarchy arises more as a result of inherent biology than social conditioning. One such contemporary sociobiologist is Steven Goldberg, who, until retirement, was a sociologist at the City College of New York. In 1973, Goldberg published The Inevitability of Patriarchy, which advanced a biological interpretation of male dominance. Goldberg argued that male dominance is a human universal as a result of our biological makeup. One evolutionary sociobiological theory for the origin of patriarchy begins with the view that females almost always invest more energy into producing offspring than males and, as a result, females are a resource over which males compete. This theory is called Bateman’s principle. One important female preference in selecting a mate is which males control more resources to assist her and her offspring. This, in turn, causes a selection pressure on men to be competitive and succeed in gaining resources in order to compete with other men.

These sociobiological theories of patriarchy are counterbalanced by social constructionist theories that emphasize how certain cultures manufacture and perpetuate gender roles. According to social constructionist theories, gender roles are created by individuals within a society who choose to imbue a particular structure with meaning. Gender roles are constantly toyed with and negotiated by actors subscribing to and questioning them. Since the feminist movement in the 1970s and the flood of women into the workforce, social constructionism has gained even greater traction.

A Family Portrait from the early 1900s

In a patriarchal family, the male acts as the primary authority figure.

11.5: Women in the Workplace

11.5.1: Women in the Workplace

While women are succeeding in a number of professions, they continue to face significant barriers to entry and participation.

Learning Objective

Illustrate two barriers to women’s equal participation in the workforce

Key Points

• A gender role comprises a set of social and behavioral norms that are attritibuted to men and women and that are expected to be adhered to in social settings and interpersonal relationships.
• Historically, the division of labor has been organized according to gender roles and, consequently, certain types of activity are considered more appropriate for men while others are allotted to women.
• Some significant barriers to participation in the workforce women face include network discrimination and access to education, training and capital.

Key Terms

Gender Role

A set of social and behavioral norms that are generally considered appropriate for either a man or a woman in a social or interpersonal relationship.

Network Discrimination

A form of discrimination in which groups hire individuals from their same group, or network, rather than reaching outside to new networks.

Historically, the division of labor has been organized along gender lines. Gender roles – a set of social and behavioral norms about what is considered appropriate for either a man or woman in a social or interpersonal relationship – have affected the specialization of work in both agricultural and industrial societies.

A number of factors over the past few decades have resulted in women entering and flourishing in a variety of different professions. Despite the enormous progress women around the world have made in pursuing careers, there remain significant obstacles women confront in the workplace. The glass ceiling and occupational sexism reflect the restrictions on women as they try to enter and rise in the ranks of the workforce . While occupational sexism and the glass ceiling will be explored in the section ‘Inequalities of work,” what follows is a discussion of barriers to equal participation in the work force, including access to education and training, access to capital, network discrimination and other factors.

Access to Education and Training

A number of occupations became “professionalized” through the 19^th and 20^th centuries, gaining regulatory bodies and requiring particular higher educational requirements. As women’s access to higher education was often limited, this effectively restricted women’s participation in these professionalizing occupations. For instance, women were completely forbidden access to Cambridge University until 1868, and were encumbered with a variety of restrictions until 1987 when the university adopted an equal opportunity policy. Numerous other institutions in the United States and Western Europe began opening their doors to women over the same period of time, but access to higher education remains a significant barrier to women’s full participation in the workforce. Even where access to higher education is formally available, women’s access to the full range of occupational choices can be limited.

Access to Capital

Women’s access to occupations requiring capital outlays is also hindered by their unequal access (statistically) to capital; this affects individuals who want to pursue careers as entrepreneurs, farm owners and investors. Numerous micro-loan programs attempt to redress this imbalance, targeting women for loans or grants to establish start-up businesses or farms. For example, while research has shown that women cultivate more than half the world’s food, most of the work is family subsistence labor, with family property often legally owned by men in the family.

Network Discrimination

Part of the problem keeping women out of the highest paying, most prestigious positions is that they have historically not held these positions. As a result, recruiters for high-status jobs are predominantly white males, and tend to hire similar people in their networks. Their networks are made up of mostly white males from the same socio-economic status, which helps perpetuate their over-representation in the best jobs.

Other Social and Structural Factors

Through a process known as “employee clustering,” employees tend to be grouped both spatially and socially with those of a similar status job. Women are no exception and tend to be grouped with other women making comparable amounts of money. They compare wages with women around them and believe their salaries are fair because they are average. Some women may be unaware of just how vast the inequality is.

Furthermore, women tend to be less assertive and confrontational than men. Some have suggested that one of the factors contributing to the higher proportion of raises going to men is the simple fact that men tend to ask for raises more often than women, and are more aggressive when doing so. Women and me are socialized at young ages into these roles. School-age boys and girls have been noted as enacting the same aggressive and passive characteristics in educational settings that we see in adults in the workplace.

An additional issue that contributes to income inequality by gender is that women are much more likely than men to take “breaks” in their careers to have children (due to personal choice or as a result of circumstances). When a woman in this scenario re-enters the workforce, she may be offered a smaller salary or a lower position that she might have merited had she remained in the workforce.

Working Women

The Women into Building Housing Showcase is an Australian project designed to promote women in the construction business. The Building Housing Showcase site was constructed by an all-female team.

11.5.2: Inequalities of Work

Women are frequently treated unequally at work, often through sexual harassment and/or wage discrimination.

Learning Objective

Describe two typical manifestations of occupational sexism

Key Points

• Occupational sexism includes any discriminatory practices or statements based on a person’s sex.
• One typical manifestation of occupational sexism is sexual harassment–-the intimidation, bullying, teasing, or coercion of a sexual nature or the unwelcome or inappropriate promise of rewards in exchange for sexual favors.
• Wage discrimination, also known as the gender pay gap, is a phenomenon in which women are consistently paid less for performing the same tasks as men.
• The glass ceiling is an institutional barrier that prevents both women and minorities from advancing beyond a certain point in the workplace.

Key Terms

pink-collar worker

A worker who performs work in the service sector that is considered to be stereotypically female.

glass ceiling

An unwritten, uncodified barrier to further promotion or progression for a member of a specific demographic group.

gender pay gap

The gap in wages between women and men, even when women perform the same tasks as men.

Despite flooding the workplace since the 1970s and 1980s, women still face many institutional challenges to equality in the workplace. The most obvious and publicly condemned example of inequality in the workplace is the prevalence of occupational sexism, or any discriminatory practice, statement, or action based on a person’s sex that occur in a place of employment. One typical manifestation of occupational sexism is sexual harassment–-the intimidation, bullying, teasing, or coercion of a sexual nature, or the unwelcome or inappropriate promise of rewards in exchange for sexual favors. Sexual harassment may be a particular offer extended to an individual (i.e., a promotion in return for sexual rewards) or the general atmosphere created within a workplace. If a workplace engenders an environment that is hostile to women, that workplace is in violation of employment law that bans sexual harassment. However, sexual harassment is not synonymous with workplace inequality. Legally, sexual harassment can be directed by one person of either gender towards another person of either gender. However, inequalities in the workplace typically refer to institutional barriers placed in the way of professional success for women.

Beyond sexual harassment, the most obvious instance of inequality in the workplace is wage discrimination. Frequently referred to as the gender pay gap, this phenomenon observes that women are consistently paid less for performing the same tasks as men. While the exact figure varies in response to a variety of factors, there is little debate that women earn less than men. Women are estimated to earn 76% of what men earn for the same work. In other words, women make 76 cents for every dollar men earn for performing the same task. Part of the pay gap can be attributed to the fact that, more often than men, women tend to engage in part-type work or work in lower-paid industries. This explanation of the pay gap invokes the notion of the pink-collar worker. A “pink-collar worker” is a term for designating the types of jobs in the service industry that are considered to be stereotypically female, such as working as a waitress, nurse, teacher, or secretary. The term attempts to distinguish this type of work from blue-collar and white-collar work. However, not even this acknowledgement explains the entirety of the wage gap, for even women working full time in higher-paid industries earn less than their male colleagues.

Earning Disparities between Men and Women

The above graph shows the average earnings of workers by education and sex.

The larger schema into which the gender pay gap fits is the notion of a “glass ceiling” for women in the workplace. The term refers to institutional barriers for which there is little hope for legal redress and, thus, appear to be as invisible as glass but that nevertheless limit the rise of women in the workplace. Certainly, the pay gap and other economic issues play into the notion of a glass ceiling, but the term also refers to more general power dynamics. During the 2008 American presidential election, Senator Hillary Clinton’s campaign was considered to contribute to helping shatter the glass ceiling for women in the United States.

11.5.3: Family and Gender Issues

Social expectations that women manage childcare contribute to the gender pay gap and other limitations in professional life for women.

Learning Objective

Recall at least three reasons why there might be a gender pay gap

Key Points

• Because women are expected to handle childcare, they choose jobs with greater flexibility and lower pay.
• The gender pay gap has been attributed to differences in personal and workplace characteristics between women and men (education, hours worked, occupation etc.), as well as direct and indirect discrimination in the labor market (gender stereotypes, customer and employer bias etc.).
• Health care for children and flexible scheduling that can help women with the childcare for which they are still overwhelmingly responsible, may take priority over pay.

Key Term

gender pay gap

The gap in wages between women and men, even when women perform the same tasks as men.

In the United States, there is an observable gender pay gap, such that women are compensated at lower rates for equal work as men. The gender pay gap is measured as the ratio of female to male median yearly earnings among full-time, year-round (FTYR) workers. The female-to-male earnings ratio was 0.77 in 2009, meaning that, in 2009, female FTYR workers earned 77% as much as male FTYR workers. Women’s median yearly earnings relative to men’s rose rapidly from 1980 to 1990 (from 60.2% to 71.6%), and less rapidly from 1990 to 2000 (from 71.6% to 73.7%) and from 2000 to 2009 (from 73.7% to 77.0%).

This discrepancy is frequently attributed to women’s desire to have a family life. Inequalities in professional success are sometimes attributed to women taking maternity leave after having children. Further, women are accused of intentionally seeking out jobs with fewer hours and lower pay in order to be more flexible for their children. Economists who have investigated the gender pay gap have also noted that women are more likely to choose jobs based on factors other than pay. The gender pay gap has also been attributed to differences in personal and workplace characteristics between women and men (education, hours worked, occupation etc.) as well as direct and indirect discrimination in the labor market (gender stereotypes, customer and employer bias etc.).

Health care for children and a flexible schedule that enables women to take care of their children for which they are still overwhelmingly responsible, may take priority over pay. Moreover, many women are disinclined to take jobs that that require travel or are hazardous. On average, women take more time off and work fewer hours, often due to the unequal distribution of childcare and domestic labor. Family obligations tend to pull down on women’s earnings as they proceed through the life course and have more children. The earnings gap tends to widen considerably when men and women are in their early to mid-thirties, or when people start to have children, and reaches its widest point when men and women are in their fifties. The demands of women having to manage work and family lives have become an obsession of American popular culture.

Mother and Ssons from the Akha Hill Tribe

Traditionally, women are expected to stay at home and take care of the children, while men earn wages to financially support their families.

11.5.4: Education and Unequal Treatment in the Classroom

Women have historically been disadvantaged in education, and learning has often been segregated along gender lines.

Learning Objective

Discuss the role of women in the classroom, both in the past and in the present

Key Points

• Disparities in education have shifted in response to various historical factors, and women are now earning more graduate degrees than men.
• Women’s colleges were established in order to educate women, and many of these colleges later merged with male universities.
• Since the early 1990s, more women have been enrolled in college than men.

Key Terms

coeducational (coed)

A college that has both male and female students.

Seven Sisters colleges

A group of the most famous women’s colleges in the United States, including Mount Holyoke, Vassar, Wellesley, Smith, Radcliffe, Bryn Mawr, and Barnard Colleges.

coordinate colleges

Women’s colleges paired with men’s colleges, creating a link between the two schools, but keeping education gender segregated.

Higher education has historically been regarded as a male domain. In early American history, women were sent to tutors and then to female seminaries, though training largely emphasized ladylike accomplishments, such as piano-playing, needlepoint, and literature, over serious academic education. Even as women’s education became more robust, it was considered to be distinct from men’s education. By the mid-1800s, several women’s colleges had been established, and many were coupled with men’s universities as coordinate colleges. In the 1970s and 1980s, some of these coordinate colleges were absorbed into the larger university to create coeducational (coed) universities with both men and women. The most famous women’s colleges in the United States were known as the Seven Sisters colleges and included Mount Holyoke College, Vassar College, Wellesley College, Smith College, Radcliffe College, Bryn Mawr College, and Barnard College. Today, five still operate as women’s-only colleges, Radcliffe no longer accepts students, and Vassar is coeducational.

Despite the integration of men and women in university classrooms, women continue to face gender-based disparities and biases. To this day, math and science are often thought to be , “male” fields, while subjects in the humanities are considered to be the more natural province of women. Of course, particular subjects are not inherently “male” or “female. ” However, gender norms are often informally inculcated at an early age, when elementary school teachers may encourage boys to pursue math and science and not do the same for girls. Further, boys generally receive more positive and negative attention in the classroom than do girls; as a result, the school environment can unintentionally become male-centered.

All of this, however, is changing. As has long been acknowledged, females now earn higher grades than males, and since the early 1990s, more women than men have been enrolled in college. Recently, women have also begun to outnumber men in graduate schools.

Women in Science

A group of girls and boys working on a science project together at Cheltenham Elementary School, Cheltenham, PA, USA

11.5.5: Gender Inequality in Politics

Women have had to fight for equal treatment in politics in the United States by winning the right to vote and a seat at the political table.

Learning Objective

Infer, from the historical struggle for womens’ equal treatment in politics, why gender stereotypes and barriers to equal political participation still exist in the United States

Key Points

• The Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution gave women the right to vote.
• Gender stereotypes about female politicians and voters still exist.
• Since gaining the right to vote in 1920, women have worked in many levels of government in the United States. In 1981, President Ronald Reagan named Sandra Day O’Connor as the first female Supreme Court justice. Currently, three of the nine sitting justices are women.
• Despite the increasing presence of women in American politics, gender stereotypes still exist. Data from the 2006 American National Election Studies Pilot Study showed that voters of both sexes, regardless of their political persuasions, expected men to perform better as politicians than women.
• Because gender is considered to be a master status, “women” are considered to be a political demographic. In other words, “women” are supposed to have certain political priorities (usually those having to do with children and education) that unite all women as a voting bloc.

Key Terms

master status

A social status that is the primary, socially-identifying characteristic of an individual, such as being the queen.

women’s suffrage

The right of women to vote.

voting bloc

A group of voters that are strongly motivated by a specific common concern or group of concerns to the point that such specific concerns tend to dominate their voting patterns, causing them vote together in elections.

Example

• Examples of powerful female political figures are in evidence throughout the world. Angela Merkel is the first female Chancellor of Germany and Chairwoman of Christian Democratic Union. In South Asia, Benzir Bhutto, a democratic socialist, served as the Prime Minister of Pakistan from 1988-1990 and then again from 1993-1996. Dilma Vana Rousseff is the 36th President of Brazil.

Political Gender Inequality

Even in democratic societies in which gender equality is legally mandated, gender discrimination occurs in politics, both in regards to presumptions about political allegiances that fall along gender lines, and disparate gender representation within representative democracies. Historically, this was even more true when women were neither considered full citizens, nor could not vote.

This section will trace the historical development of women achieving the right to vote and will then consider recent developments as women have achieved political power as representatives, in addition to being members of the voting public. Finally, we will consider assumptions made about women’s political leanings on the basis of gender.

Voting Rights for Women

Before 1920, women did not have a national right to vote in the United States. Women’s suffrage, the movement to achieve the female vote, was won gradually at state and local levels during the end of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified, which provided:

“The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.”

To appreciate the passing of the Nineteenth Amendment, one must look back to the mid-nineteenth century. The Seneca Falls Convention in 1848 was a single step in a broad and continuous effort by women to gain a greater proportion of social, civil, and moral rights for themselves; but was viewed by many as a revolutionary beginning to the struggle for women’s equality.

Women’s suffrage took a back seat to the Civil War and Reconstruction, but America’s entry into World War I re-initiated a vigorous push. When President Woodrow Wilson announced that America needed to enter the European battlefield in order to protect democracy, women were up in arms. The National Women’s Party became the first cause to picket outside of the White House, with banners comparing President Wilson to his German adversary, Kaiser Wilhelm. The Nineteenth Amendment was passed the year following the Treaty of Paris, which ended World War I.

Women in Recent Politics

Since gaining the fundamental right to vote in 1920, women have worked in many levels of government in the United States. In 1981, President Ronald Reagan named Sandra Day O’Connor as the first female Supreme Court justice. She was later joined by Ruth Bader Ginsburg and has been succeeded by Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. Currently, three of the nine sitting justices are women. In 1996, President Bill Clinton appointed Madeline Albright to be the first female Secretary of State, a post later given to Condoleezza Rice by President George W. Bush in 2005. Hillary Clinton is the current Secretary of State.

Women in politics took center stage in the 2008 election. In the primary season, New York Senator Hillary Clinton ran against future President Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination. Although Clinton was the twenty-fifth woman to run for U.S. President, she was the first female candidate to have a significant chance of winning the nomination of a major party and the general election.

As such, remarks about her gender and appearance came to the fore. Commentators noted that because she was a woman, Clinton had a sexual power that would make her too intimidating to win the national election. Comments about Clinton’s body, cleavage, choice of pantsuit, and speculation about cosmetic surgery popped up over airwaves. Many wondered if the same fixation on a candidate’s body and style would happen to a male candidate. Commentary about the role of gender in the 2008 presidential election further snowballed when Republican presidential nominee John McCain chose female Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his vice-presidential running mate.

Gender Stereotyping

Despite the increasing presence of women in American politics, gender stereotypes still exist. Data from the 2006 American National Election Studies Pilot Study confirmed that both male and female voters, regardless of their political persuasions, expected men to perform better as politicians than women. The only deviation in this data had to do with competency in areas such as education that are typically perceived as women’s domains and voters therefore trusted women politicians more.

Because gender is considered to be a master status, or a primary trait around which individuals identify, “women” are considered to be a political demographic. In other words, “women” are supposed to have certain political priorities (usually those having to do with children and education) that unite all women as a voting bloc, or a group of individuals who tend to vote in the same way.

For this reason, political strategists see the “female vote” as one to be won. As such, one will see organizations uniting the female demographic and political priorities, such as “Women for Obama” or “Women for Romney. “

Lucretia Coffin Mott

Mott, along with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, organized the Seneca Falls Convention in 1948, effectively launching the women’s civil rights movement in the United States.

11.5.6: Job Discrimination

Despite legal protections, job discrimination against women still exists in the workplace.

Learning Objective

List the forms of discrimination that women may face on the job

Key Points

• Some women are subjected to sexual harassment and a gender pay gap.
• Stereotypes about the type of work that women can do are commonplace.
• Pink-collar work is a term designating the types of jobs in the service industry that are considered to be stereotypically female, such as working as a waitress, nurse, teacher or secretary.

Key Terms

sexual harassment

intimidation, bullying, teasing, or coercion of a sexual nature, or the unwelcome or inappropriate promise of rewards in exchange for sexual favors.

pink-collar worker

A worker who performs work in the service sector that is considered to be stereotypically female.

wage discrimination

When women earn less than men for performing the same tasks.

Even though there are regulations that are used to promote equality within the workplace, occupational sexism, or any discriminatory practice, statement, or action based on a person’s sex that occurs in a place of employment, is still rampant. The most archetypical manifestation of occupational sexism is sexual harassment, or the intimidation, bullying, teasing, or coercion of a sexual nature, or the unwelcome or inappropriate promise of rewards in exchange for sexual favors. Sexual harassment may be a particular offer extended to an individual (i.e., a promotion in return for sexual rewards) or the generally atmosphere created within a workplace. If a workplace engenders an environment that is hostile to women, that workplace is in violation of the employment law that bans sexual harassment. However, sexual harassment is not synonymous with workplace inequality. Legally, sexual harassment can be directed by one person of either gender towards another person of either gender. Thus, sexual harassment is broader than the simple creation of a professional environment that is not welcoming to women. Women can perpetrate sexual harassment; men can be victims of sexual harassment. However, inequalities in the workplace typically refer to institutional barriers placed in the way of professional success for women.

Beyond sexual harassment, the most obvious instance of inequality in the workplace is wage discrimination. Frequently referred to as the gender pay gap, this phenomenon observes that women are consistently paid less for performing the same tasks as men. Women are estimated to earn 76% of what men earn for the same work. In other words, women make 76 cents for every dollar men earn for performing the same task.

Part of the pay gap can be attributed to the fact that, more often than men, women tend to engage in part-time work or work in lower paid industries. This explanation of the pay gap invokes the notion of the pink-collar worker. A pink-collar worker is a term for designating the types of jobs in the service industry that are considered to be stereotypically female, such as working as a waitress, nurse, teacher or secretary. The term attempts to distinguish this type of work from blue-collar and white-collar work. However, not even this acknowledgement explains the entirety of the wage gap, for even women working full-time in higher paid industries earn less than their male colleagues.

Restoring the Right to Equal Pay between Men and Women

President Obama signs the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 into law.

11.5.7: Gender Inequality in Health Care

Gender discrimination in health care manifests itself primarily as the difference that men and women pay for their insurance premium.

Learning Objective

Identify three ways in which gender inequality in health care manifests itself in the United States

Key Points

• Gender inequality in health care presents itself as women have to pay higher insurance premiums than men.
• Another form of gender inequality in health care is the different rates at which men and women are insured; more women than men are insured in the United States.
• Gender inequalities in health care also revolve around different medicines are covered by insurance companies. For example, the contraceptive mandate demonstrates gender inequities in the different medicine that insurance companies are willing to cover for male and female patients.
• Gender inequality in health care might be reduced under President Obama’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which outlaws gender discrimination in health care. It would require insurance companies to charge men and women the same rate for health insurance.

Key Terms

contraceptive mandate

A government requirement that health plans—including those offered by religious institutions—offer contraception to policy holders.

insurance premium

The amount charged to a policy holder for a certain amount of insurance coverage.

Assessing gender equity in the health care systems, particularly in the United States, depends heavily upon what factors one considers best to analyze equality.

The Insured

More women than men are insured in the United States. In one study of a population group in a low-income urban community, 86 percent of women reported having access to health insurance through publicly assisted or private options, while only 74 percent of men reported having any health insurance at all. Trends in which women report higher rates of health insurance coverage is not unique to urban, low-income, American populations.

Studies that address percentages of each gender covered by insurance only speak to one measure of inequality in health care.

Insurance Premiums

Gender discrimination in health care manifests primarily as the amount of money one pays for insurance premiums—the amount paid per month in order to be covered by insurance. Women statistically pay far higher premiums than men. This is largely due to regulations of private insurance companies. Fewer than ten state governments prohibit gender discrimination in insurance premiums. For the rest of the union, insurance companies consistently charge their female policy owners more than their male counterparts.

Gender discrimination in health care could be changing in the United States. Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (informally called “Obamacare”), passed under President Barack Obama in 2010, insurance companies would be prohibited from charging men and women differently. To rationalize gendered rates, insurance companies claim that women use more medical services than men because of pregnancy visits.

Women’s Health

The Obama administration faced another controversy over gender equity in healthcare in 2012 with the administration’s contraceptive mandate. In January of 2012, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, announced that all health care plans were required to provide coverage for contraceptives approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The effective meaning of Secretary Sebelius’ announcement was that contraceptives are considered by the Obama administration to be a requisite component of health care.

The premise of the contraceptive mandate demonstrates present inequities in the American health care industry for male and female patients. Whereas services for male reproductive health, such as Viagra, are considered to be a standard part of health care, women’s reproductive health services are called into question. In the context of the 2012 contraceptive mandate debate, health care professionals’ assessments that contraception is an integral component for women’s health care, regardless of sexual activity, went largely unaddressed. Instead, insurance coverage of contraception was framed as a government subsidy for sexual activity.This framing revealed inherent social inequalities for women in the domain of sexual health.

Obama Responds to the Passing of the Health Care Bill

President Barack Obama, along with Vice President Joe Biden and senior staff, respond in the Roosevelt Room of the White House as the House passes the health care reform bill. This bill is seen as a vital step in combating gender inequalities in the health care system.

11.6: Gender-Based Violence

11.6.1: Rape

The definition of rape and its effects on victims have evolved historically alongside ideas about gender and sexuality.

Learning Objective

Describe the influence of the feminist movement on public attitudes toward rape and the notion of consent

Key Points

• Rape has serious psychological and physical consequences for the victim.
• The definitions of rape and consent are culturally and historically contingent upon the particular sexual mores of a time. Recently, the definition or rape has been expanded to include any gender, and now contains stricter definitions of consent.
• Victim blaming and self-blame are rooted in public beliefs that a victim is at least partially responsible for rape. Rape shield laws prohibit legal testimony regarding a victim’s sexual behavior, in order to prevent victims from being placed on trial along with defendants.
• International law defines rape as a crime against humanity and a potentially genocidal act.
• Rape shield laws prohibit legal testimony regarding a victim’s sexual behavior in order to prevent the victim from being placed on trial along with the defendant.

Key Terms

date rape

non-consensual sexual activity between a victim and perpetrator that know one another

victim blaming

when the victim of a crime, an accident, or any type of abusive maltreatment is held entirely or partially responsible for the transgressions committed against him or her (regardless of whether the victim actually had any responsibility for the incident)

self-blame

when one holds oneself responsible for a negative experience

Example

• Definitions of rape and consent have evolved over time. Historically, in Europe, it was commonplace for young girls to be married to older men. Girls as young as six could be married without their consent. Today, statutory rape laws prohibit sexual contact between children and adults. Most states set of the age of consent at 18 and maintain that younger children are incapable of freely giving their consent.

Rape is a type of sexual assault in which one or more individuals forces sexual contact on another individual without consent. Rape can cause devastating physical and psychological trauma. In the aftermath of an attack, many victims develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a severe anxiety disorder. Rape victims may also confront a number of emotions related to shame. Often, victims blame themselves for rape. Some victims come to believe they somehow deserved the assault, while others become preoccupied thinking about how the rape could have been avoided.

Although self-blame might seem like an unusual, intensely individual response to rape, it is rooted in social conceptions of rape and victimhood. In the case of rape, victim blaming generally refers to the belief that certain behaviors on the part of the victim, like flirting or wearing provocative clothing, encourage assault. Legal systems may perpetuate victim blaming. For example, in the United States, defendants are guaranteed an opportunity to explain their actions and motivations, which may allow them to instigate conversations about their victims’ sexual past or physical presentation. Lawyers and activists are aware of the negative consequences of this type of conversation in courtrooms, and many have encouraged state legislators to enact rape shield laws, which would prohibit testimony about a victim’s sexual behavior. Nevertheless, victims are often reluctant to report rape because of these social pressures.

Consent

The definition of rape rests on the notion of consent, which has changed over the course of history as sexual mores and understandings of gender have changed. For example, in medieval Europe, a woman could be legally married by her parents to a stranger without her consent and, once married, she could no longer refuse to consent to sex. The medieval concept of rape did not allow for the possibility of being raped by one’s husband. It was only in middle of the 16^th century that European courts began to recognize a minimum age of consent, though this figure was typically set around six or seven years. In modern legal understanding, consent may be explicit or implied by context, but the absence of objection never itself constitutes consent, and consent can be withdrawn at any time. Consent cannot be forced and it cannot be given by certain categories of people considered incapable of consent (e.g., minors and the cognitively disabled).

Rape and Gender

Rape is often thought of as a crime committed by a man against a woman, but increasingly, social and legal definitions of rape recognize that this does not have to be the case. In 2012, the Federal Bureau of Investigation updated its definition of rape, which had originally been instituted in 1972, and which previously limited rape to a crime against women. This definition, considered outdated and overly narrow, was replaced by a new definition, which recognizes that rape can be perpetrated by a person of any gender against a victim of any gender. The new definition also broadens the instances in which a victim is unable to give consent. These instances now include temporary or permanent mental or physical incapacity, and incapacity caused by the use of drugs or alcohol.

The FBI’s new definition continues a trend that gained traction with the feminist movement of the 1970s, when rape was publicly characterized as a crime of power and control rather than a sexual act. Leaders of the feminist movement started some of the first rape crisis centers, which not only provided basic services to victims, but also advanced the idea of rape as a criminal act with a victim who was not to be blamed. Feminist leaders also encouraged the codification of marital rape, or forced sexual contact between spouses. Currently, the struggle continues with efforts to bring attention to date rape, which is embedded in the gendered expectation that women engage in sexual activity following a date with a man. Conversations about date rape work to undo this social expectation and to reinforce the idea that consensual sex requires the explicit permission of both partners.

International Law

International law is changing to recognize rape as a weapon of war. The Rome Statute included rape in its definition of a crime against humanity, a definition first put into practice in the mid-1990s by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. This judicial body recognized that Serbian soldiers and policemen had systematically raped Muslim women during the Balkan War. In 1998, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda found that systematic rape was a crime against humanity. It also ruled that rape was an aspect of genocide, because of the use of rape to impregnate women in order to weaken or eliminate a particular gene pool.

“Rape is a Real Crime, give Simmons Jail Time! “

Women at NOW-NYC’s Take Rape Seriously Rally protest against the inadequate sentence of Tony Simmons, a confessed rapist of three teenage girls.

11.6.2: Sexual Violence

Sexual violence is any sexual act or sexual advance directed at one individual without their consent.

Learning Objective

Explain why sexual violence is difficult to track

Key Points

• An act is deemed sexually violent if the individual to whom the attention is directed does not consent to the sexual activity, if they are members of a class of persons who cannot consent (the severely cognitively impaired, etc.), or if consent is due to coercion or duress.
• Sexual violence has a profound impact on physical and mental health.
• Sexual violence is particularly difficult to track because it is severely under reported.

Key Terms

sexual assault

A physical attack of a sexual nature on another person or a sexual act committed without explicit consent.

coercion

Actual or threatened force for the purpose of compelling action by another person; the act of coercing.

sexual violence

Any sexual act, attempt to obtain a sexual act, unwanted sexual comments or advances, or acts to traffic, or otherwise directed, against a person’s sexuality using coercion, by any person regardless of their relationship to the victim, in any setting, including but not limited to home and work.

Sexual violence is any sexual act or sexual advance directed at one individual without their consent. The most commonly discussed form of sexual violence is rape. Rape is a form of sexual assault involving one or more persons who force sexual penetration with another individual without that individual’s consent. Sexual violence is not limited to rape; it is a broad category that can include everything from verbal harassment to physical assault.

Forms of sexual violence include: rape by strangers, marital rape, date rape, war rape, unwanted sexual harassment, demanding sexual favors, sexual abuse of children, sexual abuse of disabled individuals, forced marriage, child marriage, denial of the right to use contraception, denial of the right to take measures to protect against sexually-transmitted diseases, forced abortion, genital mutilation, forced circumcision, and forced prostitution.

An act is deemed sexually violent if the individual to whom the attention is directed does not consent to the sexual activity, if they are members of a class of persons who cannot consent (the severely cognitively impaired, individuals who are inebriated, minors, etc.), or if consent is due to coercion or duress. Coercion can cover a whole spectrum of degrees of force. Apart from physical force, it may involve psychological intimidation, blackmail, or any other type of threat, like the threat of physical harm or of being dismissed from a job.

Sexual violence has a profound impact on physical and mental health. Sexual violence can cause severe physical injuries, including an increased risk of sexual and reproductive health problems, with both immediate and long-term consequences. Additionally, sexual violence can impact mental health, which can be as serious as its physical impact, and may be even longer lasting.

Acts of Power

Sexually violent acts are acts of power, not of sex. This can be seen most clearly when considering war rape and prison rape. War rape is the type of sexual pillaging that occurs in the aftermath of a war, typically characterized by the male soldiers of the victorious military raping the women of the towns they have just taken over. Prison rape is the type of rape that is common (and seriously under reported) in prisons all over the world, including the United States, in which inmates will force sex upon one another as a demonstration of power.

Tracking Sexual Violence

Sexual violence is particularly difficult to track because it is severely under reported. Records from police and government agencies are often incomplete or limited. Most victims of sexual violence do not report it because they are ashamed, afraid of being blamed, concerned about not being believed, or are simply afraid to relive the event by reporting it. Most countries and many NGOs are undertaking efforts to try to increase the reporting of sexual violence as it so obviously has serious physical and psychological impacts on its victims.

On a global scale, international sexual violence is difficult to track because of extreme variation in sexual mores. A good example of cultural variation with regards to sexual violence is the differing views associated with the practice of female circumcision/female genital mutilation (FGM). Female circumcision and FGM refer to the same practice, but the practice is called “female circumcision” by those who condone its usage. FGM has violent connotations and is used by individuals who conceive of the practice as a violation of human rights.

Female circumcision/FGM is a practice used in many parts of Africa in which parts of the female’s vagina, usually the clitoris, are removed in order to decrease sexual pleasure. The operation is performed most commonly on young females. The practice has been the target of many human rights campaigns as a serious affront to the fundamental human rights of the girls undergoing the operation. However, many individuals in Africa view the practice as an acceptable component of their cultures. Neither vantage point is simple; some women in Africa accept the practice, while others have been vocal in speaking out against the practice. Nevertheless, the case demonstrates that cultural norms associated with sex / sex organs (and therefore sexual violence) can vary widely across cultures.

Sexual Violence Reporting

Sexual violence is severly under reported. This graphic illustrates the magnitude of the underreporting of sexual violence

11.6.3: Sexual Harassment

Sexual harassment is intimidation, bullying, teasing, or coercion of a sexual nature.

Learning Objective

Explain when and how sexual harassment is prosecuted in the U.S.

Key Points

• Sexual harassment is common in the workplace.
• Sexual harassment happens any time intimidation, bullying, teasing, or coercion of a sexual nature occurs.
• Sexual harassment is rarely formally charged in a legal context and individuals who do make such charges official are frequently ridiculed.

Key Term

sexual harassment

intimidation, bullying, teasing, or coercion of a sexual nature, or the unwelcome or inappropriate promise of rewards in exchange for sexual favors.

Examples

• The term sexual harassment was actually largely unknown until the early 1990s, when Anita Hill accused Justice Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment during the course of his Senate confirmation hearings for his position on the United States Supreme Court. The Anita Hill case provides an interesting case study of the backlash of accusations of sexual harassment and the strenuous tests that victims’ claims undergo in the public eye.
• In October 1991, Hill said that Thomas had sexually harassed her, as during her two years as Thomas’s assistant, Thomas had asked her out socially several times and, upon her refusal, discussed sexual matters in the workplace.
• Hill faced serious incredulity about her accusations. Four female witnesses were waiting to corroborate Hill’s story, but none were called to testify before the Senate. In light of such opposition, Hill even agreed to take a polygraph to demonstrate her credibility. Though the veracity of such exams is questionable, Hill passed the polygraph. Not surprisingly, Thomas denied Hill’s accusations and was eventually confirmed to the Supreme Court.
• Even after Thomas was confirmed to the Supreme Court, the media continued to question Hill’s accusations and crucify her reputation. The aftermath to Hill’s testimony, from the ad hominem attacks to the professional backlash, reveals an unfortunate reality for many individuals who make public sexual harassment charges.

Sexual harassment is intimidation, bullying, teasing, or coercion of a sexual nature, or the unwelcome or inappropriate promise of rewards in exchange for sexual favors. In most legal contexts this type of behavior is criminalized. The person intimidating a victim about his or her sexuality could be male or female; men and women can both be perpetrators of sexual harassment. Sexual harassment does not have to be only of a sexual nature; indeed, sexual harassment includes unwelcome and offensive comments about a person’s gender. Regardless of whether the content of the sexual harassment is about sex or gender, both victim and harasser can be either male or female and the victim and the harasser can be the same gender.

Though broad, the legal definition of sexual harassment does not include every injurious statement pertaining to sex or gender. The law does not prohibit simple teasing, offhand comments, or isolated incidents that are not very serious. Sexual harassment is illegal when it is so frequent or severe that it creates a hostile or offensive work environment or when it results in adverse employment, such as the victim being fired or demoted. Rather than being a component of criminal law, sexual harassment is typically adjudicated as an issue of employment law. As one might guess, most of these cases turn on whether or not the offensive comment was “serious” or “offhand. ” It is the law’s job to decide if a comment that the victim clearly found serious and offhand is considered so legally.

Even though sexual harassment is less violent than other forms of sexual violence such as rape, victims still suffer serious consequences. Victimhood for individuals subjected to sexual harassment can take a different and equally complicated form as victimhood for individuals who suffer from attacks for physical violence. Sexual violence that is expressed in terms of some sort of physical assault against a victim has become a condemnable act; victims of physical violence are more likely to find others who are sympathetic to their understandable distress. However, sexual harassment is more socially acceptable. Victims will often encounter opposition who claim that the harassment was mere teasing. As such, victimhood in response to sexual harassment has some unique properties. Nevertheless, sexual harassment may lead to temporary or prolonged anxiety, depending on the nature of the harassment and the type of support system in place. Given that harassment is a common problem in the workplace, anxiety on the victim’s part is usually tied into concerns about ramifications for one’s career if one reports the harassment.

Black Noise: Intervention against sexual harassment

Black Noise, an Indian project countering sexual harassment on the streets of India, stages an intervention in a bus.

10.4: Prejudice and Discrimination

10.4.1: Prejudice

Learning Objective

Apply the concepts of in-group favoritism and prejudice to a real-life situation

Key Points

• When we meet strangers we automatically process several pieces of information about them, including the social categories of race, gender, age, sexual orientation, and ability.
• First impressions are often based on stereotypes. For example, we may have different expectations of strangers depending on their race, gender, age, sexual orientation, and ability.
• Prejudice is a negative attitude and feeling toward an individual based solely on one’s membership in a particular social group.
• Prejudice often begins in the form of a stereotype—that is, a specific belief or assumption about individuals based solely on their membership in a group, regardless of their individual characteristics. Stereotypes become overgeneralized and applied to all members of a group.

Key Terms

stereotype

A conventional, formulaic, and oversimplified conception, opinion, or image of a group of people or things.

prejudice

A positive or negative evaluation of another person based on their perceived group membership (e.g., race, class, or gender).

When we meet strangers we automatically process three pieces of information about them: their race, gender, and age. Why are these aspects of an unfamiliar person so important? Why don’t we instead notice whether their eyes are friendly, whether they are smiling, their height, the type of clothes they are wearing? Although these secondary characteristics are important in forming a first impression of a stranger, the social categories of race, gender, and age provide a wealth of information about an individual. This information, however, often is based on stereotypes. We may have different expectations of strangers depending on their race, gender, and age.

Prejudice is a negative attitude and feeling toward an individual based solely on one’s membership in a particular social group (Allport, 1954; Brown, 2010). Prejudice is common against people who are members of an unfamiliar cultural group. Thus, certain types of education, contact, interactions, and building relationships with members of different cultural groups can reduce the tendency toward prejudice. In fact, simply imagining interacting with members of different cultural groups might affect prejudice. Indeed, when experimental participants were asked to imagine themselves positively interacting with someone from a different group, this led to an increased positive attitude toward the other group and an increase in positive traits associated with the other group.

Prejudice often begins in the form of a stereotype—that is, a specific belief or assumption about individuals based solely on their membership in a group, regardless of their individual characteristics. Stereotypes become overgeneralized and applied to all members of a group. For example, as Hodge, Burden, Robinson, and Bennett (2008) point out, black male athletes are often believed to be more athletic, yet less intelligent, than their white male counterparts. These beliefs persist despite a number of high profile examples to the contrary. Sadly, such beliefs often influence how these athletes are treated by others and how they view themselves and their own capabilities. Whether or not you agree with a stereotype, stereotypes are generally well-known within in a given culture.

10.4.2: Discrimination Against Individuals

Learning Objective

Give an example of discrimination and reverse discrimination using examples of religious, gender, or racial prejudice

Key Points

• A common type of discrimination is the exclusion or restriction of members of one group from opportunities that are available to another group.
• Racial, religious, and gender discrimination are common types of this phenomenon.
• Controversial attempts have been made to mitigate and rectify the negative effects of discrimination. These attempts in turn, however, have sometimes been called reverse discrimination.
• Reverse discrimination is a term referring to discrimination against members of a dominant or majority group, including the city or state, or in favor of members of a minority or historically disadvantaged group.

Key Terms

reverse discrimination

Discrimination against members of a dominant or majority group, including the city or state, or in favor of members of a minority or historically disadvantaged group.

discrimination

The prejudicial treatment of an individual based on his or her membership, or perceived membership, in a certain group or category.

Discrimination is the prejudicial treatment of an individual based on his/her membership (or perceived membership) in a certain group or category, and involves actual actions taken towards that individual. A common example of discrimination is the exclusion or restriction of members of one group from opportunities that are available to another group, such as access to public facilities like bathrooms and water fountains.

Controversial attempts have been made to redress negative effects of discrimination. One example is the implementation of racial quotas, that is, establishing numerical requirements for hiring, promoting, admitting and/or graduating members of a particular racial group. These attempts in turn, however, have sometimes been called reverse discrimination (see below).

Racial and Ethnic Discrimination

Racial discrimination results in unequal treatment between individuals on the basis of real and perceived racial differences. It may manifest on every level of social life, from minor disregard or intense hostility in interpersonal interactions to much larger instantiations in public institutions (also called structural or institutional discrimination), such as the segregatory practices prominent in the Jim Crow era of the Unites States (1870s-1960s).

Sex, Gender and Gender Identity Discrimination

Though what constitutes sex discrimination varies between countries, it essentially refers to an adverse action taken against a person based on their perceived sex, gender, and/or gender identity. Historically, sexual differences have been used to justify different social roles for men and women. Unfair discrimination usually follows the gender stereotypes held by a society.

Religious Discrimination

Religious discrimination is prejudicial treatment of a person or group differently based on their spiritual or religious beliefs (or lack thereof).

In a 1979 consultation on the issue, the United States commission on civil rights defined religious discrimination in relation to the civil rights guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which deals with due process and equal fairness of all citizens under the law. According to the commission, religious discrimination occurs when someone is denied ” the equal protection of the laws, equality of status under the law, equal treatment in the administration of justice, and equality of opportunity and access to employment, education, housing, public services and facilities, and public accommodation because of their exercise of their right to religious freedom. “

Reverse Discrimination

Reverse discrimination is a term referring to discrimination against members of a dominant or majority group, including the city or state, or in favor of members of a minority or historically disadvantaged group. Groups may be defined in terms of race, gender, ethnicity, or other factors. This discrimination may seek to redress social inequalities where minority groups have been denied access to the same privileges of the majority group. In such cases it is intended to remove discrimination that minority groups may already face.

Reverse discrimination may also be used to highlight the discrimination inherent in affirmative action programs.

Legislation in some nations, such as the UK, assert that identical treatment may sometimes act to preserve inequality rather than eliminate it, and therefore this so-called reverse discrimination is justified.

An Example of Discrimination

An African-American child at a segregated drinking fountain on a courthouse lawn, North Carolina, 1938

10.4.3: Institutional Prejudice or Discrimination

Learning Objective

Examine the legal cases that had an impact on institutional discrimination

Key Points

• Usually institutional bias targets specific, easily stereotyped and generalizable attributes of individuals, such as race and gender.
• Institutionalized discrimination often exists within governments, though it can also occur in any other type of social institution including religion, education and marriage.
• The achievement gap in education is an example of institutionalized discrimination.
• Many countries around the world practice some form of institutionalized discrimination. For example, in some countries women cannot vote, drive or work certain jobs.

Key Terms

institutionalized discrimination

The unfair, indirect methods of treatment of individuals that are embedded in the operating procedures, policies, laws or objectives of large organizations.

achievement gap

The observed and persistent disparity between the performance of groups of students defined by gender, race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status, based on a number of educational measures.

Example

• Housing in the United States is valued differently based on the racial makeup of the neighborhood. There can be two identical houses, by factors like amenities and size, but the assessed value of each house can depend on the racial makeup of the people within the community. Homeowners therefore have an incentive to prevent minorities from moving into white neighborhoods. Institutionalized discrimination within the housing market also includes practices like redlining and mortgage discrimination.

Institutionalized discrimination refers to the unfair, indirect treatment of certain members within a group. These practices are embedded in the operating procedures, policies, laws, or objectives of large organizations, such as governments and corporations, financial institutions, public institutions and other large entities.

Usually the bias targets specific, easily stereotyped and generalizable attributes, such as race, gender, nationality, sexual orientation and age. Though direct discrimination is illegal by United States law, many academics, activists, and advocacy organizations assert that indirect discrimination is still pervasive in many social institutions and daily social practices.

Examples

Examples of institutionalized discrimination include laws and decisions that reflect racism, such as the 1896 Plessy vs. Ferguson U.S. Supreme Court case, which ruled in favor of “separate but equal” public facilities between African Americans and non African Americans. This ruling was later rescinded in 1954 by the Brown vs. Board of Education Supreme Court decision.

Institutionalized discrimination often exists within governments, though it can also occur in any other type of social institution, including religion, education and marriage. For example, residential segregation is a product of discrimination that exists in the private real estate market. Housing in the United States can be valued differently based on the racial makeup of the neighborhood. There can be two identical houses, in terms of factors like amenities and size, but the value of each house can depend on the racial makeup of the people within the community. Homeowners would therefore have an incentive to prevent minorities from moving into white neighborhoods. Institutionalized discrimination within the housing market also includes practices like redlining and mortgage discrimination.

The achievement gap in education is another example of institutionalized discrimination. The achievement gap refers to the observed disparity in educational measures between the performance of groups of students, especially groups defined by gender, race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status. This disparity include standardized test scores, grade point average, dropout rates and college enrollment and/or completion rates.

International Examples

Many countries around the world exhibit some form of institutionalized discrimination, such as Saudi Arabia where women and other oppressed groups cannot participate in some religious activities, and can neither vote nor work in government.

Trends in reading scores divided by race.

These figures show a long-term disparity in reading scores.

10.4.4: Assimilation

Learning Objective

Give a real life example for each of the four benchmarks of immigrant assimilation

Key Points

• Immigrant assimilation is one of the most common forms of assimilation, and is a very complex process.
• Social scientists rely on four primary benchmarks to assess immigrant assimilation: socioeconomic status, geographic distribution, second language attainment, and intermarriage.
• Socioeconomic status is defined by educational attainment, occupation, and income. Spatial concentration is defined by geography or residential patterns.
• Language attainment refers to the ability to speak English and the loss of the individual’s mother tongue. Intermarriage involves marriage across racial, ethnic, or, occasionally, generational lines.
• Segmented assimilation states that there are three main paths of assimilation for second generation immigrants: some assimilate smoothly, others experience downward assimilation, and others experience rapid economic success while preserving the values of their immigrant community.
• Intermarriage involves marriage across racial, ethnic, or, occasionally, generational lines.

Key Terms

socioeconomic status

One’s social position as determined by income, wealth, occupational prestige, and educational attainment.

spatial concentration

A measure of how densely particular ethnic groups are situated in a geographic location.

intermarriage

a marriage between people belonging to different groups, ethnic, religious or otherwise.

Assimilation describes the process by which a minority integrates socially, culturally, and/or politically into a larger, dominant culture and society. The term assimilation is often used in reference to immigrants and ethnic groups settling in a new land. Immigrants acquire new customs and attitudes through contact and communication with a new society, while they also introduce some of their own cultural traits to that society.

Assimilation usually involves a gradual change of varying degree. Full assimilation occurs when new members of a society become indistinguishable from native members.

Any group (such as a state, immigrant population, or ethnicity) may choose to adopt a different culture for a variety of reasons such as political relevance or perceived advantage. However, a group may also be forced or feel compelled to do so as a result of imperialistic conquest, immigration, or drastic changes in population.

Assimilation of Immigrants

Immigrant assimilation is one of the most common forms of assimilation. It is a complex process through which an immigrant integrates themselves into a new country. Geography professor and human migration specialist William A. V. Clark says that immigrant assimilation is “a way of understanding the social dynamics of American society” and defines it as “the process that occurs spontaneously and often unintended in the course of interaction between majority and minority groups. “

Social scientists rely on four benchmarks, initially formulated when studying European immigrants in the U.S., to assess immigrant assimilation:

1. Socioeconomic status is defined by educational attainment, occupation, and income. By measuring socioeconomic status, researchers seek to determine whether immigrants eventually catch up to native-born people in matters of capital.
2. Spatial concentration is defined by geography or residential patterns. The spatial residential model states that increasing socioeconomic attainment, longer residence in the U.S, and higher generational status lead to decreasing residential concentration for a particular ethnic group.
3. Language attainment is defined as the ability to speak English and the loss of the individual’s mother tongue. The three-generation model of language assimilation states that the first generation makes some progress in language assimilation but retains primary fluency in their native tongue, while the second generation is bilingual and the third generation speaks only English.
4. Intermarriage refers to marriage across racial, ethnic, or, occasionally, generational lines. High rates of intermarriage are considered to be an indication of social integration, as they suggest intimate and profound relations between people of different groups. Intermarriage reduces the ability of families to pass on to their children a consistent ethnic culture and thus is an agent of assimilation.

Naturalization and Immigrant Assimilation

Other than marriage, citizenship is one of the most significant factors in assimilation. Thus, immigration debates focus not only on the number of immigrants that should be admitted into a country and the processes of incorporation, but also on how citizenship should be extended and to whom. Proponents of immigration often argue that new residents will help to build and enrich American democracy, while opponents counter that the identity and legitimacy of the nation may be challenged and perhaps even threatened by immigrants. Questions of citizenship in relation to illegal immigration is a particularly controversial issue and a common source of political tension.

New Immigrant Gateways and Immigrant Assimilation

The majority of immigrants have tended to settle in traditional gateway states such as Florida, New York, California, Illinois, Texas, and Massachusetts, where immigrants find large existing populations of foreign-born people. Recently, however, immigrants have increasingly been settling in areas outside these gateway states. Sociologists Mary Waters and Tomas R. Jimenez have suggested that these geographical shifts may change the way researchers assess immigrant assimilation, as immigrants settling in new areas may encounter different experiences than immigrants settling in more traditional gateways. Specifically, Waters and Jimenez identify three distinguishing characteristics in more recent, less traditional, immigration patterns: less established social hierarchies, smaller immigrant population size, and different institutional arrangements.

Segmented Assimilation

The theory of segmented assimilation for second generation immigrants is highly researched in the sociological arena. Segmented assimilation, researched by Min Zhou and Alejandro Portes, focuses on the notion that people take different paths in how they adapt to life in the United States. This theory states that there are three main different paths of assimilation for second generation immigrants. Some immigrants assimilate smoothly into the white middle class of America, others experience downward assimilation, and others experience rapid economic success while preserving the values of their immigrant community.

This theory also includes the concept of modes of incorporation, which are the external factors within the host community that affect assimilation. These factors are created by the underlying policies of the government, the strength of prejudice in the society, and the makeup of coethnic communities within the society. These modes of incorporation affect how a child will assimilate into U.S. society, and determine how vulnerable the child will be towards downward assimilation. Factors that enhance such vulnerability include racial discrimination, location, and changes in the economy that have made it harder for intergenerational mobility.

In addition, differing modes of incorporation make available certain resources that second generation immigrants can use to overcome challenges to the process of assimilation. If the child belongs to a group that has been exempt from the prejudice experienced by most immigrants, such as European immigrants, they will experience a smoother process of assimilation. A second generation immigrant can also make use of established networks in the coethnic community. These networks provide these children with additional resources beyond those offered by the government, such as gateways into well paying jobs in businesses established by the ethnic community. Children of middle class immigrants have a greater likelihood of moving up the social ladder and joining American mainstream society than children of lower class immigrants, as they have access to both the resources provided by their parents and to the educational opportunities afforded to the middle class in the U.S.

Assimilation of Native Americans

A collage of Native Americans dressed in European attire

10.4.5: Pluralism

Learning Objective

Reconstruct the crux of the debate about multiculturalism, including its different forms and opposition to it

Key Points

• Multiculturalism is seen by its supporters as a fairer system that allows people to truly express who they are within a society, that is more tolerant, and that adapts better to social issues.
• Critics of multiculturalism often debate whether the multicultural ideal of benignly co-existing cultures that interrelate and influence one another, and yet remain distinct, is sustainable, paradoxical, or even desirable.
• Multiculturalism is often contrasted with the concepts of assimilationism and has been described as a “salad bowl” or “cultural mosaic” rather than an assimilationist “melting pot”.

Key Term

multiculturalism

A characteristic of a society that has many different ethnic or national cultures mingling freely. It can also refer to political or social policies which support or encourage such a coexistence. Important in this is the idea that cultural practices, no matter how unusual, should be tolerated as a measure of respect.

Example

• The French government has a melting-pot or assimilationist view of cultural coexistence, believing that the identity of being French should take precedence over all other forms of identification, including, religion, gender, ethnicity, etc. On the other hand, Canada is more closely associated with the “salad bowl,” or multicultural, perspective, as they believe in preserving the distinct identity of various cultural groups within their nation.

Multiculturalism is an ideology that promotes the institutionalization of communities containing multiple cultures. It is generally applied to the demographic make-up of a specific place, usually at the organizational level (e.g., schools, businesses, neighborhoods, cities, or nations).

In a political context, the term is used for a wide variety of meanings. These can range from the advocacy of equal respect for the various cultures in a society, to a policy of promoting the maintenance of cultural diversity, to policies in which people of various ethnic and religious groups are addressed by the authorities according to the definition of the group to which they belong. A common aspect of many such policies is that they avoid presenting any specific ethnic, religious, or cultural community values as central.

Multiculturalism is often contrasted with the concepts of assimilationism and has been described as a “salad bowl” or “cultural mosaic,” rather than an assimilationist “melting pot.”

Definition

There is no single, agreed-upon definition for multiculturalism and different countries approach the issue in a variety of manners. However two main different and seemingly inconsistent strategies have developed through varied government policies and strategies.

• The first focuses on interaction and communication between different cultures. By encouraging different cultures to interact, hopefully, cultural differences can be recognized and accepted rather than suppressed or ignored, thus promoting a sense of multiculturalism.
• The second centers on diversity and cultural uniqueness. Cultural isolation can protect the uniqueness of the local culture of a nation or area and also contribute to global cultural diversity.

Political scholar Andrew Heywood distinguishes between two forms of multiculturalism: descriptive and normative:

• As a descriptive term, it refers to general cultural diversity.
• As a normative term, multiculturalism “implies a positive endorsement, even celebration, of communal diversity, typically based on either the right of different groups to respect and recognition, or to the alleged benefits to the larger society of moral and cultural diversity”.

Multiculturalism as Government Policy

Multiculturalism has been an official policy in several Western nations since the 1970s, for reasons that vary from country to country, including the fact that many of the great cities of the Western world are increasingly made of a mosaic of cultures. The Canadian government has often been described as the instigator of multicultural ideology because of its public emphasis on the social importance of immigration. The Canadian Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism is often refered to as the origins of modern political awareness of multiculturalism.

Support for Multiculturalism

Multiculturalism is seen by its supporters as a fairer system that allows people to truly express who they are within a society, that is more tolerant, and adapts better to social issues. They argue that culture is not one definable thing based on one race or religion, but rather the result of multiple factors that change as the world changes.

Multiculturalism in Western countries was seen as a useful set of strategies to combat racism, protect minority communities of all types, and to undo policies that had prevented minorities from having full access to the opportunities for freedom and equality promised by the liberalism that have been the hallmark of Western societies since the Age of Enlightenment.

Opposition to Multiculturalism

Critics of multiculturalism often debate whether or not the multicultural ideal of benignly co-existing cultures that interrelate and influence one another, and yet remain distinct, is sustainable, paradoxical, or even desirable. It is argued that nation states, which would previously have been synonymous with a distinctive cultural identity of their own, lose out to enforced multiculturalism and that this ultimately erodes the host nations’ distinct culture.

Harvard professor of political science Robert D. Putnam conducted a nearly decade-long study of how multiculturalism affects social trust. He surveyed 26,200 people in 40 American communities, finding that when the data were adjusted for class, income, and other factors, the more racially diverse a community is, the greater the loss of trust. People in diverse communities “don’t trust the local mayor, they don’t trust the local paper, they don’t trust other people and they don’t trust institutions,” writes Putnam.

Multiculturalism

“Monument to Multiculturalism” by Francesco Pirelli, in front of Union Station, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

10.4.6: Segregation

Learning Objective

Identify at least three key moments in the history of racial segregation in the U.S.

Key Points

• Racial segregation is one of the most common forms of segregation. Although it is illegal in many societies, it may still exist through social norms even when there is no strong individual preference for it.
• After the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery in America, racial discrimination became regulated by the so called Jim Crow laws, which mandated strict segregation of the races.
• By 1968 all forms of segregation had been declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, and by 1970 support for formal legal segregation had dissolved.

Key Terms

segregation

People separating geographically, residentially, racially, religiously or by sex based on legal codes, happenstance, voluntary choice or cultural attitudes.

Racial Segregation

The separation of humans into racial groups throughout aspects of daily life, sometimes enforced by law.

Example

• The French term banlieue (suburb) has since the 1970s been increasingly used as a way of describing low-income housing projects on the outskirts of Paris in particular, as well as some other large French cities. These banlieues typically are home to French people of foreign descent or foreign immigrants.

Segregation is the social division of human beings based on any number of factors, including race, ethnicity, or nationality. It may apply to various situations of daily life, such as eating in a restaurant, using a public restroom, attending school, or going to the movies

Racial segregation is one of the most common forms of segregation and is generally outlawed, but can still exist through social norms even when there is no strong individual preference for it.

Segregation often involves spatial separation of races and/or mandatory use of institutions, such as schools and hospitals, by people of different races—an exception being allowing for close contact in hierarchical situations, i.e., a person of one race working as a servant for a person of another race.

Racial segregation has appeared in all parts of the world where there are multiracial communities. Even where racial mixing has occurred on a large scale, as in Hawaii and Brazil, various forms of social discrimination have persisted despite the absence of official segregationist laws.

History of Racial Segregation

After the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery in America, racial discrimination became regulated by the so-called Jim Crow laws—strict mandates on segregation of the races. Though such laws were instituted shortly after the war ended, in many cases they were not formalized until the end of Republican-enforced Reconstruction in the 1870s and 80s. This legalized form of segregation into the mid 1960s.

As an official practice, institutionalized racial segregation ended in large part due to the work of civil rights activists (Clarence M. Mitchell, Jr., Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr., among others) primarily during the period from the end of World War II through the passage of the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as supported by President Lyndon B. Johnson. Their efforts focused on acts of non-violent civil disobedience aimed at disrupting the enforcement of racial segregation rules and laws. Examples are holding sit-ins at all-white diners, or the widely publicized refusal of Rosa Parks to give up her seat on a bus to a white person.

By 1968 all forms of segregation had been declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, and by 1970 support for formal legal segregation dissolved. The Fair Housing Act of 1968, administered and enforced by the Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, prohibited discrimination in the sale and rental of housing on the basis of race, color, nationality, religion, sex, familial status and disability. The civil rights movement gained the public’s support, and formal racial discrimination and segregation became illegal in schools, businesses, the military, and other civil and government services.

In the years since, African Americans have played a significant role throughout society, as leaders, public officials and heads of state. On the national level, they have worked in the Supreme Court, the House of Representatives, the Senate, and held top Presidential cabinet positions. In 2008, the United States elected its first African American President.

Contemporary Forms of Segregation

Columbia University economist Rajiv Sethi has observed that black-white segregation is declining fairly consistently in most metropolitan areas of the U.S. Despite these overall patterns, changes in individual areas remain small. Racial segregation or separation can lead to social, economic and political tensions.

In many areas, the United States remains a residentially segregated society. Blacks, whites, Hispanics and other racial groups inhabit different neighborhoods of vastly different quality.

10.4.7: Population Transfer

Learning Objective

Analyze why population transfers went from being an acceptable solution to problems of ethnic conflict to being unacceptable

Key Points

• Often the affected population is transferred by force to a distant, unfamiliar region, resulting in substantial harm to the population in question.
• Population exchange is the transfer of two populations in opposite directions at about the same time.
• Population transfer was considered an acceptable solution to the problems of ethnic conflict, up until around World War II. This attitude underwent substantial revision with the Charter of the Nuremberg Trials of Germany.
• Today, forced population transfers and exchanges are considered a violation of international law.

Key Terms

Population Exchange

The transfer of two populations in opposite directions at about the same time.

population transfer

The movement of a large group of people from one region to another by state policy or international authority, most frequently on the basis of ethnicity or religion.

Example

• The migration of large numbers of Hindus and Muslims between India and Pakistan after Partition occurred in 1947 is a significant historical example of a population exchange.

Population transfer is the movement of a large group of people from one region to another by state policy or international authority, most frequently on the basis of ethnicity or religion. Often the affected population is transferred by force to a distant region, perhaps not suited to their way of life, causing them substantial personal and bodily harm and resulting in significant damage and loss of property.

Population exchange is the transfer of two populations in opposite directions at about the same time. These exchanges have taken place several times in the 20^th century, such as during the 1947 partition of India and Pakistan .

1947 Partition of India

Figure showing the movement of refugees following the decision by colonial Britain to partition India based on religious demographics.

Issues Arising from Population Transfer

According to political scientist Norman Finkelstein, population transfer was considered as an acceptable solution to the problems of ethnic conflict up until around World War II and even a little afterward in certain cases. It was considered a drastic but “often necessary” means to end an ethnic conflict or ethnic civil war. The feasibility of population transfers was hugely increased by the creation of railroad networks in the mid-19^th century.

Population transfer differs from individually motivated migration in more than just a technical sense, though at times of war the act of fleeing from danger or famine often blurs the differences.

Changing Status in International Law

The view of international law on population transfer underwent considerable evolution during the 20^th century. Prior to World War II, a number of major population transfers were the result of bilateral treaties with the support of international bodies such as the League of Nations.

The tide started to turn when the Charter of the Nuremberg Trials of German Nazi leaders declared that forced deportation of civilian populations was both a war crime and a crime against humanity.This opinion was progressively adopted and extended through the remainder of the century. Underlying the change was the trend to assign rights to individuals, limiting the rights of states to make agreements which adversely affect them.

There is now little debate about the general legal status of involuntary population transfers, as forced population transfers are now considered violations of international law. No legal distinction is made between one-way and two-transfers, since the rights of each individual are regarded as independent of the experience of others.

Adopted in 1949 and now part of customary international law, Article 49 of Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits mass movement of people out of or into of occupied territory under what it calls “belligerent military occupation”:

Individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory to the territory of the Occupying Power or to that of any other country, occupied or not, are prohibited, regardless of their motive. … The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.

10.4.8: Genocide

Learning Objective

Match at least 4 of the 8 stages of genocide (according to Gregory Stanton) with a real life example

Key Points

• While some scholars claim that genocide develops identifiable stages and therefore action can be taken to stop them before they happen, critics of this approach assert that this is unrealistic.
• In 1996, Gregory Stanton presented a briefing paper called “The 8 Stages of Genocide” at the United States Department of State, in which he suggested that genocide develops in eight stages that are “predictable but not inexorable”.
• Other authors have focused on the structural conditions leading up to genocide and the psychological and social processes that create an evolution toward genocide.

Key Terms

symbolization

The act of symbolizing; the use of symbols to represent things, or the investing of things with a symbolic meaning

genocide

The systematic killing of substantial numbers of people on the basis of ethnicity, religion, political opinion, social status, or other particularity.

extermination

The act of exterminating; total destruction; eradication; excision; as, the extermination of inhabitants or tribes, of error or vice, or of weeds from a field.

Example

• The Rwandan Genocide of 1994 was the result of a longstanding ethnic conflict between the Tusti minority, who had been in power for centuries, and the majority Hutu population.

Genocide is defined by the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG) as “the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group,” though what constitutes enough of a “part” to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars. While a precise definition varies among genocide scholars, a legal definition is found in the 1948 United Nations CPPCG, which specifies that genocide entails:

(a) Killing members of the group;

(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

The preamble to the CPPCG states that instances of genocide have taken place throughout history, but it was not until Polish lawyer Raphael Lemkin coined the term during World War II and the prosecution of perpetrators of the Holocaust at the Nuremberg trials that the United Nations agreed to the CPPCG, which defined the crime of genocide under international law.

The Stages of Genocide

Genocide scholars such as Gregory Stanton have postulated various conditions and acts that often occur before, during, and after genocide.

In 1996, Stanton presented a briefing paper called “The 8 Stages of Genocide” at the United States Department of State. In it, he suggested that genocide develops in eight stages that are “predictable but not inexorable. ” The stages are:

• Classification:People are divided into “us and them. ” “The main preventive measure at this early stage is to develop universalistic institutions that transcend… divisions. “
• Symbolization:”When combined with hatred, symbols may be forced upon unwilling members of pariah groups…””To combat symbolization, hate symbols can be legally forbidden as can hate speech”.
• Dehumanization:”One group denies the humanity of the other group. Members of it are equated with animals, vermin, insects, or diseases. “”Local and international leaders should condemn the use of hate speech and make it culturally unacceptable. Leaders who incite genocide should be banned from international travel and have their foreign finances frozen. “
• Organization:”Genocide is always organized… Special army units or militias are often trained and armed…””The U.N. should impose arms embargoes on governments and citizens of countries involved in genocidal massacres, and create commissions to investigate violations”
• Polarization:”Hate groups broadcast polarizing propaganda…””Prevention may mean security protection for moderate leaders or assistance to human rights groups…Coups d’tat by extremists should be opposed by international sanctions. “
• Preparation:”Victims are identified and separated out because of their ethnic or religious identity…””At this stage, a Genocide Emergency must be declared. …”
• Extermination:”It is ‘extermination’ to the killers because they do not believe their victims to be fully human”. “At this stage, only rapid and overwhelming armed intervention can stop genocide. Real safe areas or refugee escape corridors should be established with heavily armed international protection. “
• Denial:”The perpetrators… deny that they committed any crimes…””The response to denial is punishment by an international tribunal or national courts”

While scholars, such as Stanton, claim that these stages can be identified, and actions can be taken to stop genocides before they happen, critics of this approach, such as Australian historian, Dirk Moses, assert that this is unrealistic.

Other authors have focused on the structural conditions leading up to genocide and the psychological and social processes that create an evolution toward genocide. Helen Fein showed that pre-existing anti-Semitism and systems that maintained anti-Semitic policies was related to the number of Jews killed in different European countries during the Holocaust.

Buchenwald Slave Laborers

These are slave laborers in the Buchenwald concentration camp, a German Nazi concentration camp established on the Ettersberg (Etter Mountain) near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937. It was one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps on German soil. Many prisoners had died from malnutrition when U.S. troops of the 80th Division entered the camp. The photograph was taken five days after the camp’s liberation.

10.5: Sociological Perspectives on Race and Ethnicity

10.5.1: The Functionalist Perspective

According to the functionalist perspective, race and ethnicity are two of the various parts of a cohesive society.

Learning Objective

Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of a functionalist approach to race

Key Points

• Classical functionalist theory did not develop specific analyses of race and ethnicity; it viewed them as constituent elements of society that contributed to its relatively smooth functioning.
• Functionalism emphasizes social unity and equilibrium and has been criticized for being unable to account for social conflict and systematic inequalities such as race, gender, and class.
• Since structural functionalism generally stresses the unifying role of culture, it is ill-equipped to understand divisive forces like discrimination.

Key Term

structural functionalism

A sociological approach that looks at society through a macro-level orientation, which is a broad focus on the social structures that shape society as a whole.

Functionalism addresses society as a whole in terms of the function of its constituent elements; namely norms, customs, traditions, and institutions. In the 1960s, functionalism was criticized for being unable to account for social change, or for structural contradictions and conflict (and thus was often called “consensus theory”), and for ignoring systematic inequalities including race, gender, and class, which cause tension and conflict. As noted sociologist Michael Omi observes, “The structural-functionalist framework generally stressed the unifying role of culture, and particularly American values, in regulating and resolving conflicts. This approach was notably in evidence in respect to the sociology of race” (Coulhan 2007, Sociology in America, p.559). From this perspective, societies are seen as coherent, bounded, and fundamentally relational constructs that function like organisms, with their various parts (such as race) working together in an unconscious, quasi-automatic fashion toward achieving an overall social equilibrium.

Given this emphasis on equilibrium and harmony, the functionalist perspective easily allows for specific macro-analyses of more contentious power imbalances, such as race-related issues. It also allows for the micro-analyses that much of modern sociology is oriented around, such as identity formation and the socially constructed nature of race. It is less well-adapted to understanding individual discrimination because it ignores the inequalities that cause tension and conflict.

During the turbulent 1960s, functionalism was often called “consensus theory,” criticized for being unable to account for social change or structural contradictions and conflict, including inequalities related to race, gender, class, and other social factors that are a source of oppression and conflict.

Herbert Spencer

Herbert Spencer was an English philosopher and social theorist.

10.5.2: The Conflict Perspective

For Karl Marx, class conflict was most prominent; other theorists saw racial and ethnic conflict as more significant.

Learning Objective

Explain race and ethnicity from the perspective of different conflict theorists

Key Points

• The feminist theory of intersectionality suggests that different biological, social, and cultural categories, such as race, ethnicity, and gender, interact and intersect to form a system of oppression.
• Since the social, political, and cultural upheavals of the 1960s, there has been a wellspring of conflict theory-inspired analyses of race and ethnicity.
• W. E. B. Du Bois theorized that the intersectional paradigms of race, class, and nation might explain certain aspects of Black political economy.

Key Term

Intersectionality

The idea that various biological, social, and cultural categories– including gender, race, class, and ethnicity– interact and contribute towards systematic social inequality.

The classical conflict perspective pioneered by Karl Marx saw all forms of inequality subsumed under class conflict. For Marx, issues related to race and ethnicity are secondary to class struggle.

Other early conflict theorists saw racial and ethnic conflict as more central. Sociologist Ludwig Gumplowicz, in Grundriss der Soziologie (Outlines of Sociology, 1884), described how civilization has been shaped by conflict between cultures and ethnic groups, theorizing that large complex human societies evolved from war and conquest.

Since the social, political, and cultural upheavals of the 1960s, there has been a wellspring of conflict theory-inspired analyses of race and ethnicity, many of which eventually developed into an overlapping focus on the intersectional nature of various forms of conflict and oppression.

Intersectionality

Intersectionality is a feminist sociological theory first highlighted by leading critical theorist thinker Kimberlé Crenshaw (1989). The theory proposes that different biological, social, and cultural factors, such as as gender, race, and class, do not operate in isolation of one antoher. Rather, they are interrlated, forming a system of oppression that consists of different forms of discrimination. This theory will be further discussed under the feminist perspective of gender stratification in the chapter, “Understanding Gender Stratification and Inequality”.

W. E. B. Du Bois theorized that the intersectional paradigms of race, class, and nation might explain certain aspects of Black political economy. Sociologist Patricia Hill Collins writes “Du Bois saw race, class, and nation not primarily as personal identity categories but as social hierarchies that shaped African American access to status, poverty, and power” (2000 Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness and the Politics of Empowerment, 42).

10.5.3: The Interactionist Perspective

Race and ethnicity affect the meaning we attach to each other’s actions.

Learning Objective

Describe how the interactionalist perspective views race and ethnicity

Key Points

• Robert Park, one of the most influential symbolic interactionist theorists on race and ethnic relations, formed his view on race and ethnicity—”human ecology,” he called it—by drawing on natural ecology.
• Park’s theory of the race relation cycle includes four stages: contact, conflict, accommodation, and assimilation.
• Park declared that race relations entail “a cycle of events which tends everywhere to repeat itself,” also be seen in other social processes.

Key Terms

Human Ecology

Urban sociologist Robert Park’s model of urban life, which borrowed concepts from symbiosis, invasion, succession, and dominance from the science of natural ecology.

Race Relation Cycle

A model of urban race relations consisting of a cycle with four stages: contact, conflict, accommodation, and assimilation.

Robert Park

An urban sociologist from the Chicago School of Sociology who was one of the most influential symbolic interactionist theorists on race and ethnic relations.

Following founding symbolic interactionist George Herbert Mead, Herbert Blumer claimed that people interact with each other by attaching meaning to each other’s actions instead of merely reacting to them. Human interaction is mediated by the use of symbols and signification, by interpretation, or by ascertaining the meaning of one another’s actions.

George Herbert Mead

George Herbert Mead (1863–1931) was an American philosopher, sociologist, and psychologist, primarily affiliated with the University of Chicago, where he was one of several distinguished pragmatists. He is regarded as one of the founders of social psychology and the American sociological tradition in general.

One of the most influential symbolic interactionist theorists on race and ethnic relations was Robert Park. Evolving out of the mid-20^th century “Chicago School” of urban sociology, Park created the term human ecology, which borrowed the concepts of symbiosis, invasion, succession, and dominance from the science of natural ecology.

Using the city of Chicago as an example, he proposed that cities were environments like those found in nature. Park and fellow sociologist Ernest Burgess suggested that cities were governed by many of the same forces of Darwinian evolution evident in ecosystems. They felt the most significant force was competition. Competition was created by groups fighting for urban resources, like land, which led to a division of urban space into ecological niches. Within these niches people shared similar social characteristics because they were subject to the same ecological pressure.

This theory served as a foundation for his influential theory of racial assimilation known as the “race relation cycle”. The cycle has four stages: contact, conflict, accommodation, and assimilation. The first step is contact, followed by competition. Then, after some time, a hierarchical arrangement can prevail—one of accommodation—in which one race is dominant and others dominated. In the end assimilation occurs. Park declared that it is “a cycle of events which tends everywhere to repeat itself,” also seen in other social processes.

10.5.4: The Psychological Perspective

One crucial psychological finding is that members of stereotyped groups internalize those stereotypes and may suffer as a result.

Learning Objective

Describe how the psychological perspective views race and ethnicity

Key Points

• Stereotype Threat is the experience of anxiety or concern in a situation where a person has the potential to confirm a negative stereotype about their social group.
• If negative stereotypes are present regarding a specific group, they are likely to become anxious about their performance which may hinder their ability to perform at their maximum level.
• Stereotype Threat is a potential contributing factor to long-standing racial and gender gaps in academic performance.
• Advocates of Stereotype Threat explanation have been criticized for exaggerating the importance of stereotype threat and for misrepresenting evidence as more conclusive than it is.

Key Terms

internalize

To make something internal; to incorporate it in oneself.

stereotype threat

The anxiety or stress a person experiences when they find themselves in a situation in which they could potentially confirm a negative stereotype about their social group.

Example

• An experiment conducted by Michael Lovaglia et al. (1998) revealed that Stereotype Threat could be induced in left-handed people by leading them to believe that they are the disadvantaged group for the test they are taking. This study thus demonstrated that stereotype threats can be created on the spot.

One of the most important social psychological findings concerning race relations is that members of stereotyped groups internalize those stereotypes and thus suffer a wide range of harmful consequences.

Stereotype Threat is the experience of anxiety or concern in a situation where a person has the potential to confirm a negative stereotype about their social group. Since its introduction into the academic literature in 1995, Stereotype Threat has become one of the most widely studied topics in the field of social psychology. First described by social psychologist, Claude Steele and his colleagues, Stereotype Threat has been shown to reduce the performance of individuals who belong to negatively stereotyped groups. If negative stereotypes are present regarding a specific group, they are likely to become anxious about their performance, which in turn may hinder their ability to perform at their maximum level.

Stereotype Threat is a potential contributing factor to long-standing racial and gender gaps in academic performance. However, it may occur whenever an individual’s performance might confirm a negative stereotype. This is because Stereotype Threat is thought to arise from the particular situation rather than from an individual’s personality traits or characteristics. Since most people have at least one social identity which is negatively stereotyped, most people are vulnerable to Stereotype Threat if they encounter a situation in which the stereotype is relevant.

Situational factors that increase Stereotype Threat can include the difficulty of the task, the belief that the task measures their abilities, and the relevance of the negative stereotype to the task. Individuals show higher degrees of Stereotype Threat on tasks they wish to perform well on and when they identify strongly with the stereotyped group. These effects are also increased when they expect discrimination due to their identification with negatively stereotyped group. Repeated experiences of Stereotype Threat can lead to a vicious circle of diminished confidence, poor performance, and loss of interest in the relevant area of achievement.

The opposite of Stereotype Threat is known as Stereotype Enhancement, which entails an individual’s potential to confirm a positive stereotype about their social group, and a subsequent increase in performance ability in the related task as compared to their ability prior to their exposure to the stereotype.

Advocates of Stereotype Threat explanation have been criticized for exaggerating it and for misrepresenting evidence as more conclusive than it is.

A Racist Campaign Poster

A racist political campaign poster from the 1866 Pennsylvania gubernatorial election. Psychological perspectives examine the effects of these kinds of propagated stereotypes.

10.6: Race and Ethnicity in the U.S.

10.6.1: Race and Ethnicity in the U.S.

The U.S. has a diverse society, and its history is marked by attempts to concentrate power, wealth, and privilege into the hands of whites.

Learning Objective

Describe the history and current situation of at least three minorities in the U.S.

Key Points

• The emphasis on racial distinctions often results in the failure to acknowledge the ethnic and national diversity that various racial groups encompass.
• The negative effects of unequal race relations can be seen to this day, albeit to different degrees, amongst all non-European American groups.
• A model minority is a stereotype of a minority group that is considered to have achieved educational, professional, and socioeconomic success without threatening the status quo.

Key Terms

Model Minority

A minority group that is seen as reaching significant educational, professional, and socioeconomic levels without challenging the existing establishment.

Multi-Racial

When a person’s heritage comes from a variety of different races.

Example

• As both legal and illegal immigrants with high population numbers, Hispanic Americans are often the target of stereotyping, racism, and discrimination. The immigration law in Arizona, SB 1070, for example, requires that Arizona police officers verify the immigration status of anyone they suspect of being in the country illegally in the event of a lawful stop, detention, or arrest. The law makes it a crime for individuals to fail to have documents confirming their legal status, and is believed by critics to encourage racial profiling.

The United States is a very diverse, multi-racial and multi-ethnic country; people from around the world have been immigrating to the United States for several hundred years. While the first wave of immigrants came from Western Europe, the bulk of people entering North America were from Northern Europe, then Eastern Europe, followed by Latin America and Asia. There was also the forced immigration of African slaves. Native Americans, who did not immigrate but rather inhabited the land prior to immigration, experienced displacement as a result. Most of these groups also suffered a period of disenfranchisement and prejudice as they went through the process of assimilation.

Since its early history, Native Americans, African Americans, and European Americans were considered as different races in the United States. The differences attributed to each group, however, especially the differences used to designate European Americans as the superior race, had little to do with biology. Instead, these racial designations were a means to concentrate power, wealth, land, and privilege in the hands of the European Americans. Moreover, the emphasis on racial distinctions often led to the lack of acknowledgement or over-simplification of the great ethnic diversity of the country’s population. For example, the racial category of “white” or European American fails to reflect that members of this group hail from very different countries. Similarly, the racial category of “black” does not distinguish people from the Caribbean from those who were brought to North America from various parts of Africa.

Today, the U.S. continues to see a significant influx of immigrants from all over the world. Race relations in the U.S. remain problematic, marked by discrimination, persecution, violence, and an ongoing struggle for power and equality.

Native Americans

The brutal confrontation between the European colonists and the Native Americans, which resulted in the decimation of the latter’s population, is well known as an historical tragedy. Even after the establishment of the United States government, discrimination against Native Americans was codified and formalized in a series of laws intended to subjugate them and keep them from gaining any power. The eradication of Native American culture continued until the 1960s, when Native Americans were able to participate in, and benefit from, the civil rights movement. Native Americans still suffer the effects of centuries of degradation. Long-term poverty, inadequate education, cultural dislocation, and high rates of unemployment contribute to Native American populations falling to the bottom of the economic spectrum.

African Americans

African Americans arrived in North America under duress as slaves, and there is no starker illustration of the dominant-subordinate group relationship than that of slavery. Slaves were stripped of all their rights and privileges, and were at the absolute mercy of their owners. For African Americans, the civil rights movement was an indication that a subordinate group would no longer willingly submit to domination. The major blow to America’s formally institutionalized racism was the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This Act, which is still followed today, banned discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. Some sociologists, however, would argue that institutionalized racism persists, especially since African Americans still fair poorly in terms of employment, insurance coverage, and incarceration, as well as in the areas of economics, health, and education.

Asian Americans

Asian Americans come from a diversity of cultures, including Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese. They, too, have been subjected to racial prejudice. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, for example, which was motivated by white workers blaming Chinese migrants for taking their jobs, resulted in the abrupt end of Chinese immigration and the segregation of Chinese already in America; this segregation resulted in the Chinatowns found in large cities. Nevertheless, despite a difficult history, Asian Americans have earned the positive stereotype of the model minority. The model minority stereotype is applied to a minority group that is seen as reaching significant educational, professional, and socioeconomic levels without challenging the existing establishment.

Hispanic Americans

Hispanic Americans come from a wide range of backgrounds and nationalities. Mexican Americans form the largest Hispanic subgroup, and also the oldest. Mexican Americans, especially those who are here illegally, are at the center of a national debate about immigration. Mexican immigrants experience relatively low rates of economic and civil assimilation, which is most likely compounded by the fact that many of them are illegally in the country. By contrast, Cuban Americans are often seen as a model minority group within the larger Hispanic group. As with Asian Americans, however, being a model minority can mask the issue of powerlessness that these minority groups face in U.S. society.

Hispanic Population Distribution in the US

This map shows data gathered in the 2010 US Census of Spanish-speaking populations around the US.

10.6.2: Racial Groups

The United States is a diverse country, racially and ethnically.

Learning Objective

Explain what definitions of race are deployed by the U.S. census

Key Points

• The United States Census Bureau also classifies Americans as “Hispanic or Latino” and “Not Hispanic or Latino. ” Hispanic and Latino Americans are a racially diverse ethnicity that composes the largest minority group in the nation.
• The one drop rule, a historical colloquial term, stated that any one considered to have even a drop of black blood was to be classified as being black. This was an effort to restore white supremacy during the post Civil War Reconstruction era.
• The Blood Quantum, or Indian Blood, Laws refers to legislation in the United States to establish a person’s membership in Native American tribes or nations.

Key Terms

Other Pacific Islander

A United States Census category referring to individuals from the Pacific Islands but not Hawaii.

One Drop Rule

A historical colloquial term in the United States for the social classification as black of individuals with any African ancestry; meaning any person with “one drop of black blood” was considered black.

ethnicity

The identity of a group of people having common racial, national, religious, or cultural origins.

The United States is a diverse country, racially and ethnically. Six races are officially recognized: white, American Indian and Alaska Native, Asian, black or African American, Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander, and people of two or more races. A race called, “Some other race,” is also used in the census and other surveys but is not official.

The United States Census Bureau also classifies Americans as “Hispanic or Latino” and “Not Hispanic or Latino,” which identifies Hispanic and Latino Americans as a racially diverse ethnicity that composes the largest minority group in the nation.

History

The immigrants to the New World of the Americas came largely from ethnically diverse regions of the European Old World. In the Americas, the immigrant populations began to mix among themselves and with the indigenous inhabitants of the continent, as well as the enslaved Africans.

From the beginning of U.S. history, Native Americans, African Americans, and European Americans were classified as belonging to different races. For nearly three centuries, the criteria for membership in these groups were similar, comprising a person’s appearance, their fraction of known non-European ancestry and their social circle. This changed in the late nineteenth century.

Throughout the post-Civil War Reconstruction era, in an effort to restore white supremacy in the South after the emancipation of slaves, the ruling white majority began to classify anyone considered to have “one drop” of “black blood,” or any known African ancestry, to be “black.” In most southern states, this definition was not put into law until the twentieth century. Many local governments established racial segregation of facilities during what came to be known as the Jim Crow era, which began in the late 1800s.

In the twentieth century, efforts to sort the increasingly mixed population of the United States into discrete categories generated many difficulties for the U.S. government (Spickard, 1992). By the standards used in past censuses, many millions of mixed-race children born in the United States have been classified as of a different race than one of their biological parents. Efforts to track mixing between groups led to a proliferation of categories (such as “mulatto” and “octoroon”) and so-called “blood quantum” distinctions, which refers to the degree of ancestry for an individual of a specific racial or ethnic group (e.g., saying someone is “1/4 Omaha tribe”).

These various distinctions became increasingly untethered from self-reported ancestry. Further complicating this fact is that a person’s racial identity can change over time, and self-ascribed race can differ from assigned race (Kressin et al., 2003).

Current Official Definitions of Race and Ethnicity

Aside from their varied social, culture, and political connotations, the idea of racial groups have been used in U.S. censuses as self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or, starting with the 2000 US Census, races with which they most closely identify. Respondents also indicate whether or not they are of Hispanic or Latino origin, which the census considers separately from race. While many see race and ethnicity as the same thing, ethnicity generally refers to a group of people whose members identify with each other through a common heritage and culture, as opposed to the implication of shared biological traits associated with the term “race.”

The American Public by Ancestry, 2000

Especially in the southwest United States, people of Latino origin make up a significant proportion of United States residents.

These categories, therefore, represent a social-political construct for the race or races that respondents consider themselves to be and “generally reflect a social definition of race recognized in this country. ” The concept of race, as outlined for the U.S. Census, has been described as not “scientific or anthropological” and takes into account “social and cultural characteristics as well as ancestry,” using “appropriate scientific methodologies” that are not “primarily biological or genetic in reference. ” The race categories include both racial and national-origin groups.

10.6.3: Ethnic Groups

An ethnic group is a group of people who share a common heritage, culture, and/or language; in the U.S., ethnicity often refers to race.

Learning Objective

Explain why ethnic and racial categories tend to overlap in the U.S.

Key Points

• In the United States of America, the term “ethnic” carries a different meaning from how it is commonly used in some other countries, due to the historical and ongoing significance of racial distinctions that categorize together what might otherwise have been viewed as ethnic groups.
• Ethnicity in U.S. therefore usually refers to collectives of related groups, having more to do with physical appearance, specifically skin color, rather than political boundaries.
• The formal and informal inscription of racialized groupings into law and social stratification schemes has bestowed upon race a fundamental social identification role in the United States.

Key Terms

ethnic group

A group of people who identify with one another, especially on the basis of racial, cultural, or religious grounds.

social stratification

The hierarchical arrangement of social classes, or castes, within a society.

An ethnic group is a group of people who identify with each other through a common heritage, which generally consists of a common culture and shared language or dialect. The group’s ethos or ideology may also stress common ancestry, religion, or race.

In the United States of America, the term “ethnic” carries a different meaning from how it is commonly used in some other countries. This is due to the historical and ongoing significance of racial distinctions that categorize together what might otherwise have been viewed as ethnic groups. For example, various ethnic, “national,” or linguistic groups from Africa, Asia and the Pacific Islands, Latin America, and Indigenous America have long been combined together as racial minority groups (currently designated as African American, Asian, Latino and Native American or American Indian, respectively).

While a sense of ethnic identity may coexist with racial identity (Chinese Americans among Asian or Irish American among European or White, for example), the long history of the United States as a settler, conqueror, and slave society, and the formal and informal inscription of racialized groupings into law and social stratification schemes has bestowed upon race a fundamental social identification role in the United States.

Examples of Overlapping Racial and Ethnic Categories in the U.S.

Ethnicity in U.S. therefore usually refers to collectives of related groups, having more to do with physical appearance, specifically skin color, rather than political boundaries. The word “nationality” is more commonly used for this purpose (e.g. Italian, Mexican, French, Russian, Japanese). Most prominently in the U.S., Latin American descended populations are grouped in a “Hispanic” or “Latino” ethnicity. The many previously designated “Oriental” ethnic groups are now classified as the “Asian” racial group for the census.

The terms “Black” and “African American,” while different, are both used as ethnic categories in the U.S. In the late 1980s, the term “African American” came into prominence as the most appropriate and politically correct race designation. While it was intended as a shift away from the racial injustices of America’s past often associated with the historical views of the “Black” race, it largely became a simple replacement for the terms Black, Colored, Negro and similar terms, referring to any individual of dark skin color regardless of geographical descent.

The term Caucasian generally describes some or all people whose ancestry can be traced to Europe, the Middle East, the Horn of Africa, North Africa, Central Asia, and South Asia. This includes European-colonized countries in the Americas, Australasia, and South Africa, among others. All the aforementioned are categorized as part of the “White” racial group, as per U.S. Census categorization. This category has been split into two groups: Hispanics and non-Hispanics (e.g. White non-Hispanic and White Hispanic. )

Fifteen Largest Ancestries in the 2000 Census

Top ancestries recorded in 2000.

10.6.4: Immigration and Illegal Immigration

Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence.

Learning Objective

Discuss the history and status of immigration (both legal and illegal) and the workforce in the United States

Key Points

• Immigration to the United States has been a major source of population growth and cultural change. Different historical periods have brought distinct national groups, races and ethnicities to the United States.
• In recent years, immigration has increased substantially.
• American attitudes toward immigration are markedly ambivalent. In general, Americans have more positive attitudes toward groups that have been visible for a century or more, and much more negative attitude toward recent arrivals.
• An illegal immigrant in the United States is an alien (non-citizen) who has entered the United States without government permission and in violation of United States Nationality Law, or stayed beyond the termination date of a visa, also in violation of the law.

Key Terms

illegal immigration

When a person enters the United States without governmental permission and in violation of the United States Nationality Law, or stayed beyond the termination date of a visa, also in violation of the law.

immigration

The act of immigrating; the passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence.

Example

• In June 2012, President Obama put an end to the deportation of the children of illegal immigrants below the age of 30 and with no prior criminal record. He argued that these people, who are for all intents and purposes American, should be put on the path to citizenship as productive members of American society.

Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence. Immigration occurs for many reasons, including economic, political, family re-unification, natural disasters, or poverty. Many immigrants came to America to escape religious persecution or dire economic conditions. Most hoped coming to America would provide freedom and opportunity.

History

Immigration to the United States has been a major source of population growth and cultural change. Different historical periods have brought distinct national groups, races and ethnicities to the United States. During the 17^th century, approximately 175,000 Englishmen migrated to Colonial America. Over half of all European immigrants to Colonial America during the 17^th and 18^th centuries arrived as indentured servants. The mid-nineteenth century saw mainly an influx from northern Europe; the early twentieth-century mainly from Southern and Eastern Europe; post-1965 mostly from Latin America and Asia.

Contemporary Immigration

In recent years, immigration has increased substantially. In 1965, ethnic quotas were removed; these quotas had restricted the number of immigrants allowed from different parts of the world. Immigration doubled between 1965 and 1970, and again between 1970 and 1990. Between 2000 and 2005, nearly 8 million immigrants entered the United States, more than in any other five-year period in the nation’s history. In 2006, the United States accepted more legal immigrants as permanent residents than all other countries in the world combined.

Recent Immigration Demographics

Until the 1930s most legal immigrants were male. By the 1990s, women accounted for just over half of all legal immigrants. Contemporary immigrants tend to be younger than the native population of the United States, with people between the ages of 15 and 34 substantially over-represented Immigrants are also more likely to be married and less likely to be divorced than native-born Americans of the same age.

Immigrants come from all over the world, but a significant number come from Latin America. In 1900, when the U.S. population was 76 million, there were an estimated 500,000 Hispanics. The Census Bureau projects that by 2050, one-quarter of the population will be of Hispanic descent. This demographic shift is largely fueled by immigration from Latin America.

Immigrants are likely to move to and live in areas populated by people with similar backgrounds. This phenomenon has held true throughout the history of immigration to the United States.

Public Opinion Toward Immigrants

American attitudes toward immigration are markedly ambivalent. American history is rife with examples of anti-immigrant opinion. Benjamin Franklin opposed German immigration, warning Germans would not assimilate. In the 1850s, the nativist Know Nothing movement opposed Irish immigration, promulgating fears that the country was being overwhelmed by Irish Catholic immigrants.

In general, Americans have more positive attitudes toward groups that have been visible for a century or more, and much more negative attitude toward recent arrivals.According to a 1982 national poll by the Roper Center at the University of Connecticut, “By high margins, Americans are telling pollsters it was a very good thing that Poles, Italians, and Jews emigrated to America. Once again, it’s the newcomers who are viewed with suspicion. This time, it’s the Mexicans, the Filipinos, and the people from the Caribbean who make Americans nervous. “

One of the most important factors regarding public opinion about immigration is the level of unemployment; anti-immigrant sentiment is highest where unemployment is highest, and vice versa. In fact, in the United States, only 0.16 percent of the workforce are legal immigrants.

Illegal Immigration to the United States

An illegal immigrant in the United States is an alien (non-citizen) who has entered the United States without government permission and in violation of United States Nationality Law, or stayed beyond the termination date of a visa, also in violation of the law. Illegal immigrants continue to outpace the number of legal immigrants—a trend that’s held steady since the 1990s. The illegal immigrant population is estimated to be between 7 and 20 million. More than 50% of illegal immigrants are from Mexico.

While the majority of illegal immigrants continue to concentrate in places with existing large Hispanic communities, illegal immigrants are increasingly settling throughout the rest of the country. A percentage of illegal immigrants do not remain indefinitely but do return to their country of origin; they are often referred to as “sojourners” , for “they come to the United States for several years but eventually return to their home country. “

The continuing practice of hiring unauthorized workers has been referred to as the magnet for illegal immigration. As a significant percentage of employers are willing to hire illegal immigrants for higher pay than they would typically receive in their former country, illegal immigrants have prime motivation to cross borders. But migration is expensive, and dangerous for those who enter illegally. Participants in debates on immigration in the early twenty-first century have called for increasing enforcement of existing laws governing illegal immigration to the United States, building a barrier along some or all of the 2,000-mile (3,200 km) U.S.-Mexico border, or creating a new guest worker program.

10.6.5: Affirmative Action

Affirmative action refers refers to policies that take factors such as race, gender, sexual orientation, and religion into consideration.

Learning Objective

Discuss arguments for and against affirmative action

Key Points

• Affirmative action measures are intended to prevent discrimination against employees or applicants for employment, on the basis of “color, religion, sex, or national origin”.
• The controversy surrounding affirmative action’s effectiveness is often based on the idea of class inequality.
• Other opponents of affirmative action call it reverse discrimination, saying affirmative action requires the very discrimination it is seeking to eliminate.

Key Term

affirmative action

A policy or program providing advantages for people of a minority group who are seen to have traditionally been discriminated against, with the aim of creating a more egalitarian society through preferential access to education, employment, health care, social welfare, etc.

In the United States, affirmative action refers to equal opportunity employment measures that Federal contractors and subcontractors such as public universities and government agencies are legally required to adopt. These measures are intended to prevent discrimination against employees or applicants for employment on the basis of “color, religion, sex, or national origin”. Examples of affirmative action offered by the United States Department of Labor include outreach campaigns, targeted recruitment, employee and management development, and employee support programs.

The impetus towards affirmative action is to redress the disadvantages associated with overt historical discrimination. Further impetus is a desire to ensure that public institutions, such as universities, hospitals, and police forces, are more representative of the populations they serve.

Affirmative action is a subject of controversy. Some policies adopted as affirmative action, such as racial quotas or gender quotas for collegiate admission, have been criticized as a form of reverse discrimination, an implementation ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2003, though the Court also upheld affirmative action as a practice in a court case held simultaneously that year.

History of the Term

Affirmative action in the United States began as a tool to address the persisting inequalities for African Americans in the 1960s. This specific term was first used to describe US government policy in 1961. Directed to all government contracting agencies, President John F. Kennedy’s Executive Order 10925 mandated “affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed, and that employees are treated during employment, without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin. “

Four years later, President Lyndon B. Johnson outlined the basic social science view that supports such policies:

“Men and women of all races are born with the same range of abilities. But ability is not just the product of birth. Ability is stretched or stunted by the family that you live with, and the neighborhood you live in—by the school you go to and the poverty or the richness of your surroundings. It is the product of a hundred unseen forces playing upon the little infant, the child, and finally the man.”

Arguments Against Affirmative Action

The controversy surrounding affirmative action’s effectiveness is often based on the idea of class inequality. Opponents of racial affirmative action argue that the program actually benefits middle- and upper-class African Americans and Hispanic Americans at the expense of lower class European Americans and Asian Americans. This argument supports the idea of solely class-based affirmative action. America’s poor is disproportionately made up of people of color, so class-based affirmative action would disproportionately help people of color. This would eliminate the need for race-based affirmative action as well as reducing any disproportionate benefits for middle and upper class people of color.

Other opponents of affirmative action call it reverse discrimination, saying affirmative action requires the very discrimination it is seeking to eliminate. According to these opponents, this contradiction makes affirmative action counter-productive. Other opponents say affirmative action causes unprepared applicants to be accepted in highly demanding educational institutions or jobs which result in eventual failure. Other opponents say that affirmative action lowers the bar, and so denies those who strive for excellence on their own merit and the sense of real achievement.

Some opponents further claim that affirmative action has undesirable side-effects and that it fails to achieve its goals. They argue that it hinders reconciliation, replaces old wrongs with new wrongs, undermines the achievements of minorities, and encourages groups to identify themselves as disadvantaged even if they are not. It may increase racial tension and benefit the more privileged people within minority groups at the expense of the disenfranchised within majority groups (such as lower-class whites). Some opponents believe, among other things, that affirmative action devalues the accomplishments of people who belong to a group it is supposed to help, therefore making affirmative action counter-productive.

Implementation in Universities

In the US, a prominent form of affirmative action centers on access to education, particularly admission to universities and other forms of higher education. Race, ethnicity, native language, social class, geographical origin, parental attendance of the university in question (legacy admissions), and/or gender are sometimes taken into account when assessing the meaning of an applicant’s grades and test scores. Individuals can also be awarded scholarships and have fees paid on the basis of criteria listed above. In 1978, the Supreme Court ruled in Bakke v. Regents that public universities (and other government institutions) could not set specific numerical targets based on race for admissions or employment. The Court said that “goals” and “timetables” for diversity could be set instead.

John F. Kennedy

John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States, who established the concept of affirmative action by mandating that projects financed with federal funds “take affirmative action” to ensure that hiring and employment practices are free of racial bias.

10.6.6: A Multicultural Society

Multiculturalism is an ideology that promotes the institutionalization of communities containing multiple cultures.

Learning Objective

Describe how multiculturalism is addressed in the U.S.

Key Points

• Multiculturalism is generally applied to the demographic make-up of a specific place, e.g. schools, businesses, neighborhoods, cities, or nations.
• In the United States, continuous mass immigration has been a feature of economy and society since the first half of the 19th century.
• The absorption of the stream of immigrants in itself became a prominent feature of America’s national myth, inspiring its own narrative about its past that is centered around multiculturalism and the embrace of newcomers from many different backgrounds.

Key Terms

multiculturalism

A characteristic of a society that has many different ethnic or national cultures mingling freely. It can also refer to political or social policies which support or encourage such a coexistence. Important in this is the idea that cultural practices, no matter how unusual, should be tolerated as a measure of respect.

national myth

An inspiring narrative or anecdote about a nation’s past that serves as an important national symbol and affirms a set of national values.

Multiculturalism is an ideology that promotes the institutionalization of communities containing multiple cultures. It is generally applied to the demographic make-up of a specific place, usually at the organizational level, e.g. schools, businesses, neighborhoods, cities, or nations.

In a political context the term is used for a wide variety of meanings, ranging from the advocacy of equal respect for the various cultures in a society, to a policy of promoting the maintenance of cultural diversity, to policies in which people of various ethnic and religious groups are addressed by the authorities as defined by the group they belong to.

In the United States, multiculturalism is not clearly established in policy at the federal level. Instead, it has been addressed primarily through the school system with the rise of ethnic studies programs in higher education and attempts to make the grade school curricula more inclusive of the history and contributions of non-white peoples.

Multiculturalism and the National Myth

In the United States, continuous mass immigration has been a feature of economy and society since the first half of the 19^th century. The absorption of the stream of immigrants in itself became a prominent feature of America’s national myth, inspiring its own narrative about its past.

This found particular expression in America as a “Melting Pot,” a metaphor that implies that all the immigrant cultures are mixed and amalgamated without state intervention. This metaphor also suggests that each individual immigrant, and each group of immigrants, assimilated into American society at their own pace. The Melting Pot tradition co-exists with a belief in national unity, dating from the American founding fathers:

“Providence has been pleased to give this one connected country to one united people—a people descended from the same ancestors, speaking the same language, professing the same religion, attached to the same principles of government, very similar in their manners and customs… This country and this people seem to have been made for each other, and it appears as if it was the design of Providence, that an inheritance so proper and convenient for a band of brethren, united to each other by the strongest ties, should never be split into a number of unsocial, jealous, and alien sovereignties. ” —John Jay, First American Supreme Court Chief Justice, Federalist Paper No. 2

Multiculturalism as a Philosophy

As a philosophy, multiculturalism began as part of the pragmatism movement at the end of the nineteenth century in Europe and the United States, then as political and cultural pluralism at the turn of the twentieth. It was partly in response to a new wave of European imperialism in sub-Saharan Africa and the massive immigration of Southern and Eastern Europeans to the United States and Latin America.

Philosophers, psychologists, historians, and early sociologists such as Charles Sanders Peirce, William James, George Santayana, Horace Kallen, John Dewey, W. E. B. Du Bois, and Alain Locke developed concepts of cultural pluralism, from which emerged what we understand today as multiculturalism. In Pluralistic Universe (1909), William James espoused the idea of a “plural society” and saw pluralism as “crucial to the formation of philosophical and social humanism to help build a better, more egalitarian society. “

Multiculturalism in Education

The educational approach to multiculturalism has recently spread to the grade school system, as school systems try to rework their curricula to introduce students to diversity at an earlier age. This is often on the grounds that it is important for minority students to see themselves represented in the classroom. Studies estimate that the 46.3 million Americans ages 14 to 24 are the most diverse generation in American society.

Controversy over Multiculturalism

Multiculturalism is a highly disputed topic in the United States. For example, in 2009 and 2010, controversy erupted in Texas as the state’s curriculum committee made several changes to the state’s school cirriculum requirements, often at the expense of minorities: juxtaposing Abraham Lincoln’s inaugural address with that of Confederate president Jefferson Davis; debating removing Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and labor-leader César Chávez; and rejecting calls to include more Hispanic figures, in spite of the high Hispanic population in the state.

New York City Circa 1900

Mulberry Street, along which Manhattan’s Little Italy is centered. Lower East Side, New York City, United States, circa 1900.

9.4: Social Mobility

9.4.1: Social Mobility

Learning Objective

Assess how different factors facilitate social mobility

Key Points

• A person’s ability to move between social positions depends upon their economic, cultural, human, and social capital.
• The attributes needed to move up or down the social hierarchy are particular to each society; some countries value economic gain, for example, while others prioritize religious status.
• Social mobility typically refers to vertical mobility, movement of individuals or groups up or down from one socio-economic level to another, often by changing jobs or marriage.

Key Terms

meritocratic

Used to describe a type of society where wealth, income, and social status are assigned through competition.

social mobility

the degree to which, in a given society, an individual’s, family’s, or group’s social status can change throughout the course of their life through a system of social hierarchy or stratification

Relative Social Mobility

A measure of a person’s upward or downward movement in the social hierarchy compared to the movement of other members of their inherited social class.

Intergenerational Mobility

Refers to the phenomenon whereby a child attains higher or lower status than their parents.

Examples

• An individual who is born to poor, uneducated parents but goes on to receive a college degree and become a well-paid corporate executive demonstrates upward social mobility; they improve their social status over their lifetime.
• A person who inherits a trust fund can afford to receive an expensive education; their expensive education is a marker of status that will earn them favor in job interviews; if they work hard at their job, they will eventually receive a promotion; if they make contacts with high ranking employees, they may receive special attention and privileges. In this way, a person’s economic, cultural, human, and social capital can contribute to their chances of being upwardly (or downwardly) mobile.
• In the United States, the trope of the American Dream holds that individuals who work hard and demonstrate intelligence will be professionally successful and attain high social status. By contrast, in the traditional Indian caste system the highest social position was occupied by those who demonstrated priestliness.

Social mobility refers to the movement of individuals or groups in social positions over time. Most commonly, social mobility refers to the change in wealth and social status of individuals or families. However, it may also refer to changes in health status, literacy rate, education, or other variables among groups, such as classes, ethnic groups, or countries.

Social mobility typically refers to vertical mobility, movement of individuals or groups up or down from one socio-economic level to another, often by changing jobs or marriage. Nonetheless, social mobility can also refer to horizontal mobility, movement from one position to another within the same social level, as when someone changes between two equally prestigious occupations.

In some cases, social mobility is intergenerational, as when children attain a higher or lower status than their parents held. Other times, social mobility is intra-generational, meaning that a person changes status within their lifetime. A high level of intergenerational mobility is often considered praiseworthy and can be seen as a sign of equality of opportunity in a society.

A distinction can also be drawn between absolute social mobility, which refers to the total observed movement of people between classes, and relative social mobility, which is an estimate of the chance of upward or downward movement of a member of one social class in comparison with a member from another class. An example of absolute social movement is when a region’s economic development provides quality education to a social group that previously did not have access to education, thus raising the group’s literacy level and socioeconomic status. Relative social mobility might refer to the opportunities presented to a middle class child born in a particular area of the United States, who might be predicted to attain a college level education and a maximum income of $80,000, for example.

Social mobility can be enabled to varying extents by economic capital, cultural capital, human capital, and social capital. Economic capital includes a person’s financial and material resources, such as income and accumulated wealth. Cultural capital includes resources ranging from holding a graduate degree to having a grasp of a group’s customs and rituals, both of which may confer an advantage in job markets and social exchanges. Human capital refers to such individual traits as competence and work ethic, which may enable increased educational or professional attainment. Social capital includes the advantages conferred by one’s social network, such as access to professional opportunities and insider knowledge. These types of capital facilitate mobility by providing access to opportunities and the tools to acquire wealth and status.

Societies present different opportunities for mobility depending on their systems of value. For example, Western capitalist countries are generally meritocratic. In such countries, social standing is based on such personal attributes as educational attainment, income, and occupational prestige. Thus, the degree of mobility in Western capitalist states depends on the extent to which individuals have access to educational and economic opportunity. By contrast, in countries where religious devotion is valued over economic standing, mobility may depend upon individuals’ access to religious rituals and shows of piety. In different countries or regions, the extent to which individuals have social mobility depends upon different factors.

Intergenerational Mobility in a Sample of Developed Countries

This graph shows the results of a study on how much intergenerational social mobility there is in a sample of developed countries. Countries with higher intergenerational income elasticity have lower social mobility — in countries on the left of the graph, children are likely to attain the same social status as their parents.

9.4.2: Growing Gap Between Rich and Poor

Learning Objective

Discuss the causes of economic inequality

Key Points

• Economic inequality refers to inequality among individuals and groups within a society, but can also refer to inequality among countries.
• Inequality is most often measured using the Gini coefficient, a statistic used to demonstrate the dispersion of wealth in a group.
• Both the capitalist market and government interventions can increase or decrease the level of inequality in a society.

Key Terms

Capitalist Market

Refers to an economic system in which supply and demand determines the cost of goods and wages for services.

supply and demand

An economic model of price determination in a market based on the relative scarcity or abundance of goods and services.

gini coefficient

A measure of the inequality of a statistical distribution, ranging from zero (total equality) to one (maximal inequality), used in various disciplines but especially in economics to compare incomes or wealth.

Examples

• The gap between the rich and poor can be illustrated by the fact that the three wealthiest individuals in the world have assets that exceed those of the poorest 10 percent of the world’s population.
• The fact that inequality exists between nations is seen in the statistic that the world’s wealthiest countries have just 13% of the world’s population but 45% of its purchasing power; the poorest nations have 42% of the world’s population and 9% of its purchasing power.
• Using a Gini coefficient, we see that poor nations in Africa and Latin America have some of the greatest inequality in the world, but that wealthier nations like the United States and China also have significant inequality. Thus, national prosperity does not always correspond to individual prosperity, due to inequality in the internal distribution of wealth.
• In the United States, the decline of manufacturing and subsequent high rates of unemployment among unskilled laborers illustrates the impact of market forces on inequality. When the government provides unemployment pay to unskilled laborers who cannot find work, this is a government initiative to regulate growing inequality.

Economic inequality (also known as the gap between rich and poor, income inequality, wealth disparity, or wealth and income differences) consists of disparities in the distribution of wealth (accumulated assets) and income. The term typically refers to inequality among individuals and groups within a society, but can also refer to inequality among countries. The issue of economic inequality is related to the ideas of equity: equality of outcome and equality of opportunity. There are various numerical indices for measuring economic inequality, but the most commonly used measure for the purposes of comparison is the Gini coefficient (also known as the Gini index or Gini ratio for Italian statistician and sociologist Corrado Gini). The Gini coefficient is a statistical measure of the dispersal of wealth or income. A Gini coefficient of zero indicates that there is perfect equality—assets are equally divided between all people in the group. A Gini coefficient of one indicates that all of a group’s wealth is held by one individual. Most countries fall toward the middle of this range .

Map of Global Gini Coefficients

Using Gini coefficients, this map illustrates the extent to which each country in the world has internal inequality, or a gap between its richest and poorest citizens.

There are many reasons for economic inequality within societies, and they are often interrelated. Acknowledged factors that impact economic inequality include, but are not limited to:

• Inequality in wages and salaries;
• The income gap between highly skilled workers and low-skilled or no-skills workers;
• Wealth concentration in the hands of a few individuals or institutions;
• Labor markets;
• Globalization;
• Technological changes;
• Policy reforms;
• Taxes;
• Education;
• Computerization and growing technology;
• Racism;
• Gender;
• Culture;
• Innate ability

A major cause of economic inequality within modern economies is the determination of wages by the capitalist market. In the capitalist market, the wages for jobs are set by supply and demand. If there are many workers willing to do a job for a great amount of time, there is a high supply of labor for that job. If few people need that job done, there is low demand for that type of labor. When there is high supply and low demand for a job, it results in a low wage. Conversely, if there is low supply and high demand (as with particular highly skilled jobs), it will result in a high wage. The gap in wages produces inequality between different types of workers.

Apart from market-driven factors that affect wage inequality, government sponsored initiatives can also increase or decrease inequality. Social scientists and policy makers debate the relative merits and effectiveness of each approach to regulating inequality. Typical government initiatives to reduce economic inequality include:

• Public education: Increasing the supply of skilled labor and reducing income inequality due to education differentials.
• Progressive taxation: The rich are taxed proportionally more than the poor, reducing the amount of income inequality in society.
• Minimum wage legislation: Raising the income of the poorest workers
• Nationalization or subsidization of products: Providing goods and services that everyone needs cheaply or freely (such as food, healthcare, and housing), governments can effectively raise the purchasing power of the poorer members of society.

9.4.3: Open vs. Closed Stratification Systems

Learning Objective

Differentiate between open and closed stratification systems

Key Points

• Social stratification describes the socioeconomic levels of a society as “layers,” with the wealthiest and most powerful citizens being at the top.
• An achievement-based economic system with social mobility and relations between classes is known as an open class system.
• By contrast, people in a closed class system have been confined to their ancestral occupations, and their social status has mostly been prescribed by birth. Most closed class systems are found in less industrialized countries.
• Ascribed status is the social position one is born into and personal characteristics beyond one’s control, such as race and gender. Achieved status is one’s social standing that depends on personal accomplishments.

Key Terms

ascribed status

The social status of a person that is given from birth or assumed involuntarily later in life.

structural mobility

Opportunity for movement in social class that is attributable to changes in the social structure of a society, rather than to changes in an individual.

achieved status

A social status of a person that is acquired, such as being an Olympic athlete, being a criminal, or being a college professor.

Examples

• Though the extent to which individuals have social mobility in the United States is debated, new members of the elite are evidence that there is some mobility between classes. President Barack Obama was born to a family without wealth and faced racial discrimination, but achieved the highest office in the country as a result of his personal achievements.
• In modern western Europe, status depends on individual educational and professional attainment, meaning that people are ranked based on achieved status.
• In medieval Europe, status depended on one’s family history, as nobility was inherited rather than attained through occupational success. Thus, people were ranked by ascribed status.

 Social stratification describes the socioeconomic levels of a society as “layers,” with the wealthiest and most powerful citizens being at the top. Typically, the top layer of society tends to have lots of property, as well as prestige and social influence. 

Sociologists who study stratification have identified open class systems and compared them to closed class systems. The difference between these types of class systems are their structural mobility. In a class system that has high structural mobility, it’s easy to move around between social classes based on the way the society is structured, regardless of your individual achievements.

In an open class system, the hierarchical social status of a person is achieved through their effort. These types of class systems are achievement-based economic system with social mobility and relations between classes. Status based on family background, ethnicity, gender, and religion, which is also known as “ascribed status,” is less important. In an open class system, there is no distinct line between the classes, and there is a wide range of positions within each status level. Core industrial nations seem to have more of an ideal open class system than less industrialized countries, in which there are fewer opportunities for economic advancement.

Steve Jobs’ Childhood Home

The United States exhibits an open stratification system, where individuals can move between social statuses based on achievement. Pictured is the middle class home of Steve Jobs’ parents, where he founded the technology company that eventually made him one of the world’s wealthiest people.

Compared with industrialized open systems, pre-industrial societies have mostly been found to be closed class systems where there is low social mobility. People in such societies may be confined to their ancestral occupations, and their social status is largely prescribed by status at birth. A society in which traditional or religious caste systems dominate, opportunity for social mobility is unlikely.

Achieved status is a position gained based on merit or achievement (used in an open system). An open system describes a society with mobility between different social classes. Individuals can move up or down in the social rankings; this is unlike closed systems, where individuals are set in one social position for life despite their achievements. Ascribed status is based on who a person is, not what they can do. In closed class systems, people tend to be ranked by ascribed status. When ascribed status is used to determine social position, fixed roles develop, such as those of lord and serf in feudal Europe. Roles are assigned at birth, and there is little change over one’s lifetime. Social mobility is much more frequent in countries that use achievement as the basis for status.

The French Estates

This fifteenth-century woodcutting illustrates the closed stratification system of the three estates of the French Ancien Régime. People were divided into clergy, nobility, and commoners. These categories were discrete, and there was little interaction or mobility between them.

9.4.4: Types of Social Mobility

Learning Objective

Describe several types of social mobility

Key Points

• Social mobility refers to the movement of individuals or groups in social position over time.
• Social mobility may refer to classes, ethnic groups, or entire nations, and may measure health status, literacy, or education; however, more commonly it refers to individuals or families, and to their change in income.
• Movement up or down the social hierarchy is called vertical social mobility.
• Movement between two equally ranked social positions is called horizontal mobility.
• Intra-generational mobility (“within” a generation) is defined as change in social status over a single lifetime.
• Absolute mobility measures whether (and by how much) living standards in a society have increased; this is often measured by what percentage of people have higher incomes than their parents.
• Relative mobility refers to how likely children are to move from their parents’ place in the social hierarchy.

Key Terms

intra-generational mobility

Change in social status over a single lifetime.

vertical mobility

Movement of individuals or groups up or down from one socioeconomic level to another, often by changing jobs or through marriage.

meritocratic

Used to describe a type of society where wealth, income, and social status are assigned through competition.

Examples

• Vertical social mobility refers to moving up or down the so-called social ladder. Barack Obama’s ascent from being the child of a middle-class interracial couple to being the president of the United States is an example of upward mobility. Bernie Madoff’s fall from being a rich and powerful Wall Street executive to a prison inmate is an example of downward mobility.
• If a secretary tires of their job and chooses to become a restaurant server, this would be an example of horizontal mobility — the positions occupy roughly the same rung on the social ladder.
• An employee of a large corporation who starts in the mailroom and ends up in a high level management position demonstrates intra-generational mobility — they improve their status over their lifetime. When a child who is born to parents with college degrees attains a graduate degree, this is an example of intergenerational mobility — the child achieves higher status than their parents.
• In the United Kingdom, middle class children born after World War II tended to have higher standards of living than their parents who endured the war. The British middle class thus experienced absolute upward mobility.
• Once the British middle class experienced absolute upward mobility, an individual child became expected to achieve greater status than their parents, even though this was not true in every individual case. The expectation that children’s status would exceed parents was based on relative social mobility.

Social mobility refers to the movement of individuals or groups in social position over time. Most commonly, social mobility refers to the change in wealth and social status of individuals or families. However, it may also refer to changes in health status, literacy rate, education, or other variables among groups such as classes, ethnic groups, or countries.

Social mobility typically refers to vertical mobility, which is the movement of individuals or groups up or down from one socioeconomic level to another, often by changing jobs or through marriage. In some instances though, social mobility is used to refer to horizontal mobility, which is the movement from one position to another within the same social level, as when someone changes between two equally prestigious occupations.

Social mobility can be intergenerational, such as when children attain a higher or lower status than their parents held. Other times, social mobility is intra-generational, meaning that a person changes status within their lifetime. A high level of intergenerational mobility is often considered praiseworthy, and can be seen as a sign of equality of opportunity in a society.

A distinction can be drawn between absolute social mobility, which refers to the total observed movement of people between classes, and relative social mobility, which is an estimate of the chance of upward or downward movement of a member of one social class in comparison with a member from another class. An example of absolute social mobility is when a region’s economic development provides education to a social group that previously did not have access to education, thus raising the group’s literacy level and socioeconomic status. Relative social mobility might refer to the opportunities presented to a middle class child born in a particular area of the United States, who might be predicted to attain a college level education and a maximum income of $80,000, for example.

Social mobility can be enabled to varying extents by economic capital, cultural capital, human capital, and social capital. Economic capital includes a person’s financial and material resources, such as income and accumulated wealth. Cultural capital includes resources ranging from holding a graduate degree to having a grasp of a group’s customs and rituals, both of which may confer an advantage in job markets and social exchanges. Human capital refers to such individual traits as competence and work ethic, which may enable increased educational or professional attainment. Social capital includes the advantages conferred by one’s social network, such as access to professional opportunities and insider knowledge. These types of capital facilitate mobility by providing access to opportunities and the tools to acquire wealth and status.

Each society presents different opportunities for mobility depending on its system of values. For example, Western capitalist countries are generally meritocratic. In these countries, social standing is based on such personal attributes as educational attainment, income, and occupational prestige. Thus, the degree of mobility in Western capitalist states depends on the extent to which individuals have access to educational and economic opportunity. By contrast, in countries where religious devotion is valued over economic standing, mobility may depend upon individuals’ access to religious rituals and shows of piety. In different countries or regions, the extent to which individuals are socially mobile depends upon different factors.

9.4.5: Social Mobility in the U.S.

Learning Objective

Explain how the “glass ceiling” and other factors lower social mobility in the United States

Key Points

• Socioeconomic mobility in the United States refers to the movement of Americans from one social class or economic level to another, often by changing jobs or marrying.
• The “glass ceiling” effect is the upper limit on the mobility of minorities, such as African-Americans and women, that prevents them from occupying more than a very small percentage of high status positions.
• For women, another explanation for the glass ceiling effect in the American work force is the job-family trade off.

Key Terms

Socioeconomic Mobility

The movement of Americans from one social class or economic level to another, often by changing jobs or marrying.

The American Dream

The belief that with hard work, courage, and determination, anyone can prosper and achieve success.

glass ceiling

An unwritten, uncodified barrier to further promotion or progression for a member of a specific demographic group.

Examples

• When a young adult graduates college and begins their first full-time, salaried position, they enter a higher occupational status than they held as a student.
• The American Dream is often associated with a series of novels written by Horatio Alger in the late 19th century, most of which told the story of a young person born to a lower class family who achieved higher status through hard work and virtue.
• Women’s glass ceiling, or the upper limit on their upward mobility, has risen significantly since the feminist movement of the 1960s-70s. Still, just 3.2% of publicly traded companies have women CEOs.

Socioeconomic mobility in the United States refers to the movement of Americans from one social class or economic level to another, often by changing jobs or marrying. This “vertical” mobility can be the change in socioeconomic status between parents and children (“inter-generational”), or over the course of a lifetime (“intra-generational”). It typically refers to “relative mobility”—the chance that an American’s income or status will rise or fall compared to others in another income or status group; however, mobility can also be “absolute”— whether (and by how much) living standards in America have increased. The belief that there is significant social mobility in America, or in other words, that Americans can and do rise from humble origins to riches, is called the American Dream.

Researchers have found that in fact, there is relatively low social mobility in the United States. Explanations for this phenomenon include the following:

• The fact that affluent children have better access to superior schools in an economy where pay is higher for educated workers
• The low rate of unionization, which leads to lower wages among the least skilled workers
• Public health problems, like obesity and diabetes, which can limit education and employment
• The sheer size of the income gap between the rich and poor, which makes it harder to climb the proverbial income ladder because the rungs are far apart
• Poverty, since those with low income have significantly lower rates of mobility than middle and higher income individuals

Despite the increased presence of African Americans and women in the work force over the years, women and non-whites hold jobs with less rank, authority, opportunity for advancement, and pay than men and whites. The limit to women’s and minorities’ upward mobility is called the glass ceiling. The glass ceiling is thought to prevent women and minorities from occupying more than a very small percentage of top managerial positions. One reason for the persistence of the glass ceiling, even as explicitly discriminatory policies are eliminated, is the small proportion of high status individuals in the social networks of women and ethnic minorities. The more managers there are in an employee’s immediate work environment, the higher the employee’s chances of interacting and spending time with high status and high income employees. Consequently, the more likely these employees are to be drawn on for promotion.

For women, another explanation for the glass ceiling effect in the American work force is the job-family trade off. While both men and women feel that a conflict exists between work life and family life, women with children, particularly married women, are more likely to either temporarily leave the labor force or cut back on employment by using flex time, working part-time, or working only part of the year. Statistically, men have been willing to accept job conditions that women do not, such as working outside in extreme weather, working where you can become physically dirty on a regular basis, working extra hours, and other such undesirable conditions.

US Gender Pay Gap, by Race/Ethnicity

In the United States, white males have greater social mobility than women and racial/ethnic minorities, whose mobility is limited by the glass ceiling.

9.5: The Impacts of Social Class

9.5.1: Consequences of Social Class

One’s position in the the social class hierarchy has far-reaching effects on their health, family life, education, etc.

Learning Objective

Describe how socioeconomic status (SES) relates to the distributiuon of social opportunities and resources

Key Points

• While sociologists debate exactly how social classes are divided, there is substantial evidence that socioeconomic status is tied to tangible advantages and outcomes.
• Social class in the United States is a controversial issue, with social scientists disagreeing over models, definitions, and even the basic question of whether or not distinct classes exist.
• Many Americans believe in a simple three-class model that includes the rich or upper class, the middle class, and the poor or working class.

Key Terms

socioeconomic

Of or pertaining to social and economic factors.

hierarchy

Any group of objects ranked so that everyone but the topmost is subordinate to a specified group above it.

Examples

• Studies have found that upper class employees tend to feel that they are shown respect and given creative opportunities at work, and consequently report higher job satisfaction than lower class employees. Thus, the class divide in the workplace can lead to greater or lesser levels of overall happiness and stress.
• Health disparities are one example of the relationship between socioeconomic status and quality of life: lower class households have higher rates of infant mortality, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and disabling physical injury than upper class households.

In the United States, a person’s social class has far-reaching consequences. Social class refers to the the grouping of individuals in a stratified hierarchy based on wealth, income, education, occupation, and social network (though other factors are sometimes considered). One’s position in the social class hierarchy may impact, for example, health, family life, education, religious affiliation, political participation, and experience with the criminal justice system.

Social class in the United States is a controversial issue, with social scientists disagreeing over models, definitions, and even the basic question of whether or not distinct classes exist. Many Americans believe in a simple three-class model that includes the rich or upper class, the middle class, and the poor or working class. More complex models that have been proposed by social scientists describe as many as a dozen class levels. Regardless of which model of social classes used, it is clear that socioeconomic status (SES) is tied to particular opportunities and resources. Socioeconomic status refers to a person’s position in the social hierarchy and is determined by their income, wealth, occupational prestige, and educational attainment.

While social class may be an amorphous and diffuse concept, with scholars disagreeing over its definition, tangible advantages are associated with high socioeconomic status. People in the highest SES bracket, generally referred to as the upper class, likely have better access to healthcare, marry people of higher social status, attend more prestigious schools, and are more influential in politics than people in the middle class or working class. People in the upper class are members of elite social networks, effectively meaning that they have access to people in powerful positions who have specialized knowledge. These social networks confer benefits ranging from advantages in seeking education and employment to leniency by police and the courts. Sociologists may dispute exactly how to model the distinctions between socioeconomic statuses, but the higher up the class hierarchy one is in America, the better health, educational, and professional outcomes one is likely to have.

9.5.2: Physical Health

Social class is a strong social determinant of health.

Learning Objective

Describe how a low socioeconomic status (SES) can impact the health status of individuals

Key Points

• Social class is correlated to environmental hazards that increase one’s risk of contracting a disease or sustaining an injury; low access to fresh produce, exercise facilities, and preventative health programs are all environmental hazards that negatively impact health outcomes.
• Health inequality refers to the unequal distribution of environmental hazards and access to health services between demographic groups, including social classes, as well as to the disparate health outcomes experienced by these groups.
• In addition to environmental hazards, lower socioeconomic classes have lower levels of health insurance than the upper class. Much of this disparity can be explained by the tendency for lower status occupations to not provide benefits to employees.

Key Terms

Environmental Hazards

Risk factors related to social and economic conditions that may produce negative health outcomes, including pollution and distribution of grocery stores, for example.

health inequality

The unequal distribution of environmental health hazards and access to health services between demographic groups, including social classes.

social determinants of health

The economic and social conditions that influence individual and group differences in health status.

Examples

• “Food deserts” are areas with low access to fresh produce and nutritious groceries, typically found in poor urban neighborhoods or isolated rural areas, and can be considered an environmental cause of negative health outcomes for the lower class. In food deserts, the combination of inadequate local food options and limited transportation can cause high rates of health problems, such as obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.
• “Food deserts” are areas with low access to fresh produce and nutritious groceries, typically found in poor urban neighborhoods or isolated rural areas, and can be considered an environmental cause of negative health outcomes for the lower class. In food deserts, the combination of inadequate local food options and limited transportation can cause high rates of health problems such as obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.
• Because most health services in the U.S. are paid for through insurance coverage, the low level of insurance coverage among the working and lower classes points to their low level of access to health services ranging from preventative screenings to routine medication to emergency treatment. Meanwhile, most middle, upper-middle, and upper class employees can either independently afford insurance coverage or have it provided by their employers, thus increasing their access to care.

A person’s social class has a significant impact on their physical health, their ability to receive adequate medical care and nutrition, and their life expectancy. While gender and race play significant roles in explaining healthcare inequality in the United States, socioeconomic status (SES) is the greatest social determinant of an individual’s health outcome. Social determinants of health are the economic and social conditions that influence individual and group differences in health status. Social determinants are environmental, meaning that they are risk factors found in one’s living and working conditions (including the distribution of income, wealth, influence, and power), rather than individual factors (such as behavioral risk factors or genetics). Social determinants can be used to predict one’s risk of contracting a disease or sustaining an injury, and can also indicate how vulnerable one is to the consequences of a disease or injury. Individuals of lower socioeconomic status have lower levels of overall health, less insurance coverage, and less access to adequate healthcare than those of higher SES.

Individuals with a low SES in the United States experience a wide array of health problems as a result of their economic position. They are unable to use healthcare as often as people of higher status and when they do, it is often of lower quality. Additionally, people with low SES tend to experience a much higher rate of health issues than those of high SES. Many social scientists hypothesize that the higher rate of illness among those with low SES can be attributed to environmental hazards. For example, poorer neighborhoods tend to have fewer grocery stores and more fast food chains than wealthier neighborhoods, increasing nutrition problems and the risk of conditions, such as heart disease. Similarly, poorer neighborhoods tend to have fewer recreational facilities and higher crime rates than wealthier ones, which decreases the feasibility of routine exercise.

In addition to having an increased level of illness, lower socioeconomic classes have lower levels of health insurance than the upper class. Much of this disparity can be explained by the tendency for middle and upper class people to work in professions that provide health insurance benefits to employees, while lower status occupations often do not provide benefits to employees. For many employees who do not have health insurance benefits through their job, the cost of insurance can be prohibitive. Without insurance, or with inadequate insurance, the cost of healthcare can be extremely high. Consequently, many uninsured or poorly insured individuals do not have access to preventative care or quality treatment. This group of people has higher rates of infant mortality, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and disabling physical injuries than are seen among the well insured.

Health Insurance Distribution (under 65 years)

As seen in this graph, with insurance needed for most health services, access to healthcare is not evenly distributed among Americans. The largest group of insured Americans consists of middle and upper class employees who receive health insurance through employers. As of 2007, 16% of the population had no health insurance coverage and, thus, had greatly limited access to healthcare.

Health inequality refers to the unequal distribution of environmental health hazards and access to health services between demographic groups, including social classes. For example, poor and affluent urban communities in the United States are geographically close to each other and to hospitals. Still, the affluent communities are more likely to have access to fresh produce, recreational facilities for exercise, preventative healthcare programs, and routine medical visits. Consequently, affluent communities are likely to have better health outcomes than nearby impoverished ones. The role of socioeconomic status in determining access to healthcare results in heath inequality between the upper, middle, and lower or working classes, with the higher classes having more positive health outcomes.

Farmers Market

Farmers markets are visible sources of fresh produce and healthy foods. These markets are concentrated in middle to upper income neighborhoods and are not found in food deserts.

9.5.3: Mental Health

Different classes have different levels of access to treatment and encounter different mental health stressors.

Learning Objective

Define mental health and explain why it is regarded as a socially constructed concept

Key Points

• Mental health describes a person’s level of psychological well-being, or the presence/absence of mental disorder. Mental health can include one’s ability to enjoy life and demonstrate psychological resilience.
• Mental health is socially constructed and defined; it is determined by both scientific and cultural knowledge, and it is understood differently by various groups, institutions, and professions.
• The evaluation of which mental states can be considered healthy and which require medical intervention also varies by class.

Key Terms

mental disorder

A psychological pattern, potentially reflected in behavior, generally associated with distress or disability, not considered part of normal development in a person’s culture.

mental health

Emotional well-being, especially with reference to outlook on life, ability to cope with stress, or the absence of a mental disorder.

Example

• Common disorders that affect a person’s mental health can range from attention deficit disorder (ADD), which is often easily treatable and not-disabling, to severe schizophrenia, which can interfere with day-to-day life processes.

Mental health describes a level of psychological well-being or the presence/absence of a mental disorder. From the perspective of “positive psychology” or “holism,” mental health may include an individual’s ability to enjoy life and to demonstrate psychological resilience when confronted with challenges. The World Health Organization defines mental health as “a state of well-being in which the individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community. “

What counts as healthy enjoyment and resilience depends upon one’s class perspective. Members of different classes encounter different stressors—lower class people likely face more financial stress as it pertains to day-to-day sustenance and well-being, while upper class people might experience stress from the intense social pressures associated with elite circles. The evaluation of which mental states can be considered healthy and which require medical intervention also varies by class.

Mental health is a socially constructed and socially defined concept; different societies, groups, cultures, institutions, and professions have very different ways of conceptualizing its nature and causes, determining what is mentally healthy, and deciding what interventions are appropriate. Definitions of mental health depend on cultural understandings in addition to biological and neurological findings. Members of different social classes often hold different views on mental health. Similarly, different social classes have different levels of access to mental health interventions and to information about mental health. Thus, the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders varies widely by social class.

Mental Disorders (1837)

To say that mental health is socially constructed means that its definition and criteria can change across time and culture. This lithograph illustrates the eight mental health disorders that were thought to be prominent in England during the early-19th century: dementia, megalomania, acute mania, melancholia, idiocy, hallucination, erotic mania, and paralysis. Since 1837, many of those disorders have been erased from medical textbooks or modified in light of changing social norms.

9.5.4: Family Life

Family life, including marriage, childbearing and household composition are strongly influenced by social class.

Learning Objective

Give examples for effects of social class on marriage, birth rates, and family composition

Key Points

• In the United States, the probability of a first marriage ending is substantially higher for couples with low socioeconomic statuses than for those in the middle or upper class.
• Globally, the birth rate in countries with large impoverished populations is much higher than in wealthier countries.
• In nations with high levels of fertility, upper class individuals tend to have more children than their lower class peers, while in nations with low levels of fertility, upper class families exhibit even lower fertility than average.
• Social class has both a cause and an effect relationship with family composition, and lower social class is often correlated with one-parent households.

Key Terms

overpopulation

A situation which occurs when the number of occupants of an area exceeds the ability of that area to provide for those occupants.

birth rate

The birth rate is typically the rate of births in a population over time.

Family Life

A general term that refers to marriage and childbearing patterns, household composition and home stability.

Example

• Historically, working class rural populations in agrarian regions have had larger families than wealthier urban families. As agricultural families could use the labor of additional children and had limited access to healthcare (resulting in a high rate of infant mortality), having many children was beneficial to these families of low socioeconomic status. By contrast, in urban areas with limited space and no need for manual labor, having additional children was a cost, rather than benefit, to middle and upper income families.

Family life – marriage and childbearing patterns, household composition, and home stability – are strongly influenced by social class. In the United States, the probability of a first marriage ending is substantially higher for couples with low socioeconomic statuses than for those in the middle or upper class. Research shows that the higher rates of divorce for individuals in lower social classes can often be attributed to the greater financial stress these couples face, though factors like class expectations can also play a role .

Probability of First Marriage Dissolution by Race/Ethnicity and Income (1995)

This graph shows that among all races and ethnicities, low income households are more likely to experience divorce than middle and high income households are. Thus, social class bears on rates of marriage dissolution.

Globally, the birth rate in countries with large impoverished populations is much higher than in wealthier countries, indicating that income and wealth play a role in shaping family structures. Demographers have identified a direct relationship between average number of children per household and the economic development of a nation. Today, less developed countries struggle with overpopulation while many governments in developed countries are instituting policies to deal with low birth rates. In nations with high levels of fertility, upper class individuals tend to have more children than their lower class peers. In nations with low levels of fertility, upper class families exhibit even lower fertility than average.

Social class has both a cause and an effect relationship with family composition. For example, single-parent households are likely to have a lower social class because they violate social norms. At the same time, single-parent families can contribute to financial and social instability. A single parent will often face higher costs (in the form of paid childcare), lower earnings (loss of the second parent’s income or loss of time spent at work), or both.

9.5.5: Education

Educational attainment is tied to social class, with upper class individuals acquiring higher degrees from more prestigious schools.

Learning Objective

Discuss three factors contributing to educational inequality

Key Points

• Those in high social classes are likely to have greater educational attainment than those in low social classes.
• Educational inequality is also perpetuated by legacy admission.
• Because members of high social classes tend to be better educated and have higher incomes, they are more able to provide educational advantages to their children as well.
• Educational inequality is one factor that perpetuates the class divide across generations.

Key Terms

educational attainment

Educational attainment is a term commonly used by statisticians to refer to the highest degree of education an individual has completed.

private school

A fee-charging private or independent school.

legacy student

A student who is admitted to a school (often a college or university), primarily because one or both of their parents are alumni of the same institution.

Example

• Many prestigious colleges and universities in the U.S. are known to give preference to “legacy students,” or the children of alumni. This results in, on average, 10-30% of Ivy League undergraduates being the children of alumni, meaning that high educational attainment can be passed down through generations within the upper-middle and upper classes.

Education is a major component of social class, both directly and indirectly. Directly, individuals from higher social classes are more likely to have the means to attend more prestigious schools, and are therefore more likely to receive higher educations. Indirectly, individuals who benefit from such higher education are more likely to land prestigious jobs, and in turn, higher salaries. Just as education and social class are closely intertwined, stratification in education contributes to stratification in social class.

Educational attainment refers to the level of schooling a person completes — for instance, high school, some college, college, or a graduate degree. Upper class individuals are likely to attend schools of higher quality and of greater prestige than those attended by their lower class counterparts. Because members of high social classes tend to be better educated and have higher incomes, they are able to offer greater educational advantages, such as private schooling, to their children as well.

Upper-class parents are better able to send their children not only to exclusive private schools, but also to public state-funded schools. Such schools are likely to be of higher quality in affluent areas than in impoverished ones, since they are funded by property taxes within the school district. Wealthy areas will provide more property taxes as revenue, which leads to higher quality schools. Educational inequality is one factor that perpetuates the class divide across generations.

Such educational inequality is further reinforced by legacy admission, the preference given by educational institutions to applicants who are related to alumni of that institution. Germane to to university and college admissions (particularly in the United States), this practice emerged after World War I, primarily in response to the resulting immigrant influx. Ivy League institutions admit roughly 10% to 30% of students from each incoming class based on this factor.

Educational Attainment and Income (1991-2003)

Households with higher educational attainment are likely to have higher incomes than those with low educational attainment — members of the lowest income bracket tend to have no more than a high school education, while the highest income bracket members tend to hold graduate degrees.

9.5.6: Religion

Social class is associated with individuals’ religious affiliations and practices but not with religiosity itself.

Learning Objective

Explain how social class relates to religious affiliation, denomination and religiosity

Key Points

• Social class is an indicator of religious affiliation, with upper class members concentrated in formal denominations and lower class members concentrated in informal denominations.
• Social class is not an indicator of religiosity; members of each social class practice their faiths with a range of intensities.
• Income, and therefore social class, is related to an individual’s denomination. Religion is also strongly linked to level of education.

Key Terms

Religious Affiliation

The measure of which religious denomination a person identifies with or practices

religiosity

An index of how strongly religious a person is

Example

• Social class can predict which religious denomination a person is likely to belong to; members of the upper class are more likely than others to be Episcopalian or Jewish, while members of the working class are more likely to be Catholic, for example.

Social class, measured by socioeconomic status, is associated with individuals’ religious affiliations and practices. This affiliation has more to do with how religion is practiced rather than degree of religiosity. Members of lower classes tend to be affiliated with more fundamentalist religions and sect-like groups. Members of the middle class tend to belong to more formal churches. For example, American Presbyterians and Episcopalians (two highly formal Protestant denominations), tend to have above average socioeconomic statuses. Methodists and Lutherans (two moderately formal Protestant denominations) tend to have about average SES. Baptists and members of Protestant fundamentalist sects (which tend to be decentralized and informal) have below average SES. Variations in SES across denomination reveal a correlation between religious affiliation and social class.

Social class is not significantly correlated to religiosity, an index of how strongly religious a person is. Religiosity is measured by tracking frequency of church attendance, church group involvement, frequency of prayer, and other such markers of strength of religious practice. Members of each social class show a range of religiosity.

On the other hand, income, and therefore social class, is related to an individual’s denomination. When one looks at average income by religion, there are clear differences. The highest-earning religion on average is Judaism, with an average income of $72,000 in 2000. This is dramatically higher than average; the next highest-earning denomination is Unitarianism at $56,000. Jehovah’s Witness, Church of God, and Seventh Day Adventists are at the bottom of the income distribution, with $24,000, $26,000, and $31,000 respectively .

Religious Affiliation by Median Household Income (2000)

Household income, an indicator of social class, can also indicate what religious denomination a person is likely to embrace. America’s top income bracket is more likely than other groups to be Jewish, while the lowest bracket is more likely to be Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Religion is also linked with education. 72% of Unitarian and 67% of Hindu adherents are college graduates, while only 12% of Jehovah’s Witness and 15% of Church of God members graduated from college.

9.5.7: Politics

The higher one’s social class, the higher their levels of political participation and political influence.

Learning Objective

Evaluate how social class impacts political participation and political influence

Key Points

• Political office holders tend to be of high socioeconomic status, furthering the impact of class on American politics.
• Wealthy, well-educated Americans are more likely to vote and to donate money to politicians than lower class individuals are.
• Those who vote as members of a social class can be said to be participating in identity politics.

Key Terms

Political Influence

The extent to which one’s political participation achieves its desired results, or the amount of power a political actor has to achieve his or her will.

Political Participation

A measure of whether or not a person votes in elections, donates to campaigns, or attends public forums where decisions are made.

Examples

• In the 2008 presidential election, 76.2% of graduate degree holders voted, while only 23.4% of people without high school degrees voted. Educational attainment, an indicator of social class, can predict political participation.
• In the 2004 election, candidates George W. Bush and John Kerry both came from wealthy families, held graduate degrees, and had attended Yale University, an elite Ivy League institution.

Social class impacts one’s level of political participation and political influence. Political participation refers to whether or not a person votes in elections, donates to campaigns, or attends public forums where decisions are made, such as town meetings or city council meetings, for example. Political influence refers to the extent to which one’s political participation achieves its desired results. For example, if one attends a public forum, is their opinion likely to be heard, or if they donate money, is a politician likely to support their desired policy?

Wealthy, well-educated Americans are more likely to vote and to donate money to politicians than lower class individuals. This trend means that middle and upper class individuals have greater political participation and greater political influence than those in lower positions. Additionally, higher status people are more likely to hold political positions than lower class people. An illustration of this is the presidential election between George W. Bush and John Kerry in 2004. Both had millions of dollars of accumulated wealth, and they had higher degrees from Harvard and Yale, respectively.

Those who vote as members of a social class can be said to be participating in identity politics. Identity politics is a phenomenon that arose first at the radical margins of liberal democratic societies in which human rights are recognized, and the term is not usually used to refer to dissident movements within single-party or authoritarian states. Some groups have combined identity politics and Marxist social class analysis and class consciousness. During the 1980s, the politics of identity became very prominent and was linked with new social movement activism.

Voter Turnout by Educational Attainment –2008 Presidential Election

Educational attainment, an indicator of social class, can predict one’s level of political participation. Those with high educational attainment are more likely to vote in elections than those with little education.

9.5.8: Crime and Criminal Justice

Criminal justice is the system of practices and institutions of governments directed at deterring and mitigating crime.

Learning Objective

Describe how the administration of punishment has changed throughout history

Key Points

• When a person is suspected of violating a law, they are processed through the criminal justice system.
• The criminal justice system includes law enforcement (such as police or sheriffs), the courts, and corrections authorities (such as prison wardens and social workers).
• Legislation can attempt to refocus and restructure the criminal justice system in the United States, as when the 1967 President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice issued recommendations to improve the efficacy of criminal justice.
• These reforms reflected a change in the purpose of the criminal justice system. Historically it had been used as a way to deter crime and punish criminals, but now has the added goal of rehabilitating offenders.

Key Terms

law enforcement

The various government agencies involved in the prevention of crime and the apprehension of criminals.

adjudication

The process of reaching a judgment or sentence in a legal proceeding.

court

A tribunal established for the administration of justice, through which legal issues are adjudicated.

Examples

• Police department reforms are an example of legislative attempts to regulate or improve criminal justice. For example, after significant media coverage of police brutality toward Rodney King in 1991, the Los Angeles Police Department faced pressure to reform its training policies and policies governing the use of force.
• A legal trial is where suspected crimes are adjudicated, meaning that suspects and witnesses are questioned so that guilt or innocence and sentencing can be determined.
• Police department reforms are an example of legislative attempts to regulate or improve criminal justice. For example, after significant media coverage of police brutality toward Rodney King in 1991, the Los Angeles Police Department faced pressure to reform its training policies and policies governing the use of force.

Criminal justice is the system of practices and government institutions directed at upholding social control, deterring, and mitigating crime, or sanctioning those who violate laws with criminal penalties and rehabilitation efforts. The American criminal justice system consists of three main parts: (1) enforcement; (2) adjudication; and (3) corrections. These distinct agencies are the principal means of maintaining the rule of law within society.

The first contact an offender has with the criminal justice system is usually with law enforcement, most often the police who investigate a suspected violation and make an arrest. Next, the courts carry out adjudication or the legal processing of offenders. The courts serve as the venue where disputes are settled and justice is administered. Depending on the offense, either a judge or a jury determines whether the suspect violated the law and what their punitive sentence will be. If found guilty by the court, offenders are then turned over to correctional authorities. Correctional authorities may include prison wardens or social workers, depending on the type of offense.

Courtroom

The criminal justice system includes adjudication, wherein the courts legally process suspects to determine their guilt or innocence and sentencing.

Like all other aspects of criminal justice, the administration of punishment has taken many different forms throughout history. Early on, when civilizations lacked the resources necessary to construct and maintain prisons, exile and execution were the primary forms of punishment. Historically shame punishments have also been used as forms of censure.

The most publicly visible form of punishment in the modern era is the prison. Prisons may serve as detention centers for prisoners after trial. Jails are used for containment of the accused before trial. Early prisons were used primarily to sequester criminals and little thought was given to living conditions within their walls. In America, the Quaker movement is commonly credited with establishing the idea that prisons should be used to reform criminals. This can also be seen as a critical moment in the debate regarding the purpose of punishment.

In the United States, criminal justice policy has been guided by the 1967 President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice, which issued a ground-breaking report titled “The Challenge of Crime in a Free Society. ” This report made more than 200 recommendations as part of a comprehensive approach toward crime prevention. Some of those recommendations found their way into the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968. The commission advocated a “systems” approach to criminal justice, with improved coordination among law enforcement, courts, and correctional agencies. The commission defined the criminal justice system as the means for society to “enforce the standards of conduct necessary to protect individuals and the community. “

Police Confiscate Gun

Police officers are the most visible members of the law enforcement branch of the criminal justice system, and are charged with maintaining social order by arresting offenders who violate the law.

9.6: Poverty

9.6.1: Poverty

Poverty is the condition of not having access to material resources, income, or wealth.

Learning Objective

Assess how poverty relates to social mobility

Key Points

• The United States officially defines poverty using the poverty line. The poverty line is set at an income level that is three times the approximate cost of a subsistence level food budget.
• Poverty can also refer to the lack of opportunity to improve one’s standard of living (or poor life chances).
• The term “near poverty” refers to earnings that are above the poverty line, but by no more than 25%.
• Social mobility describes a person’s flexibility to change their economic status.
• If there is a high level of social mobility, it is relatively easy for people to escape poverty; if social mobility is low, it is very challenging for people to escape poverty.

Key Terms

The Poverty Line

The threshold of poverty, below which one’s income does not cover necessities.

Near Poverty

The classification “near poverty” describes a demographic group in the United States that earns 25% above the poverty line.

Examples

• People who are homeless, hungry, or ill without access to treatment are examples of people who do not have access to the material resources they need to survive. They live in poverty, as the term is used colloquially, and likely fall under formal income thresholds that designate individuals as officially poor.
• Liberia has a substantially lower GNI PPP than the United States, meaning that the nation’s wealth is much lower. Consequently, someone with an average income in Liberia has a substantially lower standard of living and much less access to resources than someone with an average income in the U.S.
• By local standards of relative poverty, the wealthiest person in a town in Liberia is well-off, but measured on a global scale that person is likely to be considered relatively poor.

Poverty describes the state of not having access to material resources, wealth, or income. The United States officially defines poverty using the poverty line. The poverty line is set at an income level that is three times the approximate cost of a subsistence level food budget. This definition has been in use in the United States to track demographic changes and allocate welfare aid since the 1960s. 

“Near poverty” is the term for an income level that is just above the poverty line; it refers to incomes that are no more than 25% above the poverty line. 

“Relative poverty” refers to economic disadvantage compared to wealthier members of society, whereas “absolute poverty” refers to a family (or an individual) with an income so low that they cannot afford basic necessities of survival, such as food and shelter. 

Poverty may correspond not only to lack of resources, but to the lack of opportunity to improve one’s standard of living and acquire resources. “Life chances” is a term used to describe someone’s access to marketplace resources—essentially, how likely it is in their environment that they might be able to find employment or have a social safety net. Someone who is living in poverty but has high life chances may be able to improve their economic standing, but someone with low life chances will likely have a consistently low standard of living. The term for a person’s ability to change their economic status in a society is known as “social mobility. “

If there is a high level of social mobility, it is relatively easy for people to leave poverty. Easy access to higher education and prevalence of well-paying jobs contribute to social mobility. While some factors that contribute to poverty are the result of individual choices, such as dropping out of school or committing a crime, other factors affect poverty that are beyond individual control. In the United States, minorities and women are more likely to be living in poverty.

9.6.2: Measuring Poverty

Poverty is defined by deprivation, and can be measured with economic or social indicators.

Learning Objective

Compare the differences between absolute and relative poverty

Key Points

• Economic measures of poverty include access to material needs, typically necessities such as food, clothing, shelter, and safe drinking water, measures of income, or measure of wealth.
• Social measures of poverty include access to information, education, health care, or political power.
• Absolute poverty refers to a fixed threshold based on access to income and material resources, while relative inequality is measured using a region’s median income and standard of living and therefore reflects income inequality.
• Relative poverty explains poverty as socially defined and dependent on social context. Usually, relative poverty is measured as the percentage of the population with income less than some fixed proportion of median income.

Key Terms

relative poverty

A measure of wealth inequality, describing an individual or group’s wealth relative to an other individual or group.

World Bank

A group of five financial organizations whose purpose is economic development and the elimination of poverty.

absolute poverty

A measure of poverty based on a set standard that is consistent over time and between countries, referring to the ability of individuals or groups to meet their basic needs.

Examples

• Someone living in economic poverty may be homeless; someone living in social poverty may be illiterate.
• The UN’s measure of global poverty based on whether or not a person earns $1.25/day (adjusted for international purchasing power) is a measure of absolute poverty — it is based on whether or not a person has the bare minimum to meet their material needs.
• The European Union’s poverty threshold is based on relative poverty — it measures how far below median income a person is, rather than whether or not they can meet their daily needs.

Economic measures of poverty focus on material needs, typically including the necessities of daily living such as food, clothing, shelter, or safe drinking water. Poverty in this sense may be understood as a condition in which a person or community is lacking in the basic needs for a minimum standard of well-being, particularly as a result of a persistent lack of income.

Social measures of poverty may include lack of access to information, education, health care, or political power. Poverty may also be understood as an aspect of inequitable social relationships, experienced as social exclusion, dependency, and/or diminished capacity to participate in society.

According to the World Bank, definitions of poverty include low income and the inability to acquire the basic goods and services necessary for survival with dignity. Poverty also encompasses low levels of health and education, poor access to clean water and sanitation, inadequate physical security, lack of voice, and insufficient capacity and opportunity to better one’s life.

Poverty is usually measured as either absolute or relative poverty. Absolute poverty refers to a set standard which is consistent over time and between countries. The World Bank uses this definition of poverty to label extreme poverty as living on less than US $1.25 per day, and moderate poverty as less than $2 or $5 a day.

Relative poverty explains poverty as socially defined and dependent on social context. Usually, relative poverty is measured as the percentage of the population with income less than some fixed proportion of median income. Relative poverty measures are used as official poverty rates in several developed countries and are measured according to several different income inequality metrics, including the Gini coefficient and the Theil Index. Measurements are usually based on a person’s yearly income and frequently take no account of total wealth.

9.6.3: Explaining Poverty: The Sociological Debate

Sociologists take two opposing approaches to explaining economic stratification: structural-functionalism and conflict theory.

Learning Objective

Discuss the critiques of structural-functionalist approaches to social stratification

Key Points

• According to structural-functionalists, stratification and inequality are actually constructive phenomena that benefit society—specifically, that the privileges attached to high-status incentive motivated, qualified people to work to achieve those positions.
• According to this logic, inequality ensures that the most functionally important jobs are filled by the best qualified people.
• Conflict theorists argue that stratification is dysfunctional and harmful to society, and that it results in competition between the rich and the poor as individuals act for their own economic advantage.
• Conflict theorists hold that competition and inequality are not inevitable but are created and maintained by people trying to gain access to scarce resources.

Key Terms

conflict-theory approach

A sociological theory of poverty that argues that stratification is dysfunctional and harmful to society but persists because it benefits the rich and powerful.

structural-functionalist approach

A sociological approach to poverty that maintains that all parts of society (even poverty) contribute in some way or another to the larger system’s stability.

social stratification

The hierarchical arrangement of social classes, or castes, within a society.

Example

• Being a Supreme Court Justice is a high status and well-compensated occupation. A structural-functionalist would argue that Justices receive high pay and high esteem to motivate people to accept a job with a great deal of social responsibility and public scrutiny. A conflict theorist would say that passing court seats between members of the social elite insulates the judicial branch from the interests of the lower classes.

Two classic sociological approaches to poverty and social stratification are structural-functionalism and conflict theory.

The structural-functionalist approach to stratification asks the question: what function or purpose does stratification serve? The theory’s answer is that all parts of society, even poverty, contribute in some way or another to the larger system’s stability. According to structural-functionalists, stratification and inequality are actually constructive phenomena that benefit society: they ensure that the best people are at the top of the hierarchy and those who are less worthy are at the bottom. Those at the top are given power and rewards because of high abilities, and the high rewards exist to provide incentive for qualified people to do the most important work in high status occupations. According to this logic, inequality ensures that the most functionally important jobs are filled by the best qualified people.

The conflict-theory approach offers a critique of structural-functionalism. First, the critique asserts that it is difficult to determine the functional importance of any job, as a system of interdependence makes every position necessary to the functioning of society. Second, this approach assumes that the system of stratification is fair and rational, and that the ‘best’ people end up on top because of their superiority. But, according to conflict theorists, in reality the system does not work so easily or perfectly and there are barriers to qualified people ascending the hierarchy.

In contrast to structural-functionalists, conflict theorists argue that stratification is dysfunctional and harmful in society. According to this theory, stratification benefits the rich and powerful at the expense of the poor—those in high-status positions continually build on their wealth, only further entrenching the gap between high-status and low-status people. For example, many wealthy families pay low wages to nannies to care for their children, gardeners to tend to their yards, and maids to clean their homes. Conflict theorists believe that this competitive system, together with structural barriers to upward mobility ends up creating and perpetuating stratification systems. Conflict theorists hold that competition and inequality are not inevitable but are created and maintained by people. Meanwhile, structural-functionalists rebut that people do not always act solely out of economic self-interest.

Surgeons

The job of a surgeon is highly regarded and well compensated but requires years of training, long work hours, and high stress. Structural-functionalists argue that the high status that comes with the job acts as incentive for highly qualified people to pursue it.

9.6.4: Social Exclusion

Social exclusion occurs when individuals and communities are blocked from rights and opportunities that are available to others.

Learning Objective

Discuss the causes of social exclusion

Key Points

• Social exclusion is distinct from poverty. Poverty is a distributional outcome, whereas exclusion can be defined as the process of declining participation, solidarity, and access to opportunities.
• Unemployment or lack of transportation can be causes of social exclusion.
• The problem of social exclusion is usually tied to that of equal opportunity, as some people are more subject to such exclusion than others.
• Sociologists see strong links between crime and social exclusion in industrialized societies such as the United States.

Key Terms

due process

a legal concept where a person is ensured all legal rights when deprived of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for a given reason.

Social exclusion

processes through which individuals and entire communities of people are systematically blocked from rights, opportunities, and resources that are normally available to members of society and that are key to social integration.

equal opportunity

equal opportunity is a stipulation that all people should be given access to opportunities for advancement and treated similarly when competing for jobs, housing, and other resources.

Examples

• Before racial segregation was outlawed in the U.S., blacks were systematically denied access to quality schools, leading to educational, social, and eventually occupational exclusion.
• Many employers in the United States, including the government, claim to be “equal opportunity employers,” meaning that they will not systematically exclude groups of people from working for them on the basis of traits such as race, gender, or sexual orientation.

Social exclusion is a concept used in many parts of the world to characterize forms of social disadvantage. It refers to processes through which individuals and entire communities of people are systematically blocked from rights, opportunities, and resources that are normally available to members of society and that are key to social integration. These include housing, employment, healthcare, civic engagement, democratic participation, and legal due process.

Poverty and exclusion are two different concepts. Poverty is a distributional outcome, whereas exclusion can be defined as process of declining participation, solidarity, and access. It is quite difficult to measure social exclusion quantitatively, as social exclusion is relative, sensitive, and variable.

The causes of social exclusion vary from country to country, but there are general causes that social scientists have identified. In modern industrialized societies, paid work is not only the principal source of income with which to buy goods and services, but is also the fount of individuals’ identity and feelings of self-worth. Therefore, unemployment is considered a cause of social exclusion. In some circumstances, lack of transportation can lead to social exclusion. For instance, if lack of access to public transport or a vehicle prevents a person from getting to a job, training course, job center, school, or entertainment venue they may be shut out from opportunities.

The problem of social exclusion is usually tied to that of equal opportunity, as some people are more subject to exclusion than others. Marginalization of certain groups is a problem even in many economically developed countries, including the United Kingdom and the United States, where the majority of the population enjoys considerable economic and social opportunities.

Sociologists see strong links between crime and social exclusion in industrialized societies including the United States. Growing crime rates may reflect the fact that an increasing number of people do not feel valued or included in the societies in which they live. Socially excluded populations may not benefit from the avenues for income and advancement that are open to others, so they resort to illegal means of obtaining resources.

Punk

Punk social groups are often considered marginal and are excluded from certain mainstream social spaces.

9.6.5: The Dynamics of Poverty

Poverty operates in a dynamic cycle, with the effects of poverty increasing the likelihood that it will be transferred between generations.

Learning Objective

Explain the cyclical impact of the consequences of poverty

Key Points

• Poor people are less likely than others to have financial capital, education, and social capital (connections to people with specialized knowledge or in powerful positions). Without these resources, poverty-stricken individuals experience disadvantages which in turn increase their poverty.
• The cycle of poverty can trap families in poverty for generations, and often becomes widespread when economies undergo restructuring from manufacturing-based economies to service-based economies.
• Low-quality education, hunger, and homelessness can all perpetuate poverty by creating barriers to individual economic advancement.

Key Terms

Cycle of poverty

The idea that poverty operates in a dynamic cycle, with the effects of poverty increasing the likelihood that it will be transferred between generations.

economic restructuring

Economic restructuring refers to the phenomenon of shifting between two types of economies, such as from a manufacturing to service economy or agricultural to manufacturing economy.

Example

• Poor people are likely to have low educational attainment; because they have low educational attainment, they are likely to have poor occupational prospects and earn a low income; consequently, their children will be born poor, and will thus have low educational attainment (and so on). This perpetuation of deprivation is the cycle of poverty.

The basic premise of the poverty cycle the idea that poverty is a dynamic process—its effects may also be its causes. In economics, the cycle of poverty has been defined as a phenomenon where poor families become trapped in poverty for at least three generations. These families have either limited or nonexistent social and economic resources. There are many disadvantages that collectively work in a circular process to make it virtually impossible for individuals to break the cycle of poverty. Definitionally, poor people are less likely to have financial capital, education, and social capital (connections to people with specialized knowledge or in powerful positions). Without these resources, poverty-stricken individuals experience disadvantages that, in turn, increase their poverty.

Sociologists have argued that the economic restructuring of the U.S. and other developed nations from manufacturing to service-based economies has led to chronic joblessness in inner cities. In a service economy, there is a higher proportion of high-skill jobs than in a manufacturing economy. Thus, people who have lost their manufacturing positions are unqualified for the jobs available in the new economy. This disparity between available jobs and workforce skill is a driver of cyclical poverty.

Research shows that schools with students who perform worse than the norm are also those hiring the least-qualified teachers, because teachers tend to work in schools in the area where they grew up—teachers who are educated in poor schools come back to teach in the same low quality schools, keeping the schools from improving. Students who attend these low quality schools graduate with little human capital (skills and knowledge), and are thus unqualified for high status occupations. In this way, inadequate or lack of education can perpetuate poverty.

Additionally, those living in poverty suffer disproportionately from hunger, or in extreme cases starvation, and also exhibit disproportionately high rates of disease. These illnesses can be disabling, preventing people in poverty from working in certain occupations or at certain capacities, thus reducing one’s opportunities to improve their social and economic status.

Finally, poverty increases the risk of homelessness. Slum-dwellers, who make up a third of the world’s urban population, live in poverty no better, if not worse, than rural people, who are the traditional victims of poverty in the developing world. People who are homeless or live in slums have low access to neighborhood resources, high status social contacts, or basic services such as a phone line. This limits their ability to improve their economic position, again perpetuating poverty.

Afghan Girl Begging

A young Afghan girl begging in the street in Kabul, 8 September 2008. Photo by Mikhail Evstafiev

Children in Poverty

Street Child, Srimangal Railway Station, Srimangal, Maulvi Bazar, Bangladesh.

9.6.6: The Feminization of Poverty

The feminization of poverty refers to the fact that women represent a disproportionate share of the world’s poor.

Learning Objective

Discuss three causes of female poverty

Key Points

• The feminization of poverty is not only a consequence of lack of income, but is also the result of the deprivation of opportunities and gender biases present in both societies and governments.
• Women’s increasing share of poverty is related to the rising incidence of lone mother households.
• Women in poverty have reduced access to health care services and resources.
• The education of women and children, especially girls, can create greater opportunities for women to lift themselves out of poverty and increase their social position.
• Women’s jobs are more likely than men’s to be forms of informal employment, which takes place in small, unregistered enterprises and is not protected by government regulation.

Key Terms

feminization of poverty

a phenomenon in which women represent disproportionate percentages of the world’s poor

lone mother households

Households where a single female acts as the sole head of household; in lone mother households, there is usually no adult male present.

formal employment

Employment that is government regulated, such that workers are insured a wage and certain rights.

informal employment

Employment that takes place in small, unregistered enterprises without external regulation.

Examples

• Recent attempts to reduce global poverty have utilized systems of microcredit, which give small loans to poor households in an attempt to break the cycle of poverty. Nearly all microcredit loans are given to women, reflecting an awareness that in poor households women are often responsible for care of the family and may be the only head of household.
• Examples of types of informal employment that are dominated by women include childcare, eldercare, housecleaning, and sex work, among many others.

The feminization of poverty describes a phenomenon in which women represent a disproportionate percentage of the world’s poor. This trend is not only a consequence of lack of income, but also of lack of opportunities due to gender biases and fixed gender roles in some societies. Gender biases often deprive women of opportunities to independently pursue education or careers and are often linked to the expectation that women are responsible for childbearing and childrearing. Women’s increasing share of poverty is related to the rising incidence of lone mother households.

Many factors place women at higher risk of poverty than their male counterparts. Though low income is the primary cause of female poverty, there are many interrelated sources of this problem. Lack of income deprives women of basic needs, such as food and shelter, and limits their opportunities for advancement. As women disproportionately earn less income than men, they are deprived of basic education and healthcare, which lowers their lifetime earning potential. The responsibilities associated with motherhood further limit women’s economic attainment. Lone mother households, or households without a second parent or guardian, are the households with the highest risk of poverty. Female headed households (where no male is present) are most susceptible to poverty because they have fewer income earners to provide financial support within the household. Lone mother households relate to gender inequality issues as women are more susceptible to poverty and lack essential life needs in comparison to men.

Women in poverty also have reduced access to healthcare services and resources. Partly due to the toll of childbearing, women are disproportionately afflicted with poor health outcomes. Poor health reduced women’s ability to earn income, and, thus, is a key factor increasing and perpetuating household poverty. Increasing health services to women could, therefore, mitigate the feminization of poverty. The education of women and children, especially girls, can create greater opportunities for women to lift themselves out of poverty and increase their social position. Countries with strong gender discrimination and social hierarchies limit women’s access to basic education. Even within the household, girls’ education is often sacrificed to allow male siblings to attend school.

Employment opportunities are limited for women worldwide. Women are often barred from materially controlling their environment due to unequal access to profitable and fulfilling occupational opportunities. Employment can be divided into informal and formal occupations. Formal employment is government regulated, and workers are insured a wage and certain rights. Informal employment takes place in small, unregistered enterprises. A large proportion of women are employed in informal workplaces, reducing the regulation of their employment. This makes it more difficult for women to address workplace grievances and ensure safe and legal working conditions.

Microcredit Lending to Women

Microcredit, a system of providing small loans to individuals and families in impoverished areas in an attempt to reverse the cycle of poverty, is almost always distributed to women.

9.6.7: Government Assistance Programs

Federal assistance is defined as any program that directly assists the public in areas, such as education, health, and public welfare.

Learning Objective

Explain the organizational structure of federal assistance in the United States

Key Points

• The assistance is provided and administered by federal government agencies, such as the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, through special programs to recipients.
• Programs administer assistance by “granting” or “awarding” a portion of the assistance to recipients. These are called federal grants or awards.
• Recipients of federal grants include state governments, local governments, territories and possessions, Native American tribal governments, non-profit organizations and institutions, and private individuals.

Key Terms

single audit

An annual examination of an aid recipient’s operations and records in order to determine whether or not the recipient complied with laws and regulations applicable to the assistance received.

Earmark Grants

Federal funds that have been designated for specific projects in appropriations of funding for general programs.

Formula Grants

Grants include a specified formula, as a rule, that tells potential recipient governments precisely how they can calculate the quantity of aid to which they are entitled under the provisions of law.

Examples

• Public welfare, such as the temporary aid to needy families (TANF) program, is a major form of federal assistance that provides food and income to families in poverty.
• An example of an agency that oversees the administration of federal assistance is the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which uses grants to provide public affordable housing.

In the United States, federal assistance is defined as any federal program, project, service, or activity provided by the federal government that directly assists or benefits the American public in the areas of education, health, public safety, public welfare, and public works, among others. The assistance is provided and administered by federal government agencies, such as the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, through special programs to recipients.

Department of Housing and Urban Development

In the U.S., the Department of Housing and Urban Development administers many government assistance programs, most notably federal public housing.

In order to provide federal assistance in an organized manner, the federal government provides assistance through federal agencies. It is the agency’s responsibility to adequately provide assistance, as well as manage, account, and monitor the responsible use of federal funds which were utilized for that assistance. The agencies then supply the assistance to beneficiaries, such as states, hospitals, poverty-stricken families, etc., through hundreds of individual programs.

Programs administer assistance by “granting” or “awarding” a portion of the assistance to recipients. These are called federal grants or awards. Recipients must first apply for the award directly to the federal agency which administers the program. The agency must then determine the amount of assistance to be awarded and notifies the recipient of the award. Given the enormous size of federal assistance provided, the Federal government has designed different types of grants, each with its own unique way of awarding and operating. These include project grants, formula grants, and earmark grants.

Due to the extensive amount of assistance provided by the federal government, the Federal agencies rely on numerous monitoring activities performed by themselves, pass-through entities, and external sources. The most common monitoring procedure used is the single audit, which is an annual examination of a recipient’s operations and records in order to determine whether or not the recipient complied with laws and regulations applicable to the assistance received.

8.4: Global Diversity

8.4.1: World Health Trends

Learning Objective

Explain why health interventions must not just address diseases but also structural factors

Key Points

• Global illnesses are often classified into the categories “diseases of affluence” and “diseases of poverty,” reflecting the impact of national economic development on health conditions and outcomes.
• Diseases of affluence refer to physical and mental health conditions for which personal lifestyles and societal conditions associated with economic development are believed to be an important risk factor, and they include many non-communicable diseases.
• Diseases of poverty are usually infectious diseases that are often related to poor sanitation, low vaccination coverage, inadequate public health services, and weak enforcement of environmental health and safety regulations.
• Because health trends are impacted by social, economic, and political conditions, global health interventions must address not just diseases themselves, but also the structural factors which prevent certain groups from accessing adequate healthcare.

Key Terms

diseases of affluence

Refers to diseases that are caused by personal lifestyles and social conditions associated with affluence, such as high fat diets and environmental pollution.

diseases of poverty

A group of conditions largely consisting of infectious diseases that are related to poor sanitation, low vaccination coverage, and inadequate health and safety regulations.

World Health Organization (WHO)

A specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) that is concerned with international public health.

Examples

• Type II diabetes is an example of a disease of affluence, as it is thought to develop from high-sugar and high-fat diets, rather than from genetic predispositions or contagions. Cholera, on the other hand, is a disease of poverty, because it usually develops from poorly protected drinking water sources and is treatable but highly communicable.
• Type II Diabetes is an example of a disease of affluence, as it is thought to develop from high-sugar and high-fat diets rather than from genetic predispositions or contagions.
• Cholera is a disease of poverty, because it usually develops from poorly protected drinking water sources and is treatable but highly communicable.
• Global health interventions are needed when individual interventions will not control the spread of a disease — for example, even if one person’s Type II Diabetes is managed, that will not impact the general consumption of unhealthy foods in a developed country. Similarly, while one country may effectively treat cholera and thereby prevent deaths, individuals who cross national borders may spread the disease to countries that do not have the infrastructure to treat it.

As flows of people, money, products, and information increasingly transcend national boundaries, it becomes important to study health trends not just within nations, but from a worldwide perspective. World (or global) health as a research field emerged out of this necessity and lies at the intersection of the medical and social science disciplines, including the fields of demography (the study of population trends), economics, epidemiology (the study of the distribution of health events in a population), political economy, and sociology.

Historically, global health studies rose to prominence in the 1940s, after World War II reconfigured geopolitical alignments and international relations. In 1948, the member states of the newly formed United Nations gathered together to create the World Health Organization (WHO). The organization began with a focus on prevention and eradication of contagious diseases, such as cholera, smallpox, and malaria. WHO initiatives have evolved and expanded throughout the years, however. For example immunization initiatives were launched in the 1970’s, HIV/AIDs initiatives in the 1980’s, and violence awareness initiatives in the 2000’s. While the WHO is the key international agency for monitoring and promoting global health, many other groups also participate.

Diseases of Affluence and Diseases of Poverty

The main diseases and health conditions prioritized by global health initiatives are sometimes classified under the terms diseases of affluence and diseases of poverty, although the impacts of globalization are increasingly blurring any such distinction.

Diseases of affluence refer to physical health conditions for which personal lifestyles (such as lack of exercise or eating a high-fat diet) and societal conditions (such as stressful work arrangements or environmental pollution) associated with economic development are believed to be an important risk factor. Examples of diseases of affluence include Type II diabetes, asthma, coronary heart disease, obesity, hypertension, cancer, and alcoholism. Depression and other mental health conditions may also be included as conditions associated with increased social isolation and lower levels of psychological well being observed in many developed countries. Many of these conditions are interrelated. For example, obesity can be linked to many other illnesses and deaths in high-income nations.

So-called diseases of affluence are predicted to become more prevalent in developing countries, as diseases of poverty decline, longevity increases, and lifestyles change. In 2008, nearly 80% of deaths due to non-communicable diseases, including heart disease, strokes, chronic lung diseases, cancers, and diabetes, occurred in low- and middle-income countries.

In contrast, the diseases of poverty tend to consist largely of infectious diseases, often related to poor sanitation, low vaccination coverage, inadequate public health services, and weak enforcement of environmental health and safety regulations. At the global level, the three primary poverty-related diseases are AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis. Developing countries account for 95% of the global AIDS prevalence and 98% of active tuberculosis infections. Furthermore, 90% of malaria deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa. Together, these three diseases account for 10% of global mortality.

Treatable childhood diseases are another set of illnesses that are seen at disproportionately high rates in poor countries, despite the existence of cures for the diseases for decades. These illnesses include measles, pertussis, diarrheal diseases, pneumonia, and polio. Among children under the age of 5 in the developing world, malnutrition, which results from either a lack of food or an inadequately diversified diet, contributes to 53% of deaths associated with infectious diseases. Malnutrition impairs the immune system, thereby increasing the frequency, severity, and duration of childhood illnesses. Micronutrient deficiencies also compromise intellectual potential, growth, development, and adult productivity.

Health Interventions

As the above discussion of diseases of poverty and diseases of affluence reveals, health trends are closely related to social, political, and economic patterns. Thus, health interventions must likewise address not just diseases themselves, but the structural factors which prevent certain groups from accessing adequate healthcare or from having adequate information with which to practice healthy habits and prevent disease. These interventions could include addressing issues of structural inequality, that is, the highly unequal distribution of global wealth that results in conditions of extreme poverty which are difficult if not impossible to escape. It could also mean addressing the global economic patterns which result in healthcare workers having more incentive to work in developed countries and leaving developing countries short staffed. Finally, health interventions could advance by considering the relationship of national and international politics to the establishment of adequate education and healthcare systems.

Maternal health clinic in Afghanistan

Maternal health is one of the priorities of global health organizations, such as the World Health Organization.

8.4.2: Hunger, Malnutrition, and Family

Learning Objective

Describe different attempts to understand world hunger

Key Points

• Globally, hunger, malnutrition, starvation, and related health problems cause a significant number of deaths, particularly in the developing world.
• Conflicting perspectives on global hunger attribute the problem to food shortages, poor food distribution, and economic policies that favor export over local consumption.
• Amartya Sen won his 1998 Nobel Prize, in part for his work in demonstrating that hunger in modern times is not typically the product of a lack of food, but rather of problems in food distribution networks and governmental policies in the developing world.

Key Terms

food sovereignty

A policy framework advocated for by a number of farmers, peasants, pastoralists, fisherfolk, indigenous peoples, women, rural youth, and environmental organizations, which consists of the right of peoples to define their own food, agriculture, livestock, and fisheries systems, in contrast to having food largely subject to international market forces.

Malthusianism

The idea that population growth will outpace food production, resulting in widespread famine and population reduction.

Examples

• Critics of the role of free trade in food distribution have used agricultural regions of Mexico as an example of its negative effects in some areas, Mexican farm workers live in hunger and suffer from malnutrition, while the crops they produce are exported to wealthy markets in the United States and Europe, which are more profitable for landowners.
• Critics of the role of free trade in food distribution have used agricultural regions of Mexico as an example of its negative effects — in some areas, Mexican farmworkers live in hunger and suffer from malnutrition while the crops they produce are exported to wealthy markets in the U.S. and Europe, which are more profitable for landowners.

“Hunger” is the most commonly used term to describe the social condition of people who frequently experience the physical sensation of desiring food. “Malnutrition” is a general term for conditions caused by improper diet or nutrition, and can occur in conjunction with under- or overconsumption of calories. Undernutrition is the result of chronic underconsumption of food.

Two terms frequently associated with hunger are “famine” and “starvation. ” Famine is the widespread scarcity of food, and it is usually accompanied by regional malnutrition, starvation, epidemic, and increased mortality. Starvation describes a state of exhaustion of the body caused by lack of food and may be fatal.

World Statistics

While statistics vary based on measurements used, it is generally agreed that the number of malnourished or undernourished people in the world was around 1 billion people in 2010, about a sixth of the world’s total population. Hunger is particularly devastating for children. Approximately six million children die of hunger every year.

Hunger

This map shows the percentage of a country’s population that is undernourished.

Understanding Hunger

Attempts to understand why hunger exists are not new. Thomas Malthus, in the six editions of his book, An Essay on the Principle of Population, published from 1798 to 1826, argued that the explosive population growth happening in his time could not continue indefinitely. He claimed population growth would eventually be checked by famine and disease, because the earth’s ability to produce food would not be able to keep up with the size of the population. His dire predictions are widely known as “Malthusianism. “

Current population growth, which is still on the rise, seems to disprove Malthus’ theory, hunger problems notwithstanding. In fact, many believe that the earth is more than capable of sustaining the current world population. The Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations purports that the world already produces enough food to feed everyone–over 6 billion people–and could feed double that number of people. Amartya Sen won his 1998 Nobel Prize in part for his work in demonstrating that hunger in modern times is not typically the product of a lack of food, but rather problems in food distribution networks and governmental policies in the developing world.

Today, there is a wide range of opinions as to why the hunger problem is so persistent. Some organizations raise the issue of food sovereignty and claim that every country on earth (with the possible minor exceptions of some city-states) has sufficient agricultural capacity to feed its own people, but that the free trade economic order prevents this from happening. These advocates argue that free trade policies transfer economic decision-making power into the hands of multilateral organizations, such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund and transnational corporations, so that local people are unable to determine what is done with food that is locally produced.

At the other end of the spectrum, transnational organizations like the World Bank claim to be part of the solution to hunger, maintaining that the best way for countries to succeed in breaking the cycle of poverty and hunger is to build export-led economies that will give them the financial means to buy foodstuffs on the world market.

The Role of the Family in Hunger Problems

The family plays an important role in understanding patterns of hunger. Those who have a weak or non-existent family support structure are more likely than those with strong family networks to go hungry. Children and seniors are the most vulnerable to going hungry for lack of familial support.

Children, since they are less able to provide for themselves than adults, are more likely to go hungry if they live in unstable families or on the streets. Malnutrition and hunger-related diseases cause (at least partially) 60% of children’s deaths in the developing world.

Seniors are another at-risk population for hunger. According to one 2007 study, over 11.4% of seniors in the United States experience some form of food insecurity. The most at-risk segments of the senior population include those who lack a strong family structure (i.e., those who were never married), live alone, or live with a grandchild (but with no adult child present).

8.4.3: The Health of Infants and Children

Learning Objective

Describe the most common causes of child mortality

Key Points

• International organizations have worked to improve maternal and childhood health conditions around the world, and have helped to reduce the number of childhood deaths from 17 million annually in the 1980s to 10 million annually in the 2000s.
• Without diagnosis and treatment, about 35% of HIV-infected pregnant women will transmit HIV to their infants. As a result, approximately 1,000 HIV-infected children are born every day.
• Birth defects are among the leading global causes of infant and child mortality, with an estimated 4.9 million birth defect pregnancies worldwide each year. The majority of these occur in low- and middle-income countries.
• The World Health Organization has estimated that about 1.5 million children under age 5 years continue to die annually from diseases that are preventable via the administration of vaccines, making up approximately 20% of overall childhood mortality.
• Spreading technology, health information, and nutrition and medication may held reduce rates of infant and child mortality in developing countries.

Key Terms

Diarrheal Diseases

The condition of having three or more loose or liquid bowel movements per day, which is a common cause of death in developing countries and the second most common cause of infant deaths worldwide.

dengue

An acute febrile disease of the tropics caused by a flavivirus, transmitted by mosquitoes, and characterized by high fever, rash, headache, and severe muscle and joint pain.

birth defect

Any of several medical disorders that are present at birth.

Examples

• Spreading information about the link between breastfeeding and HIV contraction is one way to reduce the transfer of HIV infections between generations.
• Spreading information about the link between breastfeeding and HIV contraction is one way to reduce the transfer of HIV infections between generations.

In the 1980’s, the United States increased funding for maternal and childhood health programs. At that time, it was estimated that 17 million children under the age of 5 died every year. By 2006, largely due to the efforts of many international aid organizations, the annual number of deaths of children under the age of 5 was 10 million. Even with the great advances in childhood health that have occurred in recent decades, many health problems still afflict infant and child populations.

HIV/AIDS

Without diagnosis and treatment, about 35% of HIV-infected pregnant women will transmit HIV to their infants. As a result, approximately 1,000 HIV-infected children are born every day, accounting for about 370,000 new pediatric infections annually, 85% of which are in 25 sub-Saharan African countries. Without antiretroviral drugs, half of these children die by age 2. Of the estimated 2.3 million children worldwide with HIV, 1.27 million are estimated to need treatment and only 356,000 (28%) receive it.

Birth Defects

Birth defects are among the leading global causes of infant and child mortality, with an estimated 4.9 million birth defect pregnancies worldwide each year. The majority of these occur in low and middle income countries.

Birth defect trends and risk factors are difficult to monitor because many countries do not have systems that can accurately track the prevalence of birth defects. International organizations have been working to expand monitoring systems and improve laboratory capacity. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention researches and tracks birth defects and coordinates the surveillance and research activities of about 40 member programs of the International Clearing House for Birth Defects Surveillance and Research.

Infectious Diseases

In Asia, dengue fever, an infectious tropical disease, is a major cause of child mortality. Global research teams have been working to improve methods for diagnosing and treating dengue. A 2011 CDC report found that the incidence of dengue has increased worldwide in recent decades, but little is known about its incidence in Africa.

Diarrheal diseases cause an estimated 1.4 million deaths per year in children under 5 years old. In developing countries, diarrheal diseases are also a leading cause of death from infections among persons with HIV. Lack of access to water and sanitation and poor hygiene are responsible for most of these deaths. Poor nutrition is also an important factor in diarrheal disease risk.

The World Health Organization has estimated that about 1.5 million children under age 5 years continue to die annually from diseases that are preventable via the administration of vaccines, making up approximately 20% of overall childhood mortality. Vaccines can prevent pneumonia and diarrhea, the two leading causes of death among children under age 5. Other immunizations that can improve maternal and child health are tetanus immunization of pregnant women and polio immunization. Moreover, an estimated 4 million newborns die in the first four weeks of life, accounting for 40% of all deaths among children under the age of 5. Improved pre- and post-natal care, as well as more accessible information about infant health, could help reduce the infant mortality rate.

Child Hunger and Infection

Hunger is one of the basic needs of a human, or on the ERG, a need of existence.

Interventions

Infant mortality rates are reduced by increasing availability of safe emergency pregnancy care and training doctors and nurses to promote safe breast feeding for HIV infected women and other support and guidance related to pregnancy, delivery, and postpartum periods. Globally, untreated maternal syphilis still causes more than 650,000 adverse pregnancy outcomes, including about 350,000 pre-birth deaths, each year. The overwhelming majority of these are in countries with limited laboratory capacity for syphilis testing as part of basic pregnancy care. Congenital syphilis, passed from mother to child, can be eliminated through universal screening of pregnant women early in pregnancy, and prompt treatment with at least one injection of penicillin. International organizations are working to make these interventions available.

African American Midwives and Infant Mortality

This poster from a museum exhibit illustrates how in impoverished communities without access to technologically advanced medical facilities, the first intervention used to reduce rates of infant mortality is often improving sanitation or hygienic standards.

8.4.4: HIV and AIDS

Learning Objective

Describe how HIV/AIDS affects different regions on a global scale

Key Points

• HIV/AIDS is primarily transferred through sexual contact, blood transfusions and needle sharing, and mother-child contact during pregnancy, birth, and breastfeeding.
• HIV/AIDS has disproportionately impacted low-income countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia, with high proportions of infected women and children and low access to adequate healthcare and anti-retroviral drugs there.
• Governmental and non-profit organizations have developed to improve HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment, and social services, but many populations continue to be ravaged by the disease.

Key Term

pandemic

A disease that hits a wide geographical area and affects a large proportion of the population.

Examples

• AIDS was recognized in the United States after high numbers of homosexual men were suddenly contracting severe viral infections and dying. Partly because homosexual men were a marginalized and socially stigmatized community, funding for research was slow to materialize and high proportions of the urban, male homosexual population became infected before the disease began to be understood. While some of AIDS’ initial destruction can be attributed to the slow process of scientific research, the initial surge in infections also illustrates how poor government response and slow flow of knowledge have exacerbated the spread of the pandemic.
• A red ribbon has been used as a symbol to show solidarity with HIV/AIDS patients, and is an example of an activist attempt to overturn the stigma associated with the infection.

Human immunodeficiency virus infection / acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The illness interferes with the immune system, making people with AIDS much more likely to get infections, including opportunistic infections and tumors that do not usually affect people with working immune systems. This susceptibility increases as these disease gets worse.

HIV is transmitted primarily via sexual intercourse (including oral sex and anal sex), contaminated blood transfusions and hypodermic needles, and from mother to child during pregnancy, delivery, or breastfeeding. Prevention of HIV infection, primarily through safe sex and needle-exchange programs, is a key strategy to control the disease. There is no known cure for or vaccine against HIV, but antiretroviral treatment can slow the course of the disease and may lead to a near-normal life expectancy for people with HIV. Antiretroviral treatment reduces the risk of death and complications from the disease. However, these medications are expensive and may be associated with side effects of their own.

HIV/AIDS and World Health

HIV/AIDS is a major health problem in many parts of the world, and is considered a pandemic—a disease outbreak which is present over a large area and is actively spreading. In 2009, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that there are 33.4 million people worldwide living with HIV/AIDS, with 2.7 million new HIV infections per year and 2.0 million annual deaths due to AIDS. Of the approximately 34 million people infected with HIV/AIDS, approximately 16.8 million are women and 3.4 million are younger than 15 years old. AIDS was first recognized by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 1981 and its cause, HIV, was identified in the early 1980s.

Map of AIDS Prevalence Among Young Adults

AIDS prevalence is distributed unequally across the world, with sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia experiencing the worst of the pandemic.

Sub-Saharan Africa is the region most affected by the global HIV/AIDS pandemic. In 2010, an estimated 68% (22.9 million) of all HIV cases and 66% of all deaths (1.2 million) occurred in this region. About 5% of the sub-Saharan African adult population is infected and HIV/AIDS is believed to be the cause of 10% of all deaths in children. Women compose nearly 60% of cases in the region. South Africa has the largest population of people with HIV of any country in the world, at 5.9 million.

South and Southeast Asia is the second most affected region in the world. In 2010, this region had an estimated 4 million cases, or 12% of all people living with HIV, resulting in approximately 250,000 deaths. Approximately 2.4 million of these cases are in India.

Prevalence is lowest in Western and Central Europe at 0.2% and East Asia at 0.1%. In 2008 in the United States, approximately 1.2 million people were living with HIV, resulting in about 17,500 deaths. The CDC estimated that in 2008 20% of infected Americans were unaware of their infection.

Prevention

Many international organizations are working to reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS and its mortality rate. Campaigns have attempted to distribute condoms to HIV/AIDS stricken regions–consistent condom use reduces the risk of HIV transmission by approximately 80% over the long-term. Circumcision in sub-Saharan Africa has been found to reduce the risk of HIV infection in heterosexual men by between 38% and 66% over two years. Based on these studies, the World Health Organization has recommended male circumcision as a method of preventing female-to-male HIV transmission. Additionally, early treatment of HIV-infected people with antiretrovirals protected 96% of sexual partners from infection.

Treatment

People infected with HIV/AIDS can be treated with anti-retroviral drugs. This medication can relieve many of the symptoms associated with the infection, such as increased susceptibility to other viral infections. Moreover, benefits of treatment include a decreased risk of progression from HIV to AIDS and a decreased risk of death. Medication can also include a decreased risk of transmission of the disease to sexual partners and a decrease in mother to child transmission. However, these drugs often have significant side effects and they are expensive, making them difficult to access in low-income countries.

8.4.5: Population Trends

Learning Objective

Evaluate scenarios of over and underpopulation

Key Points

• The demographic transition describes countries’ shifts from high population growth— fueled by high birth rates and low death rates—to population stability or shrinkage— brought about by low birth and death rates. This transition occurs in tandem with economic development.
• Human overpopulation is a state where the population exceeds the available material and social resources; underpopulation occurs when the birth rate is not sufficient to maintain a stable population.
• Overpopulation can lead to many problems, including famine, disease, conflict, and underdevelopment of national economic and social potential; underpopulation can lead to reductions in the GDP and slowed economic growth.
• Proposed solutions to global overpopulation include a survival of the fittest attitude, economic development to stimulate the demographic transition in countries with growing populations, and a combination of population control and self-sufficiency methods.

Key Terms

demographic transition

The shift from high birth rates and death rates to low birth rates and death rates, usually occurring alongside economic development.

Malthusianism

The idea that population growth will outpace food production, resulting in widespread famine and population reduction.

laissez-faire

Describes a policy of governmental non-interference in economic affairs.

Examples

• Countries in Africa that have had an influx of wealth and international aid in recent decades are example of countries towards the beginning of the demographic transition—death rates have fallen with better access to nutrition and healthcare, but birth rates are still high, so populations have grown rapidly. Most European nations are examples of countries at the end of the demographic transition: both birth and death rates are low, so populations are static or shrinking.
• A potential consequence of overpopulation is a high unemployment rate or low wages for labor, since the workforce exceeds the demand for laborers. By contrast, in countries with underpopulation there are often insufficient labor pools to support economic growth, but employment tends to be stable.

The world population has experienced continuous growth since the end of the Great Famine and the Black Death in 1350, when it stood at around 370 million. Between October 2011 and March 2012, it was estimated that the world population exceeded 7 billion. The world population growth rate was estimated at 1.1% per year as of 2011, a rate which has declined since its peak during the 1950s–1970s.

The Demographic Transition

Despite an overall pattern of growth, population trends are not even across countries. The demographic transition helps explain the differences between countries. The demographic transition refers to the shift from high birth rates and death rates to low birth and death rates; this occurs as part of the economic development of a country. The basic premises of the theory are as follows: in pre-industrial societies, population growth is relatively slow because both birth and death rates are high; as countries develop, death rates fall faster than birth rates do, resulting in large population growth; as development stabilizes, birth rates drop off and the population stabilizes .

The Demographic Transition

This model illustrates the demographic transition, as birth and death rates rise and fall but eventually reach equilibrium.

Overpopulation at a National Level

Overpopulation indicates a scenario in which the population of a living species exceeds the carrying capacity of its ecological niche. Overpopulation is not a function of the number or density of the individuals, but rather the number of individuals compared to the resources they need to survive. In other words, it is a ratio—population:resources. Resources important in measures of overpopulation include clean water, food, shelter, healthcare, etc.

Most of the population growth in the world today comes from developing countries, most notably African countries, where birth rates have remained high. Many of these countries are struggling to provide food and resources necessary to support a young, growing population. Overpopulation can result in a variety of problems, including famine, shortage of natural resources, spread of communicable disease due to dense populations, and conflict over scarce resources.

Underpopulation at a National Level

Once countries pass through the demographic transition, some experience fertility rate decreases so substantial that they fall well below replacement level—the birth rate needed to maintain a stable population—and their populations begin to shrink. About half the world population lives in nations with sub-replacement fertility. A new fear for many governments, particularly those in countries with very low fertility rates, is underpopulation—a state in which the declining population reduces the GDP and economic growth of the country, as population growth is often a driving force of economic expansion. To combat extremely low fertility rates, some of these governments have introduced pro-family policies, such as payments to parents for having children and extensive parental leave for parents.

Debates about Overpopulation on a Global Level

Despite concerns of underpopulation in individual countries, overpopulation is still the most pressing concern for those who track global population trends. Presently, the world’s population grows by approximately 80 million annually. The United Nations projects that the world population will stabilize in 2075 at nine billion due to declining fertility rates.

Concerns about overpopulation are not new; early in the 19^th century, Thomas Malthus argued in “An Essay on the Principle of Population” that, if left unrestricted, human populations would continue to grow until they would become too large to be supported by the food grown on available agricultural land. Once the population exceeded the planet’s carrying capacity, the population would be restrained through mass famine and starvation. Malthus argued for population control—policies intended to lower the birth rate—to avoid this happening. His arguments are widely known as Malthusianism, and present-day proponents of this theory are called Neo-Malthusians. Critics of Malthus point to the fact that the widespread famines he predicted have not occurred, even though the world population has continued to expand.

Possible Solutions to Overpopulation

Some approach overpopulation with a laissez-faire attitude, arguing that if the earth’s ecosystem becomes overtaxed, it will naturally regulate itself. In this mode of thought, disease or starvation are natural means of decreasing the population. Objections to this argument include that a huge number of plant and animal species would go extinct; terrible pollution would arise in some areas, and it would be difficult to abate; and moral problems would be created—great suffering for the people who do not have access to resources.

Others argue that economic development is the best way to reduce population growth because economic development can spur demographic transitions that lead to reduced fertility rates. Where women’s status has improved, for example, there has generally been a drastic reduction in the birth rate, resulting in more sustainable growth levels.

Population Growth According to Development

The majority of world population growth today is occurring in less developed countries.

8.4.6: Global Aging

Learning Objective

Examine aging as a global issue

Key Points

• Developments in healthcare, lifestyle, and political stability have led to longer life expectancy worldwide.
• While global life expectancy is increasing, the rate at which the world population is aging is not uniform across countries—life expectancies are higher in wealthier, developed countries than in poorer, developing ones.
• Growing life expectancy is not the only factor contributing to global aging. As nations develop, average birth rates decline.
• As more people in a nation’s population reach old age, the nation’s healthcare and social security system will be strained.

Key Terms

life expectancy

The amount of time one is expected to live.

life span

the length of time for which a person lives, or for which something exists or is current or valid

Example

• The current strain on America’s social security system is largely the result of an aging population. The people who were born during a population surge in the 1950s–1960s are beginning to reach old age, draining the country’s Medicare and social security reserves as they claim their benefits.

Globally, most countries are seeing the average life expectancy of their populations increase. This trend translates to a greater percentage of the world’s population over the age of 65. However, the rate at which the world’s population is aging is not uniform across the world—some countries have actually seen decreasing life expectancies.

Economic circumstances are one factor that affects life expectancy. Citizens living in wealthier, more developed countries or regions tend to have higher life expectancies. For example, in the United Kingdom, life expectancy in the wealthiest areas is several years longer than in the poorest areas. Wealth may be correlated to factors such as diet and lifestyle as well as better access to medical care—many wealthy European countries offer universal healthcare. As more people in a nation’s population reach old age, its healthcare and social security system will be strained. This strain is occurring in the United States, where people born into the baby boomer generation of the 1950s–1960s are aging and reaching retirement age, thus tapping into Medicaid and social security funds at unprecedented rates.

People living in poorer, less developed countries tend to have lower life expectancies. Much of the higher death rates in poorer nations is due to war, starvation, infant deaths, diseases, and lack of access to adequate health care. The presence of one risk factor is often related to another—war torn countries, for example, are likely to have more instances of starvation. Likewise, people with diseases may have a difficult time getting or sustaining a job, making them vulnerable to starvation. The impact of AIDS on life expectancy is particularly significant in many sub-Saharan African countries. As nations develop, their life expectancy generally rises.

Growing life expectancy is not the only factor contributing to global aging. As nations develop, the average number of children per parent drops. There are several possible reasons for this trend: first, in poorer countries, it may be important to have many children because infant mortality is high and children provide financial support for households and support for their parents in retirement. As a population gets richer, these reasons will become less important. Second, as women become more educated, they tend to delay having children until later in life. This naturally leads to fewer childbirths.

A drop in the birth rate means that the percentage of people in a society who are young will decline. This, combined with higher life expectancies, means that the ratio of old to young people will grow and the population as a whole will age. These two trends, stemming from the growing global economy, cause global aging.

Percentage of Population Above 65: 2005

This map illustrates global trends in aging by depicting the percentage of each country’s population that is over the age of 65. More developed countries have older populations because their citizens live longer. Less developed countries have much younger populations.

8.5: A Comparative Analysis of Global Stratification in Mexico

8.5.1: Distribution of Wealth and Income

The distribution of wealth and income reveals inequalities among and within countries and the ways in which wealth is redistributed.

Learning Objective

Discuss methods and policies of wealth redistribution

Key Points

• The distribution of wealth compares the assets—including income, land, stocks, and other investments—held by the richest and poorest members of society, while the distribution of income compares only how much money each group earns per year.
• Since the 1970s, the gap in wealth between the highest and lowest brackets of earners has grown, with 2 percent of the population owning a majority of global wealth and the bottom half of the population owning less than 1 percent of global wealth in the year 2000.
• Policies aimed at redistributing wealth may attempt to either increase the wealth of the upper class or decrease inequality. These policies may include the adoption of national economic systems or the operation of small scale charitable organizations.

Key Terms

wealth

the abundance of valuable resources or material possessions

Pareto Distribution

A statistical measure that is often used to model the distribution of wealth.

distribution of wealth

A measure of how assets are divided throughout the population.

income distribution

In economics, income distribution is how a nation’s total GDP is spread amongst its population.

Examples

• Competing political ideologies in America lead to differing public policy attempts to redistribute wealth. Conservative economic policy may provide tax cuts to wealthy business owners in attempt to increase their profits, on the basis that doing so will improve the country’s overall economy. By contrast, liberal economic policy may provide increased welfare to the poor in an attempt to raise their standard of living and directly decrease economic inequality.
• On a national scale, countries may adopt socialist policies to ensure that every citizen has a minimum standard of living, as with countries that have universal healthcare and entirely public education systems — this type of policy aims to lessen the gap in opportunity that can result from the unequal distribution of wealth.

The distribution of wealth is a comparison of the wealth of various members or groups in a society. It differs from the income distribution in that it looks at the distribution of asset ownership in a society, rather than the current income of members of that society. There are many ways in which the distribution of wealth can be analyzed. One commonly used method is to compare the wealth of the richest ten percent with the wealth of the poorest ten percent. In many societies, the richest ten percent control more than half of the total wealth. A Pareto distribution is a statistical measure that is often used to model the distribution of wealth, though other mathematical models are also used. The Gini coefficient measures the amount of wealth or income inequality in a society by plotting the proportion of total income (or wealth) earned by the bottom x percent of the population.

Recent Measures of Distribution

At the end of the 20^th century, wealth was concentrated among the G8 nations (France, Italy, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, and Russia) and Western industrialized nations, along with several Asian and OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) nations. A study by the World Institute for Development Economics Research at the United Nations reports that the richest 1 percent of adults owned 40 percent of global assets in the year 2000, and that the richest 10 percent of adults accounted for 85 percent of the world total. The bottom half of the world adult population owned 1 percent of global wealth. Moreover, another study found that the richest 2 percent of the population owned more than half of global assets as of the year 2000. In terms of distribution of income, a May 2011 report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) stated that the gap between rich and poor in OECD countries (most of which are “high income” economies) was at its highest level since the 1970s.

Real Estate

One form of wealth is land or real estate. As with general wealth distribution, land is also distributed unequally. Sizable numbers of households own no land, while a small percentage of people at the top of the economic hierarchy own most of the world’s privately held land. For example, 10 percent of land owners in Baltimore, Maryland own 58 percent of the taxable land value. The bottom 10 percent of those who own any land own less than 1 percent of the total land value.

World Distribution of Financial Wealth

In 2007, 147 companies controlled nearly 40 percent of the monetary value of all transnational corporations. On an international level, wealth is distributed unequally between nations, which are stratified in a world economic order.

Redistribution of Wealth and Public Policy

In many societies, attempts have been made to redistribute wealth through property redistribution, taxation, or regulation. Sometimes these policies are engineered to favor the upper class, while in other cases they are intended to diminish inequality between the upper and lower classes. Examples of this practice go back at least to the Roman republic in the third century B.C., when laws were passed limiting the amount of wealth or land that could be owned by any one family. Motivations for such limitations on wealth include the desire for equality of opportunity, a fear that great wealth leads to political corruption, the belief that limiting wealth will gain the political favor of a voting bloc, or fear that extreme concentration of wealth results in rebellion.

Various forms of socialism, an economic system in which the state exerts significant control over wealth distribution, attempt to diminish the unequal distribution of wealth and the conflicts that arise from it. Communism, an economic system that (in its ideal form) consists of state ownership of assets and industry and the equal distribution of resources among the population, can be seen as an attempt to eradicate wealth inequality through government policy. An idea taken from Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto is that wealth should be distributed as according to the precepts of, “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need. ” While states such as the Soviet Union and China have implemented communist systems to varying degrees, Marxism has never been realized in its ideal form, and no country has had a totally equal distribution of wealth.

In addition to government efforts to redistribute wealth, the tradition of individual and organizational charity is a voluntary means of wealth transference. Many voluntary charitable organizations make concerted efforts to aid those in need by redistributing wealth and material resources.

Global Distribution of Wealth by Country (2000)

This pie chart shows the global distribution of wealth among countries, illustrating the point that a small number of countries hold the majority of global assets.

8.5.2: Social Mobility

Social mobility is the extent to which individuals can move between social positions, either in their lifetime or between generations.

Learning Objective

Compare the various types of social mobiliy, the status systems they exist in, and their status between countries and over time.

Key Points

• Social mobility is most often discussed in terms of vertical mobility, which refers to movement between higher and lower status positions, or movement up and down the social ladder.
• Social mobility varies between countries and over time, with status more or less tied to social position at birth in different cultural contexts.
• Public policy may attempt to regulate the extent to which people are socially mobile, as when public school systems attempt to evenly distribute educational opportunities or religious bodies attempt to limit the movement of women.

Key Terms

ascribed status

The social status of a person that is given from birth or assumed involuntarily later in life.

cultural capital

Non-financial social assets that promote social mobility beyond economic means, such as education, intellect, style of speech, dress, and even physical appearance.

meritocratic

Used to describe a type of society where wealth, income, and social status are assigned through competition.

Examples

• When a person born to poor parents becomes a well-educated, wealthy businessperson, this is an example of upward vertical social mobility.
• Downward vertical social mobility occurs when a person loses status, which may occur through disgrace — Bernie Madoff was a successful, high status Wall Street executive until he was indicted and sentenced to prison time, at which point he fell from his high social position.
• In the United Kingdom in the early 20th century, a clear aristocracy existed and had high social status; after World Wars I and II, the aristocracy was largely dismantled and a greater degree of social mobility arose. Historical events can thus alter the extent of social mobility seen in countries.
• Affirmative action programs can be considered public policy attempts to increase social mobility in the United States. These programs aim to increase educational and professional opportunities for underrepresented minorities in order to decrease inequality between gender and race groups.

Social mobility refers to the movement of individuals or groups in social position over time. Most commonly, social mobility refers to the change in wealth and social status of individuals or families. However, it may also refer to changes in health status, literacy rate, education, or other variables among groups, such as classes, ethnic groups, or countries.

Types of Social Mobility

Social mobility typically refers to vertical mobility—movement of individuals or groups up or down from one socio-economic level to another, often by changing jobs or marriage. Nonetheless, social mobility can also refer to horizontal mobility—movement from one position to another within the same social level, as when someone changes between two equally prestigious occupations.

In some cases, social mobility is intergenerational, as when children attain a higher or lower status than their parents held. Other times, social mobility is intra-generational, meaning that a person changes status within their lifetime. A high level of intergenerational mobility is often considered praiseworthy, and can be seen as a sign of equality of opportunity in a society.

Social mobility can be enabled to varying extents by economic capital, cultural capital, human capital, and social capital. Economic capital includes a person’s financial and material resources, such as income and accumulated wealth. Cultural capital includes resources ranging from holding a graduate degree to having a grasp of a group’s customs and rituals, both of which may confer an advantage in job markets and social exchanges. Human capital refers to such individual traits as competence and work ethic, which may enable increased educational or professional attainment. Social capital includes the advantages conferred by one’s social network, such as access to professional opportunities and insider knowledge. These types of capital facilitate mobility by providing access to opportunities and the tools to acquire wealth and status.

Status Systems

Societies present different opportunities for mobility depending on their system of values. For example, Western capitalist countries are generally meritocratic, in which social standing is based on such personal attributes as educational attainment, income, and occupational prestige. In such countries, highly skilled jobs pay better than low-skilled jobs. This type of society has an open status system, which functions on the basis of achieved status, or status gained through one’s own merit. Thus, the degree of mobility in Western capitalist states ideally depends on the extent to which individuals have access to educational and economic opportunity, rather than their position at birth. On the other hand, closed status systems are based on ascribed status. Ascribed status is a fixed position a person is born into, not based on their performance. When this ascriptive status rule is used (for example, in Medieval Europe), people are placed in a position based on personal traits beyond their control.

The ability of an individual to become wealthy out of poverty does not necessarily indicate that there is social mobility in his or her society. Some societies with low or nonexistent social mobility afford free individuals opportunities to initiate enterprise and amass wealth, but wealth fails to “buy” entry into a higher social class. In feudal Japan and Confucianist China, wealthy merchants occupied the lowest ranks in society. In pre-revolutionary France, a nobleman, however poor, was from the “second estate” of society and thus considered superior to a wealthy merchant (from the “third estate”). These examples demonstrate how social mobility is not simply based on economic capital, but also social and cultural capital.

A Comparative View of Social Mobility

Several studies have been conducted to compare social mobility between countries. Recent data shows that of nine developed countries, the United States and United Kingdom have the lowest intergenerational vertical social mobility, with about half of the advantages of having a parent with a high income passed on to the next generation. The four developed countries with the the highest social mobility are Denmark, Norway, Finland, and Canada, with less than 20% of advantages of having a high income parent passed on to their children.

Intergenerational Mobility in a Sample of Developed Countries

This graph shows the results of a study on how much intergenerational social mobility there is in a sample of developed countries. Countries with higher intergenerational income elasticity have lower social mobility — in countries on the left of the graph, children are likely to attain the same social status as their parents.

Not only does social mobility vary across types of countries, it can also change over time. For example, social mobility in the United States has varied widely since the 19^th century. In the United States in the mid-19^th century, inequality was low and social mobility was high. In the 19^th century, the U.S. had much higher social mobility than comparably developed nations like the U.K., due in part to the common school movement and open public school system, a large farming industry, and high geographic mobility. However, during the latter half of the 20^th century and the early 21^st century, social mobility has decreased and social inequality has grown in the U.S. In other words, in the U.S. an individual’s family background may be more predictive of social position today than it was in 1850.

8.5.3: Mexico’s Economy

Mexico’s rapid economic changes have led to huge gains in GDP, but have caused social problems such as stratification and inequality.

Learning Objective

Discuss poverty and economic growth in Mexico

Key Points

• Mexico’s economy has expanded in recent years, but the benefits of economic growth have not reached all sectors of the workforce, resulting in economic stratification, a significant proportion of the population living in poverty, and high rates of underemployment.
• Mexico’s entry into free trade agreements has solidified its position in world market and aided its national economic growth, but has arguably failed to improve standards of living for much of it’s population.
• Mexico’s industrial and agricultural sectors illustrate the uneven nature of economic development, which often benefits individuals and groups who have financial capital and assets, while not significantly improving the situation of lower classes, particularly those in poverty.

Key Terms

Developed Nations

a sovereign state which has a highly developed economy and advanced technological infrastructure in comparison to other, less developed nations.

social stratification

The hierarchical arrangement of social classes, or castes, within a society.

poverty

The state of one who lacks material possessions, wealth, or access to social resources and opportunities.

Example

• Some social scientists have found that poorly-compensated Mexican farm laborers are made to work under potentially unsafe conditions to meet the demand for produce in wealthier trading nations, such as the United States. For example, some critics suggest that Mexican farm laborers are exposed to pesticides that are banned in many developed nations. If substantiated, this would be evidence that international trade has not improved the standard of living for all Mexicans..

Mexico’s economy has undergone significant changes in the past century, with implications for the country’s economic position and its population. After the Mexican Revolution (1910-1917) overturned the previous land distribution system, in which a few hacienda owners overworked and underpaid millions of peasants, the new Mexican leaders instituted a nominally socialist democracy. The years from 1930-1970, during which Mexico instituted its new protectionist economic policy, have been dubbed by economic historians as the “Mexican Miracle,” a period of economic growth and capital accumulation. While population doubled from 1940 to 1970, gross domestic product (GDP), the sum of national production and a common measure of economic growth, increased sixfold during the same period.

After the international oil and interest rate crisis in 1982, which had a profoundly negative impact on the Mexican economy, Mexican leaders changed economic directions. They instituted neoliberal reforms which increasingly integrated Mexico’s economy with that of other nations. Trade liberalization continued after that, with several free trade agreements with Latin American and European countries, Japan, and Israel signed during former President Vincente Fox’s leadership (2000-2006). Thus, Mexico became one of the most open countries in the world to trade, and the economic base shifted accordingly to exports and imports .

Map of Mexican Free Trade Agreements

Since liberalizing its trade policies beginning in the 1980s, Mexico has entered into Free Trade Agreements with many countries. This trend has greatly increased the amount of Mexico’s economy that depends on imports and exports.

Social Stratification, Poverty, and Unemployment

Mexico’s economic development has been substantial. However, general GDP growth obscures some pervasive problems that have persisted and even worsened in recent years, including social stratification, poverty, and unemployment.

Social stratification, or the grouping of individuals into a hierarchy based on socioeconomic status, is highly present in Mexico and can be traced back to the colonial period. During the colonial period, before Mexico’s independence, the upper class was composed of those who owned the land and the lower class was made of those who worked the land. After the Mexican Revolution, the government ceded an estimated 50% of the land to the general population. Though this slightly reduced the gap between the wealthy and the poor, land ownership continued to be main source of wealth for Mexicans and has dictated the hierarchy of wealth distribution among the population.

After the country entered its economic industrial transformation, industrialists, businessmen, and politicians have controlled the direction of wealth in Mexico and have remained among the wealthy. The monopoly that the wealthy have over resources in Mexico is evidenced in OECD statistics: Mexico is the country with the second highest degree of economic disparity between the extremely poor and extremely rich, after Chile, although this gap has been diminishing over the last decade. The bottom 10% of income earners possess 1.36% of the country’s assets, whereas the upper 10% possesses almost 36%. 85% of national wealth is concentrated in a few families of entrepreneurs, corporate magnates, and politicians. Thus, economic industrialization has not necessarily led to an improved standard of living for a significant portion of the Mexican population, many of whom live in poverty.

The gap between the rich and poor has not only remained large between classes, but also has been growing between northern and southern regions. As reforms have taken place, the southern states, such as Chiapas, Oaxaca, and Guerrero, have remained isolated from the rest of the country. The national government provides less funding to these southern regions than to northern regions. Consequently, infrastructure, social development, education, and economic growth have lagged behind in southern states. These states hold the highest levels of illiteracy, unemployment, lack of basic services such as running water and sanitation, overall urban infrastructure, and government stability.

Poverty

Poverty in Mexico is characterized as lack of access to basic human needs such as nutrition, clean water, and shelter. Poverty can also include lack of access to extends to social services such as education, healthcare, security, and income. Current figures indicate that as much as 44.2% of Mexico’s population lives below the poverty line as defined by the country’s National Council of Social Development Policy Evaluation.

While causes of poverty are multiple, many social scientists have posited that the government’s emphasis on national economic growth has neglected the needs of the country’s poorer citizens. For example, Mexico’s heavy dependency on foreign influences, particularly the United States, has led it to adopt policies that do not favor its own citizens. Similarly, many critics claim that while the NAFTA agreement proved effective in increasing Mexico’s economic performance, foreign trade policies have not done enough to promote social advancement and reduce poverty. To remain competitive in the international market, Mexico has had to offer low wages to its workers while allowing high returns and generous concessions to international corporations. Nonetheless, the government’s current administration has made attempts to reduce poverty by providing improved education, healthcare, and job opportunities to citizens. In recent years, a middle class, once virtually nonexistent, has begun to emerge.

8.5.4: Race Relations in Mexico: The Color Hierarchy

Mexican society still shows traces of the racial and ethnic caste system that was instituted by the Spanish during the colonial period.

Learning Objective

Explain how racial relations in Mexico have been influenced by the colonial caste system

Key Points

• With regards to Mexican population groups, processes of identity formation and social stratification can be analyzed both in terms of race and of ethnicity. This is because definitions of each depend upon biological and socio-cultural traits.
• The large majority of Mexicans can be classified as “mestizos,” meaning that they neither identify fully with any indigenous culture nor with a European heritage. Rather, they identify as having cultural traits and heritage that combine elements from indigenous and European traditions.
• Mexican officials intentionally spread a racial ideology, known as mestizaje, that encouraged miscegenation between European and indigenous people. This was intended to distribute European descent throughout the population and create a new mestizo national identity.

Key Terms

Caste System

an elaborate and complex social system that combines some or all elements of endogamy, hereditary transmission of occupation, social class, social identity, hierarchy, exclusion and power

indigenous

native to a land or region, especially before an intrusion

miscegenation

the mixing or blending of race in marriage or breeding; interracial marriage

Examples

• In Mexico, indigenous groups are formally defined as people that speak one of 62 officially recognized indigenous languages. While indigeneity is associated with Native American biological descent, it is defined culturally rather than genetically.
• Indigenous groups are formally defined in Mexico as groups that speak one of sixty-two officially recognized indigenous languages; while indigeneity is associated with Native American biological descent, it is defined culturally rather than genetically.

Race Relations in Mexico

Generally speaking, Mexican ethnic and racial relations can be arranged on an axis between two extremes, European and Native American heritage. This division is a remnant of the colonial Spanish caste system, which categorized individuals according to their perceived level of biological mixture between these two groups. Along this axis, a color hierarchy emerged that persists in importance today. In this hierarchy, those who are viewed as being more European, or “white,” are generally endowed with higher social status. Those who are viewed as being more “indigenous,” or “dark,” are typically given less social prestige.

The color hierarchy is utilized for more than simply classifying people based on their phenotypical traits, or physical appearance. It is also a way to racialize socio-cultural traits. For example, because upward social mobility is generally correlated with “whitening,” if persons with indigenous biological and cultural roots rise to positions of power and prestige, they tend to be viewed as more “white” than if they belonged to a lower social class.

The racial hierarchy is complicated by the presence of considerable numbers of people with partly African and Asian heritage. Nonetheless, these groups are often categorized on the color hierarchy somewhere between indigenous and European.

Indigenous Groups

As a classifier, indigenous identity was constructed by the dominant European and Mestizo majority and imposed upon indigenous people as a pejorative. This identity was associated with a lack of assimilation into modern Mexico. This identity therefore became socially stigmatizing, and contrary to social expectations and ideals. In early post-revolutionary Mexico, cultural policies were paternalistic towards indigenous people, and contained efforts to completely assimilate indigenous peoples into Mestizo culture.

The category of “indigena” (indigenous) can be defined according to linguistic criteria as people who speak one of Mexico’s 62 indigenous languages. This categorization method is used by the National Mexican Institute of Statistics. Conversely, indigenous identity can also be defined broadly to include all persons who self-identify as having an indigenous cultural background, whether or not they speak an indigenous language.

Blancos/Güeros

Mexicans of European descent, often called “blancos” (“whites”) or “güeros” in Mexican Spanish, have light skin and predominantly European features. These people are typically associated with Mexico’s upper and middle socioeconomic classes. Because “Mestizos” are also people with varying amounts of European ancestry, the differentiation between “mestizos” and “blancos” is often based on socio-cultural rather than biological boundaries.

Europeans began arriving to Mexico after the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire. The descendants of the conquistadors, along with new arrivals from Spain, formed a new elite class of the population. Intermixing eventually produced a Mestizo group that would become the nation’s demographic majority by the time of Independence. That being said, during this time, power remained firmly in the hands of the elite, called “criollo. “

Today, most blancos are still associated with the Spanish colonial order. Although some would not be considered “white” by U.S. or European standards, one way blancos distinguish themselves is by keeping separate from the Mestizo and other classes in Mexico. In popular conception, blancos are closely associated with ideas of modernity, which supposedly means that they are the closest culturally to Americans and Europeans (both are idealized as white).

Mestizos

The large majority of Mexicans are classified as “mestizos,” meaning that they neither identify fully with any indigenous culture nor with a particular non-Mexican heritage. Instead, they identify as having cultural traits and heritage that combine elements from indigenous and European traditions. By the deliberate efforts of post-revolutionary governments, the “mestizo identity” was constructed as the basis of the modern Mexican national identity, through a process of cultural synthesis referred to as mestizaje.

The term “mestizo” is not widely used in Mexican society today, and it has been dropped as a category in population censuses. That being said, it is still used in social and cultural studies when referring to the non-indigenous part of the Mexican population. The word has somewhat pejorative colloquial connotations. Most people who would be defined as mestizos in the sociological literature would probably self-identify simply as Mexicans. In addition, people will self-identify as “gente de razón” (“people of reason”), in contrast to “gente de costumbre” (“people of tradition”), thus further differentiating themselves from the status of indigeneity, which is considered superstitious and backward.

The Process of “Mestizaje”

In the Mexican post-revolutionary period, mestizaje was a racial ideology that combined ideologies of white superiority with the social reality of a postcolonial, multiracial setting. It promoted the use of planned miscegenation (the mixing of racial groups through reproduction) as a eugenic strategy to improve the overall quality of the population. In the logic of “mestizaje,” the distribution of white genetic material throughout the population would improve citizens.

Map of Indigenous Languages in Mexico

This map shows the regions where there are over 100,000 speakers of particular indigenous languages. These areas are concentrated in the poorer southern states. Thus, the areas that have not been heavily economically modernized have not been as significantly affected by ethnic mestizaje.

Spanish Caste System in Mexico

This artist’s rendering of the Spanish racial/ethnic caste system imposed in Mexico during the colonial period illustrates the hierarchy from white Europeans to dark-skinned Native Americans or indigenous people.

8.5.5: The Status of Women in Mexico

In spite of purported economic growth, both women and men in Mexico have to deal with social stratification, poverty, and unemployment.

Learning Objective

Discuss the causes of poverty in Mexico

Key Points

• Mexico’s primary, secondary, and tertiary economic sectors have all expanded in recent years, but the benefits of economic growth have not reached all sectors of the workforce, resulting in economic stratification.
• Mexico’s entry into free trade agreements (like NAFTA) has solidified its position in the world market and has aided its national economic growth, but has arguably failed to improve standards of living for much of its population.
• Mexico’s industrial and agricultural sectors illustrate the uneven nature of economic development, which often benefits individuals and groups who have financial capital and assets, while not significantly improving the situation of lower classes, particularly those in poverty.

Key Terms

Developed Nations

a sovereign state which has a highly developed economy and advanced technological infrastructure in comparison to other, less developed nations.

social stratification

The hierarchical arrangement of social classes, or castes, within a society.

underemployment

the condition of having employment for which one is overqualified, or employment that does not meet the desired hours of work and wages desired by the employee

Examples

• Some social scientists have found that poorly-compensated Mexican farm laborers are made to work under potentially unsafe conditions to meet the demand for produce in wealthier trading nations, such as the United States. For example, some critics suggest that Mexican farm laborers are exposed to pesticides that are banned in many developed nations. If substantiated, this would be evidence that international trade has not improved the standard of living for all Mexicans.
• Some social scientists have found that poorly-compensated Mexican farm laborers are made to work under potentially unsafe conditions to meet the demand for produce in wealthier trading nations, such as the United States. For example, some critics suggest that Mexican farm laborers are exposed to pesticides that are banned in many developed nations. If substantiated, this would be evidence that international trade has not improved the standard of living for all Mexicans.

In the wake of the Mexican Revolution (1910-1917), the prevailing land distribution system, in which a handful of hacienda owners overworked and underpaid millions of peasants, was overturned by new Mexican leaders, who replaced it with a nominally socialist democracy. From 1930 until 1970, Mexico instituted this new economic policy. During these forty years, a time period economic historians have dubbed the “Mexican Miracle,” the nation experienced dramatic economic growth and capital accumulation. The nation adopted policies of economic protectionism, which contributed to an economic boom in which industries rapidly expanded their production. Important changes in the economic structure included the following:

• free land distribution to peasants
• the nationalization of the oil and railroad companies
• the introduction of social rights into the constitution
• the birth of large and influential labor unions
• the upgrading of infrastructure.

As a result of these changes, between 1940 to 1970, the population of Mexico doubled, and the gross domestic product (GDP), the sum of national production and a common measure of economic growth, increased sixfold.

Social Stratification, Poverty, and Unemployment

Social stratification, or the grouping of individuals into a hierarchy based on socioeconomic status, is highly present in Mexico and can be traced back to the colonial period. During the colonial period, before Mexico’s independence, the upper class was composed of those who owned land, and the lower class was composed of those who worked the land. After the Mexican Revolution, the government ceded an estimated 50% of the land to the general population. Though this slightly reduced the gap between the wealthy and the poor, land ownership continued to be a main source of wealth for Mexicans, and it dictated the hierarchy of wealth distribution amongst the population.

The gap between the rich and poor has not only remained large between classes, but also has been growing between northern and southern regions. As reforms have taken place, the southern states, such as Chiapas, Oaxaca, and Guerrero, have remained isolated from the rest of the country. The national government provides less funding to these southern regions than to northern regions. Consequently, infrastructure, social development, education, and economic growth have lagged behind in southern states. These states have the highest levels of illiteracy and unemployment, and the lowest levels of urban infrastructure, government stability, and basic services, like running water and sanitation.

Poverty

Poverty in Mexico is characterized as a lack of access to basic human needs, such as nutrition, clean water, and shelter. Poverty can also include a lack of access to social services such as education, healthcare, security, and income. Current statistics indicate that as much as 44.2% of Mexico’s population lives below the poverty line, as defined by the country’s National Council of Social Development Policy Evaluation. In 2008, 33.7% of the population lived in moderate poverty, and at least 10.5% suffered from extreme poverty.

While the causes of poverty are multiple, many social scientists have posited that the government’s emphasis on national economic growth has neglected the needs of the country’s poorer citizens. For example, Mexico’s heavy dependency on foreign influences, particularly the United States, has led it to adopt policies that do not favor its own citizens. Similarly, many critics claim that while the NAFTA agreement proved effective in increasing Mexico’s economic performance, foreign trade policies have not done enough to promote social advancement and reduce poverty. To remain competitive in the international market, Mexico has had to offer low wages to its workers, while at the same time allowing high returns and generous concessions to international corporations.

Unemployment

Unemployment, or the rate of potential members of the labor force who are unable to find or maintain employment, has been at continuously high levels in Mexico. In spite of splendid macroeconomic indicators, low levels of inflation, and stable currency, job creation has not kept pace with a growing population and labor pool.

Underemployment refers to an employment situation that is insufficient in some important way for the worker, such as holding a part-time job despite desiring full-time work, or being over-qualified for a position. Over-qualification occurs when an employee has education, experience, or skills beyond the requirements of the job.

In Mexico, underemployment results largely from over-qualification. There are few high paying jobs available for university graduates. Often, college graduates search for years to find a job that is suitable for their qualifications, while working low-paying jobs that do not utilize their skills in the meantime. Situations like this have caused the standard of living among the urban middle class to deteriorate and has also resulted in emigration from this sector to other countries, especially the United States and Canada. The situation also depicts how Mexico’s economy has failed to provide the structural opportunities for social mobility that industrialization and economic development purportedly promise.

Mexican Economic Growth

In recent decades, the Mexican economy has experienced growth in its primary sector (including agriculture and oil extraction), secondary sector (auto manufacturing), and tertiary sector (including tourism).

8.6: Sociological Theories and Global Inequality

8.6.1: The Functionalist Perspective: Motivating Qualified People

From a functionalist point of view, inequality plays a role in holding society together and encouraging efficiency.

Learning Objective

Review the functionialist perspective on inequality

Key Points

• According to a functionalist perspective, differences in power, wealth, and other rewards within the social structure are justified, because they motivate the most qualified people to exercise their talents in the most important jobs.
• Society is unequally structured because of people’s inherent inequality in functional importance.
• A problem with this view is that it is difficult to determine the functional importance of any job.
• Another problem with this view is that it assumes that the current system of stratification is fair and rational, which is not always the case.

Key Terms

functional importance

The degree to which a job is unique and requires skill.

social stratification

The hierarchical arrangement of social classes, or castes, within a society.

Examples

• Nurses are an example of people who are not highly compensated and do not have notably high prestige, but who work long hours and are essential to the functioning of healthcare systems. The high stress of their job, and low incentives to do it, seem to contradict the theory of functionalism.
• Nurses are an example of people who are not highly compensated and do not have notably high prestige, but who work long hours and are essential to the functioning of healthcare systems. The high stress of their job and low incentives to do it seem to contradict the theory of functionalism.

The structural-functional approach to stratification asks the same question that it does of the other components of society: What function or purpose does it serve? The answer is that all aspects of society, even poverty, contribute in some way to the larger system’s overall stability.

According to structural-functionalists, stratification and inequality are inevitable and beneficial to society. The layers of society, conceptualized as a pyramid, are the inevitable sorting of unequal people. The layering is useful because it ensures that the best people are at the top and those who are less worthy are further down the pyramid, and therefore have less power and are given fewer rewards than the high quality people at the top. The Davis-Moore hypothesis, advanced by Kingsley Davis and Wilbert E. Moore in a paper published in 1945, is a central claim within the structural functionalist paradigm, and purports that the unequal distribution of rewards serves a purpose in society. Inequality ensures that the most functionally important jobs are filled by the best qualified people. In other words, it makes sense for the CEO of a company, whose position is more important functionally, to make more money than a janitor working for the same company.

A job’s functional importance is determined by the degree to which the job is unique and requires skill, meaning whether only a few, or many other people, can perform the same function adequately. Garbage collectors are important to public sanitation, but do not need to be rewarded highly because little training or talent is required to perform their job. For example, according to this theory doctors should be rewarded highly, because extensive training is required to do their job. It is logical that society must offer greater rewards (e.g., income, vacations, promotion) to motivate the most qualified people to fill the most important positions.

Critiques of the Functionalist Perspective

There are several problems with this approach to stratification. First, it is difficult to determine the functional importance of any job, as the accompanying specialization and inter-dependence make every position necessary to the overall operation. According to this critique, the engineers in a factory, for example, are just as important as the other workers in the factory to the success of a project. In another example, a primary school teacher in the U.S. earns $29,000 per year, whereas a National Basketball Association player can earn as much as $21 million per year. Are basketball players more essential to society than teachers? Are basketball players more functionally important than teachers? In 2009, comedian Jerry Seinfeld earned $85 million. Do his earnings demonstrate his contribution to society? If NBA players or famous comedians went on strike and decided not to work, most people would not notice. However, if teachers, bus drivers, nurses, cleaners, garbage collectors, or waitresses stopped working, society would close down. Thus, functionalism can be critiqued on the basis that there is little connection between income and functional importance.

Second, functionalism assumes that the system of social stratification is fair and rational, and that the “best” people end up on top because of their superiority. But in real life, the system does not work so easily or perfectly. For example, some would argue that former U.S. president George W. Bush was not the smartest or most politically talented individual, but he was well connected and born at the top of the stratification system (white, male, wealthy, American), and therefore was elected to a position with great power—the U.S. presidency.

The Legal Field

Lawyers and judges tend to work very long hours and are often subject to high stress situations; for example, as they determine the fate of individuals’ freedom and the allocation of large sums of money. Functionalists hold that the high pay and status granted to lawyers acts as incentive to motivate qualified people to accept these drawbacks.

8.6.2: The Conflict Perspective: Class Conflict and Scarce Resources

Conflict theory of stratification holds that inequality is harmful to society because it creates a fixed system of winners and losers.

Learning Objective

Compare the conflict theory of inequality to the funcionalist theory of inequality

Key Points

• According to conflict theory, capitalist economic competition unfairly privileges the rich, who have the power to perpetrate an unfair system that works to their advantage.
• “Losers” who are at the bottom of the social stratification have little opportunity to improve their situation, since those at the top tend to have far more political and economic power.
• Functionalists argue against the conflict theory approach by contending that people don’t always act out of economic self-interest, and that people who want to succeed can do so through hard work.

Key Terms

conflict theory

A social science perspective that holds that stratification is dysfunctional and harmful in society, with inequality perpetuated because it benefits the rich and powerful at the expense of the poor.

social stratification

The hierarchical arrangement of social classes, or castes, within a society.

tax break

A deduction in tax that is given in order to encourage a certain economic activity or a social objective.

Example

• Nannies, who are employed as informal, unregulated labor, are an example of lower class employees with little chance of upward mobility and few protections against exploitation. Conflict theorists cite this type of employee as evidence that capitalism results in winners and losers, but allows for little crossover in between.

Conflict theorists argue that stratification is dysfunctional and harmful in society. According to conflict theory, social stratification benefits the rich and powerful at the expense of the poor. Thus, it creates a system of winners and losers that is maintained by those who are on the top. The people who are losers do not get a fair chance to compete, and thus are stuck on the bottom. For example, many wealthy families pay low wages to nannies to care for their children, to gardeners to attend to their rose gardens, and to maids to pick up their dirty socks. These low wage workers do not make enough to move beyond a paycheck-to-paycheck lifestyle, and have no means to move ahead. Therefore, conflict theorists believe that this competitive system, together with the way the game is “fixed”, ends up creating and perpetuating stratification systems.

According to conflict theory, capitalism, an economic system based on free-market competition, particularly benefits the rich by assuming that the “trickle down” mechanism is the best way to spread the benefits of wealth across society. Governments that promote capitalism often establish corporate welfare through direct subsidies, tax breaks, and other support that benefit big businesses. They assume that the market will allow these benefits to the rich to make their way to the poor through competition. For example, the Walton family, the owners of Wal-Mart, receives enormous tax breaks. Whether the benefits of these tax breaks have made their way down to ordinary people through better business practices or better working conditions for Wal-Mart employees is questionable. Conflict theorists would argue that they haven’t, but rather have been used by the Walton family to solidify the patterns of stratification that keep the family rich.

Functionalists criticize this approach by arguing that people do not always act largely out of economic self-interest. For example, Chuck Feeney, the creator of Duty Free Shoppers, has given $4 billion to charities. Bill Gates has given 58% of his wealth to charity. Functionalists also argue that conflict theorists underestimate people’s ability to move upward in society. They argue that if people really want to succeed, they can do so through hard work.

Nanny with European Children

Nannies, who are often minority women, are one example of lower class workers with little chance for upward mobility.

8.6.3: The Interactionist Perspective

The interactionist perspective on social inequality focuses on the way that micro-interactions maintain structural inequality.

Learning Objective

Design a scenario which illustrates the interactionist perspective on inequality in action

Key Points

• Interactionists often consider the question of how power is exchanged in a situation.
• The interactionist perspective on inequality looks at how certain social roles have more power or authority than others.
• Micro-interactions all have the ability to reinforce or undermine power and status differentials. Thus, social stratification is a result of these individual interactions.

Key Terms

Social Roles

One’s position and responsibilities in society, which are largely determined in modern developed nations by occupation and family position.

Interactionist Perspective

An approach to inequality that focuses on how micro-interactions reflect and create unequal power dynamics.

Example

• In studies of gender dynamics, interactionists may focus on the day-to-day exchanges between husbands and wives to study how male superiority is enacted. For example, when a wife cleans up after her husband or leaves unquestioned an opinion of his that she disagrees with, it is an example of how inequality is reiterated in micro-interactions.

The interactionist perspective on inequality focuses on how micro-interactions reflect and create unequal power dynamics. Interactionists consider the question of how power is exchanged in a situation. For example, when a child and an adult engage in conversation, the adult establishes their power by claiming knowledge and authority that the child cannot. When considering larger systems of inequality, interactionists look at the inequality between social roles. Social roles refer to one’s position and responsibilities in society, which are largely determined in modern developed nations by occupation. The interactionist perspective on inequality looks at how certain social roles have more power, or authority, than others.

An example using real social roles can help illustrate the interactionist perspective: A CEO has more power than a receptionist. Macro-sociologists may explain this disparity by pointing to the unequal education of the two employees, the unequal salaries they earn, or the differing skill levels required to fulfill each job. Interactionists, on the other hand, would focus on the way that day-to-day exchanges demonstrate and reinforce the gap between the CEO and receptionist. When the receptionist hangs up the CEO’s jacket, he takes on a subservient position; when the receptionist makes excuses for the CEO missing a deadline, he accepts responsibility for the CEO’s mistake; when the receptionist laughs at jokes that he does not find funny, he flatters the CEO because he recognizes that his job depends on doing so. All of these micro-interactions, which may seem trivial at the time, add up to status inequality, according to the interactionist.

Wal-Mart’s CEO

Interactionalists would argue that Walmart’s CEO maintains his status and power through the accumulation of interactions with others.

8.6.4: Lenski’s Synthesis

In Lenski’s view, inequality is a natural product of societal development.

Learning Objective

Paraphrase the process which led to inequality, according to the Gehard Lenski’s theory, including different levels of society

Key Points

• As societies moved from hunter/gatherer to pastoralist/horticulturalist to agricultural to industrial and then to post-industrial structures, more surplus goods were created.
• Surplus goods created the possibility for some people to accumulate more possessions than others.
• Individuals with more goods have an economic advantage relative to those with less good because they have greater bargaining power, creating social inequality.

Key Terms

Hunter-gatherer

Describes societies with no division of labor in which people hunt and gather food and materials to meet their basic needs.

Societal Development

The process of transitioning from a hunter/gatherer economic model to an industrialized one.

surplus

That which remains when use or need is satisfied, or when a limit is reached; excess.

Example

• People who farm for subsistence often have no surplus goods—they consume all of the crops they produce. By contrast, cash crop farmers produce crops that fetch a high price on the market, such as grain and corn, and sell them rather than consuming them. The crops they produce are surplus goods, traded for economic gain.

In sociologist Gerhard Lenski’s view, inequality is a product of societal development. Lenski differentiated societies based on their level of technology, communication, and economy. Human groups begin as hunter-gatherers, move toward pastoralism and/or horticulturalism, develop toward an agrarian society, and ultimately end up industrializing (with the potential to develop a service industry following industrialization). While this is a common progression, not all societies pass through every stage.

Hunting, Gathering, Subsistence

The origins of inequality can be found in the transition from hunter/gatherer societies to horticultural/pastoralist societies. In hunter/gather societies (around 50,000 B.C.), small groups of people gathered what they could find, hunted, and fished. People collected enough food to satisfy all of their needs, but no more—there was no surplus of goods. There was little trading between the groups, and there was not much inequality between groups because everyone possessed basically the same goods as everyone else. Division of labor was virtually non-existent—people working for subsistence completed all steps of each job. Food gathering and food production were the focus of work.

Horticulture, Pastoralism, Surplus

In horticultural/pastoralist societies (around 12,000 B.C.), groups grew very large, and humans began to settle in one place. For the first time, people had more time to do work other than producing food, such as making leather and weapons. This new division of labor led to surplus goods and the accumulation of possessions. Groups traded these surplus goods with each other, and trade led to inequality because some people accumulated more possessions than others. As societies developed more advanced technologies and underwent industrialization, more surplus was created, increasing the potential for social inequality. According to Lenski, inequality is the result of increasing surplus—some individuals will have ownership of surplus goods, others will not. Those with more goods have an economic advantage relative to those with less goods because they have greater bargaining power, creating social inequality.

Modern-day Hunter/gatherer Societies

Nearly all societies have become industrialized to varying extents, but a few continue to function based on hunting and gathering. In these societies, there are few surplus goods. According to Lenski, this means that such societies do not exhibit inequality.

8.6.5: Marx’s View of Class Differentiation

In the Marxist perspective, social stratification is created by unequal property relations, or unequal access to the means of production.

Learning Objective

Diagram the relationship between the owners of production, the proletariat, the substructure and the superstructure according to Marx’s view

Key Points

• In capitalist societies, the bourgeoisie class owns the means of production while the proletariat class sells their labor to the bourgeoisie.
• The bourgeoisie have power and status, which they use to maintain the society’s superstructure—it’s values, ideologies, and norms.
• In an ideal Marxist communist society, everyone would share access to the means of production and social stratification would be nonexistent.

Key Terms

substructure

The base of society, which in Marxist terms includes relations of production.

superstructure

The ideas, philosophies, and culture that are built upon the means of production.

egalitarian communist society

A society in which the state owns the means of production and equally distributes resources.

Example

• Marxist inequality is exemplified by the relationship between a factory owner and factory employee—a factory owner is concerned only with financial profits and earns material wealth, while the assembly line employee is concerned with the conditions of production and is unlikely to accumulate material wealth.

In Marx’s view, social stratification is created by people’s differing relationship to the means of production: either they own productive property or they labor for others.

In Marxist theory, the capitalist mode of production consists of two main economic parts: the substructure and the Superstructure. In a capitalist society, the ruling class, or the bourgeoisie, owns the means of production, such as machines or tools that can be used to produce valuable objects. The working class, or the proletariat, only possess their own labor power, which they sell to the ruling class in the form of wage labor to survive. These relations of production—employer-employee relations, the technical division of labor, and property relations—form the base of society or, in Marxist terms, the substructure. From this material substructure, the superstructure emerges. The superstructure includes the ideas, philosophies and culture of a society. In a capitalist society, the ruling class promotes its own ideologies and values as the norm for the entire society, and these ideas and values are accepted by the working class.

A temporary status quo could be achieved by employing various methods of social control—consciously or unconsciously—by the bourgeoisie in various aspects of social life. Eventually, however, Marx believed the capitalist economic order would erode, through its own internal conflict; this would lead to revolutionary consciousness and the development of egalitarian communist society. In this communist society, the state would own the means of production, and it would equally distribute resources to all citizens. The means of production would be shared by all members of society, and social stratification would be abolished.

Marx Memorial in Moscow

This memorial to Karl Marx in Moscow reads, “Proletarians of all countries unite! ” Marxism is associated with a view of stratification that pits the owners of means of production against the laborers.

8.6.6: Weber’s View of Stratification

Max Weber formed a three-component theory of stratification in which social difference is determined by class, status, and power.

Learning Objective

Recall the three components of stratification in Weberian theory, including their definitions

Key Points

• Class is a person’s economic position, based on birth and individual achievement.
• Status is one’s social prestige or honor, which may or may not be influenced by class.
• Power is one’s ability to get one’s way despite the resistance of others.

Key Terms

power

The ability to get one’s way even in the face of opposition to one’s goals.

status

A person’s social position or standing relative to that of others.

class

A person’s economic position in society, based on birth and individual achievement.

Example

• According to Weberian theory, a member of the United States Congress is an example of someone who is high in the social hierarchy due to status and power, although they have relatively low economic status.

Classic sociologist Max Weber was strongly influenced by Marx’s ideas, but rejected the possibility of effective communism, arguing that it would require an even greater level of detrimental social control and bureaucratization than capitalist society. Weber criticized the dialectical presumption of proletariat revolt, believing it to be unlikely. Instead, he developed the three-component theory of stratification and the concept of life chances. Weber supposed there were more class divisions than Marx suggested, taking different concepts from both functionalist and Marxist theories to create his own system. Weber claimed there are four main classes: the upper class, the white-collar workers, the petite bourgeoisie, and the manual working class. Weber’s theory more closely resembles theories of modern Western class structures embraced by sociologists, although economic status does not seem to depend strictly on earnings in the way Weber envisioned.

Working half a century later than Marx, Weber derived many of his key concepts on social stratification by examining the social structure of Germany. Weber examined how many members of the aristocracy lacked economic wealth, yet had strong political power. He noted that, contrary to Marx’s theories, stratification was based on more than ownership of capital. Many wealthy families lacked prestige and power, for example, because they were Jewish. Weber introduced three independent factors that form his theory of stratification hierarchy: class, status, and power. He treated these as separate but related sources of power, each with different effects on social action.

Three Sources of Power

Class is a person’s economic position in a society, based on birth and individual achievement. Weber differs from Marx in that he did not see this as the supreme factor in stratification. Weber noted that managers of corporations or industries control firms they do not own; Marx would have placed such a person in the proletariat.

Status refers to a person’s prestige, social honor, or popularity in a society. Weber noted that political power was not rooted solely in capital value, but also in one’s individual status. Poets or saints, for example, can possess immense influence on society, often with little economic worth.

Power refers to a person’s ability to get their way despite the resistance of others. For example, individuals in state jobs, such as an employee of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, or a member of the United States Congress, may hold little property or status, but they still hold immense power.

US Congress in Present Times

Using Weber’s theory of stratification, members of the U.S. Congress are at the top of the social hierarchy because they have high power and status, despite having relatively little wealth on average.

8.6.7: Market-Oriented Theories

Market-oriented theories of inequality argue that supply and demand will regulate prices and wages and stabilize inequality.

Learning Objective

Evaluate the concept of the market-oriented theory of inequality

Key Points

• When supply meets demand, prices reach a state of equilibrium and cease fluctuating.
• According to market-oriented theories, over time the low wages earned by agricultural laborers will induce more people to learn other skills, thus reducing the pool of agricultural laborers.
• The supply and demand model is commonly applied to wages, in the market for labor. The typical roles of supplier and consumer are reversed.

Key Terms

supply and demand

An economic model of price determination in a market based on the relative scarcity or abundance of goods and services.

equilibrium

In economics, the point at which supply equals demand and prices cease fluctuating.

free market

Any economic market in which trade is unregulated; an economic system free from government intervention.

Example

• The wages earned by various employees can be used to illustrate market-oriented theories of inequality: Doctors are paid high wages because their services are widely needed and require extensive training that few have; by contrast, seasonal agricultural laborers are poorly compensated because the demand for their services is limited and a large pool of unqualified laborers is qualified for the job. According to market-oriented theories of inequality, the low wage earned by seasonal agricultural laborers will encourage members of the labor pool to acquire other skills, which in term will raise the wage earned by agricultural laborers.

Market-oriented theories of inequality are focused on the laws of the free market. The free market refers to a capitalist economic order in which prices are set based on competition. In a free market, prices are supposed to be regulated by the law of supply and demand. According to supply and demand, if a produce or service is scarce but desired by many, it will fetch a high price. Conversely, if a product or service is readily available and desired by few, it will fetch a low price. When the supply of a product exactly meets the demand for it, the price reaches a state of equilibrium and no longer fluctuates.

The model is commonly applied to wages, in the market for labor. The typical roles of supplier and consumer are reversed. The suppliers are individuals, who try to sell (supply) their labor for the highest price. The consumers of labors are businesses, which try to buy (demand) the type of labor they need at the lowest price. As populations increase, wages fall for any given unskilled or skilled labor supply. Conversely, wages tend to go up with a decrease in population. When demand exceeds supply, suppliers can raise the price, but when supply exceeds demand, suppliers will have to decrease the price in order to make sales. Consumers who can afford the higher prices may still buy, but others may forgo the purchase altogether, demand a better price, buy a similar item, or shop elsewhere. As the price rises, suppliers may also choose to increase production, or more suppliers may enter the business.

Considering inequality, market-oriented theories claim that if left to the free-market, all products and services will reach equilibrium, and price stability will reduce inequality. For example, in countries with huge pools of unskilled agricultural laborers but limited agricultural land, agricultural land is very poorly compensated. According to market-oriented theories, over time the low wages earned by agricultural laborers will induce more people to learn other skills, thus reducing the pool of agricultural laborers. With less supply and stable demand, the wage for agricultural labor will rise to a sustainable level. Thus, the status of agricultural laborers will rise, and inequality will be reduced. Generally, market-oriented theories hold that when supply of labor and goods meets demand, the economic order will reach equilibrium, and inequality will either be non-existent or will be stable.

8.6.8: Dependency Theories

Dependency theory states that colonialism and neocolonialism have created unequal economic relations between poor and wealthy countries.

Learning Objective

Explain malnourishment and hunger in the “third world” through dependency theory

Key Points

• In the past, colonialism allowed wealthy countries to plunder their colonies for material benefits—raw materials like rubber, sugar, and slave labor.
• Today, poor countries have taken enormous loans from wealthy countries in order to stay afloat. Paying off the compound interest from this debt prevents them from investing resources into their own country.
• Foreign trade gets in the way of local governments’ ability to improve the living conditions of their people by encouraging the export of food and other raw materials to wealthy consumer markets.

Key Terms

dependency ratio

an age-population measurement of those typically not in the labor force (the dependent part) and those typically in the labor force (the productive part)

neocolonialism

The control or domination by a powerful country over weaker ones (especially former colonies) by the use of economic pressure, political suppression, and cultural dominance.

foreign trade

The exchange of capital, goods, and services across international borders or territories.

foreign debt

A debt that a country, an organization in a country, or a resident individual in a country owes to those in other countries.

Example

• Brazil is an example of a nation with a rapidly growing economy that is nonetheless still mired by dependency on foreign nations. Long colonized by the Portuguese, Brazil continues to export most of its raw materials and agricultural production. Many Brazilians continue to live in poverty and are malnourished.

Dependency theories propose that colonialism and neocolonialism—continuing economic dependence on and exploitation of former colonial countries—are the main causes global poverty. Countries have developed at an uneven rate because wealthy countries have exploited poor countries in the past and continue to do so today through foreign debt and foreign trade.

Historical Dependency

Historically, wealthy nations have taken a great quantity of materials from poor countries, such as minerals and metals necessary to make automobiles, weapons, and jewelry. Large amounts of agricultural products that can only be grown in the hot climates of the poor countries, such as coffee, tea, sugar, and cocoa, have been exported to and manufactured in the wealthy countries. Wealthy countries would not be as rich as they are today if they did not have these materials. Wealthy countries increased their own profits by organizing cheap labor through slavery.

King Leopold II, for example, who was King of Belgium from 1865-1909, forced hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children to work as slaves in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The invention of the bicycle tire in the 1890s and later the automobile tire meant that rubber was in high demand; wild rubber vines were widespread in the Congo, earning Leopold millions. The Democratic Republic of Congo is still suffering from the plunder of natural resources, torture, and killing that was endured during Leopold’s reign.

Modern Dependency

Today, poor countries are trapped by large debts which prevent them from developing. For example, between 1970 and 2002, the continent of Africa received $540 billion in loans from wealthy nations—through the World Bank and IMF. African countries have paid back $550 billion of their debt but they still owe $295 billion. The difference is the result of compound interest. Countries cannot focus on economic or human development when they are constantly paying off debt; these countries will continue to remain undeveloped. Dependency theorists believe large economic aid is not necessarily the key to reducing poverty and developing, but rather debt relief may be a more effective step.

In addition, foreign trade and business often mitigate local governments’ ability to improve the living conditions of their people. This trade often comes in the form of transnational corporations (TNCs). The governments of poor countries invite these TNCs to invest in their country with the hope of developing the country and bringing material benefit to the people. However, workers’ time and energy are often poured into producing goods that they themselves will not consume. For example, some of the land in Cape Verde could be planted and harvested to feed local people, but it is planted instead with cash crops for foreign exchange. Fresh produce is regularly sold or changed to a nonperishable type such as tuna canned for export rather than consumed by the population.

Malnutrition and Dependency

Widespread malnutrition is one of the effects of this foreign dependency. This is common around the globe. Brazil is the second largest exporter of agricultural products, but 50 percent of its population is malnourished. Although Ethiopia has one of the largest populations of cattle in Africa, much of the population suffers from malnutrition and the government continues to export large numbers of cattle to the Middle East. Even during the peak of the infamous 1985 famine, the government was sending dried meat to Egypt.

Through unequal economic relations with wealthy countries in the form of continued debts and foreign trade, poor countries continue to be dependent and unable to tap into their full potential for development.

Map of Empires and Colonies: 1800

By the end of the 19th century, most of the Americas were under the control of European colonial empires. At present, much of South and Central America is still economically dependent on foreign nations for capital and export markets.

8.6.9: World-Systems Theory

World Systems Theory posits that there is a world economic system in which some countries benefit while others are exploited.

Learning Objective

Produce a map of the world that shows some countries as core, peripheral, and semi-peripheral according to Wallerstein’s theory

Key Points

• Immanuel Wallerstein developed World Systems Theory and its three-level hierarchy: core, periphery, and semi-periphery.
• Core countries are dominant capitalist countries that exploit peripheral countries for labor and raw materials.
• Peripheral countries are dependent on core countries for capital and have underdeveloped industry.
• Semi-peripheral countries share characteristics of both core and peripheral countries.

Key Terms

core

Describes dominant capitalist countries which exploit the peripheral countries for labor and raw materials.

semi-peripheral

Countries that share characteristics of both core and periphery countries.

peripheral

Peripheral countries are dependent on core countries for capital and have underdeveloped industry.

Example

• The United States is an example of a core country — it has vast amounts of capital and labor is relatively well compensated. India is an example of a semi-peripheral country — it is largely dependent on foreign investors for capital, but has a growing technology industry and emerging middle class consumer market. Cape Verde is a peripheral country — foreign investors allow for the extraction of raw materials and the production of cash crops, but all are for export to wealthier consumer markets.

World Systems Theory, like dependency theory, suggests that wealthy countries benefit from other countries and exploit those countries’ citizens. In contrast to dependency theory, however, this model recognizes the minimal benefits that are enjoyed by low status countries in the world system. The theory originated with sociologist Immanuel Wallerstein, who suggests that the way a country is integrated into the capitalist world system determines how economic development takes place in that country.

According to Wallerstein, the world economic system is divided into a hierarchy of three types of countries: core, semiperipheral, and peripheral. Core countries (e.g., U.S., Japan, Germany) are dominant, capitalist countries characterized by high levels of industrialization and urbanization. Core countries are capital intensive, have high wages and high technology production patterns and lower amounts of labor exploitation and coercion. Peripheral countries (e.g., most African countries and low income countries in South America) are dependent on core countries for capital and are less industrialized and urbanized. Peripheral countries are usually agrarian, have low literacy rates and lack consistent Internet access. Semi-peripheral countries (e.g., South Korea, Taiwan, Mexico, Brazil, India, Nigeria, South Africa) are less developed than core nations but more developed than peripheral nations. They are the buffer between core and peripheral countries.

Core countries own most of the world’s capital and technology and have great control over world trade and economic agreements. They are also the cultural centers which attract artists and intellectuals. Peripheral countries generally provide labor and materials to core countries. Semiperipheral countries exploit peripheral countries, just as core countries exploit both semiperipheral and peripheral countries. Core countries extract raw materials with little cost. They can also set the prices for the agricultural products that peripheral countries export regardless of market prices, forcing small farmers to abandon their fields because they can’t afford to pay for labor and fertilizer. The wealthy in peripheral countries benefit from the labor of poor workers and from their own economic relations with core country capitalists.

11th Century World System

In the 11th century, international production and trade was dominated by the exchange of silk, and thus countries along the silk route were the dominant participants in the “world-system. ” Today, with vast communications and transportation technology, virtually every society participates in the world-system as either a source of raw materials, production, or consumption.

8.6.10: State-Centered Theories

According to state-centered theories of inequality, the government should regulate the distribution of resources to protect workers.

Learning Objective

Compare socialist and communist state-centered theories

Key Points

• Socialist and communist economic systems operate on the premise that inequality is best addressed by the state, rather than through the free-market.
• State-centered theories of inequality critique market-driven theories on the basis that capitalists embroiled in the free-market will act to increase their own wealth, exploiting the lower classes.
• State-centered theories propose that states should enact policies to prevent exploitation and promote the equal distribution of goods and wages.

Key Terms

State-Centered Theories of Inequality

Theories that emphasize the role of governmental policy and economic planning in producing economic stratification. These theories assert that intentional state policies must be aimed at equitably distributing resources and opportunities.

Market-Oriented Theories of Inequality

Economic models that assert that the capitalist free-market will naturally regulate prices and wages.

Example

• The laissez-faire era of United States economic history, which occurred around the turn of the 20th century—when the government generally left the economy unregulated—reflects a belief in market-driven theories of inequality. Laissez-faire policy led to corporate monopolies and a vast gap between the wealth of capitalist business owners and wage laborers. This era of loose regulation gave way to an era of tight regulation of the economy, including the introduction of “trust-busting” or anti-monopoly laws. This latter period reflects a belief in state-centered theories of inequality, as the state sought to regulate the economy to reduce the exploitation of workers.

State-centered theories of inequality emphasize the role of governmental policy and economic planning in producing economic stratification. In contrast to market-oriented theories of inequality, state-centered theories do not assert that the capitalist free-market will naturally regulate prices and wages. State-centered theories assert that intentional state policies must be aimed at equitably distributing resources and opportunities.

Socialism and Communism

Socialism and communism operate on the assumption that states can regulate (and potentially eliminate) inequality. Socialism is an economic and political system in which the state owns the majority industry, but resources are allocated based on a combination of natural rights and individual achievements. Communism operates on the principle that resources should be completely equally distributed, on the basis that every person has a natural right to food, shelter, and generally an equal share of a society’s wealth. Socialism includes a combination of public and private property, while under communist systems all property is publicly held and administered by the state.

A socialist economic system would consist of an organisation of production to directly satisfy economic demands and human needs. Goods and services would be produced directly for use instead of for private profit driven by the accumulation of capital. Accounting would be based on physical quantities, a common physical magnitude, or a direct measure of labour-time. Distribution of output would be based on the principle of individual contribution.

State-centered theories of inequality critique market-driven ones on the basis that capitalists embroiled in the free-market will act to increase their own wealth, exploiting the lower classes. Accordingly, these theories propose that states should enact policies to prevent exploitation and promote the equal distribution of goods and wages.

Map of Socialist States

This map of all states to declare themselves officially socialist at some point in history illustrates the spread of state-centered theories of inequality.

8.6.11: Evaluating Global Theories of Inequality

Social theorists think differently about global inequality based on their sociological perspective.

Learning Objective

Differentiate between the positions on social inequality taken by functionalists, Marxists, modern liberalism, and social justice advocates

Key Points

• Functionalists are likely to believe that inequality is beneficial to societies and is naturally regulated by market forces to foster economic growth.
• Marxists, on the other hand, are likely to see inequality as detrimental to society and to advocate government regulation of the means of production and distribution of property.
• In modern liberal societies, individuals tend to value human rights according to the idea that all people are born with equal value.
• Social justice advocates generally argue that inequality is unfair, as it leaves some individuals with greater life chances and higher standards of living than others regardless of individual worth or merit.

Key Terms

Functionalist Approach

An approach that asserts that global inequality is not a problem at all, but rather benefits society as it produces an incentive structure to motivate highly capable individuals to pursue positions of power.

Market-Oriented Approach

A perspective on inequality that asserts that a free market will result in prices that benefit the smooth functioning and growth of economies.

State-Oriented Approach

A strategy for reducing inequality in which governments instate policies to equally distribute opportunities and resources.

Examples

• Occupy Wall Street protesters approach inequality from a social justice perspective that holds that all Americans deserve equal life chances and have been denied them by market-oriented approaches to economic regulation (or lack thereof).
• Occupy Wall Street protesters approach inequality from a social justice perspective that holds that all Americans deserve equal life chances and have been denied them by market-oriented approaches to economic regulation (or lack thereof).

There is significant debate among sociologists, other social scientists, and policy makers over the best approach to global inequality. Some theorists who embrace a functionalist approach assert that global inequality is not a problem at all, but rather benefits society as it produces an incentive structure to motivate highly capable individuals to pursue positions of power. Functionalists are likely to embrace market-oriented approaches to inequality, on the basis that a free market will result in prices that benefit the smooth-functioning and growth of economies. Marxists, by contrast, see global inequality as indicative of exploitation and consider it a detriment to society. These thinkers are likely to support state-oriented approaches to regulating inequality, with governments instating policies to equally distribute opportunities and resources. Interactionists recognize global inequality, but consider it only in the context of individual relations and, therefore, see no role for state intervention.

Whatever sociological theory one adopts to explain the existence of inequality, not all theorists consider inequality to be a problem that needs correction. The idea that all members of a society should be equal is often associated with modern liberalism. In modern liberal societies, individuals tend to value human rights according to the idea that all people are born with equal value. The logic of human rights does not necessarily imply that all people should achieve equal status, but it does assume that all should have equal opportunities to advance, or Weberian life chances. Those who evaluate global inequality and consider it to violate human rights may advocate for solutions to inequality using the language of social justice. Social justice advocates generally argue that inequality is unfair, as it leaves some individuals with greater life chances and higher standards of living than others, regardless of individual worth or merit.

Occupy Wall Street

Protestors at Occupy Wall Street adhere to the position that income inequality is a detriment to society. By protesting the financial institutions that provide capital to economic enterprises, “occupiers” suggest that the market-driven approach to inequality, embraced by financiers, has not resulted in a fair and equitable economic order.