Social Inequalities - Paper 2

Question 1

What are social inequalities?

Answer 1

The unequal distribution of resources, opportunities, and life chances across different social groups within society.

Question 2

What are the inequalities based on?

Answer 2

-social class
-gender
-ethnicity
-age

Question 3

Where are these social inequalities in society?

Answer 3

-education
-workplace
-income
-health
-power and status

Question 4

What is social class?

Answer 4

The form of social stratification found in modern industrial societies

Question 5

How many/what are the classes that’s Marxist’s believe that society is broken into?

Answer 5

Britain is divided into 2 social classes - the ruling class (bourgeoisie) and the subject class (proletariat)
-bourgeoisie - owns the means of production which as factories and other businesses
-proletariat - employed by bourgeoisie to produce goods and services

Question 6

Underclass (new right)

Answer 6

Murray - unemployed, homeless, chronically sick and disabled people who are largely dependent on state benefits. They are below the working class.

Question 7

Bourdieu’s 3 forms of capital

Answer 7

Economic capital – income savings house value
Social capital – number of high status people someone knows.
Cultural capital – range and types of cultural interests/ activities

Question 8

Free school meals statistics

Answer 8

Education policy Institute – children who are on FSM for 80% of their school time fall 20 months behind other students in their educational level and this gap has not closed since 2011

Question 9

Life chances.
Who introduce it?

Answer 9

Weber

Question 10

Aldridge on life chances

Answer 10

People with more life chances get better jobs, experience more freedom from discrimination, harassment and crime, as well as live longer

Question 11

Material deprivation- impact on education

Answer 11

Halsey- that material deprivation is more important than cultural factors in a child’s decision of whether or not to stay at school.
– children on FSM the lowest achieving of five or more GCSE
– working class lack the resources necessary to succeed in education such as heating, housing, adequate food, clothing, and good living conditions.
- Parents spent on average £1000 on their children’s education each year

Question 12

Functionalists and new write – don’t view inequalities in income as a problem

Answer 12

– Unequal rewards are beneficial for society – ensure those with talent and encourage to work hard and use their abilities= justification for larger salaries for top end businesses

Question 13

Functionalist perspective on social class inequality

Answer 13

– Focus on differences between people not inequalities.
Mainly because they believe biological difference influences social behaviour (nature versus nurture)
– not people earning more than others.
They see a difference in hard work and talent so there are more deserving people

Question 14

Grammar schools data

Answer 14

– Only for students who can pass entry tests (11+)
– Not very common now but very common in 50s and 60s
– functionalists (and new right) agree with the meritocratic education system

Question 15

Davis and Moore
(functionalist)

Answer 15

Two main functions of social stratification:
– roll allocation – ensure the most important roles in society are filled by the most able.
– performance – ensure roles are performed to a high standard. They need to be motivated to do so.

We can tell which positions are most important by two factors: by their functional uniqueness and the degree of dependency

Question 16

Tumin
(Criticised functionalists- NOT a Marxist )

Answer 16

– It is not possible to identify what the most important jobs are.
Rewards such as bonuses and high income only reflect power rather than consensus in society, that these individual individuals deserve the reward

Question 17

Althusser
((Neo)Marxist)

Answer 17

Bourgeoisie maintain power by using:
– ideological state apparatus
– repressive state apparatus

Question 18

Gransci
((Neo)Marxist)

Answer 18

Developed the idea of hegemony to explain why the working class in Western Europe countries had not rise up in revolution

Question 19

Marx
(Marxist)

Answer 19

Capitalist societies are unequal divided into two main groups:
– bourgeoisie – business owners/upper-class/middle class
– proletariat – working class – they work for the bourgeoisie for a low wage

Question 20

Braverman
(Marxist)

Answer 20

Proletarianisation of the middle class – more and more workers who may have been formally regarded as middle class are reduced to the same class position as the working class/proletariat

Question 21

Westergaard and Resler
(Marxist)

Answer 21

Little evidence of Class divisions in the UK disappearing. It has in fact been widening since the 1970s. Only explanation is that this is a result of the way that the capitalist system operates

Question 22

Weber

Answer 22

Three dimensions of stratification – Class, status, party

Question 23

Murray
(new right)

Answer 23

Underclass – characterised by high unemployment rates (due to welfare date), birth outside of marriage and high crime rates

Question 24

Saunders
(New right)

Answer 24

Inequality is necessary for a meritocratic society – provides incentives for hard work and innovation.
Criticises marks this view – claiming Class divisional based on rather than exploitation, with wealth and success largely determined by individual talent and effort rather than social background

Question 25

Webber’s detentions of stratification

Answer 25

Class- “similar market situation” - share similar life chances Status- some positions in society are viewed as more important than others. Party – groups who were concerned with exercising power or influencing decision-making

Question 26

Chant

Answer 26

Women are particularly prone to experience time poverty as a result of the multiple areas of work they are engaged with, many of which are unpaid or underpaid. These activities make it difficult for them to get out of poverty through engaging in activities that would give them higher returns.

Question 27

Li and Devine

Answer 27

Women are still less likely to be upwardly mobile and more likely to be downwardly mobile than men

Question 28

Savage

Answer 28

Studied social mobility in the 2000s and found that men were 40% more likely to climb the career ladder than women

Question 29

Heath and Li

Answer 29

Identified variations of mobility and gender and ethnicity: Black Harry men (39.3%) and Chinese woman (46.8%) were found to experience lower rates of upper mobility than black Caribbean women (67.3%) and Chinese men (56.9%)

Question 30

Mclntosh

Answer 30

Found in his study of nursing that parenthood Cubs with tangible career penalty for women, which does not exist for men, in that motherhood results in the volution of women’s abilities and denial of opportunities and that has a direct effect on the career progression

Question 31

Barnett

Answer 31

Discussed the myths associated with employing women, which often relate back to the stereotype around women primary as mothers. Employees assume women are less reliable, committed and ambitious Tutor assumptions about their priorities, whether or not they have children. Such ascensions are not applied to male workers.

Question 32

Francis

Answer 32

Found that a high proportion of working class skills still fail in education and many women failed to achieve their full potential. Unqualified women are often limited to working in the four seas of cleaning, caring, catering and cash registers.

Question 33

Margaret Benston (Marxist feminist)

Answer 33

– Wife keeps her husband fed and cares for him – essential for running of capitalism. Believes that unpaid domestic labour of women helps to support the capitalist system that social class and quality

Question 34

Beechey (Marxist feminist)

Answer 34

Women are additionally oppressed within the labour market Tash seen as “the reserve army of labour”

Question 35

Work and employment Mclntosh - gender

Answer 35

Study on nursing