SOCIAL STRATIFICATION

Social Stratification is the ranking of people in a vertical arrangement (hierarchy) that differentiates them as superior or inferior.

1. Biological traits to not become relevant in patterns of social superiority and inferiority until they are socially recognized and given importance by being incorporated into the beliefs, attitudes and values of the people in the society.

2. Social stratification means that inequality has been institutionalized.

In what ways are societies stratified?

1. Social class "implies having or not having the following: individual rights, privileges, power, rights over others, authority, life style choices, self-determination, status wealth access to services, comfort, leisure, etc" (Comer, 1978).

2. Racial and ethnic stratification refers systems of inequality in which some fixed groups membership, such as race, religion, or national origin is a major criterion for ranking social positions and their differential rewards. Race is socially defined on the basis of a presumed common genetic heritage resulting in distinguishing physical characteristics. Ethnicity refers to the condition of being culturally rather than physically distinctive. Ethnic peoples are bound together by virtue of common ancestry and a common cultural background.

· “Without slavery there is no cotton; without cotton there is no modern industry.” (Karl Marx)

· The slave labor force grew from 530,000 in 1780 to 1,180,000 million in 1830, to 2,340,000 in 1860.” (Steinberg, 1981)

· Whereas only 12,000 pounds of cotton were exported in 1790, by 1860, the figure had grown to 1.7 billion pounds. (Steinberg, 1981)

· By 1860, cotton constituted 60 percent of American exports; nearly all went to Britain. “Cotton was the most important stimulus to growth in both countries.” (Thistlewaite, 1959)

· “The Unites States was built up on an economy of slavery. That in itself was no crime. Many societies and countries have been based on slavery. The crime of the United States is that it is the first and only country which, having freed its slaves legally, by proclamation, by law and in the courts, then continued to enslave them and denied them equal rights on the basis of their color.” (Boggs, 1970)

· “A society which had consistently underinvested in black students ought to now adopt race based policies aimed at helping young blacks overcome the deficits yielded by segregation. The legacy of decades of systematic deprivation could be overcome only by color conscious policies direct at the victims of that deprivation.” (Howard, 1997)

· “Opponents of affirmative action have sought to seize the moral high ground, arguing that such policies betray the central ethical claim which drove the civil rights movement in its long struggle against segregation. People ought to be accorded equal treatment without regard to race, gender, or other extraneous characteristics. …the main burden of change must lie with programs that can develop a degree of genuine equality that will make affirmative action unnecessary.” (Howard, 1997)

3. Gender is the patterning of difference and domination through distinctions between women and men. Gender roles are social constructions: they contain self-perceptions and psychological traits, as well as family, occupational, and political roles assigned to each sex. Patriarchy is the term for forms of social organization in which men are dominant over women.

Order Perspective on Stratification: "Society must provide suitable rewards (money, prestige, and power) to induce individuals to fill positions such as those that involve decision-making, medicine, religion, teaching, and the military. A differential reward system guarantees that the important societal functions are fulfilled, thereby ensuring the maintenance of society. Differential ranks actually serve to unify society through a division of labor and through the socialization of people to accept their positions in the system. Is inequality primarily integrative or divisive?

Conflict Perspective on Stratification: "Conflict perspective assumes that stratification reflects the distribution of power in society and is therefore a major source of discord and coercion. The unequal distribution of rewards reflects the interests of the powerful and not the basic survival needs of society. Stratification is unjust, divisive, and a source of social instability or change" (p. 238).

Institutional Discrimination is when the customary way of doing things, prevailing attitudes and expectations, and accepted structural arrangements work to the disadvantage of the poor.