SOCI 1001H Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Ascribed Status, Class Consciousness, Social Inequality
28 Jun 2018
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SOCI1001H: Introduction to Sociology: Critical Foundations
Tuesday, November 7th, 2017
Lecture 7 – Stratification, Inequality and Power
Part One: Class and Gender
Introduction to the concept of 'stratification'
Introduction to the concept of 'social inequity' (as intertwined with stratification)
Introduction to 'ascribed' and 'achieved' statuses (focus on 'ascribed' – class, gender, race)
a) Social class as a stratification system (in the 'classical tradition')
-Determine our life experiences and life chances
-Ascribed status
-Concept of social class is central to understanding stratification, as well as understanding sociology
-Shapes what the society looks like, and our lives at a personal level
-Karl Marx: 2 central classes in capitalism (bourgeoisie/proletariat)
o'class consciousness' (subjective dimension of class)
o4 stages to the development of 'class consciousness' (vs. 'false consciousness')
-Max Weber: ''class, status and party' (focus on 'status')
Some consequences/implication of stratification and inequality
b) Gender as a stratification system
-Historically known to be permanent
-Gender is a learned construct
-Genetics and hormones
-Nature of gender differs across society
-One has a sex, but acquires a gender
-Gender is learned and lived out depending on how we think – being born male or female doesn’t mean
you must act the way society thinks
-Our biological sex is transformed into our culturally constructed gender
-Learn the behaviours of genders – as we communicate with others, we learn how society defines gender
and we shape our personality to reflect or resist those expectations
-Created and upheld – women have been expected to be more sensitive, nurturing and emotional, and
men are expected to be more emotionally reserved – have to do with caregiving
-Although sex determines who gives birth, gender assumes who will take care of the children after they
are born
-Gender is pervasive throughout almost all aspects of society – shapes relationships, public policies,
nature of who leads society, personal identities, sexual relationships, place in society, how we see our
family – sometimes don’t even notice the ways it shapes our world – so normalized that they constantly
become taken for granted
-Two genders will typically perform different functions in society
-The dominant positions are generally held by men
-These assumptions are part of a very old belief system
-Sex vs. gender; patriarchy/feminism
-Public (productive) sphere and private (reproductive) sphere
-Sexual division of labour
o1914 to 1968 (clear divisions between the two spheres)
osocial changes beginning in 1968 (blurring divisions between spheres)
-gender stratification in the public sphere (occupations)
-gender diversions in the private sphere (domestic)
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Stratification
A system in which a society rank orders categories of people in a hierarchy
-layers of people
-Canada is a stratified society
-In order to study a society, we need to look at the stratification within the society – how various groups
of people get ranked into a hierarchy
-Some are higher up then others
-When you have stratification, you do not have an equal situation
-Intertwined with the concept of social inequality
Social Inequality
Used to describe how certain attributes that are deemed to be valuable are unevenly distributed across social
groups.
-The things that are valued in society are unevenly distributed amongst groups
-Almost always hierarchies with the most wealthy and powerful at the top, and those do not have money
and power at the bottom
-Will vary across different societies
-Could have special skills, different healing powers
-Criteria for who gets more and who gets less (ranking people)
-How is this inequality played out, and what does it mean for certain people?
-When we study capitalist society, the most profound stratification categories revolve around 3 types of
characteristics
oSocial class
oRace and ethnicity (differences)
oGender
-Key components of the structure of society – lead to significant differences in telling who gets what
-Something that the three categories have in common is the fact that they are all based on qualities of
which we have little to no control over – these are called ascribed statuses
Ascribed Status
A social position generally conferred at birth.
-Something that we are born into
-Social position that tends to be quite rigid
Achieved Status
A social position which is earned on the basis of how well an individual performs a certain role.
-The opposite of ascribed status
-Status changes are you earn it
-Like university – your degree becomes an award of how you performed as a student
-Not born into them – earned based on performing certain roles very well
-Rank people on both ascribed and achieve statuses (in very profound ways)
-Gender, social class and race and ethnicity are more significant
Karl Marx on 'Social Class'
proletariat = working class – all they can do is sell their labour for a wage
bourgeoisie = capitalist/owning class – controls the labour
-fundamental conflict between their interests
-expansion on mode of production
-saw social class as the most powerful source of inequality
-understanding social class was the key to understanding the social world
-the main conflicts in society were between the two social classes
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Introduction to the concept of "social inequity" (as intertwined with stratification) Introduction to "ascribed" and "achieved" statuses (focus on "ascribed" class, gender, race: social class as a stratification system (in the "classical tradition") Determine our life experiences and life chances. Concept of social class is central to understanding stratification, as well as understanding sociology. Shapes what the society looks like, and our lives at a personal level. Karl marx: 2 central classes in capitalism (bourgeoisie/proletariat: "class consciousness" (subjective dimension of class, 4 stages to the development of "class consciousness" (vs. "false consciousness") Max weber: ""class, status and party" (focus on "status") Some consequences/implication of stratification and inequality: gender as a stratification system. One has a sex, but acquires a gender. Gender is learned and lived out depending on how we think being born male or female doesn"t mean you must act the way society thinks. Our biological sex is transformed into our culturally constructed gender.
