What you'll learn
Social stratification is the way a society is divided into layers (strata) that are unequal in wealth, income, status and power. Every society has some form of stratification, but sociologists disagree about whether it is necessary and fair or a source of exploitation. Social Stratification is one of the two topics on AQA GCSE Sociology (8192) Paper 2 (1 hour 45 minutes, 100 marks, 50% of the GCSE), alongside Crime and Deviance and research methods. This guide covers the functionalist theory of stratification, socio-economic class, life chances, poverty as a social issue, and power and authority, including patriarchy. It gives the key ideas of every sociologist the specification names: Davis and Moore, Marx, Weber, Devine, Townsend, Murray and Walby.
Key terms and definitions
Social stratification — The division of society into a hierarchy of unequal layers.
Social class — A form of stratification based on economic factors such as occupation, income and wealth. Class is an open system: in principle people can move between classes.
Caste — A closed system of stratification in which status is ascribed at birth and movement is very difficult, traditionally associated with India.
Social mobility — Movement up or down the stratification system. Intra-generational mobility happens within one person's lifetime; inter-generational mobility compares a person's position with their parents'.
Wealth — The value of what a person owns, such as property, shares and savings. Income is money received over a period, such as wages or benefits.
Life chances — The opportunities a person has to achieve things that are valued in society, such as good health, education, housing and a long life.
Absolute poverty — Lacking the minimum needed to survive, such as food, shelter and clothing.
Relative poverty — Being poor compared with the typical living standards of the society one lives in.
Relative deprivation — Lacking the resources to take part in the activities and living conditions that are customary in society.
Underclass — A group said to sit below the working class, often described as long-term unemployed and dependent on welfare benefits.
Power — The ability to get others to do what you want, even against their will.
Authority — Power that people accept as legitimate.
Patriarchy — A system of social structures and practices in which men dominate, oppress and exploit women.
Core concepts
The functionalist theory of stratification
Kingsley Davis and Wilbert Moore, functionalists writing in the 1940s, argued that stratification is necessary and beneficial. Every society must make sure that its most functionally important positions (such as doctors and judges) are filled by the most talented people, and that those people perform well. This is effective role allocation and performance. Because talent is scarce and training for these roles is long and demanding, society offers higher rewards (pay, status and prestige) to motivate the most able to compete for them. Unequal rewards therefore benefit everyone.
Critics argue that it is hard to decide which jobs are most important (are nurses less important than footballers, who earn far more?), that rewards often reflect power and inheritance rather than talent, and that stratification prevents talented people from poor backgrounds from reaching top positions. Marxists see the theory as a justification of inequality.
Socio-economic class: Marx and Weber
Karl Marx argued that class is based on ownership of the means of production (factories, land, machinery). Capitalist society has two main classes: the bourgeoisie, who own the means of production, and the proletariat, who own only their labour and must work for wages. The bourgeoisie exploit the proletariat by paying them less than the value of what they produce, keeping the surplus as profit. Ideology creates false class consciousness, so workers accept their position. Marx predicted that class conflict would eventually lead the proletariat to develop class consciousness and overthrow capitalism.
Max Weber agreed that class matters but argued that class is based on market situation: the skills and resources people can sell in the labour market, which affect their life chances. Professionals with scarce qualifications have a better market situation than unskilled workers, even though neither owns the means of production. Weber identified four main classes: the propertied upper class, the property-less white-collar workers (professionals and managers), the petty bourgeoisie (small business owners) and the manual working class. He also argued that inequality comes from status (social prestige) and party (organised political power), not only from class. Weber's view allows for a more complex picture with a growing middle class.
Life chances
Life chances vary by class, gender, ethnicity, age and disability. People in higher classes, on average, live longer, have better health, achieve more in education and are less likely to be victims of some crimes. Women still earn less on average than men, some ethnic minority groups face higher unemployment and discrimination, and disabled people face barriers to employment.
Fiona Devine revisited the idea of the affluent worker. In the 1960s, Goldthorpe and Lockwood had studied well-paid car workers in Luton and suggested they were becoming more home-centred and privatised, with an instrumental attitude to work (working mainly for money) and weaker working-class identity. Devine returned to Luton in the late 1980s and interviewed workers at the Vauxhall car plant and their wives. She found that these workers were not as privatised as had been claimed: they kept contact with family and friends, many had moved to the area to find work through kinship networks, and they still saw themselves as working class, with a shared sense of class identity and of grievance about inequality. Her work suggests that rising living standards had not destroyed working-class identity.
Poverty as a social issue
Peter Townsend argued that poverty should be measured as relative deprivation. In his major study of poverty in the UK, he drew up a deprivation index of items and activities, such as having a cooked breakfast most days, a week's holiday away from home each year, or having friends round for a meal. Households lacking several of these were classed as deprived. Using this measure, Townsend found far more people in poverty than the official measure suggested. His work shows that poverty is about exclusion from normal social life, not just survival.
Charles Murray, an American sociologist linked to New Right ideas, argued that an underclass had developed in Britain and the United States. He described it by behaviour: high rates of births outside marriage and lone-parent families, long-term unemployment among young men, and crime. Murray blamed over-generous welfare benefits, which he argued created dependency and removed the incentive to work and to marry. Critics argue that he blames the victims of poverty, that research finds most poor people share mainstream values and want work, and that unemployment is caused by structural factors such as the decline of industry.
Power and authority
Max Weber distinguished between power and authority and identified three types of authority:
- Traditional authority rests on custom and long-standing tradition, such as a monarch or tribal chief.
- Charismatic authority rests on the exceptional personal qualities of a leader, who inspires devotion, such as a religious or revolutionary leader.
- Rational-legal authority rests on a set of rules and the position someone holds within an organisation, such as a police officer, a head teacher or an elected prime minister. Weber argued that this type dominates modern societies.
Power relationships and patriarchy
Power relationships exist between social classes, genders, ethnic groups and age groups. Sylvia Walby, a feminist, argued that patriarchy operates through six structures: paid work, household production (unpaid domestic labour), culture (images of women in the media and elsewhere), sexuality, male violence and the state. She argued that patriarchy has shifted from private patriarchy, in which women were mainly controlled within the home, to public patriarchy, in which women take part in paid work and public life but remain disadvantaged there, for example by lower pay and segregation into lower-status jobs.
Worked examples
Example 1: Describing Davis and Moore
Question: Describe the key ideas of Davis and Moore (3 marks). Davis and Moore were functionalists who argued that stratification is necessary for effective role allocation and performance. The most important positions need the most talented people, so society offers higher rewards to motivate them to train and compete, which benefits everyone.
Example 2: Comparing Marx and Weber
Marx defines class by ownership of the means of production, giving two main classes in conflict. Weber defines class by market situation, which produces several classes, and adds status and party as other sources of inequality. Weber's approach better explains a large middle class of professionals who own no means of production but enjoy good life chances.
Example 3: Applying relative deprivation
A family can afford food and rent but cannot pay for school trips, a birthday party or a holiday. They are not in absolute poverty, but using Townsend's idea of relative deprivation they are poor because they cannot take part in activities that are customary in their society.
Example 4: Classifying authority
A popular campaigner with no official position persuades thousands to join a march: charismatic authority. A police officer orders traffic to stop: rational-legal authority. A king inherits the throne: traditional authority.
Common mistakes and how to avoid them
Do not confuse wealth (what you own) with income (what you receive).
Do not say Weber disagreed with Marx about everything. He accepted that class is important but added status and party, and defined class by market situation.
Do not mix up Townsend (relative deprivation) with Murray (underclass and welfare dependency, New Right).
Remember that Devine challenged the idea that affluent workers had become privatised; do not present her as supporting it.
Do not list Weber's types of authority without explaining the basis of each: custom, personal qualities, or rules and position.
Exam technique for "Social stratification"
Always attach the perspective: Davis and Moore (functionalist), Marx (Marxist), Weber (social action), Murray (New Right), Walby (feminist). When asked to "discuss" whether inequality is inevitable or beneficial, set Davis and Moore against Marxist and feminist critiques and finish with a judgement. For poverty questions, define the type of poverty clearly before discussing causes, and contrast cultural explanations (Murray) with structural ones (Townsend).
Quick revision summary
- Davis and Moore (functionalist): unequal rewards ensure effective role allocation and performance.
- Marx: bourgeoisie versus proletariat; class based on ownership of the means of production.
- Weber: class based on market situation; also status and party; four classes.
- Devine: revisited the affluent worker; Luton car workers were not as privatised as claimed.
- Townsend: poverty as relative deprivation, measured with a deprivation index.
- Murray (New Right): the underclass, blamed on welfare dependency.
- Weber's authority: traditional, charismatic, rational-legal.
- Walby: patriarchy has six structures; shift from private to public patriarchy.
- Life chances vary by class, gender, ethnicity, age and disability.