Social and

Economic
Stratification
 Stratification is the
grouping of people
according to differences
in income, occupation,
Social
power, privilege, manner
stratification of living, region where
they live, age, gender, or
race; you can probably
think of other categories.
Types of Social
Stratification
The Class system

1. The upper classes

2. The middle class

3. The lower class

 The Class system

 Some countries, especially the western societies,

have a class system, where people in society are
divided into three classes: upper, middle and lower
class. Stratification is majorly based on the wealth of
an individual. Just as the name of each class
suggests,

 A class system can easily become entrenched, and

it can be hard to move between the classes.
Moving between classes – e.g. from the working
class to the middle class – can be done through
education, marriage or acquiring wealth.
 The upper classes

People who have been born into lives of

greater wealth and privilege.
The high-class consists of eminent people in
society.
 These people at the ‘top’ of a class based
social hierarchy tend to be richer and are
generally regarded as a successful people in
the society.
 The middle class

Comprises of people who can afford to

live decently but are not wealthy enough
to enjoy the type of fine living experienced
by the upper class. They manage to earn
average income and enjoy decent social
status in society. The middle classes can
be further subdivided into upper middle
and lower middle-class people.
 The lower class

 is the category with people having lowest

social status in terms of their position and
economic status. They do not earn much.
The term lower class is a snobbish term, that
reflects a divisive and derisive attitude
towards people who are not in the upper
echelons of society. As a result, most people
who belong to this ‘lower’ stratum of society
tend to prefer to be referred to as working
class.
The Caste system
 The Caste system

A caste system is a class structure that is

determined by birth. Loosely, it means that
in some societies, if your parents are poor,
you're going to be poor, too. Same goes
for being rich.
Estate system
 Estate system

 This system comes from the medieval Europe origin.

Estate based social stratification gives much
importance on the original birth status. It also
considers wealth and other possessions that belong
to the individual. This means if a person was born in
a particular class, he/she remains in the same until
death, without any change. This kind of social
stratification works on the principle that each estate
has a state and remains with it, right from the
beginning until the end.
Gender Stratification
 Gender Stratification

There are societies in the world that

categorize their members in terms of gender.
 Gender stratification means that people
who belong to a certain sex will have certain
rights and privileges that the other sex may
not enjoy.
 Gender stratification has led to many
societal challenges such as gender-based
violence and the marginalization of women.
Socioeconomic hierarchies
Types of social stratification

 Social stratification is a term used in the social sciences

to describe: the relative social position of persons
 In a given social group, category, geographical region
or other social unit.
 It derives from the Latin stratum (plural strata; parallel,
horizontal layers)
 Referring to a given society’s categorization of its people
into rankings of socioeconomic tiers
 Based on factors like wealth, income, social status,
occupation and power.
Social Mobility
Social Mobility

Mobility stands for shift,

change and movement.
The change may be of a
place or from one position
to another. Further,
change is value free i.e it
cannot be said that
change is for good or
bad.
Indicators of social
mobility

 An indicator means
that Factors which
are Responsible for
Social Mobility
 Education,
Occupation and
income are
considered to be the
main indicators of
Social Mobility.
1. Education

 Education is the prime means of social

mobility.
 Education is a gateway to the professions.
 Education not only helps an individual to
acquire knowledge but is also a passport
for occupational position for higher
prestige. To become a doctor one has to
have education in science subjects.
 Education provides access to highly
paying governmental positions
Effects of Education

It is clear that the more years one spends in

education , the greater are one’s chances of
high income and upward social mobility.
For instance, students’ course selections at both
high school and college have been found to
affect their later earning power.
2. Occupation

 Social mobility offers society the

ability to fill its occupational
positions with the capable
people.
 It offers the individual a chance
to attain his or her life goal.
 Occupation has been the most
common indicator of social
stratification and mobility both
in closed and open societies
3. Income

Income and
economic conditions
play a very important
role in changing the
status of an individual
On the basis of
income, individuals
can achieve a high
status is society
4. Motivation

 Each individual has a

desire not only to
have a better way of
living but also improve
his social viewpoint.
 This viewpoint
motivates people to
work hard and
improve upon the
skills so that one can
attain higher social
status.
 5. Achievements & Failures

 Achievement here refers to extra

ordinary, usually unexpected
performance, which attracts the
attention of a wider public to the abilities
of a person.
Achievements affect status only if they
are extraordinary.
For example, a poor man who has
acquired wealth or an unknown writer
who has won a literary prize will improve
his status.
Failures and misdeeds have a similar
effect on downward mobility.
6. Migration

 People migrate from one place to another

either due to pull or push factors.
 The pull factors attract the people because they
do not have those facilities at their place of
residence and the new place attracts them by
providing these facilities, so that after acquiring
new skills and knowledge they could occupy
better positions.
 People migrate from villages to cities because
urban centres have institutions of higher status
as well as opportunities for jobs.
 People come to urban areas to acquire
education and skills and occupy higher
positions than their parents and brothers who
continue to live in villages.
7. Industrialization

 Industrial Revolution helped in

a new social system in which
people are given status
according to their ability and
training.
 They acquired new
professional training and got
jobs in industries.
 With experience and training
they moved up in the social
ladder.
8. Legislation

The enactment of new

laws can also facilitate
social mobility.
9. Modernization

The process of
modernization involves use
of scientific knowledge and
modern technology.
TYPES OF SOCIAL
MOBILITY
 1. Vertical Mobility

 Vertical mobility refers to any change

in the occupational, economic or
political status of an individual or a
group which leads to change of their
position.
 In simple words, vertical mobility stands
for change of social position either
upward or downward, which can be
labelled as ascending or descending
type of mobility.
FOR EXAMPLE:
When a big businessman meets with
losses in his business and is declared
bankrupt, he occupies a low status. On
the other hand, if a small businessman
with occupational skills of money and
manipulation becomes an industrialist
he occupies a higher position in the
social ladder. Hence his position
improves in the hierarchical order.
 2. Upward Mobility

 When a person or a group of

persons move from lower
position to upper position it is
called Upward Mobility e.g. a
person belonging to a lower
caste and occupying a lower
position after winning
elections becomes a Minister
and occupies a higher
position.
 3. Downward Mobility

 Downward mobility indicates that one loses his

higher position and occupies a lower position. We
can take the example of an individual, who is an
Engineer and occupies a respectable position in
the society because of his occupational position,
education and may be caste.
 If he is caught for accepting bribe or has
committed a sin or has done something wrong, he
may be sentenced to jail or members of his caste
may outcaste him and as a criminal or as an
outcaste he may occupy a lower position
4. Horizontal Mobility

Movement from one position to another

within the same social level, as changing
jobs without altering
occupational status, or moving between
social groups having the same social stat
us.
For Example:
A person who moves from a managerial
position in one company to a similar
position in another.
Under this type of social mobility, a
person changes his or her occupation
but the overall social standing remains
the same. Certain occupations like
Doctor, Engineer, and Professor may
enjoy the same status but when an
engineer changes his occupation from
engineer to teaching engineering, he
has horizontally moved from one
occupational category to another. But
no change has taken place in the
system of social stratification.
5. Geographical Migration

It is the movement of people from

one geographical spot to
another, and it is a phenomenon
of increasing in modern society
For Example:
For example people moving from
the UK to the USA
Reasons for voluntary migration

• Economic factor
• Political reason
• Religious Factor
• Educational
opportunities
• Natural disasters
6. Inter-Generational Mobility

Intergenerational mobility refers to

changes in social status between
different generations within the same
family
Example:
With the help of these skills the younger
generation may get employment in
higher position. If the father is a
shoemaker but his son after acquiring
education becomes a clerk or a
doctor or an engineer, this would be
called upward inter- generational
mobility.
Condition for Inter-generational Mobility:

Differences between Parents and

Children’s:
If a parent occupies an important
position requiring high capacity,
his children who are less capable
are likely to be downward
mobile. Conversely, children who
are more capable than their
parents are likely to be upwardly
mobile, especially open-class
societies.
 7. Intra-Generational Mobility

 A change in an individual social status ,especially in

the workforce through some achievement over a
relatively short amount of time.
 A person may start his career as a clerk. He acquires
more education and skills. Over a period of time, he
becomes an CSS officer or a Professor. In this way he
moves up and occupies a higher social position than
the one with which he had started his career.
8. Occupational Mobility

Occupational mobility means change from one

occupation to another. Occupations gets different
economic rewards and enjoys different power,
prestige and privileges based on the economic
returns, authority and prestige.
TYPES:
1. Upward vertical occupational mobility.
2. Downward vertical occupational mobility.
Economic Inequality
 Inequality

The unfair situation in society when some people have more

opportunities than other people.

 Economic inequality
 Social inequality
 Economic inequality

Economic inequality covers a wide variety of topics. It refers to the

distribution of economic attribute. Such as income distribution,
measuring the amount of money people are paid, or the distribution of
wealth, which captures the amount of wealth people own.
For example, how is the total income in a country distributed across its
citizens ?what proportion of total wealth is held by the richest ? and
the poorest?
 Types of economic inequality

Some main types of economic inequality are

occupational inequality
Income inequality
Wealth inequality
Pay inequality
 Occupation inequality

Occupational inequality is the

unequal treatment of people
based on communication
barrier, sexuality, height or
weight etc, in the workplace.
Disable employees have got
less opportunity in
employment as compared to
other people.
 Conti...

When employment groups are inappropriate and their

income is not according to their occupation then there
will be occupational inequality
 Wealth inequality

Wealth refers to the total amount of assets of an individual

or household. This may include financial assets, such as
bonds and stocks, property and private pension
rights. Wealth inequality therefore refers to the unequal
distribution of assets in a group of people.
Wealth inequality may cause:
Inheritance
Marriage
Chance
Conti…

For example:
Pareto principle(80/20 rule)
80% people have 20% wealth(poorest people)
and 20% people have 80% wealth(richest people).
 Income inequality

Income inequality refers to the extent to which

income is distributed in an uneven manner among a
population.
It also described the gap between rich and poor.
People with low incomes will experience relatively
low living standards, and fewer opportunities than
people with high incomes.
Inequality can also refer to gender discrimination.
 Conti…

Vertical inequality
Differences between the rich and the poor
Horizontal inequality
Where people of similar
background,status,qualification,etc have differences in
income
 Pay inequality

Pay inequality describes the difference between people’s pay. A

person’s pay is different to their income. Pay refers to payment from
employment only. This can be on an hourly, monthly or annual basis, is
typically paid weekly or monthly and may also include bonuses.
Unequal Pay Is a Form Of Gender Discrimination
On average women are offered 4% less money than men for the same
role in the same company.
Pay inequality may include unconscious biases.
Conti…

Pay inequality may include unconscious biases.

Unconscious biases
Most people don’t head to work consciously thinking they
want to promote men over women or that they want to
pay men more than their female counterparts, yet
unconsciously they still have a bias in favor of men.
Causes of Economic Inequality

“The rich get richer, the poor get poorer”.

Growth in technology widens income gap.
Education affects wages.
Gender does matter.
Personal factors
 Social inequality
Social inequality is different from economic inequality, though
the two are linked. Social inequality can be defined as individual
in a society that do not have equal social status and resulting
from unequal opportunities, and lower rewards for effort.
Examples:
Color discrimination
how a black family was denied a bank loan to use for housing,
while a white family was approved.
Gender
Obvious or hidden inequality of power/reward based on gender
Types of social inequality

 Gender inequality
 Class inequality
 Education inequality
 Political inequality
 Opportunity inequality
 Caste inequality
 Urban and rural
 Age discrimination
 Gender inequality
Gender inequality refers to the unequal perceptions and treatment
of people, based on their gender.
There are many different types of gender inequality such as women
works longer than men ,earnings ,ownership ,survival ,bias in the
distribution of education and health ,freedom and respect of
violence and victimization.
Examples:
➢ women who have experienced physical abuse.
➢ Women participate equally in work but got less paid than men.
➢ There are approximately 123 million illiterate youths and 61
percent of them are girls.
 Conti…

 An Afghan woman
operates a paving
machine on a road that is
to be resurfaced in Kabul,
Afghanistan. Women
working was banned during
the rule of the Taliban but
have now become more
common since the downfall
of the government.
Class inequality

Class inequality refers to the inequality of incomes between

individuals, families, or between different groups, areas, or
countries.
It can classify as:
Upper class: upper class have ability to earn more income as
well as have a lot of property ownership so they enjoy the all the
opportunities and live a healthy life.
Lower class: some individual have lower income than others
specially those who are economically inactive, this is because of
age, poor health and inability to find employment.
Conti…

Example:
By considering two children Bobby (the son of a
lawyer) and Jimmy (son of a custodial assistant)
who both do well in class, the study found that it
makes it 27 times more likely that Bobby will get a
high profile job, while Jimmy had one chance in
eight of earning a median income.
Education inequality

Educational inequality is the unequal distribution of academic

resources, school funding, qualified and experienced teachers,
books, and technologies to socially excluded communities. The
is also no equal system for all educational institutes.
Example:
➢ Private school have their own best academic syllabus but
government schools don’t have the best one. The teachers who
are available are not much qualified an trained like APS,
Beacon House etc school.
➢ best Technological service available and activities are
happening in private institutes.
Political inequality

Political inequality refers to the unequal influence over

decisions made by political bodies and the unequal
outcomes of those decisions. It shows that there is
inappropriate way decision making about polices, rules
and tax systems which influence people of country.
For example:
➢The law enforcement is only for poor people and rich
people get relief
➢Tax system is not appropriate, the rich people enjoying
the tax system but poor people bearing the costliness
 Inequality of opportunity:
 Inequality of opportunity is directly linked to income inequality
in a range of different countries,
 It occurs when people living in the same society do not have
access to the same opportunities.
 Inequality of opportunity is thus widely regarded as the unfair
part of inequality. Inequality of opportunity is inefficient,
because it prevents people from making the best use of their
skills or realizing their entrepreneurial ideas
 This may negatively affect economic growth in the long term
and trap a country on a path of increasing income and
wealth inequality.
Caste inequality:

 Caste systems involve the division of people into social groups

(castes) where assignments of rights are determined by birth,
are fixed and inherited.
 Example:
In South Asia, caste discrimination is traditionally rooted in the
Hindu caste system. Supported by philosophical elements, the
caste system constructs the moral, social and legal foundations
of Hindu society. Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vysya and Sudra castes
rules in India & Brahmin enjoys the most and sudras suffers the
most and they can not talk to brahmins and enjoy the
opportunities.
Rural and urban inequalities:

 Inequality is higher in rural than in urban areas in yet it has

decreased for both during the past 15 years.
 People in rural areas have less opportunity than urban areas
and they suffer a lot.
 For example: there are less opportunities for rural people like
job, school, hospitals, shopping malls, technological services
than urban areas. Like food panda food delivery available in
cities but not in rural areas.
 Best known school are available and opportunities available
in urban areas and also School system are better.
Age discrimination:

 It is also called ageism.

 Discrimination against an individual due to his or her age is an
appropriate in workplace.
 Usually this refers to older people those age 50 years or older
though it can also related to young professionals teens and
even children.
Example:
➢Alison is asked her age at a job interview and then refused the
position because the employer wants a ‘more mature’ person
for the role.
Conti…

➢ Eve is employed as a casual employee at a shop. She is

made redundant and replaced by a younger person.
The manager reveals that he wanted to create a ‘new
upbeat feel’ to the shop to attract youthful customers.
How To Reduce Inequality?
 How To Reduce Inequality?

 We know much about the sources of inequality by economic,

race/ethnic, & immigrant origins but solutions to reduce
inequality are less well understood .
 We must support research on programs, policies, and
practices that reduce inequality ,Academic, social,
behavioural, and economic outcomes .
 Fighting poverty is an important part of reducing inequality,
but not all there is to it
 We’d like to reduce inequality across the spectrum (all levels).
 Workers’ Right to Organize
Country perspective: common
elements
1. NO EXCUSE FOR NOT TACKLING INEQUALITY:
Inequality can be reduced in countries at different stages
of development, pursuing different economic strategies,
facing wide-ranging circumstances
 Country perspective: common
elements
2. Good policy choices:
 Prudent macroeconomic management, ability to deal with
external shocks, and protracted and coherent economic and
social policies;
 Translate economic growth into inequality reduction through
labour markets (increasing job opportunities, reducing income
gaps)
3. Favourable external conditions help:
Cheap and abundant credit, booming trade, high commodity
prices plus favourable weather condition
Policy perspective

Report focuses on six policy areas:

1. Early childhood development and nutrition.
2. Universal health care.
3. Quality education.
4. Conditional cash transfers.
5. Rural infrastructure investments.
6. Taxation.
SIMULATING POVERTY BY 2030 UNDER
INEQUALITY SCENARIOS AND CURRENT
GLOBAL GROWTH
TO END EXTREME POVERTY BY 2030, WE HAVE
TO REDUCE INCOME INEQUALITY AT A FASTER
PACE