Understanding Culture, Society

and Politics
Lesson 13 – Social and Political
Stratification
Understanding Culture, Society and
Politics
Social and Political Stratification

Objectives
At the end of the lesson, the learner is expected to:
1. Explain the relationship between stratification and social class;
2. Compare and contrast the three dimensions of stratification;
3. State the differences among the three major perspectives on social stratification;
and
4. Suggest ways to address global inequities.

Week 13 UCSP11/12HSO-IIg—30
Understanding Culture, Society and
Politics
Social and Political Stratification

Start Up:

Draw out what students can perceive upon seeing the

picture below.

Week 13 UCSP11/12HSO-IIg—30
Understanding Culture, Society and
Politics
Social and Political Stratification

Social Stratification
• Society’s 1. occupation and income
categorization of 2. wealth and social status
people into 3. derived power (social and
socioeconomic strata, political)
based upon their:

 Stratification is the
relative social position of
persons within a social
group, category,
geographic region, or
social unit.

Week 13 UCSP11/12HSO-IIg—30
Understanding Culture, Society and
Politics
Social and Political Stratification

Categorization of people by social strata occurs in all

societies, ranging from the complex, state-based
societies to tribal and feudal societies.

Determining the structures of social stratification

arises from inequalities of status among persons.

Generally, the greater the social complexity of a

society, the more the social strata exist.

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Understanding Culture, Society and
Politics
Social and Political Stratification

Related to the
Social exclusion refers to
concept of social the process by which
stratification and individuals are cut off from full
inequality is social involvement in the wider
exclusion. circles of society.

People who are socially

excluded due to poor housing, lack
of employment, inferior schools, or
limited transportations, may lack
opportunity for self-improvement.

Week 13 UCSP11/12HSO-IIg—30
Understanding Culture, Society and
Politics
Social and Political Stratification

Four Principles Posited to Underlie Social

Stratification
Social stratification is socially defined as a property of a society rather
than individuals in that society.

Social stratification is reproduced from generation to generation.

Social stratification is universal (found in every society) but variable

(differs across time and place).

Social stratification involves not just quantitative inequality but

qualitative beliefs and attitudes about social status.

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Understanding Culture, Society and
Politics
Social and Political Stratification

Social Desirables
• Contemporary sociologists often define
stratification in terms of socioeconomic
status (or SES) based upon the ideas of
Max Weber who saw three main
dimensions of stratification (class, status,
and party).
• There are a variety of ways to measure
SES, including educational attainment,
income, wealth, and occupational prestige.

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Understanding Culture, Society and
Politics
Social and Political Stratification

The following characteristics combine to indicate

someone’s social class or socioeconomic status.

Power – refers to someone’s ability to get others to do his will

regardless of whether or not they want to.

Wealth – refers to the sum total of one’s possessions as their

regular income.

Prestige – refers to the reputation or esteem associated with

one’s position in society.

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Understanding Culture, Society and
Politics
Religion and Belief Systems

Social Mobility
• Social mobility is the ability of individuals or
groups to change their positions within a
social stratification system.
• Also refers to how individuals progress from
a lower to a higher social class, or even how
individuals lose their status and occupy a
much lower social position in society.

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Understanding Culture, Society and
Politics
Social and Political Stratification

Two main types of social mobility:

Upward mobility – refers to Downward mobility – refers

an upward movement in to the lowering of an
social class (e.g. by gaining individual’s social class
wealth or rising to fame or (maybe brought about by
power like politicians and economic setbacks,
celebrities). unemployment, illness, and
dropping out of school).

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Understanding Culture, Society and
Politics
Social and Political Stratification

Social mobility from different generations:

2. Intergenerational mobility
1. Intragenerational mobility refers to the changes in social
focuses on the experience of standing experienced by
people who belong to the same individuals belonging to
generation, and the changes in different generations. Patterns
a person’s social standing of intergenerational mobility
throughout his lifetime. can reflect long-term social
changes.

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Understanding Culture, Society and
Politics
Social and Political Stratification

 Large-scale changes in society can result in the

improvement or decline of the conditions and status
of a large group of people. This is known as
structural mobility.

Examples: massive upward mobility during The

Industrial Age; downward social mobility during
economic crises

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Understanding Culture, Society and
Politics
Social and Political Stratification

Types of Stratification System

Open Class System:

• In an open-class system, an individual’s social
class is based on merit and individual effort.
People move up and down the stratification
structure as their abilities, education, and
resources permit.

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Understanding Culture, Society and
Politics
Social and Political Stratification

The open society has the following features:

• Though classes exist, they are not institutionalized.
• Though class boundaries are unclear and people do not
show excessive class consciousness, the inequality
which is due to class division is apparent.
• Though status is usually achieved, there is evidence
that status tends to be ascribed to the lowest and the
highest social classes.
• Social mobility is possible and it frequently occurs.

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Understanding Culture, Society and
Politics
Social and Political Stratification

The openness in class systems results

in the prevalence of exogamous
marriages or marriages between
people who come from different
social classes.

Endogamous marriages (marriages

between people of the same class) are
also common, but these unions are not
imposed and are entered into freely by
the individuals.

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Understanding Culture, Society and
Politics
Social and Political Stratification

Meritocracy is another system of stratification

that is determined by personal effort and merit.

Social standing and advancement in this system

is determined by how well a person performs
his or her social role.

Meritocracy, however, remains an ideal and is

only implemented in certain areas such as
business and industry.

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Understanding Culture, Society and
Politics
Social and Political Stratification

Closed System or Caste System

• In a caste system, resources and social rewards are
distributed on the basis of ascribed statuses.
• Membership is ascribed rather than achieved. A newborn
child’s lifelong status or caste is determined by the status
of his parents.
• Social contact between castes is heavily constrained and
ritualized.
• Effort and talent may affect someone’s position within a
caste, but they can’t move the person to a higher status.

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Understanding Culture, Society and
Politics
Social and Political Stratification

The Caste System in India

• based on occupation and

the Hindu religion. It is
complex as it is rigid.
• its four primary
categories are ranked
according to their degree
of purity.

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Understanding Culture, Society and
Politics
Social and Political Stratification

Theoretical Perspectives on Social

Stratification
• Social stratification can be examined using three
different theoretical perspectives namely:
• 1. Functionalism
• 2. Conflict theory
• 3. Symbolic interactionism

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Understanding Culture, Society and
Politics
Social and Political Stratification

Functionalism
• The functionalist perspective examines how the different aspects of
society contribute to ensuring its stability and continued function.
• Functionalist believe that each part or aspect of society serves an
important purpose.
• Social stratification is necessary because it motivates individuals to be
more efficient and productive in their tasks (Davis-Moore thesis).
• Melvin Tumin criticized Davis-Moore thesis and proposed that social
stratification as being defined by the lack of opportunities for the less-
privileged sectors of society.

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Understanding Culture, Society and
Politics
Social and Political Stratification

Conflict Theory

Conflict theorists believe that Marx considered

Conflict theory takes stratification perpetuates society to be divided
inequality; draw many of their
a critical view of ideas from the works of Karl between two groups:
social stratification Marx who believed that social the bourgeois or
and considers society stratification is influenced by capitalists and the
economic forces, and that
as benefitting only a relationships in society are proletariat (workers
small segment. defined by the factors of who provide the
production. manual labor).

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Understanding Culture, Society and
Politics
Social and Political Stratification

Symbolic interactionism Social stratification, for

refrains from looking It examines stratification
symbolic interactionists,
into the larger structural from a microlevel
often leads people to
factors that define social perspective and attempts
interact with others
stratification and to explain how people’s
within their own social
contribute to inequality standing affects their
class; a system that
and poverty. everyday interactions.
groups people together.

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Understanding Culture, Society and
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Social and Political Stratification

• Societies are usually characterized by divisions.

• Social divisions reflect an unequal distribution
of status, wealth, and power within society and
result in individuals and groups occupying
different positions of influence and power.
• Social inequality may be expressed differently
from society to society but is often seen in
distinctions in class, gender, religion, ethnicity,
and age.

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Understanding Culture, Society and
Politics
Social and Political Stratification

Gender and Gender Inequality

• Gender comprises the behavioral and
psychological traits considered appropriate for
men and women. A person’s sex refers to his
biological identity.
• Gender roles are the specific behaviors and
attitudes that a society establishes for men and
women.
• Gender identity is the awareness of being
masculine or feminine as those traits are defined
in the culture.

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Understanding Culture, Society and
Politics
Social and Political Stratification

Gender Identity and Socialization

• Individuals learn appropriate gender roles behavior

through socialization.
• Socialization is the interactive process through
which people learn the basic skills, values, beliefs,
and behavior patterns of the society.
• Symbolic interactionists focus on how boys and girls
learn to act the way they are “supposed to act”. This
process is called gender socialization.

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Understanding Culture, Society and
Politics
Social and Political Stratification

Gender Inequality
• Sexism are sex-and gender-based prejudice and
discrimination; these are major contributing
factors to social inequality.
• Most societies, even agricultural ones, tend to
have some sexual division of labor and gender-
based division of labor tends to increase during
industrialization.

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Understanding Culture, Society and
Politics
Social and Political Stratification

• 1. Biological influence
• 2. Social influences
• 3. Peers
• 4. Schools
Factors • 5. Media
influencing • 6. Cognitive influences
gender:

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Understanding Culture, Society and
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Social and Political Stratification

• 1. Plato
The Early • 2. John Stuart Mill
Pro-Feminist •
Advocates
3. Frederick Engels
• 4. William James

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Understanding Culture, Society and
Politics
Social and Political Stratification

Sources of Anti-Feminist Concepts

• 1. The biblical doctrine
• 2. The patriarchal system
• 3. Political ideology
• 4. Educational system

Other concepts on Women

• 1. Aristotle’s concept of women
• 2. Rousseau
• 3. Sigmund Freud
• 4. Cervantes

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Understanding Culture, Society and
Politics
Social and Political Stratification

Women’s Issues Today

• 1. Sexual harassment
• 2. Equal work opportunities and wages
• 3. Domestic violence
• 4. Adolescent mothers and single parents
• 5. Sexism in media and other social institutions
• 6. Discriminatory laws against women
• 7. Child pornography and prostitution
• 8. Lesbianism or female homosexuality

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Understanding Culture, Society and
Politics
Social and Political Stratification

Reference:

Arcilla-Serapio, Ma. Perpetua. Understanding Society, Culture

and Politics. Manila: Mindshapers Co., Inc. 2016.

Atienza, Maria Ela, et.al. Understanding Culture, Society and

Politics for Senior High School. Quezon City: C & E Publishing,
Inc. 2016.

Lanuza, Gerry M. and Raymundo, Sarah S. Understanding

Culture, Society and Politics. Manila: Rex Bookstore, 2016.

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