Causes of Social Mobility - Essay Example

? Causes of Social Mobility A variety of studies have asked Americans how they feel about equality and inequality and it is clear that they are ambivalent in their feelings. In some ways, they are attracted to equality and in other ways they view inequality as justified. Part of the problem here is that people think about different things when they think about inequality and people feel differently about the various kinds of equality/inequality (Hurst, p.5) It is a fact that inequality exists in all the societies and United States is also not an exception. In America, people do not have fixed opinions about social inequalities. Most of them think that inequality is unavoidable even though it is undesirable. Social mobility is the movement of lower class from the lower layers to the upper layer. It is a widely discussed term and many theories were formulated in the past to increase the mobility of people from the lower layer to the upper layer. Individuals or group of individuals have specific status or roles in our society. Society often looks or treats people differently based on their intelligence, wealth, profession, community, race, culture etc. Based on the above privileges, enjoyed by an individual or group of individuals, society places people at different classes like; upper class, middle class and lower class. People with higher income and higher social status may often be referred as upper class whereas people with medium income and medium social status are termed as middle class. Poor people and those with low social status often come in the lower class category. When the class system decides based on the financial status, it is possible for individuals to move from lower class to medium or upper class; however when the class system is decided based on culture or race, it is impossible for a person from lower class to move to the upper levels or vice versa. Social mobility is a term which is associated with the ability of an individual to change his status in the social hierarchy. Social mobility can be divided into two broad categories; vertical mobility and horizontal mobility. When a person moves from lower class to upper class because of his changes in financial abilities or material wealth, it can be termed as vertical mobility. When a person changes his profession without any changes in his income, his status changes within the class and it can be referred as horizontal mobility. In other words, changes in class occur in vertical mobility whereas changes in status occur in horizontal mobility. According to Brooks (2011) “You can pump money into poor areas, but without cultures that foster self-control, you won’t get social mobility” (Brooks, p.320). In other words, money alone may not be helpful in stimulating social mobility. The attitude of the people plays a vital role in stimulating social mobility. Even if a person from the lower class attains enough wealth, the upper class may not accept him as a member of privileged class or upper class in some cultures where caste system prevails. In order to learn more about different dimensions and causes of social mobility, I decided to research this topic further. I have conducted interviews with two families to collect primary data. I have interviewed my mom for collecting my own family data and another neighboring family friend and this paper is developed based on these interviews. Apart from these primary data, I collected secondary data from internet and academic journals. Both primary and secondary data were analyzed thoroughly to make conclusions about the causes of social mobility. Interview with my mom My mom has a four year MBA degree and she was in middle class during her childhood. At present my mom and my family belong to upper class. In other words, education helped my mom to get better profession and higher status in society. It should also be noted that in US, even lower middle class people ascribe more importance to their education which is a good sign. Education plays a vital role in implementing social changes and it is one among the several factors which determines the ability of a person to change his status within or outside the society. In response to my question about the career and educational goals of my mom, while she was growing up, she replied that her ambition was to get into business, even though her dad was against it. She worked hard even though she had little social capital at that time to get into and succeed in her studies. She got her first job in the credit card industry since credit card industry had less prestige at that time and was ready to hire women in management positions. One of her professors who had 4 daughters, was sympathetic to her and helped her in getting her first assignment is credit card industry. The importance of hard work and keeping right ambition are evident from the above answers. She never cursed her destiny of being a member of underprivileged class; instead she used all the resources she had to do better in her life. She was a brilliant student and she was aware of the fact that her intelligence and ability to learn better than others may help her in future. She was very much focused in her career goals even though her career ambitions were different from that of her dad’s planning. In other words, she got little support even from her family for her career ambitions in business circle. She had neither money nor any influence in the society. Once she was able to complete her MBA degree, she started her job search with the help of one of her professors who showed sympathy towards her. She was ready to accept less privileged jobs even though she acquired better qualifications. Her readiness in accepting a job with less prestige and the willingness to work hard paid off finally. She slowly climbed the steps of the organizational ladder and finally attained a spot in the upper class society. I asked her about the barriers like gender roles and stereotyping during her professional career. She replied that the business world is sexist and stereotyping exists in most of the places she worked. In most of the companies, only males were appointed at the top positions because of the structure of the business world. Sex discrimination and harassment are always there in organizational world according to my mom. While determining the promotions, males always get priority over females even if the females showed greater promise than the males in their profession. My mother also told me that she got a scholarship to complete her MBA studies. It would have been a different story, if that scholarship was not granted to my mother. Interview with Julie and Steve Julie’s dad had a 4 year college degree while her mom had a high school diploma. On the other hand, the parents of Steve had high school diplomas. Julie had a college degree while Steve had a high school diploma. Both Julie and Steve grown up in the middle class society and they are still in the middle class society. Julie told me that she wanted to go to college and do something pertaining to Art. She succeeded in doing so since her parents were very supportive. On the other hand, Steve’s career goal was to become a professional boxer and he had no specific educational goals.  He succeeded in becoming a professional boxer. Both Julie and Steve told me that gender did not create any barriers in achieving their career goals. In their opinion, financial problems did not affect them very much in meeting their career goals. Neither of them thinks that stratification had anything to do with their goals, successes or professions. Julie and Steve got the advantage of being a member of the middle class society which helped them to achieve their career goals without many constraints. The educational status of their parents is reflected in their educational achievements also. In other words, both Steve and Julie had same educational qualification as that of their parents. But in the case of my mom, it was different. Being a member of the lower middle class, my mom always had a drive to move upward on the social ladder. However, Julie and Steve had no such experiences during their childhood and they were not much concerned about attaining a spot in the upper class. Speaking with both families, it seems that living in middle class society created a status quo for Julie and Steve. Because the middle class is a fairly comfortable place, less desire for mobility was found in Julie and Steve. My mother, being born in the lower middle class with a lower standard of living, had more of a desire to achieve something better to improve her standard of living. Even though gender created problems to my mom in her profession, both Julie and Steve faced fewer problems with respect to gender in their career. This is because of the nature of different professions they selected. Julie said that in the art profession, gender discrimination is less common compared to the corporate world. Stratification of each family in society According to Sernau (2010), “Social stratification is all about how the inequalities in a society are sorted into identifiable layers of persons with common characteristics”(Sernau, p.58). It explains how different types of people placed in the society. Wealth is the deciding factor in most of the societies while putting people at different layers. In India like countries, caste is another factor which determines the social status of the people. Brahmins in India enjoys supreme status in India irrespective of their wealth because of the caste system. The stratification system in the society can be classified into two groups; closed stratification system and open stratification system. “A closed stratification system allows no social mobility and demands social reproduction. Hereditary slavery is an example for closed stratification system” (Sernau, p.212). It should be noted that in America, black community experienced hereditary slavery because of the closed stratification system. On the other hand, in an open stratification system, mobility occurs from one layer to another. For example, at present, America accepts immigrants from different parts of the world. “Immigration mobility occurs when a social system is open to outsiders who mostly enter near the bottom” (Sernau, p.216) My mom was in the lower class because of her low socioeconomic status during her childhood. However, she was able to become a member of the upper class society because of her success in education and in her profession. The SES of my mom increased a lot since she succeeded in getting higher positions and higher pay in her profession. Since wealth is one of the major deciding factors of social stratification, my mom was able to achieve vertical mobility in the class system prevailing in our society. On the other hand, both Julie and Steve were not interested in attaining vertical mobility since they were satisfied with being in the middle class. In other words, they failed to make any improvements in their earnings even though they assumed different roles in their career. In short, their case can be considered as the case of horizontal mobility. My mom and Julie belong to the white community whereas Steve belongs to the black community. The higher educational qualifications of my mom and that of Julie and her parents compared to that of Steve and his parents clearly shows the difference in educational levels among black and white community. It should be note that my mom was in the lower class and still her father supported her greatly in achieving her higher education goals Steve is an African American and works in a blue collar job whereas Julie is white and working in a mid-level art job. Steve also excelled as a professional boxer. It should be noted that both of them were brought up in the same middle class. However, their perceptions about life and ambitions in life were different. This is because of the differences in their ethnic background and the differences in their gender. Lobov (2006) has mentioned “Differentiation and evaluation as the two major aspects of social stratification” (Labov, p.44). The reasons for social stratification are explained by different theories like functional theories and conflict theories. Conflict theories visualize the rich and privileged people as the exploiters of the wealth of poor people. “Functional theories of inequality place the roots of social stratification in fundamental human differences in talents, abilities and possibly motivation. However, Marxist theories question these assumptions” (Sernau, p.24). Functional theories give more importance to the relations between the rich and the poor whereas Marxist theories gave more importance to the achievement of socialism through equal wealth distribution. Elite groups always enjoy many freedoms and liberties in society. In fact majority of the natural resources are controlled by the elite group because of their superior abilities in exploiting the resources. Elite groups quite often exploit the abilities of the lower class for gaining advantages. For example, Bill Gates is the owner of Microsoft. He is expanding his business with the help of ordinary people. Even though, these ordinary people may get better returns, Bill Gates gets more returns than his employees. It is difficult for another person to challenge Bill Gates because of his superior financial abilities. It is often said that Microsoft monopolized the operating system market in the world. It is difficult for any other competitors to challenge the domination of Microsoft in the market at present. Microsoft is fixing much higher prices to their products and the consumers forced to purchase it because of the absence of any other option available at present. In short, Microsoft and Bill Gates are exploiting the ordinary people because of their superior financial abilities and control over other resources. Every complex society faces the difficult task of placing its members into roles that are necessary for the society to survive. These roles must be filled with as little conflict and confusion as possible. There must be people willing to perform jobs (roles) with little status and those that carry a great deal of prestige. In your community there are people who are doctors, lawyers, and teachers. Others collect trash, direct traffic, and put out fires. Although these roles do not all carry the same prestige, there is very little conflict involved in determining who will perform which one (Social Stratification in India) To conclude, Social mobility is the movement of individuals, families, or groups through a system of social hierarchy or stratification. There are two types of social mobility; vertical mobility and horizontal mobility. In vertical mobility, a person from lower class may move towards the upper class because of superior financial ability achieved. In horizontal mobility, a person may change his profession or status within the society and may not experience any changes in his financial status. Ethnicity, culture, race, educational levels of the parents, gender, attitude etc play vital roles in controlling social mobility. Works Cited 1. Brooks, David. “The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement”. 2011. Publisher: Random House; 1St Edition (March 8, 2011) 2. Hurst, Charles E. “Social Inequality: Forms, Causes, and Consequences”. 2009. Publisher: Allyn & Bacon; 7 edition (June 28, 2009) 3. Labov, William. “The Social Stratification of English in New York City”. 2006. Publisher: Cambridge University Press; 2 edition (December 11, 2006) 4. Sernau,Scott R. “Social Inequality in a Global Age”. 2010. Publisher: Pine Forge Press; Third Edition (April 28, 2010) 5. “Social Stratification in India”. 2008. Web. 10 May 2011. Read More