Social Inequality: Causes and Consequences - Term Paper Example

Social Inequality: Causes & Consequences Social inequality is a central concern in the discipline of sociology and has been widely researched in theliterature. The history reveals that societies which have been perpetuating inequalities have not dwelled for long period of time and have perished away. In the current era, we observe that the magnitude of inequality is increasing in different regions of the world as we can easily find substantial economic and social inequalities within the countries and from one country to another. Economic inequalities are evident in the pricing structure of different economies. For instance, the pricing of goods in poorer countries differs from the affluent ones, and only a meager proportion of the prices go to the worker who make the goods. The most popular superstar of Baseball, Michael Jordan earned more than $20,000,000 for advertising Nike shoes in 1992 which was more than the entire compensation of the six Indonesian factories that manufactured those shoes (Breverton, 1996). While economic inequalities are conspicuous, social inequalities are much deeper in nature. Kerbo (2003) defined social inequality as ‘‘the condition where people have unequal access to valued resources, services, and positions in the society’’. It refers to the situation where different groups in the society do not have equal social status. The definition highlights that social inequalities are entailed in social stratification that generally pertains to social power, class, status and lifestyle. Social inequality becomes evident when ideology and power combine together in way that makes a group superior or inferior with respect to other group. The concept of social class in inextricably linked with the notion of social inequality therefore we first need to understand it. A number of dimensions are attached to the concept of social class however we will be expounding on the details of three; economic, political and cultural dimension. In the economic context, we can measure the social class by using indicators such as wealth, income and occupation of individual. The political dimension relates to indicators such as status and power of the individual. The final dimension which relates to the cultural definition uses standards such as the lifestyle, values, beliefs, norms and level of education to measure the social class. Among all the dimensions, economic dimension is considered as the most significant one as the economic position of an individual determines his source of social status and power (political dimension) and also has an impact on the development of certain cultural dimensions such as lifestyle and level of education. The level of social class determines the extent of inequality among the different groups. We can illustrate an example of social class by giving a practical illustration of the standard classification system used by the British Government from 1911 to 1980. Social Class Example Occupations Professional Accountant, doctor, clergyman, university teacher Intermediate Pilot, farmer, manager, Police officer, teacher, manager Non-Manual Skilled Clerical worker, sales rep., shop assistant, secretary. Manual Skilled Butcher, bus driver, electrician, miner Semi Skilled Bus conductor, bar person, postal worker, packer Unskilled Laborer, office cleaner, window cleaner The economic source of social inequality emanates from differences in the distribution of income and it is generally the prime source if inequality and poverty as it has a profound influence on standard of living. United States which is the most affluent society of the globe has experienced a widening gap between its income of higher and lower class consistently from 1980’s and onwards (Kerbo, 2003). In 2001, the wealth of the black individuals was approximately $4064 whereas the Bill Gates who is the richest man in the world had a net wealth of $54 billion in the same year. In UK, the median income of individuals who were placed at the top ten percent rose by 60% in real terms whereas those lying on lower echelon of the society (Last ten percent) had seen an increase of only 11% (Sefton and Sutherland, 2005: 231). Children were generally at a greater risk of living in low income households relative to the whole population. On average, one out of every five children was living in a low income household in 2002-03. United Kingdom also experienced an increase in poverty levels rising from 7.1 million in 1971 to 12.5 million people in 2001-02. Poverty in this case implies that individuals residing on a scale lesser that 60 percent of median household income after deducting household costs (Flaherty et al., 2004: 31). Social inequalities stem from various sources ranging from gender reasons to physical disabilities. Gender inequalities are often connoted with cramping the lives of women so they can not enjoy the life with vigor; however this is not related with social inequality. Gender inequalities perceived by the western countries such as the status of women in Muslim countries isn’t relevant to this context. However, in the western world there exist gender inequalities which are recognized by the experts as social inequality. The literature well documents the discrimination of women against the labor market. Initially, women were crowded into manual jobs and low level non-manual work. Researchers in United States have identified that gender inequality persists in terms of wage gap, degrees of occupational segregation, the unequal allocation of housework and child care in the home, and the prevalence of sexual harassment and discrimination (Devine & Water, 2004). Inequalities may also arise due to immigration and recentness of the arrival of an individual in a particular country. As in many of the cases, it is apparent that new immigrants are often given undemanding jobs with low earnings which are not desired by the established people of the country. The blacks of United States have even been treated abominably in the work environment and other fields over the period of years as compared to the Asian and other immigrants which represents another source of social inequality; ethnic inequality. In the contemporary arena, occupational inequality is the fundamental source of perpetuating social inequality. Occupations are strongly linked with the social structures of the society differentiated in terms of education, skills, and experience. Social acceptance can also be thought as a source of social inequality which defines the behavior of one section of a society to others who are viewed to be different from them (Blackburn, 2008). Religion is often cited as the breeding ground for non-acceptance as the case of Hitler’s severed hatred against the Jews confirms of it. In addition to that, we often find that there is an atmosphere of animosity between the sections in the same religion such as different denominations of Christian in Northern Ireland and Shia and Sunnis of Iraq. The famous case of headscarf affair in France which created a mass hysteria among Muslims also demonstrates the idea of social inequality originating from social non-acceptance. Three girls who insisted on wearing Muslim Hijab were suspended from the state school as it was against their ideology. This non-acceptance by people who have distinct ideology or ethnicity background of yours is often perceived to be the fundamental cause of social inequality. Strangers and Immigrants are often eyed as dubious and they are not easily accepted in the society because of a lack of common ideology. When analyzing social inequalities, it is vital to consider the employment or work for several reasons. Firstly, the occupational or employment level determines your social class thus you can identify whether you are among advantaged or disadvantaged individuals. Secondly, the level of compensation or income from employment are the major source of your revenue stream which in turn have a profound influence on your life experiences of being affluent or poor. Furthermore, the work provides us with network of peers and colleagues which promotes a sense of participation in the society and opportunities for personal development (Moving to higher level of social class). The economy of UK had remained buoyant from the period of 1999-2003 with the employment level reaching the record levels in 2003. A research conducted by the UK government analyzed the disadvantaged group of the UK’s economy in the above period as they wanted to highlight whether social inequality had diminished or increased. These groups comprised of individuals who had unequal access to employment opportunities because of their age, gender, ethnicity, skill or because of a combination of these factors. The groups were identified as individual with disabilities, lone parents, minority ethnic groups, people aged over 50, those with the lowest qualifications and people living in the 30 UK local authority districts with the poorest initial labor market position. The aim of the Government was to bridge the gap between the employment rates of disadvantaged group and the overall national rate. Figure 1: Employment Rates: By Disadvantaged Group The above figure reveals that employment levels have grown for the disadvantaged group in the above period which implies that social inequality has reduced by certain level. However, the unemployment rate for disadvantaged group mainly consisting of minority ethnic groups, lone parent and people without significant qualifications remained at 10% in 2003 which was double the unemployment rate of the general working-age population which implies that social inequality exists in UK (Office for National Statistics, 2004). The data produced by the government of UK also confirms the existence of health inequality among UK’s population. The nature of jobs was positively correlated with how long people live during their lifetime. For instance, the life expectancy of professional group was 7.4 years greater than unskilled manual groups. Under the same category, the difference was just 5.4 years for females (OFN, 2004). Figure 2: Life expectancy at birth by social class and sex Infant mortality rate is also one of the key indicators of health and it generally represents the health of the nation. In United Kingdom, the rate of infant mortality fell drastically over the last century mainly because of improved living conditions and better availability of healthcare products. However, it stood highest for fathers who were doing jobs in routine and semi-routine occupations. Among other indicators of social inequality stemming from health inequality was self-reported poor health. The reporting of poor health was highest among the disadvantaged group which comprised of individuals who were unemployed for long term and individuals who never worked during their lifetime. It was 19 percent for men and 20 percent for women. In comparison with this it was lowest among the professional group which stood at just 5 percent. Finally, the difference between different ethnic groups also reported considerable health inequality as the minority ethnic group such as Pakistani and Bangladeshi men and women faced the highest rates of poor health and long-term illness (OFN, 2004). Figure 3: Long-term illness by ethnic groups and sex Educational policies and practices have the tendency possibility reproducing social structures or inequalities. The current educational system adopted by UK illustrates an excellent example of educational inequality. The gap in GCSE attainment levels for different socioeconomic classes have widened as 76% percent of the children with their parents in professional and managerial jobs earned five or more “A’s” whereas this was only 31% for the children with parents in unskilled manual occupations. Furthermore, participation in higher education was also strongly related with socio economic status of the students. Among students with parents in higher professional occupations, 87 percent were in full-time education as compared to 58 percent with parents in lower supervisory occupations (OFN, 2004). References Blackburn, R. M. 2008, “What is Social Inequality?”, International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, Vol. 28, Issue 7/8, pp- 250-59 Breverton, T. 1996, ‘‘Slaves to fashion’’, The New Review, May/June, pp. 14-16 Devine, F. & Water, M. C. 2004, Social Inequalities in Comparative Perspective, Blackwell Publishing: UK Flaherty, J., Veit-Wilson, J. and Dornan, P. 2004, Poverty: the Facts, 5th edn. London: CPAG Kerbo, H.R. 2003, Social Stratification and Inequality: Class Conflict in Historical and Global Perspective, McGraw-Hill, London. Office for National Statistics (ONS) 2004, Available from site: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/theme_compendia/fosi2004/SocialInequalities_full.pdf Sefton, T. and Sutherland, H. 2005, ‘Inequality and poverty under New Labour’, in J. Hills and K. Stewart (eds.) A More Equal Society? New Labour, Poverty, Inequality and Exclusion. Bristol: The Policy Press, pp. 231–49. Read More