The Division of the British Society along the Lines of Gender and Social Stratification - Term Paper Example

The division of the British Society along the lines of Gender and Social Stratification Introduction: The British society has been functioning over many centuries and its history can be traced back from the prehistoric era, through the Roman era, the early medieval period, the late medieval period, the Tudor society, the Stuart society, the Georgian Era, the Victorian Era, into the industrial era and the twenty first century. Through the years the society has changed and evolved in accordance to the needs and the demands of Man. The changes that have taken place have affected the performance, structuring and functioning of the country internally as well in the manner in which it interacts with the other nation states. The British Empire was for a long time a strong and influential country, and any changes in the empire affected the functioning of the whole global society. The British have always been considered a mature society and the traces of the old empire can still be found in the current existing social system that is functioning in the United Kingdom. The social structuring of the country can be seen to have evolved through the various historical periods that have already been mentioned above. Evolution of social stratification in the British Empire: The roots of the English society was laid during the Early medieval period by Alfred and his successors, who called for and achieved unification and stabilization of society that eventually came to form the British society. The stratification of the society started taking place as early as the late medieval period where the ideals of Feudalism were taking roots in the society. This led to the stratification of the society into Lords, who owned the land, the vassals who worked the land in return of military services, and the peasant class who were basically the slaves. The major change that led to the decline of such a social system came in the 14th century when the Black Death that is the Plague nearly halved the population of the country. This led to a social mobilization of the peasant classes, and led to the decline of the feudal system. The society was rearranged, and there was emergence of the common laws. The monarchy will still all powerful in the country but slowly the parliament came to be established. The upper class was formed which was constituted by the lords and the titled and land owning class. The middle class emerged in full force with the coming of the Victorian period, which included the working class who earned their living through the service sector and the last rung of the society’s ladder came to the poor class who formed the lower most section of the society. The most important mobilization that was seen in the British civil society can be seen to have come about in the Victorian era, where there was observed the strong emergence of the middle working class in the society. This class was aware of its rights, and they made social, economic and political demands of the system (Crompton R 2008). The period saw, what most scholars refer to as the mini industrial revolution. During this period there was seen that there were changes made in the political system. The women became more aware of their rights. Also there was seen that the mobilization of the lower classes in society took place. They became more aware of their rights and the middle class emerged in full force in the society. There were experienced a number of changes. The Parliament went through a number of changes. For example, the lower chamber that is the House of Common emerged during this time as the more powerful house and the powers of the House of Lords were reduced considerably. This was done mainly due to the fact that most of the population of the country believed that the lower chamber is more important because it is the direct representative of the people at large in comparison to the upper chamber which has and displays a strong class bias. The changes that were taking place in the society can be easily seen in the popular fiction that was created during the time, where the literature written by Jane Austin and Charles Dickens clearly reflect the changes taking place in civil society. Also play writers such as Bernard Shaw have through very moving plays such as the Pygmalion and Man and Superman, commented strongly on the social stratification of society and the changes that were occurring where the lower classes were mobilizing themselves to achieve better standard of living and position in society (Cheyney E P 2007). The society after the coming of the industrial revolution went through another social change where a new class structure emerged. This class structure was based in the new economic order. Top of the ring were the capitalist class, then came the upper middle class, the lower middle class, the working class, the working poor class and finally the lowest in the ring in the ladder is formed by the underclass. This is the social structure that is the most prevalent in the British civil society. The British civil society has evolved and changed over the years. It has not been stagnant but has grown and evolved to accommodate all the changes that have been experienced by Man internally and also in the international arena (Bédarida F 1991). The structuring of the civil society today of the country is a mixture of the old social structures and the new ones that have emerged. (Gayle V 2006), The British society is considered by many people around the globe as redundant for the simple matter that it still is ruled by a monarchical head and upholds institutions of titles and the monarch. But one has to look past the surface and realise that although these are still in effect the realities are different. The monarch is an integral part of the heritage of the country and allows the country to continue with the tradition of the common wealth which could not be achieved without the presence of the monarch. The lords are lords only in name and the power that the House of the Lords once had has been slowly and gradually taken away, to ensure that a more democratic set up cane be realised and established. The continuation of these institutions helps the nation remain linked to its rich cultural heritage and does not take way from the democratic nature of the society in the current day and age as it had done through the medieval period. It has often been observed that the British are more obsessed by considerations of social class in their relations with each other than the citizens of any modern industrial country. Some account the class system is essential to any discussion of the characteristics of the British society. However when doing so one has to consider not only the existence of class differences and rivalries but their exact nature. The most important problem that is faced is not that the subject is intrstrically complicated but also the fact that there exist various doctrines and myths about the ways people discuss it. Like all other social aspects class is also constantly changing and at any given point of time the popular view of the system may be apt and a little out of date. Thus, in the middle of the 19th century people were still taking orders and ranks were present in society, a terminology that had been appropriated in the 18th century but which was made obsolete with the coming of the industrial revolution and by the 1850s, it was completely outmoded in may parts of the country (Mahalingam, Ramaswami 2003). In the rural parts of the country it is still reasonable to observe that the class was the matter of a person’s station in life with the lower orders deferring to their social superiors but sharing with them a common interest of the land and its produce. In the industrial area on the other hand there was seen that the social scene was increasingly dominated by the new men of wealth and influence. In the latter half of the century there was seen that the class structure that was based on birth or rank was replaced by another social structure which was based on economic power. It is this social structure that is in place today. The most important fact that needs to be considered is that there is close relation between the dominating groups in the former and the latter social structures. Finally there has to be realised that the view of the class system was always over simplified and in the last fifty years the social structures has become increasingly complex (Horrox R, Ormrod W M 2006). In the lower half of the social hierarchy it is possible to discern at least four groups with differing interests and attitudes as has been mentioned above. Effects of the structural Stratification of Society: In the following section there shall be conducted a detailed study on the nature of the civil society of the country in effect to the social hierarchy that dominated the society and also look into whether the society today has any continuation of these effects. The social stratification of society is one of the most important basis on which the society of any nation functions. It has been seen that through the ages the various social structures and classes have affected the lifestyle that the people enjoy and the facilities that they have access to. There are several effects of the social structuring that can be observed among the people of the society. There have been a number of scholars who have looked at the structuring of the society and studied their various effects in the other aspects of a man’s life. These include scholars like Karl Marx, Karl Pooper, Max Webber and other such scholars. This has continued till date and most scholars still try to understand the functioning of the nation through the social stratification that is prevalent in its society (Wingerden S A V1999). It has been seen throughout history that those who hail from the prevalent classes have access to most of the resources of the country, and of the world. In the case of the British society it has been seen that from the time of the Feudal set up of society those who were lords, and owned land were able to access and exploit most of the resources of the land. The upper class has access to education. They were not expected to part take in the daily working of the economy. They looked after their estates through their servants and the working class and it was believed that they were to part take in the intellectual pursuits and not be troubled with the physical labour, which was reserved for the lower classes in society. The working class has always been exploited and it has been seen that they had no access to the education system and the life style that they had access to was very basic and exploitative in nature. It was seen that this class of the working population was given low wages which was not enough to sustain themselves. History reflects that it was only after the plague had killed half the population of the country, that the wages of the working class increased and they had access to the various resources of the country. There has always existed a clear distinction in the society among the privileged higher titled classes and the lower marginalized working classes. It has been seen that even when the right to vote had been sanctioned by law, it earlier included only the upper titled and land owning classes, and the working of the parliament was regulated only by the House of Lords which was constituted of the titled class. It was only later ion the Victorian period that the lower classes were also admitted into the political arena, and the right to vote was made universal. Also there has to be realised that even after opening up of the various resources which were earlier not available to the lower classes, they could not access them as they did not have the necessary resources at their disposal to do so. Thus, there can be traced a clear relation among the class and the literacy and the standard of living that was enjoyed by the people. In the current scenario there can be clearly traced in the society a structural domination which is placed in according to the social classes (Manza, Jeff; Hout, Michael & Brooks Clem 1995). There has been seen that those who belong to the lower classes are still unable to access the resources while the ones belonging to the higher classes of society have a number of resources at their disposal for utilization and exploitation. This is clearly reflected in the model that has been formulated by William Lloyd Warner, who developed it in the year of 1949. There is the upper-upper class who are constituted by the ‘old money’ families who have inherited their wealth. These individuals usually have access to the best form of education and have a high household income. The next according to him are the lower-upper class which is constituted of the successful elite, who are usually highly trained professional who are highly successful in their area of expertise. These include top professionals and corporate executives and have a high level of education. . The next are the upper middle class who have a graduation degree at the least and have a moderate education background. These usually consist of the middle professionals and the managerial section of the population. The next level that exists in society is the middle class who consist of individuals who have a moderate income and a very basic standard of living, and consists of the lower professional group such as the clerical section, lower level managers, etc. Then the next level in the social ladder is the upper lower class which is constituted by the ‘blue collar’ workers, who have a minimal education level of high school education and their salaries are sufficient to sustain them. These include people such as truck drivers (Mahony, Pat & Zmroczek, Christine; Class Matters 1997). The lowest paid clerks and sales etc. then come the semi poor and the bottom rung that are more often than not semi poor and thei8r income is not sufficient to sustain them. The education that they have received is usually high school level or lower than that. They are often unemployed or semi-employed and do not hold permanent jobs. There are a number of other scholars who have also written on the topic as well including Thompson and Hickey, Coleman and Rainwater, Gilbert and Kahl and many others. This topic has held the interest of many individuals and there has been extensive studies conducted on this. In conclusion it can be said the Parliament of the UK still contains a trace of the pre capitalist European class structure. The monarchy is still consistence and the queen has been able to maintain her stature in society as the head of the civil and the political society. It has to be realised that the British society went through a substantial change during the Thatcher Era (Peter Mathias, Taylor & Francis 1979). There was seen that in the society there emerged a new poor class whose concerns and problems were similar but also new problems emerged when there was experienced a change in the working and production process where the most of the traditional working class were let go. They were below the working class and they were dependent on the Government aid (Merriman, John M 1979). An individual in the society today is judged in accordance to his education, his income, his background and heritage and also his mannerism and his lifestyle with which he leads his life in the society. The society today is characterised by its lack of deep class stratification, especially after the second world war there has been seen a sense of devolution of the social classes in the society. There has also been seen that although the strong class institutions that were very strong and prevalent till the 1950s have dissolved there are still traces that can be found in the daily functioning of the society which is accepted by all. As has been specified by Peter Morrell “Traces of it do persist in the highest levels of society, among for example those rarely mentioned hazy figures who actually own many of the institutions and businesses, newspapers, banking, etc in the UK, which we all take for granted. This is a hidden elite class of entrepreneurs who actually own and run the UK, and their power and influence is everywhere, but their impact on the lives of most ordinary people passes by almost completely unperceived.” There can today be seen that there has been a complete evolution of society. Prior to the 1950s there was seen that there was a covertness to the ways and mannerism of the upper classes. There was emphasis on the lifestyle and the accent that had been adopted by them for centuries. Today there can be seen a clear diversion from this and there can be seen that there no longer exists emphasis on accents and all the different regional accents have been bought into the main stream society. Also there has been seen that there can be observed in the British society today a clear diversion from the lifestyle that was once upheld as the best model of living. The society today is seen to have influences of various cultures which have spread its wings into the food, music, lifestyle of the people. But even though this holds true there can be no denial that there is a prevalent economically superior class of entrepreneurs and the rich titles class who have a large amount of influence over the working of the political and economic functioning of the country. But there is a trend of diversification rather than centralization which was the highly prevalent during the 17th and 18th century. Gender and the divisions in society: Gender has always been of great importance in all societies and the history of the world shows that the women have been repressed and marginalised in all societies and in all sections of societies across various cultures (Pakulski, Jan & Waters, Malcolm 1996). This holds true in the case of the British society also. It has been seen that the women in the British society have always been suppressed and that the general view point that has been maintained by most of the society has been that women are incapable of rational thought and are highly emotional (Payne G 1990). Thus, the women in the civil society of the country have always been restricted to the private sphere and their participation in the public sphere was not allowed or welcomed. In the following section of the paper there shall be conducted a detailed discussion on the role that has been played by women in the working and functioning of the society over the years, how the role has evolved and changed, and the current situation of women in the British civil society. It has been seen that in the earlier days that women were not allowed to appear in public with out a chaperone and they were not allowed to participate in the working and functioning of the political and economic aspects of society. Although the country has had strong female monarchs who have reined over the land in a highly successful fashion, women were considered to be incapable of rational thought and were therefore kept separated from the public sphere of society. The role of the women was confined to the household, and a woman was supposed to have extensive knowledge regarding household matters. A woman was not allowed to own land or work or inherit property. They were considered to be incapable of looking after them and were usually considered as responsibility, be it of the parents, the warden or guardian or the husband. The history of the British civil society reflects a bias for a male off spring and most parents wanted a male child to ensure that the family name could continue and so that the property can be inherited by the male child. The women were not given the right to education and it has been seen that the education that was extended to the female child included languages and basic elementary education. Higher education was not extended to women till the late 17th century. It has been seen that the women have not only been marginalised in the educational system but also in the political sphere where it has been seen that when the parliament was formulated, the women population was included into the system and they were not given representation in the parliament. (Jeffery J R 1998) It was seen that in the case of the seats of the House of Lords if the offspring was a female child, the seat went to the cousin or fell vacant. A female was not allowed to work or hold a job. It was believed that ‘respectable’ women do not work and was considered ‘unseemly’ in society for women to work. (Kellow M 2001) This though process was mostly prevalent among the upper classes and it was seen that the women in the lower classes worked hard (Kaeble, Helmut 1985). Here also it was seen that a gender bias was present. It was seen that in case of labour, a male worker was paid more than a female labourer. In society there were a number of restrictions that were applied to the female population (Vale B 2009). Women in the early social structures were not allowed to go out in public unaccompanied, they were suppose to ride only side-saddle, pregnant women were not allowed to make public appearances, and other such restrictions were imposed on women. There was seen that even with the coming of enlightenment period and with the coming of liberalization in the British society there still was not much improvement in the life of the women and their stature in the society remained constant and did not change, alter or improve (Marmot M 2004). The theories that were propounded failed to take the women into consideration and in fact made no mention of them. There has been seen that the stature of women has improved considerably since the coming of the Victorian era. The women in the society have mobilised themselves and there has been seen that there has been an increase in the demands made by them. The most important change that has been observed is that the women have come out into the public sphere and they have started working and there has been seen that they seeked suffrage for themselves. They looked for political and economic enhancement and made demands of the political institutions to grant them extensive rights including right to vote, right to inherit property, right to seek representation, right to work, right to education, and other such social, economic and political rights. In the 19th century it was seen that the suffrage movement gained momentum. There were several women movements that started in the country in the 19th century where they asked for women rights. The campaigns that started were mainly concerned with the Right of Women to vote in the country. This part of history saw the women become increasingly active in the public sphere especially in the political sphere as they had already come out strongly in the economic sphere a little earlier. There can be seen that there were also a number of scholars and public figures who were supportive of the movement. This can be easily seen in the speech that was made by John Stuart Mill in the year of 1965 in the parliament in which in campaigned for the cause of women suffrage and called for the amendment of the Reform Act (De Vries J R 2006). But there has to be realized that the social conditions existing at the time were not conducive for change, where the parliament members were largely conservative in nature and due to this there was seen that the response of the state was largely vague. The history of the period shows that women group organized themselves politically, like for example there were a number of pressure groups that were formed by women to help lobby for support in the parliament (Crawford E 2000). The steps taken by the state to meet these growing demands were not encouraging but instead there was seen that the government tried to repress the movement and the campaigns. There was seen in the year of 1897 there were 17 women groups campaigning for the cause and they joined together to form the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS). The methods that they adopted were writing provocative texts, holding public meetings, etc. In 1907 there took place the Mud March which was organized by this union, where over 3,000 the women took to the streets and walked in the cold whether from Hyde Park to Exeter Hall in support of their cause. Following this the tactics that was adopted by them became increasingly violent and there was seen that with time they became more aggressive. There was seen that in the year of 1908, the NUWSS tried to storm the parliament. They adopted various methods to ensure that they received Publicity, they shouted “will the liberal government give women the right to vote?”, when a member of the liberal party was making a speech in the House. They were arrested and when they refused to pay the fees they were sent to penitentiary. It was only after the end of the First world war that the Parliament agreed to adopt the Qualification of Women Act according to which the women who were 30 years or above were given a right to vote. There were still certain conditions that were attached to this right (Owensby B P 1999), which were that the women who were 30 must also be either house holders or married to a householder or have a university degree. Thus the women who hailed from the lower classes and did not have access to resources were not given the right to vote. It was only in the year of 1928 that all women were given a right to vote which was similar to voting rights extended to men, with the help if the Representation of the People Act of 1928. The Time magazine in the year of 1999 named Emmeline Pankhurst one of the most influential people of the 20th century because “she shaped an idea of women for our time; she shook society into a new pattern from which there could be no going back”. Today there can be seen that there has been a great change in the stature of women in the society. They have changed and evolved. Today the role that women play in the society is not just confined to the household spaces but they have emerged as powerful and successful professionals in all spheres of life. There have been several successful women scholars, entrepreneurs, etc. Women today have the right to vote, the right to inherit property, right to education, etc (Ostrander, S A.1984). There are laws that have been adopted that have made gender discrimination a criminal offense. Although this holds true there has to be realized that even today women in the society are marginalized. The number of cases of sexual harassment and molestation has gone higher. Physical abuse of women has also been on the rise there has been seen that in the society today there are a number of organization that have been set up to ensure that the women who are target to abuse can be protected (Walker R 1981). Although women, as distinct from men, have only recently been considered in urban studies, there is a large body of evidence from a number of disciplinary areas to show that men and women's conception, experience, and use of space is different. Child psychologists have documented differences in the spatial abilities of infant boys and girls (Piaget and Inhelder, 1956), which apparently are reflected later on in subject choice and scholastic ability. There also seems to be a more general awareness that women's reactions to spatial structure are different from those of men. Morris (1974), for example, who became a woman after forty years of being a man, wrote in her autobiography Conundrum that she no longer focused on general urban perspectives but on "the interiors of houses ... polished knockers, the detail of architrave or nameplate. I look at the place more intimately, perhaps because I feel myself integral to the city's life at last... I am at one with it, linked by an eager empathy with the homelier things about it ..." (Morris, 1974, pages 157-158). Many women resent, rather than enjoy, their restriction to 'homelier things' (Tivers, 1977). However, there are strong pressures exerted on women to physically restrict themselves to the domestic aspects of cities and urban life. These range from ways of restricting their mobility (from corsets and high heels to jokes about women drivers) to an ideology which encourages women to consider themselves physically frail. Conclusion: In conclusion it can be said that the chaging patterns of the civil society of the country has been a reflection of the changing demands and aspirations of the people. There has been seen that although there have been changes that have taken place in the society are a direct reflection of the people’s needs there are still certain disparities and divisions that exist in the society which need to be addressed. These can only be done through continuous evolution of the existing system. 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