What would a functionalist say about stratification and the class system quizlet?

Second, functionalism assumes that the system of social stratification is fair and rational and that the best people end up on top because of their superiority.

However in real life, the system does not work so perfectly. For example, some would argue that US president George Bush was not the smartest or the most politically talented but he was well connected and born at the top of the stratification and therefore he was elected to a position with great power

Additionally , take Singapore's education system in perspective. Students in Singapore generally undergo six years in primary school and four to five years in secondary school , then to junior college or polytechnics and then eligible students are then allowed to pursue a university degree at universities. This seems to support the structural functional perspective. However, even at the onset of educational life, Singapore children with siblings in a primary school and those with parents at the institution are given priority admission to the school. And even from a very young age, the school provides them with better faculties and more conducive school environment and allowing these students to have a higher chance of entering university. They therefore are able to have higher paying jobs and social status. Evidently, the unequal selection procedure results in an unequal opportunity for upward mobility. Furthermore even from young, there are more opportunities for elite students to interact with people of their own kind and these networking since young translates into close knit corporate relationships and other Upward moving devices.

Furthermore richer kids get the opportunity to be sent for overseas degree even if they are unable to score well for the a level examinations. These are opportunities that are denied to poorer students

Recommended textbook solutions

Anderson's Business Law and the Legal Environment, Comprehensive Volume

23rd EditionDavid Twomey, Marianne Jennings, Stephanie Greene

369 solutions

Operations Management: Sustainability and Supply Chain Management

12th EditionBarry Render, Chuck Munson, Jay Heizer

1,698 solutions

Human Resource Management

15th EditionJohn David Jackson, Patricia Meglich, Robert Mathis, Sean Valentine

249 solutions

Social Psychology

10th EditionElliot Aronson, Robin M. Akert, Samuel R. Sommers, Timothy D. Wilson

525 solutions

Slavery: most extreme form of social inequality for both individuals and groups, enslaved individuals are owned by other people, who treat human beings as property, just as if they were household pets or appliances

Castes: hereditary ranks that are usually religiously dictated and that tend to be fixed and immobile, differs as it is a system that is dictated by religion

Estates: a system of stratification under which peasants were required to work land leased to them by nobles in exchange for military protection and services, also known as feudalism, was the nobles' ownership of land, which was critical to their superior and privileged status

Social Classes: social ranking based on economic position in which achieved characteristics can influence social mobility, In contrast to the slavery and caste systems, the boundaries between classes are imprecisely defined, and one can move from one stratum, or level, of society to another.

The Middleton study wanted to show how the American class changed in a small town due to industrialization. At first, they found that there were only two groups, business and working class, but the increase of population, machinery, and the importance of money drew them apart from each other. For example, before industrialization, people gained prestige from their experience and age, but now prestige was based on their financial status. The two groups, the business and working class, were not enough to separate the six different classes that resulted from the technological change which were now three manual and three non-manual classes.

As seen on Figure 3.2 (Gilbert, 53) the American occupational structure started mainly off as agricultural (i.e farming). That is until the 1950's when blue-collar jobs (i.e craftsmen, service workers, operatives, laborers, etc.) were the primary sources of occupation. By the 1980's white-collar workers constituted more than half of the labor force (i.e, sales worker, mangers, professionals, etc.). Women have increasingly gotten more involved in the workforce throughout the years as well. In the 1870's women were only involved in the workforce 15%, and by 2000 over 47% of women were in the workforce. The Black occupational structure has transformed as well. From 1940-1980 the weekly earnings of the full-time black worker rose 400%, but in the 1940's the black workers were still given the three lowest occupational categories. The black-white wage gap had begun shrinking, but by the 1980's it had begun widening again. Hispanic workers also went through occupational structure changes, such as the median hourly wage of Hispanic men was 64% that of non-Hispanic white men and for Hispanic women, 74%.
The middle class slowly began shrinking over time, but the elite began to grow. More specifically, progress since the 1940's there's still an occupational gap between blacks and whites and blacks are still underrepresented at the bottom and whites are overrepresented at the top, and the same thing goes for the Hispanic population. Jobs went from labor intensive to service intensive. There were also noticeable tendencies during the Age of Growing Inequality: men's earnings have stagnated, women's earnings have increased and the distribution of men's earnings and distribution of women's earnings have become more unequal. In the 1970's data shows that the elite's wages have climbed significantly (esp. CEO's), and at the bottom wages have stagnated or fell.

How would a functionalist view stratification?

What is the functionalist view on class?

What is the structural functionalist perspective on social stratification?

What is the relationship between stratification and class?