Examine Gender, Ethnicity and Race as major dimensions of social stratification. (UPSC CSE Mains 2017 - Sociology, Paper 1)
Social stratification refers to a society’s categorization of its people into rankings of socioeconomic tiers based on factors like wealth, income, race, education, and power.
Gender
- One of the most fundamental forms of stratification.
- Considered natural by functionalists like Mudrock and Parsons.
- But this natural role thesis has come under attack as the traditional patriarchal division of labour is being slowly turned on its head.
- Feminist scholars, such as Joan Acker, have criticized “traditional” stratification research, which has mostly ignored gender altogether
- The unequal access to resources, opportunities and rewards are legitimised by patriarchy and reinforced through its institutions.
- Marxist school of thought sees female subordination as a result of private property and consequent adoption of monogamy.
- Blackburn and Stewart explains that women going to work itself doesn’t ensure gender equality because women are often employed in part-time and low paid jobs. Occupational segregation reinforces stratification in society.
Race
- Race as a biological concept refer to a large category of people who share certain inherited physical characteristics like color of skin, type of hair, facial features and size of head.
- Sociologists view race as merely an ideological construct based on physical differences.
- It was also used as a tool of domination, discrimination and spreading inequality in the form of racial stratification.
- Joseph Arthur De Gobineau in the middle of 19th century gave first major racial classification in terms of three distinct groups which were White (Caucasian), Black (Negroid) and Yellow (Mongolian).He also attached notions of superiority and inferiority with these races.
- Use of exclusionary methods like ghettos, intermarriage restrictions and social distance maintenance gives a practical shape to ethnocentrism.
- From conflict perspective, racial stratification is seen as a product of the capitalist system in which ruling class used slavery, colonization and racism as tools for exploiting labor.
Ethnicity
- While race is perceived as biological, ethnicity is purely cultural or social in its meaning.
- An ethnic group may have a common language, history, national origin or lifestyle.
- Balkanization of Europe is an example.
- Paul Brass (1991) discusses three ways of classifying ethnic groups: a) in terms of objective attributes, b) by reference to subjective feelings and c) in relation to behaviour.
- Writers like Glazer (1975) have contended that not only does ethnic feelings cease
- to exist in a modern society, but is actually ‘revived’ and what is more is that increasing
- Importance of ethnic identities or ethnicization can be attributed to the rising conditions of modenlization.
- Ethnicity is a search for an identity by a group and a demand that this identity be publicly acknowledged.
- However, it also has a practical aim for that group, namely, the demand for progress, for a rising standard of living, for a more effective political order and greater social justice.
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