Social Stratifcation

Social Stratification Part III: Gender

June 17, 2018

Introduction

Social stratification can simply be referred as the social differentiation of people within a certain society. It is mainly characterised by differences in wealth, levels of income, individual`s social status, or positions held by an individual in power. It is the social position of persons with a certain social group, geographic region, or category. In most communities stratification is distinguished as social classes which are three and they are upper class, middle class and lower class. These classes act to differentiate members of the community. (Lambert, Connelly, Roxanne, Blackburn, & Gayle 2016)

The patterns and processes of social stratification are mostly influenced by the occupational mobility of an individual. The occupational mobility is said to be limited by the depletion of occupational groups that higher status occupations have sourced from. The process and patterns are also subject to theory of construction of intergenerational transmission of income. Through this theory conclusions are made that income mobility is similar to occupational mobility. The two are the main factors that work to bring difference in people.

There are different patterns of social stratification which are dependent on wealth, level of income of an individual, the position of power, or level of education. These patterns include closed system where people have a lot of difficulties in changing the status of their lives; life at this patter is almost unbearable. Culture poverty which is characterised by people with very low levels of ego and it makes it difficult for them to change their life; dual labour market which is characterised by people with reputable jobs and jobs of low standard (Berry, 2016).

The pattern is also affected by wealth, which is about the net worth of an individual. There are also different types of mobility that are known to affect the pattern of stratification and they include vertical mobility which include movement of individuals from one social status to another which is higher or lower level. There is also social mobility which is the process in which individuals move from one level to another in the stratification system.

Part Two: Social Stratification on Gender.

Gender stratification can be explained as a way of social ranking where men are considered superior than women. In an organisation such as Stanley Engineers which deals with construction and engineering services social stratification of gender is evident in a way that the institution has a very low number of female workers. The institution tends to have a perspective that women are inferior and even if they have the same skills with men they cannot work to the same standards. This perspective makes the company not to hire women in its professional field and the only women working within the organisation are subordinate staffs. This image makes other engineering companies coming up not to have trust while hiring women even if they have credentials. Such acts lead to continued discrimination of one gender in the places of work.

The social behaviour that leads the company in not hiring women is the perspective in which the community have towards them. The community takes women to be an inferior gender and that is why the company cannot feel comfortable in hiring them as it might end up losing trust from its customers. The gender stereotyping is deeply rooted in within the surrounding communities (Cook, & Cusack, 2011).

The company can undertake several measures to reverse this perspective. It can start by hiring a few women in the engineering department and then training them to the highest possible levels of knowledge so that the local community can start having trust in women. The company should also take part in campaigns aimed at empowering women and changing their view in the community. The company should make sure it is hiring the same number of employees in in each gender. This will make its customers still have trust in its work. Though they will be questioning with time the company will prove to them that women can work in the same capacity as men (Wertenbruch, 2011).

The company should also try to campaign in a diplomatic way against the dominance of males in the society. This can be done thorough comparison of their working capabilities where it should argue with its customers that the work done by male and female is the same in terms of speed and accuracy. But the company should in a way try to favour women by proving their work more carefully handled and thus prove it to be more attractive compared to that of males; this will eventually revers the discrimination placed on women.

References

Wertenbruch, Anna. (2011), Gender Roles Stereotypes, Retrieved from: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/gender-roles-and-stereotypes-in-dorothy-allisons-bastard-out-of-carolina-anna-wertenbruch/1111963057

Berry, Bonnie (2016), The Power of Looks: Social Stratification of Physical Appearance Retrieved from: Searchworks.Stanford. Edu

Lambert, P., Connelly, R., Blackburn, R. and Gayle, V. (2016), Social Stratification: Trends and Processes

Cook, R., & Cusack, S. (2011), Gender Stereotyping: Transnational Legal Perspectives, Retrieved from: University of Pennsylvania Press