The Genesis & Significance of Social Class

Personally, I think social class structure is a bad thing. However, all complex societies have some system of stratification which unequally ranks people, so it deserves some discussion.

Social Classes grow out of a Division of Labor within a society: - somebody has to take out the trash - somebody has to repair our television sets - somebody has to approve loans at the bank. Therefore, there is a strong correlation between the type of work a person does and the amount of prestige that person enjoys and the amount of wealth a person accumulates. This is true in society in general, and within the family in particular. Does the person who concentrates mostly on the domestic work have the same prestige within the family as the person who concentrates mostly on earning family income? The point here is to reveal class structure within the family.

The Determinant of Social Class in society is the combination of three variables:
occupation, education, and income. In a very general way, these variables all measure the same thing - here's what I mean. Someone from a very rich family will probably go to schools where kids from other very rich families go. They will have opportunities afforded to them by virtue of their family's money. These kids will fraternize and make friends. Some will fall in love and marry. They will graduate and find employment in companies and law firms owned and operated by their friends and their parents, or go to work for their parents. Get it? A few people inherit large sums of money from their families. These folks are few in number, although it is true that the top 1/5th of the population controls well over 50% of any nation's wealth, which amounts to a lot of inherited social power (for example, the Royals in British society).

Similarly, someone from an very poor family will probably go to schools provided by the state. Here they will have to make choices between continued education and early entry into the labor force, provided there is opportunity for them in the labor force. They will meet, make friends, and find spouses in this section, and probably go to work for a company. They'll be the last hired and the first fired.

Occupations - some occupations (careers) carry more prestige than others. Usually higher prestige means higher salaries - but not always:

Similarly - Higher paid occupations generally require more education, though not necessarily in every case. While becoming a physician requires eight additional years of education after high school, becoming an entertainer or union president requires much less.

The kind of education we receive also says something about our social class - anybody who could spend four years in college (whether or not they get their way paid) is obviously in a preferred position of higher status.

We are very aware of our standing in the community in terms of social class (Class Consciousness). While all citizens of the United States are equal in the democratic sense, some are more equal than others.

Our Occupation, Education and Income imply a lifestyle, something about family background, special responsibilities, and certain privileges that are enjoyed. We use our social status to get us things - we wear status symbols as a means of recognizing membership in our class. Since we all look alike basically under under our clothes, we use cars, opulent surroundings, special and expensive clothing, and so on to dress according to our class. After all - the rich can smell different from the rest of us if they want to - they spend more time on themselves and spend less time doing the dirty work of life.

Social Class Structure
The typical middle class child lives in a class subculture where he or she is surrounded by educated, cultivated persons who speak the language relatively correctly, enjoy books, music, travel and gentile parties.

At school, the typical middle class child is greeted by a teacher whose dress, speech, and norms of conduct are more or less like his or her own. The environment at school is much like the environment at home: full of books, crayons, drawing paper, various developmentally appropriate toys, maybe a computer.

The typical lower class child lives in a class subculture that is as different from their richer counterparts as if they were from different planets - he or she is surrounded by uneducated persons, who speak a language that is special to the social class, who barely read, and are unable to enjoy music (unless it is on the radio) and only travel to the funerals of their kin.

At school, the typical lower class child is greeted by a middle class teacher who may see an unwashed, unfed, unruly child who violates many of the educational system's rules. School is foreign and different from this child's home life. - The behavior required for praise is unknown to the child - behaving in ways that are consistent with the lower class invokes punishment from the teacher - no support for education at home or in the lower class subculture.

D. The Relative Size of the Social Classes:

The significance of social class is this:
• Life opportunities are determined by it
• Upper class members live longer and are healthier
• Those with less than 5 years of education are twice as likely to die early.
• . . . and experience more days of illness
• . . .and are more likely to have premature babies and babies with congenital birth defects.

There but for fortune, and all that.

Budgets and the Use of Credit

According to consumer educators and financial advisors, a family of three or four should not feel safe unless in has at least six months income in savings, plus insurance for all members, and a plan for retirement (when income becomes fixed) - all this past a subsistence plus standard of living.

Notice what this list doesn't include:

• no payment of student loans
• no payment of any bank loans
• no car payments
• no credit card payments of any kind
• no emergency funds for sickness, pregnancy
• no coverage for other loss of income
• no TAXES which hovers around 11% Federal, 4% state and 3% local in Ohio 18% total.
• no movies, video rentals, stereo equipment, commercial recordings, alcohol
• no entertainment of any kind
• no vacations, presents
• no christmas, no birthdays
• no birth control devices
• no personal grooming
• no diapers, baby oils, pediatrician money

The plain truth is that daily management of a typical U.S. family costs more today than it ever has, and the actual buying power of family income, despite the relatively recent innovation of both parents working, is lower than it was 20 years ago. Salaries have not kept up with inflation and families have actually lost money by staying together. In other words, the global economy is family unfriendly.

All this doesn't mean we are beat before we start. Coming up in one of the last lectures, we'll talk about ways to simplify life, enjoy it more, and make it cost less.

Marriage and Social Class

The Marriage Gradient - for men, income level is positively related to the probability of getting married. Men tend to marry down in social class. The proportion of married men increases and income level increases. The Marriage Gradient suggests that men marry women who are slightly lower down the social class continuum (younger, a little poorer, less educated).

The pool of eligible mates decreases for women as they get older, richer, and more educated. The pool of eligible mate for men increases as they get older, richer, and more educated.

Birth rate and Social Class - there are 94 births per 1000 women in the lower classes compared to 48 births per 1000 women in the middle classes.

• lower income marriages have a greater rate of divorce than do higher-income marriages
• high income means a greater accumulation of riches so a divorce is a risk of losing these riches.
• higher income marriages connote lives with more comfort - less to fight about - less to be dissatisfied about.

Regardless of actual income - living within one's means increases satisfaction in marriage. It is indebtedness that causes marital instability - and the insistence of having more material goods.

Working Women in the United States

Reasons for the increase in the number of working women who are married, with children at home:
1. double digit inflation - since 1964, the inflation rate has served to decrease the actual value of income by 75%. That means a dollar today buys what a quarter would in 1964. As long as wages and salaries increase with the shrinking buying power of the dollar, things are fine.
2. The Women's movement, working off of the momentum of the other civil rights movements of the 1960's have illuminated the differential treatment of men and women.
3. Geographic mobility of the average family in the U.S. has led to isolation of the nuclear family.
4. No-Fault Divorce - disallows financial support for divorced women in theory.
5. Fluctuating employment rates - unemployed husbands

Effects of two paycheck families on traditional family life:

• Working women have less time for child care - their traditional role which causes both a decline in the birth rate increased father involvement in child care Negotiated role interaction
• The number and variety of jobs available to women has greatly increased, blurring the sex role distinction.
• Women feel pressure to fit into both traditional family roles and new occupational ones.
• Role overload becomes more likely.
• Social stigma of being a career wife is less likely.
• Personal identity and self-esteem problems continue to arise.
• Guilt over lack of involvement in child rearing for women.
• Social network dilemmas
• Dilemmas of multiple-role cycling.

Concentrating on maximizing income exclusively will never fully satisfy the human spirit.
And your children will be justified in appearing ungrateful for your efforts.

A note about Inflation.
Economic inflation is simply the buying power of a dollar compared to previous years.
We are competing against every single worker in the world today. This is reflected in the rate of inflation. The U.S. Dollar had $1.00 worth of buying power in 1964. Today, a dollar is worth about $0.14 (fourteen cents). Here's the table:

This means if you made $10,000 in 1964 you would have to make $50,000 a year to have the same standard of living today. Every single item of goods and services for sale in the country is increasing in cost right along with inflation.

The last of the baby boomers - those born from 1960 to 1964 are the first generation of Americans that will not, as a group, increase their wealth relative to their parents. Inflation, a diamond shaped social class structure, and an over administrated economy all share in the cause of this situation.

Families have to learn to budget their resources in order to be successful today.
Incisive purchases, smart economic moves, and savings are part of the plan. 

Berry, R., & Williams, F. (1987). Assessing the relationship between quality of life and marital income satisfaction: A path analytic approach. JMF, 49, 107-116. For wives, communication and future financial security were the only factors directly affecting disagreement over finances. For husbands, duration of marriage was the only direct effect. Husbands of part-time employed wives experiences more intense disagreements than hubby's whose wives were not employed. Only wives felt that as income satisfaction increased, so did marital satisfaction. For husbands, marital sat. was only influenced by disagreements over finances.

Brayfiel, A., & Hofferth, S. (1995). Banalcing the family budget: Differences in child care expenditures by race/ethnicity, economic status, and family structure. Social Science Quarterly, 76, 158-177. 68% of all employed mothers regularly purchased child care with Black mothers less likely than White or Hispanic mothers to do so. As mother's wage increased, so did her likelihood of purchasing child care. Single mothers were just as likely as married mothers to pay for care, but single mom's spent a greater share of their income on child care.

Douthitt, R., Huh, K. 91994). Expenditures on children by female-headed households. J. Family and Economic Issues, 15, 75-90. A nice set of economic statistics for this grouping.

Dynes, R., Clark, A., and Dint, S. 91956). Occupational aspiration and family experience. Am. Soc. Review, 2192), 212-215. Unsatisfactory interpersonal relationships in the family of orientation were significantly related to high aspirational levels. Satisfactory relationships were related to lower aspirations.

Elder, G., Conger, R., Foster, E., and Ardelt, M. (1992). Families under economic pressure. J. Family issues, 13, 5-37. Adverse income change increases economic pressures and hardship adaptations in ways that match the effect of income level and exceed the influence of unstable work. Economic pressures and adaptations mediate the negative effects of economic adversity on emotional health and family relationships. Father's negativity in the family represents a stronger link between economic conditions and child behavior than does mother's. Finally economic pressure and father's negativity increase the risk of aggressive behavior and depressed feelings among boys and girls. Greaves, K, Zvonkovic, A., Evans, L., and Hall, L. (1995). Economic resources, influence, and stress among married couples. Family & Consumer Sciences Research Journal, 24 (1), 47-70. Husbands earning more income and having similar or more education than wives was the dominant pattern found. When wives earned more or had higher education, there was increased stress in both genders.

Higgins, C., Duxbury, L., & Lee, C. (1994). Impact of life-cycle stage and gender on the ability to balance work and family responsibilities. Family Relations, 2, 144-150. Mothers spent signif. less time in paid employment than fathers. For men, the hours spent completing home chores and errands were constant across the life-cycle. Women experienced greater work-family conflict than men, as did parents with younger children.

Jacobson, d. (1993). What's fair? concepts of financial management in stepfamily households. J. Divorce and Remarriage, 19(3/4), 221-238. Two factors seem to complicate financial management in stepfamily households: husbands and wives have different interests in and responsibilities to children from previous marriages, and the context in which distribution is located may alter the way resources are meted out.

Junk, V., Stenberg, L., & Andersonk, C. (1993). Retirement planning for the sandwich generation, J. Home Economics, 85 (1), 4-11.

Lino, M. 7 Ray, G. (1992). Young husband-wife households with children. Family Economics Review, 5, 9-16. Household characteristics in table form.

Noecker, G. (1991). Economic status of two-parent families with employed tends and young adults. Family Economics Review, 494), 2-10. Having employed teenagers allows parents to save more for retirement and were better off financially.

Otto, L., & Atkinson, M. (1994). Maternal employment experiences and children's behavior: A reanalysis and comment. JMF, 56, 501-506. Working mothers should pay real close attention to their parenting skills - less room for error.

Pasley, K, Sandras, E., & Edmonson, M. (1994). The effects of financial management strategies on the quality of family life in remarriage. J. Family and Economic Issues, 15, 53-70. No relationship between adjustment in marriage and financial management strategies. Men in blue- collar occupations were more likely to pool resources with wives. Women who pooled were more likely to be employed part-time.

Poduska, B., & Allred G. (1990). Family finances: The missing link in marriage and family therapy training. Am. Journal of Family Therapy, 18 92), 161-168.

Pressler, H. B. (1988). Shift work and child care among young dual-earner American parents. JMF, 50, 133-148. Fathers are more involved in child care when mothers work than was previously though.

Schaninger, C., & Buss, W. (1986). A longitudinal comparison of consumption and finance handling between happily married and divorced couples. JMF, 48, 129-136. Happily married couples demonstrated more joint and wife influenced decisions and less husband dominance than divorced couples. An early commitment to equality/equity, to role specialization with wife influence in family finance handling, and to family commitment leads to marital satisfaction.

Schwenk, N. (1992). Trends in entertainment. Family Economics Review, 5, 17-22. American families are spending increasingly more on all forms of entertainment. Changes in vacation time spent suggests more families stay at home during scheduled annual vacation time, opting for several long weekend trips scattered throughout the year.

Schwenk, N. (1990). A comparison of households headed by persons 55 to 65 years of age: Retired and employed. Family Economics Review, 3, 19-25.

Seyler, D.L., Monroe, P, & Garand, J. (1995). Balancing work and family: The role of employer- suppored child care benefits. J. Family Issues, 16, 170-193.

Spitze, G. (1988). Women's employment and family Relations: A Review. JMF, 50, 595-618.

Williams, F.L. (1991). Interfamily exchange: A function of culture or economics? Lifestyles: Family and Economic Issues, 12 (3), 235-252. Lower income families are more likely to exchange goods and services with other family members. This method of sharing is a way to stretch budgets, but also provides family members with satisfaction with family life. 

Back to Syllabus