Assignment 5: Social stratification in your everyday life

Assignment 5: Social stratification in your everyday life

Please read the lecture slides on Social Class and Families posted on wiki. In the lecture slides I discuss the hierarchical arrangement of people in terms of power, prestige, and privileges, which is called social stratification.

1. According to the slides how do we define power, prestige, and privileges and give an example of each.
               Power is defined as the ability to make one person do something against their will.  An example of this term would be if a popular high school student makes another (not so popular) student to do his homework for him.  The popular student uses his power of social status to make another student do his homework for him.

                Prestige is a term that is defined as respected in a society.  An example of this term would be president of the U.S. He is the most important person in the U.S government; therefore, his status is prestige.

               Privilege is a term that can be defined as a special privileges that one person can enjoy but not everybody else.  An example of privilege would be my brother receiving a car from my parents on his birthday and he is the only one who is allowed to drive it.

2. Also, what three variables do Sociologists use to define social class. How would you define your social class and why?
               There are three variables that sociologists use to define class. Those are: occupation (which is the job one has), (education which is the degree one has) and income (is how much money one makes per year).  By those three terms I am most likely a lower class.  Currently, I do not have stable job; therefore, I do not have any income.   At the same time I am in college but I do not have any college degrees yet.

3. Think about how your race/ethnicity or gender or age has blocked you from an opportunity or given you an advantage.

When one has certain race/ethnicity, gender or even age, they contribute to a person being blocked from an opportunity.  I think we all have experienced this and so have I.  About a year ago I wanted to work at the Garden State Plaza in one of the stores my friend works at.  In all honestly, I was excited to be working there because according to my friend the pay was good, the people he worked with were really nice and it was not a hard work.  Before I even applied I asked my friend if they were hiring and he said he will ask his manager.  They next day he told me he did talk with his manager and the store is hiring; however, they are only hiring Asians because “Asians do not steal”.  Obviously, I did not get the job.

4. Please identify your age, or gender of race/ethnicity and then tell me your story.

I am a 20 year old female of white ethnicity.  Being a young female impacted me negatively and positively.  When I am working in groups with older classmates, I feel that they do not take me as seriously as they should.  For example, I am currently working with a classmate that is in her 30s and I am having this problem.  She thinks she is right and things should be done her way because she is older.  Multiple times I came up with an idea for our project and she made fun of it in front of other members of our group.  If it wasn’t for them, our group would never use any of my ideas.