Examples Of Social Stratification In The United States

1. Define "social stratification". Identify and discuss the three systems of social stratification that were addressed in the textbook.
Per Henslin (2013) social stratification is the division of large numbers of people into layers according to their relative power, property, and prestige; applies to nations and to people within a nation, society, or other groups. The three systems of stratification are slavery, caste, and class. These systems are not used by all nations, but all nations use some way of stratifying their populace and other nations.
Slavery is the ownership of a person by another person. This system has been used for several different reasons by various different countries. The United States and current culture has bastardized

Education being the biggest predictors of poverty is the one that should be focused on the most. As statics show on Figure 8.8 in Essentials of Sociology, the highest number of poverty stricken people are the ones who dropped out of high school. The numbers of total race-ethnic show that there are more white Americans than any other group, however, the highest number of high school dropouts in the poverty level are the African Americans. The third aspect is the sex of the head of household. When there are both parents providing for a family, they are less likely to be in poverty as well as if the father is providing vs just the mother. The reason for this is since women still only make approximately 72% of what men’s salaries are. When you have a single parent making 28% less due to their sex than another, this will give a good indication who is going to be in the poverty

This discrimination is damaging to the entire society, which makes it a greater threat than the individual discrimination one might find throughout life. The institutional discrimination is worse since it affects a large group of people which in turns affects everyone they have dealing with. One example cited in the book is the fact that mortgage companies are more likely to give a loan to a white family than a minority. The societal effect of this is huge. The economy is effected since the rate of home ownership, the buying and selling of homes, is limited to a small percentage of the market. It is also going to affect the taxes that the state and local government can draw on to perform the upkeep of the communities. It puts added strain on the white home owners as they are paying the properties taxes, while it puts a strain on the minorities since they are forced into a rental situation without the opportunities to succeed in the real-estate market. Another example listed is in healthcare and the mortality rates of males verses females. This is detrimental to the society since the health care professionals are supposed to be treating without bias. If the trust of the healthcare professions falter, the whole community suffers. The assumption that females are overly sensitive and that they are overly