How Social Stratification Works in the Society
Modern societies are stratified with people arranged into layers due to an unequal distribution of society’s rewards.
The start of this inequality can be traced back to the emergence of Job Specialization of horticultural and pastoral societies. Horticulture refers to the society that cultivates plants while pastoral societies domesticated and bred animals. Division of labor in the society led to Job Specialization and more stratification. A person would be more acceptable in society if his or her job is considered very relevant. When the society had become industrialized, social stratification increased as factory owners or business owners would exploit their workers who are usually from rural areas. As the working conditions became better in the 1900s, a new form of inequality was created. There has been a great difference for the wage between a skilled and unskilled worker. In the Postindustrial Societies, education has been a great factor in determining one’s social position in the society.
As time passes, social stratification has taken many forms: slavery, estate system, indentured servitude, caste system, and the class system. Slavery is one of the lowest categories in a stratifcation system. A slave is considered to be a property of its owner and is usually mistreated. The Estate system is a three-tiered system composed of the nobility, the clergy, and the commoners. This is no longer practiced and was very prominent during the Middle Ages in Europe. Meanwhile, a caste system depends on the traits or characteristics that people possess as a result of their birth. This type of system does not allow a person to move into other positions. In the class system, a person is placed based on achieved statuses. It includes the Social Mobility, or movement up or down the social hierarchy.
Social stratification in the Philippines is determined by the social class of a person. There are three primary social classes in the Philippines: low-income class, middle-income class, and high-income class. The latest Family Income and Expenditure Survey by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) shows that the majority (58.4%) of Filipinos belong to the low-income class, while the middle class comprises around 40% of the population. Only 1.4% fall in the high-income class (Zoleta, 2020). Moreover, people at the lowest of this social class are the those who experience great discrimination and inequality.
In summary, social stratification and inequality is present throughout the world. It has been done in the ancient time and is still continuing today. As other people see this layer of inequality as a norm, it also has more underlying negative effects particularly those at the bottom.
References:
SparkNotes Editors. (n.d.). Social Stratification and Inequality. Retrieved from https://www.sparknotes.com/sociology/social-stratification-and-inequality/section9/
Zoleta, V. (2020). Understanding Social Class in the Philippines: Which Class Do You Belong to?. Retrieved from https://ph.news.yahoo.com/understanding-social-class-philippines-class-020037877.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAADLzAYeXVuwC01LMM92MNIsNPyZqfbV-v5Bo6TSQJ9ss6vaQKZ_Ki24MkKLFMgHlP2mbJC7fBwttyhFEJK1qLoa0zyZn25hmWs5uZGj3tAtpenI9pYeoHf1ZrAcxG6Hg7v5frx8HposTPN7oUyuc239Uch09hAY8PCOBrVUY2eaU#:~:text=Types%20of%20Social%20Class%20in,and%20the%20high%2Dincome%20class.&text=In%20between%20the%20poor%20and,class%20but%20not%20considered%20poor
What Is Social Stratification? Defination. (2019). Retrieved from https://shareeducatonideas.com/social-stratification/