Grade 11

UNDERSTANDING CULTURE
SOCIETY AND POLITICS
Module 5: Starting Points for the Understanding of Culture,
Society, and Politics
1st Semester, S.Y. 2020-2021

Prepared by:

BRYAN D. OROSIO
Subject Teacher

____________________________________________________________________________
MDM-Sagay College, Inc.
Office: Feliza Bldg., Marañon St. Pob 2, Sagay City
Campus: National Highway, Poblacion 2, Sagay City, Negros Occidental
Tel.# 488-0531/ email: mdm_sagay2000@gmail.com.

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Module 5: Social and Political Stratification
Lessons:
• Social Stratification
• Global Stratification
• Social Inequality
 Racial and Ethnic Inequality
 Gender Inequality

At the end of the module, you should be able to:

1. Identify characteristics of the systems of stratification;
2. Examine stratification from the functionalist, conflict and symbolic interactionist
perspectives;
3. Understand that social stratification involves not just people within our society but
inequality among the nations of the world;
4. Analyze how and why systems of social inequality differ around the world and over
time;
5. Suggest ways to address global inequalities;
6. Understand that both race and ethnicity are socially constructed ideas that are
important dimensions of social stratification; and
7. Understand that gender is not a simple matter of biology but an idea created by society.

What I know

Directions: Examine the picture and explain what does it represent.

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 What’s New
Would you consider yourself or your family rich, poor, or average? Often times, when you ask a
Filipino if he or she is rich, you will receive responses such as “medyo mayaman,” “may kaya,”
and “ayos lang”. These descriptions do not directly translate to Western concepts of being poor,
middle class, or rich. These categories are already culturally laden, such that a person who is
may kaya is supposedly richer than the person who is medyo mayaman. The differences in the
statuses ascribed to individuals are dependent on socially accepted criteria. These criteria
enable the creation of systematic hierarchies that position individuals in either powerful or
marginalized capacities. This unequal access to values and resources promotes social and
political stratifications that perpetuate the problem of inequality.
The creation of hierarchies in human groups is associated with the development of complex
economic systems that required the specialization of labor. Technologically simple societies that
are based on foraging minimally practice social stratification, if not all. At the advent of
agricultural revolution, human groups started creating social categories that can support the
new economic system. The production of surplus resources created economic elites who were
later accorded political ascendancy as they controlled the forces of production.
In this module, you will know that social stratification gives rise to social inequality. There are 3
main parts of the module. The first part tackles on the meaning and different systems of social
stratification. The second part of this module talks about global stratification which hierarchically
ranks each country in the world. Lastly, the last part of the module emphasizes more in the
meaning of social inequality and its different dimensions such as racial and ethnic inequality and
gender inequality.

What is It

SOCIAL STRATIFICATION
❖ Social Stratification (social ranking) - is a hierarchy of relative privilege or system in
which people are divided into layers according to their power, property, and prestige.
• It is a society’s categorization of people into socioeconomic strata, based on their
occupation and income, wealth, social status, or derived power.
• Gives rise to Social inequality.
• Features to remember:
 Social stratification refers to the ranking of large groups of people, rather
than individuals. ✓ Every society stratifies its members, although the degree of
inequality varies.
 No matter what system a society may use to divide people into different
layers, gender is always an essential part of those distinctions within each layer.
On the basis of gender, people are sorted into categories and given differential
access to rewards. Social distinctions have usually favored males.

 Components:
 Social Class – refers to a group of individuals who occupy a similar
position in the economic system of production (wealth, income, educational
attainment, etc.)

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  Social Role – expected behavior of a person, refers to the obligations,
behavior and privileges attached to a status
 Social Status - refers to the position of an individual in the society
 Social groups - consist of people who regularly and consciously interact
with one another

 Social Mobility – is the act of moving from one social status to another. Social
mobility makes the inequality of social class reasonable and, in the point of view of
some, even justifiable.
• Two Types of Social Mobility:
1. Horizontal mobility – is the movement of person within a social class level. Example:
A principal leaves his job to become an Education Supervisor – very small difference in
salary, same amount of training, same amount of prestige and administrative power.
The person has been moving horizontally.
2. Vertical mobility – is the movement of the person between social class levels. The
movement may be upward or downward. Example would be the rag-to-riches stories of
business tycoons.

 Four Types of Stratification Systems

▪ Closed System - Impose rigid boundaries between social groups
- Limit interactions between members who belong to different social groups or
occupy different levels in social hierarchy.
- Resistant to change in social roles
▪ Open System - mainly based on achievement, allowing more flexibility in social roles,
increased social mobility, and better interaction

1. Slavery - a form of social stratification in which some people own other people.
• Initially, slavery was based on debt, punishment for violation of the law, or defeat
in battle. Given this last practice, many of the first slaves were women, captured
after the defeat of their village.
• Slavery could be temporary or permanent and was not necessarily passed on to
one’s children. Typically, slaves owned no property and had no power; however,
this was not universally true.
• This system persisted in Western countries such as the United States, which
only formally abolished the practice in 1865, through an amendment in the US
constitution but with much resistance from slave owners and their supporters. The
condition of the slaves in US can be seen in the quotation from Harriet Stowe’s
classic work Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which sparked antislavery sentiments in the US
that resulted in the American Civil War.

2. Caste system - status is determined by birth and is lifelong. It is a closed

system, as it does not allow for social mobility. E.g. India’s Thousand-Year-Old
Caste System.

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 • Ascribed status is the basis of a caste system. Caste societies try to keep
boundaries between castes firm by practicing endogamy (marriage within their
own group) and developing rules about ritual pollution, teaching that contact with
inferior castes contaminates the superior caste.
3. Estate System – is identical to the practice of feudalism. The final authority is
the king. It was based on existing legal structures that defined members’ status,
rights, and duties.
• In a relationship of rights and obligations known as noblesse oblige the
commoners were allowed use of land in return for providing service and rents to
their landlord, who in turn promised protection and support.
• In the feudal system of medieval Europe, a ranking of status groups
known as estates became the dominant system. The three major estates were
the aristocracy (headed by the divine monarch), the priesthood and the
commoners (peasants, servants, artisans, etc.).

• However, the estate system was not as strictly tied to religious belief as
the caste system, and some historians have argued that feudalism allowed for a
degree of social mobility, especially in the towns.
4. Class system - is a form of social stratification that is based primarily on the
possession of money or material possessions.
• The main qualification to be a member of a certain hierarchical class
depends mostly on three things: wealth, economic occupation, and power.
• An individual’s initial social class position is based on that of her or his
parents (ascribed status).
• A class system allows for social mobility—movement up or down the
social class ladder—based on achieved status.

❖ Theoretical Perspectives on Social Stratification

1. Structural – Functionalism - Each part or aspect of society serves an important
purpose
 Examines how the different aspects of society contribute to ensuring its stability
and continued function.
 Stratification is based on intrinsic value of social activities or roles
 Davis-Moore Thesis: Social role that has greater functional purpose will result
in greater reward. Certain tasks in society are more valued than others, and
those who perform highly valued work are rewarded with greater income,
prestige and power.
2. Conflict Theory - drawn from the ideas of Karl Marx
 Social stratification benefits the rich and powerful at the expense of the poor
hence stratification is HARMFUL.
 Stratification promotes poverty. Inequality causes workers to experience
alienation, isolation, and great misery due to powerless status. This leads to
class conflict.
 Social stratification is influences by economic forces and relationships in society
are defined by factors of production.
*Two groups according. to Marx:

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 a) Bourgeois (capitalists) –own factors of production (land, resources,
business and proletariat); UPPERCLASS
b) Proletariat–workers who provide manual labor; LOWERCLASS
3. Symbolic Interactionism - Microlevel perspective
 Attempts to explain how people’s social standing affects their everyday
interactions ▪ Leads to interaction within the same class.
 Stratification becomes a System that groups people (interests, background, way
of life)
 People’s appearance reflects their perceived social standing
 Theory of Conspicuous Consumption
- Buying certain products to make a social statement about a status

C. GLOBAL STRATIFICATION
- refers to the hierarchical arrangement of individuals and groups in societies around the
world. Global inequality refers to the unequal distribution of resources among
individuals and groups based on their position in the social hierarchy of the world.

1. Global Stratification: Three Worlds

A. Until recently, global stratification was depicted by using a simple model consisting of
First (industrialized capitalist nations), Second (communist nations), and Third (all
the rest of the nations) Worlds. A more neutral framework is to talk about degrees of
industrialization and to depict on a global level the three primary dimensions of social
stratification: property, power, and prestige.
a) Most Industrialized Nations - they are capitalistic, although variations exist in
economic systems. Their wealth is enormous, and the poor in these countries live
better and longer than the average citizens in the Least Industrialized Nations. E.g.
United States, Canada, Great Britain, France, Germany, Switzerland, and other
industrialized nations of western Europe, as well as Japan, Australia, and New
Zealand.
b) Industrialized Nations - People in these countries have considerably lower
income and a poorer standard of living than people in the Most Industrialized Nations
but better than those living in the Least Industrialized Nations. E.g. former Soviet
Union and its former satellites in Eastern Europe.
c) Least Industrialized Nations - are those where most people live on farms or in
villages with low standards of living; 68 percent of the world’s population lives in these
nations.

2. How Did the World’s Nations Become Stratified?

a) Colonialism - occurred when industrialized nations made colonies of weaker nations and
exploited their labor and natural resources. European nations tended to focus on Africa; the
United States concentrated on Central and South America.
b) World System Theory (Immanuel Wallerstein) - countries are politically and economically
tied together.
1. There are four groups of interconnected nations:
i. Core nations - where capitalism first developed;
ii. Semi-periphery nations (Mediterranean area) - which are highly dependent on
trade with core nations;
iii. Periphery nations (Eastern Europe) - which are mainly limited to selling cash
crops to core nations, with limited economic development;
iv. External area nations (most of Africa and Asia), which are left out of growth of
capitalism, with few economic ties to core nations.
2. A capitalist world economy (capitalist dominance) results from relentless
expansion; even external area nations are drawn into commercial web.
3. Globalization (the extensive interconnections among nations resulting from the
expansion of capitalism) has speeded up because of new forms of communication
and transportation. The consequence is that no nation is able to live in isolation.

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 • Those scholars who criticize neoliberalism make a distinction between
globalization as a universal process of shrinking the globe into a small village and
globalization as an ideological version of Neoliberal globalization.
• “Neoliberalism” is a policy model of social studies and economics that transfers
control of economic factors to the private sector from the public sector. It takes from
the basic principles of neoclassical economics, suggesting that governments must
limit subsidies, make reforms to tax law in order to expand the tax base, reduce
deficit spending, limit protectionism, and open markets up to trade. It also seeks to
abolish fixed exchange rates, back deregulation, permit private property, and
privatize businesses run by the state.
c) Dependency theory attributes lack of economic development in the Least Industrialized
Nations to dominance of world economy by the Most Industrialized Nations.
 It asserts that the nations that industrialized first turned other nations into their
plantations and mines, taking whatever, they needed; as a result, many of the Least
Industrialized Nations began to specialize in a single cash crop.
 By becoming dependent on the Most Industrialized Nations, these other
countries did not develop independent economies of their own.

3. Maintaining Global Stratification

i. Neocolonialism is the economic and political dominance of Least Industrialized
Nations by the Most Industrialized Nations. Michael Harrington asserts that the Most
Industrialized Nations control the Least Industrialized Nations because they control
markets, set prices, move hazardous industries to the Least Industrialized Nations, and
sell weapons and manufactured goods to the Least Industrialized Nations, preventing
them from developing their own industrial capacity.
ii. Multinational corporations contribute to exploitation of the Least
Industrialized Nations.
• Some exploit these nations directly by controlling national and local politics,
running them as a fiefdom. Multinational corporations work closely with elites of
the Least Industrialized Nations, funneling investments to this small circle of
power in exchange for its cooperation.
• The Most Industrialized Nations are primary beneficiaries of profits made in the
Least Industrialized Nations.
iii. The new technology favors the Most Industrialized Nations, enabling them to
maintain their global domination. E.g. China, USA

D. SOCIAL INEQUALITY
- Unequal/denied access to right and privileges enjoyed by others on account of
physical, biological, mental, social, and/or other traits.
- occurs when resources (opportunities & rewards) in a given society are
distributed unevenly, typically through norms of allocation, that engender specific
patterns along lines of socially defined categories of persons.
- It is visible in many other social institutions affecting other social aspects such as
gender, capital (social, political, and symbolic), ethnic minorities (e.g., persons with
disabilities), and global inequality.

1. Racial and Ethnic Inequality

*Ethnic and racial identities are social constructions
 Race - generally refers to a group of people who have in common some visible
physical traits, such as skin color, hair texture, facial features, and eye formation.
- is a socially constructed category of people who share biologically
transmitted traits that members of a society consider important.
- However, race is a myth in the sense of one race being superior to
another and of there being pure races. The idea of race is powerful, shaping
basic relationships between people.
 Racism - a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and
capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race
-a racial prejudice/discrimination

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  Ethnicity/Ethnic group - is a group of people who identify with one another on
the basis of common ancestry and cultural heritage that gives them a distinctive social
identity.
• Ethnocentrism - Believing in the superiority of one’s own ethnic and cultural group, and
having a corresponding disdain for all other groups/out-groups. (Ingroup as superior;
Outgroup as inferior)
- Ethnic hatred, inter-ethnic hatred, racial hatred, or ethnic tension refers to
feelings and acts of prejudice and hostility towards an ethnic group in various
degrees.
- Often ethnic conflict is enhanced by nationalism and feeling of national
superiority. For which reason inter-ethnic hatred borders with racism, and often the
two terms are conflated.
 Minority group - is defined as being composed of people who are singled out for
unequal treatment by members of the dominant group—the group with more power,
privilege, and social status. Minorities originate with migration and the expansion of
political boundaries.
 Majority/Dominant group – power irrespective of numbers; dominant elite who
holds the means of production.

❖ Related Systems:
a) Stereotype - It’s a negative evaluation that mark prejudice often supported by negative
belief (COGNITION). It is a belief about the personal attributes of a group of people.
- are sometimes overgeneralized, inaccurate and resistant to new information but it also
maybe positive or negative, accurate and inaccurate E.g. “Ginebra fans are arrogant
and obnoxious”.
→ Overgeneralized belief about people may lead to prejudice.
b) Prejudice – an adverse opinion of belief without just ground or before acquiring
sufficient knowledge.
- A preconceived negative judgement of a group and its individual members.
Some definitions include positive judgements as well.
- It is an attitude (EMOTION). An attitude is a distinct combination of feelings
(affective), inclinations to act (behavior tendency) and beliefs or thoughts (cognition)
related to a person or an event.
E.g. “I hate Ginebra fans, they make me angry”.
→ Feelings may influence treatment of others, leading to discrimination.
c) Discrimination - Unjustified negative “BEHAVIOR” toward a group or its members.
- Happens when prejudice feeling and belief move into the realm of behavior and
denies to individuals or groups of people equality of treatment.
- Unfair treatment toward someone; “racism” if was based on race. It also can be
based on features such as age, sex, sexual preference, religion, or politics.
E.g. “I would never hire nor become friends with a person I knew he or she were a
Ginebra fan”.
→ Holding stereotypes and harboring prejudice may lead to excluding, avoiding,
and biased treatment of group members.

❖ Global Patterns of Inter-group Relations

a) Genocide - is the actual or attempted systematic annihilation of a race or ethnic
group who has been labeled as less than fully human by the dominant group. E.g.
Holocaust and the treatment of Native Americans.
b) Population transfer – is the involuntary movement of a minority group. Indirect
transfer involves making life so unbearable that members of a minority leave the area;
direct transfer involves forced expulsion. A combination of genocide and population
transfer occurred in Bosnia (a part of the former Yugoslavia) as Serbs engaged in
ethnic cleansing—the wholesale slaughter of Muslims and Croats, with survivors forced
to flee the area.
c) Internal colonialism - is a society’s policy of exploiting a minority by using social
institutions to deny the minority access to full benefits. Slavery is an extreme example.

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 d) Segregation - the formal separation of groups, often accompanies internal
colonialism. The dominant group exploits the labor of the minority while maintaining
social distance.
e) Assimilation - is the process by which a minority is absorbed into the
mainstream. Forced assimilation occurs when the dominant group prohibits the minority
from using its own religion, language, and customs. Permissive assimilation occurs
when the minority adopts the dominant group’s patterns in its own way at its own
speed.
f) Multiculturalism (pluralism)- permits or encourages racial and ethnic variation.
E.g. Switzerland

2. Gender Inequality
- is the idea that men and women are not equal and that gender affects an
individual's living experience.
- Each society establishes a structure that, on the basis of sex and gender,
permits or limits access to power, property, and prestige; this structure is referred to
as gender stratification.
▪ Sexism - An individual’s prejudicial attitudes and discriminatory behavior toward
people of a given sex. Institutional practices (even if not motivated by prejudice)
that subordinate people of a given sex.
❖ Sex and gender are different concepts
• Sex is the biological characteristics that distinguish males and females—primary
sex organs (organs related to reproduction) and secondary sex organs (physical
distinctions not related to reproduction).
• Gender is a social characteristic that varies from one society to another and
refers to what the group considers proper for its males and females.

 Status of Men and Women in the Global Context

- There is no country in the world in which women and men have equal status.
Although much progress has been made in closing the gender gap in areas such as
education, health care, employment, and government, gender inequality is still
prevalent throughout the world.
 The Feminist Movement
 Gender Equality - all human beings are free to develop personal abilities to
make choices without the limitations set by strict gender roles.
o Different behavior, aspirations and needs of men and women are considered,
valued, and favored equally.
 Gender Equity - fairness and justice in the distribution of benefits and
responsibilities of men and women.
 Gender Empowerment – Women gaining power and control over their lives.
Freedom of their own decisions and strategic choices over their lives which involves
awareness raising, building self-confidence, expansion of choices and access to and
control over resources and opportunities.
 Feminism - A belief that women should have equal right with men in society.
- a women’s movement that aims to fight for equal rights and opportunities
for women
- there are different kinds of feminism and feminists who tend to disagree
among themselves on causes of women’s oppression and how to address them.
▪ Three Waves of Feminist Movement
1. FIRST WAVE:19th century and early 20th century. It won improved rights
for women in marriage and property.
Biggest achievement: winning some political power. In UK, suffragettes and
suffragists campaigned for women’s votes. In 1918, women over 30 years old with
property can vote and in 1928, it extend to all women over 21.
2. SECOND WAVE: 1960s and 70s. Campaign for equality extend to
education, work, and the home. E.g. “The Feminine Mystique” (1963) by Betty
Freidan: Women are unhappy because of feminine mystique. Damaging: the ideal
femininity as the “Happy Housewife’ which restricted women to the role of
housewife and mother, giving up work and education.

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 3. THIRD WAVE: 1990s to the present. Widened the feminist movement
beyond white and middleclass women, addressing different disadvantaged
women because of race, ethnicity, and class

❖ Sociological Theories of Gender Inequality

A. Structural-Functionalism B. Conflict Perspective C. Symbolic Interactionism

 Argue that “pre-  Male Dominance and  Gender Assignments begins at

industrial society” required
a division of labor based on
gender
 Home performing
functions (Women):
bearing, nursing, and
caring for children
 Male: responsible for
providing food, clothing,
and shelter for the families
 Industrialization:
rendered the traditional
division of labor less
functional, although
remnants of the supporting
belief system still exist.
Female Subordination: Shaped
by relationships men and
women have to the production
process
 Evolution to Agricultural
and Industrial modes of
production: private property
developed where men gained
control on the modes of
production
 Marxist tradition: gender
inequality based on ownership
of the means of production,
patriarchy, gendered division of
labor in
the workplace
birth (labeling). It has shaped our
thoughts about how we see
ourselves and our relationship with
the world.
 Media images and sanctions
have conditioned the minds of
children and adults with dominant
ideals of masculinity and femininity
likewise how they should act as man
and a woman.
 Gender determines pattern of
entitlement and engagement of
inequality, hierarchical distinctions
and advantages.
 Women are generally socialized
into expressive roles and males are
more often socialized into
instrumental roles

▪ Gender Socialization – is a process in which men and women learn about their proper
place in society through various practices learned in the family, religion, education,
culture, peers and media.

What’s More
Direction: React on the following illustrations with the use of minimum of 50 words. Elaborate
your ideas with the use of concepts being discussed on the module.

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 Ikuwento Mo!

Ikuwento Mo!

Reflection

1. These are the things that I have learned today…

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2. This is how I feel after answering the activities today…

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 ________________________________________________________________

3. After this lesson, I expect to have more…

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4. From this day onward, I will start to…

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References:
o https://www.google.com/search?q=social+stratification+in+the+philippines+vector&tbm=i
sch&ved=2ahUKEwi3t_7JmrTsAhURBJQKHZ55Ct0Q2-
cCegQIABAA&oq=social+stratification+in+the+philippines+vector&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQA
zoCCAA6BAgAEB46BggAEAUQHjoECAAQGFDlvwJYkMkCYLvKAmgAcAB4AYAB8gO
IAZYPkgEFMy0zLjKYAQCgAQGqAQtnd3Mtd2l6LWltZ8ABAQ&sclient=img&ei=kv-
GX7emOJGI0ASe86noDQ&bih=641&biw=1280&hl=en-US#imgrc=5OOBd7aq73g9RM
o https://www.google.com/search?q=gender+inequality+vector&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwi
ZyZnglLTsAhUGDZQKHaTiA1oQ2cCegQIABAA&oq=gender+inequality+vector&gs_lcp=
CgNpbWcQAzICCAA6BQgAELEDOgQIABBDOgcIABCxAxBDOgQIABAeOgYIABAIEB4
6BAgAEBhQwtUIWP2ECWDbhgloAHAAeACAAaoBiAHpFpIBBDAuMjOYAQCgAQGqA
Qtnd3Mtd2l6LWltZ8ABAQ&sclient=img&ei=dvmGX5m2Noaa0ASkxY_QBQ&bih=641&bi
w=1280#imgrc=NMsuxOTzqz9UwM
o https://www.scribd.com/document/478270679/MODULE-5-SOCIAL-AND-POLITICAL-
STRATIFICATION-pdf

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