Social Mobility
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Social Mobility in the United States
Social mobility in the United States is the upward or downward movement of Americans from one social class or economic level to the next as a result of; income fluctuations, inheritance, creativity, tax deviations, stage of development, sex, gender, ethnicity, class, among other social mobility determinants.
First, I will discuss how social class in the United States work for social mobility. In the United States, people who earn a college degree are considered to be at another level compared to those who do not have. Therefore they have high chances of getting job promotions with commendable income. Besides, those people who own a college degree or a diploma have higher chances of getting married to people who are of the same class or even a better level. Therefore you will find that the learned people are getting married to their fellow learned people, while the ones who do not have a rank in education are married to the people of the same class thus creating a boundary in terms of class between the learned and the unlearned families. In the end, the learned families experience upward social mobility, and the uneducated experiences downward social mobility.
Also, gender/sex affects social mobility; generally, women’s class is well-defined centered on their work prominence, inheritance in class is exceedingly fragile amongst women than men. Women who are married are more mobile both in upward or downward social mobility as compared to men, and this is because this generalizes the fact that marriage improves upward mobility among women. But in the united states, the research has found out that women who are born poor are higher chances of remaining poor compared to men who are born poor. This research conclusion has been explained by the fact that men can adjust to any condition with little or no complaints, but women cannot adapt to any harsh situation for the sake of income. In case of any disagreement in the workplace or any adjustment that may not favor the employees’ women are likely to resign or work part-time. Therefore the employers fear to employ women because of such kinds of behavior. They prefer having women at lower-ranked positions with low pay because they cannot interpret the time women to resign. With men, the research shows that they can endure any environment, thus have higher chances of being employed and promoted. This explains the reason men generally earn a higher income than women.
Moreover, race/ethnicity is also a measure of social mobility in the United States. The studies show that African Americans in the United States hold jobs with fewer ranks, authority and few opportunities as compared to those of the pure whites and they also have a tiny percentage in top administrative positions. Therefore they earn less income, thus increasing the downward social mobility of the blacks. The reason for this is that, since African Americans in the top managerial position are few in the united states, they have fewer chances of promoting and interacting with their fellow blacks. Therefore the few blacks who are employees remain stuck in the same position with the fixed income while whites are promoted because they have their fellow whites in top managerial positions. Consequently, the children of the blacks middle-class families have higher chances of falling back from the middle class; thus putting the African-Americans at disadvantageous social mobility.
And the last determinant of social mobility in the United States is age. In terms of age, I will discuss how age discrimination affects social movement. Age discrimination is whereby individuals are discriminated based on their age. In the united states, the young and the old are said to be less competitive as compared to the middle-aged who are considered to be experienced and therefore competing in the workplace.
Most organizations in the United States prefer employing an individual who is less than 65 years of age and more than 25 years. They believe that the older adults are lazy, vulnerable to diseases and therefore will require a lot of leaves from the job while the young people are not experienced consequently uncompetitive. These kinds of age discrimination leave this kind of people with fewer chances to be employed and promoted. They thus look for jobs that are less ranked with less pay, therefore having disadvantageous social mobility.
As I conclude, social mobility is the movement of the members of a particular society from one economic class or social class to another. In a perfect world the social background of individuals will be of no use since everybody would have been educated and able to apply for best jobs, so since we are not in a perfect world, the variance in social mobility is , and that is the reason why we have discriminations in society based on age, and gender. The United States is not an exception whatsoever. However, enforcement and respect for human rights should allow social mobility in society.
Work Cited
Benhabib, J., Bisin, A., & Luo, M. (2019). Wealth distribution and social mobility in the US: A quantitative approach. American Economic Review, 109(5), 1623-47.
Mazumder, B. (2014). Black–white differences in intergenerational economic mobility in the United States. Economic Perspectives, 38(1).
Rothman, R. A. (2015). Inequality and stratification: Race, class, and gender. Routledge.
Strauss, A. L. (2017). The contexts of social mobility: Ideology and theory. Routledge.
