Exam 8: Class and Stratification in the United States

Approximately______________percent of those below the official poverty line are white Americans (non-Latino/as).

Educational opportunities and life chances are directly linked.Symbolic interactionists view education as the "elevator" to social mobility.Improvements in the educational achievement levels of the poor,people of color,and white women have been cited as evidence that students' abilities are now more important than their class,race,or gender.

Sociologist Max Weber divided those who work for wages into two classes.The____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________class consists of skilled,semiskilled,and unskilled workers.

The working poor account for about 20 percent of the U.S.population.

For many of the working poor,medical insurance is out of the question.Approximately million people in the United States were without health insurance coverage in 2011.

Both social scientists Karl Marx and Max Weber identified______________as an important determinant of social inequality and social change.

According to sociologist Diana Pearce,______________refers to the trend in which women are disproportionately represented among individuals living in poverty.

According to the social class model developed by sociologist Dennis Gilbert,the____________________________________________________________________________________ members (about one percent of the U.S.population)own substantial income-producing assets and operate on both the national and international levels.People in this class have an influence on the economy and society far beyond their numbers.

Outline the three major systems of stratification.

A few studies provide insight into the social interactions between people from vastly divergent class locations.Sociologist Judith Rollins's (1985)study of the relationship between household workers and their employers is one example.Based on in-depth interviews and participant observation,Rollins examined rituals of deference that were often demanded by elite white women of their domestic workers,who were frequently women of color.

As practiced in the United States,which of the following was NOT a characteristic of slavery?

Native Americans are among the most severely disadvantaged persons in the United States.Some analysts estimate Native American poverty rates to be as high as 25 percent.

An estimated 30 percent of the U.S.population is in the working class.The core of this class is made up of semiskilled machine operators who work in factories and elsewhere.

According to Forbes magazine's 2010 list of the richest people in the world,Bill Gates (co­founder of Microsoft Corporation)was the second wealthiest with a fortune of nearly $53 billion.According to the sociologist Erik Wright's Marxian model,Bill Gates would be in the______________class.

Today,great disparities exist in the distribution of educational resources.Because funding for education comes primarily from______________,school districts in wealthy suburban areas generally pay higher teachers' salaries,have newer buildings,and provide state­of­the­art equipment.

Intergenerational mobility is the social movement experienced by family members from one generation to the next.Intergenerational mobility may be downward as well as upward.

One of the most important characteristics of systems of stratification is their degree of flexibility.In an open system of stratification:

Define the official poverty line and differentiate between absolute poverty and relative poverty.

Most Americans view themselves as______________class.

______________ argued that class position and the extent of our income and wealth are determined by our work situation,or our relationship to the means of production.