AQA GCSE Sociology (8192): Social stratification – Study Guide

This guide covers section 3.6 Social stratification (3.6.1 to 3.6.6) of the AQA GCSE Sociology (8192) specification, Version 1.2 (June 2026), for GCSE exams 2019 onwards. It uses the named sociologists and key ideas printed in Appendix B (7.4). Social stratification is assessed in Paper 2: The sociology of crime and deviance and social stratification, a 1 hour 45 minute written exam worth 100 marks and 50% of the GCSE.

Use it with the Social stratification revision notes and the Social stratification practice questions. For a Paper 2 overview, see the Crime, Deviance and Social Stratification guide. Track your progress on the AQA GCSE Sociology hub and the AQA GCSE Sociology checklist.

Coverage table

Syllabus reference	What you must know or be able to do (from the document)	Where assessed
3.6.1 Functionalist theory of stratification	Describe and explain the functionalist theory (effective role allocation and performance linked to the promise of rewards); key ideas of Davis and Moore; compare feminist and Marxist views of it	Paper 2
3.6.2 Socio-economic class	Identify, describe and explain class divisions; compare functionalist, feminist and Marxist views of class; key ideas of Marx and of Weber	Paper 2
3.6.3 Life chances	Explain factors affecting life chances: social class, gender, race and ethnicity, sexuality, age, disability, religion and belief; compare perspectives; key ideas of Devine on the affluent worker	Paper 2
3.6.4 Poverty as a social issue	Explain the culture of poverty, material deprivation, how governments have tried to reduce poverty and unemployment, and the impact of globalisation; compare perspectives; Townsend on relative deprivation; Murray on the underclass and New Right links	Paper 2
3.6.5 Power and authority	Explain traditional, charismatic and rational-legal authority and formal and informal sources of power; compare perspectives; key ideas of Weber	Paper 2
3.6.6 Power relationships	Explain factors affecting power relationships: social class, gender, sexuality, race, age, disability, religion and beliefs; compare perspectives; key ideas of Walby on patriarchy	Paper 2

For every content point the specification names three perspectives: functionalist, feminist and Marxist.

3.6.1 Functionalist theory of stratification

Social stratification is the division of society into layers unequal in wealth, income, status and power.

Davis and Moore, writing in 1945, called stratification a “universal necessity”. For any society to run well, the specification sets out four needs: all roles must be filled; they must be filled by those best able to perform them; the necessary training must take place; and roles must be performed conscientiously. Their answer is unequal rewards. The most functionally important roles need the most skill or carry the most responsibility. Attaching high pay and prestige to them makes ambitious people compete. The most talented win. This is effective role allocation, with performance linked to the promise of rewards.

Evaluation.

• Less well paid jobs, such as nursing, can be just as important. Is a lawyer really more important than a nurse?
• Pay may reflect power, not importance.
• There is no agreed way to measure talent. The specification notes there is no formal educational requirement for government ministers.
• The pool of talent may be far larger than Davis and Moore assume. Tumin (1953) argued that unequal access to education and training stops many able people competing.

Marxist view: rewards reflect ownership and inheritance, so the competition is not fair. Feminist view: the theory ignores unpaid work in the home and caring, mostly done by women. Women are concentrated in lower-paid jobs whatever their ability, and the glass ceiling blocks them from top posts.

Worked paragraph. Davis and Moore argue that high rewards attract the most able people into the most important roles (knowledge). In a hospital, surgeons earn more than porters because their training is long and their mistakes are costly (application). This suggests unequal pay motivates people to train (analysis). However, care workers keep patients safe yet earn little, which suggests pay follows bargaining power more than functional importance, as Marxists argue (evaluation).

3.6.2 Socio-economic class

Socio-economic class groups people by occupation, income and wealth. Common divisions in the UK are the upper class (including the aristocracy), the middle class and the working class.

Marx

Marx saw stratification as a way for a privileged few to exploit the many. Classes come from people’s relationship to the means of production (land, capital, labour power, buildings and machinery).

• The bourgeoisie own the means of production. The proletariat own only their labour.
• Political power comes from economic power.
• Ruling class ideology, such as the idea of “the free market”, makes capitalism look normal and natural. Workers who accept it have false class consciousness.
• Class struggle drives social change. Marx expected polarisation: the gap between the two classes would grow, leading to a proletarian revolution and a communist society.
• Key terms also include the petty bourgeoisie (small business owners) and the lumpenproletariat.

Weber

Weber gives a more complex picture.

• Class is a group sharing a similar market situation. People in the same class situation share similar life chances.
• Like Marx, he saw the major division as owners versus non-owners, but professionals earn more because their skills are in demand.
• He saw no evidence of polarisation. The middle class expands as capitalism develops.
• He rejected the view that revolution was inevitable.
• Status (prestige) and party (groups seeking power, including pressure groups) are separate from class. Social closure lets status groups exclude others; the caste system is an example.

Functionalist view of class: class positions reflect merit, and social mobility lets talented people rise. Feminist view: class schemes often placed a woman by her husband’s job, hiding her own position. New Right writers accuse Marx and Weber of ignoring the mobility capitalism creates.

Worked paragraph. Weber argued that class depends on market situation, not only ownership (knowledge). An employed electrician and a hospital doctor are both non-owners, yet the doctor’s scarce skills bring a much higher income (application). This shows the non-owning class is divided, which Marx’s two-class model misses (analysis). However, Marxists reply that both still depend on selling their labour, so the basic owner-worker divide remains (evaluation).

3.6.3 Life chances

Life chances are a person’s chances of achieving positive outcomes, such as good health, a long life, education, a good job and housing. The term comes from Weber. The specification lists the factors: social class, gender, race and ethnicity, sexuality, age, disability, and religion and belief.

• Class: income affects diet, housing, schooling and health.
• Gender: women do more part-time work and unpaid caring.
• Race and ethnicity: racial discrimination and institutional racism can limit jobs and promotion.
• Sexuality: prejudice can affect safety at work and acceptance at school.
• Age: ageism affects both young job seekers and older workers.
• Disability: physical barriers and employer attitudes can limit work.
• Religion and belief: discrimination in hiring.

Perspectives. Functionalists see outcomes as the result of a fair, meritocratic system. Marxists see class as the root. Feminists stress patriarchy.

Devine: the affluent worker revisited

Goldthorpe and Lockwood studied affluent manual workers in Luton in the 1960s. Lockwood predicted privatised instrumentalism: life centred on the home, with work only a means to an end. In the late 1980s Devine interviewed male manual workers at the Vauxhall car plant in Luton and their wives (published 1992).

• She found no strong support for privatised instrumentalism. Lifestyles were less communal than the traditional working class, but not as home-centred as predicted.
• She rejected the “new working class” idea and denied that affluent workers accepted capitalism uncritically, so her findings do not support embourgeoisement.
• Living standards and consumer aspirations had risen. But many still resented inherited wealth and felt a sense of injustice about extreme class inequality.
• They kept many traditional working-class values but had lost faith in the Labour Party’s ability to deliver a fairer society.

Evaluation: one workplace in one town limits how far you can generalise, although interviews gave rich detail.

Worked paragraph. Devine found that affluent Luton workers still resented inherited wealth (knowledge). A well-paid factory worker who owns a car and a house may still see a director’s inherited fortune as unfair (application). This suggests rising living standards do not erase class identity (analysis). However, her sample came from one plant, so the finding may not hold for service workers today (evaluation).

3.6.4 Poverty as a social issue

Absolute poverty means lacking the basics needed to survive. Relative poverty means falling well below the usual standard of your society.

Townsend: relative deprivation

Townsend (1979) compared three measures:

1. The state standard of poverty, based on entitlement to benefits. He saw it as arbitrary, set by the government of the day.
2. The relative income standard, households below the average for similar households. Also arbitrary.
3. Relative deprivation, his preferred measure: lacking the resources for the diet, activities and living conditions widely available in society.

He issued questionnaires to over 2,000 households and more than 6,000 individuals across the UK. His deprivation index covered diet, fuel, clothing, housing, working conditions, health, education and social activities. For 1968 to 1969 he found more than 22% of the population in poverty, compared with just over 6% on the state standard and a little over 9% on relative income.

Evaluation: critics argue the index may measure choice. Not eating fresh meat may reflect being vegetarian, not being poor.

Murray: the underclass

Murray (Losing Ground, 1984) argued that the USA had a growing underclass. Generous welfare encouraged dependency (a culture of dependency), so single parents and young people lost interest in work. After visiting Britain at the end of the 1980s, he claimed Britain too had an emerging underclass, pointing to rising illegitimacy, rising crime and some young people’s unwillingness to work. His work links to New Right theory.

Evaluation: his cultural definition largely ignores economic causes. Research suggests many people labelled “underclass” hold conventional attitudes and want paid work. They may be victims of inequality, not its cause.

Wider interpretations

• Culture of poverty (associated with the anthropologist Oscar Lewis): the poor develop values, such as fatalism, that are passed on and keep them poor. This supports a cycle of deprivation view.
• Material deprivation: poverty is caused by lack of money and resources, such as low wages, unemployment and poor housing, not by values.
• Government action: the welfare state followed the Beveridge Report (1942). Benefits can be universal or means-tested (selective benefits). The national minimum wage began in 1999. Universal Credit, introduced from 2013, combines several benefits. A poverty trap occurs when earning more leads to losing benefits, so people gain little from work.
• Globalisation: manufacturing jobs have moved to lower-wage countries, causing unemployment in former industrial areas and pressure on wages. Supporters point to cheaper goods and new service jobs.

Perspectives. Functionalist: Gans (1972) argued poverty has functions for the better-off, such as filling low-paid jobs. Marxist: poverty is built into capitalism, which needs a pool of cheap labour. Feminist: women face higher poverty risk through lower pay, caring and lone parenthood.

Worked paragraph. Townsend defined poverty as lacking what is widely available in society (knowledge). A teenager who cannot afford a school trip that classmates take is deprived even if fed and housed (application). This shows poverty is about exclusion from normal life, not survival (analysis). However, critics say his index can confuse choice with poverty, so the size of poverty he measured may be overstated (evaluation).

3.6.5 Power and authority

Power is the ability to get your own way, even when others resist. Authority is power that people accept as legitimate. Weber described three types:

• Traditional: based on established customs and inherited status, as with a monarchy.
• Charismatic: devotion to a leader with exceptional qualities, as with a religious or revolutionary leader.
• Rational-legal (legal-rational): acceptance of shared impersonal rules, as in a bureaucracy, the police or an elected government.

Formal sources of power come from official positions and laws, such as a Member of Parliament. Informal sources come from personal influence, peer pressure or money.

Perspectives. Functionalists see power as used for collective goals that society agrees on, so legitimate authority supports order. Pluralists see power spread among competing groups, such as political parties and pressure groups. Marxists see the state serving the ruling class, so real power follows ownership of wealth. Feminists point to male domination of politics and business.

Evaluation: real leaders often mix Weber’s types. A prime minister holds rational-legal authority but may also rely on charisma.

Worked paragraph. Weber described rational-legal authority as obedience to impersonal rules (knowledge). Pupils obey a new supply teacher they have never met because the school’s rules give her the role (application). This shows authority can attach to a position, not a person (analysis). However, Marxists argue such rules reflect ruling class interests, so legitimacy may come from ideology (evaluation).

3.6.6 Power relationships

The specification lists factors affecting power relationships: social class, gender, sexuality, race, age, disability, religion and beliefs. Laws such as the Equal Pay Act 1970 and the Equality Act 2010 aim to reduce unequal treatment, but do not remove every barrier.

Walby: patriarchy

Walby (Theorizing Patriarchy, 1990) wrote from a feminist perspective. She described six patriarchal structures:

1. Paid work: women are disadvantaged in the labour market despite equality laws.
2. Patriarchal relations of production: men benefit from women’s unpaid labour in the home.
3. Patriarchal culture: different expectations for men’s and women’s behaviour.
4. Sexuality: double standards; men with many partners are often admired, women condemned.
5. Male violence: the use or threat of violence discourages women from challenging patriarchal authority.
6. The state: less patriarchal than before, but does relatively little to protect women; equal opportunities laws are seldom enforced.

Walby argued patriarchy has moved from private patriarchy (direct control by fathers or husbands) to public patriarchy (women in public life but segregated into low-paid, low-status jobs).

Perspectives. Marxists see class as the main power relationship. Functionalists see different roles as complementary. Evaluation: Walby shows patriarchy takes many forms, but critics argue she gives less weight to differences between women by class and ethnicity.

Worked paragraph. Walby argued that public patriarchy keeps women in low-status jobs (knowledge). In a supermarket chain where most checkout staff are women and most regional managers are men (application), women are present in paid work but held below the glass ceiling (analysis). However, rising female entry into professions suggests the structure is weakening, though unevenly by class (evaluation).

Common errors

• Writing “Davis and Moore say the rich deserve their money”. They argue about functionally important positions, not wealth.
• Saying Weber “disagreed with Marx about everything”. He accepted the owner versus non-owner division.
• Mixing up Townsend’s three measures. Relative deprivation is his preferred measure, not relative income.
• Describing Murray as Marxist. He is linked to the New Right.
• Giving Devine’s study as proof of embourgeoisement. Her findings do not support it.
• Reciting Walby’s six structures without private versus public patriarchy.

For methods points, revisit the Research methods guide.

Official syllabus

AQA GCSE Sociology (8192) specification, Version 1.2 (June 2026), for GCSE exams 2019 onwards: section 3.6 Social stratification (3.6.1 to 3.6.6), Appendix A 6.4 key terms and Appendix B 7.4 Social stratification.