Status Attainment and Mobility

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Status Attainment and Mobility

• Social mobility
• Blau and Duncans Status Attainment Model
• Wisconsin School of Mobility Studies

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Social mobility any transition of an
individual or social object or valueanything
that has been created or modified by human
activityfrom one social position to another.
(Pitirim A.Sorokin, 1959)
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Blau and Duncans Status Attainment Model
Fathers Education
Sons Education





Sons Occupation in 1962



Fathers Occupation
Sons 1st Occupation
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Basic Mobility Table Structure
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Outflow from Fathers Occupation to Sons
Occupation, 1982-1990
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Outflow from Fathers Occupation to Sons
Occupation, 1982-1990
Downward Mobility
Upward Mobility
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Downward Mobility
Upward Mobility
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Basic Conclusions from Mobility and Status
Attainment Research

• Though upward mobility has slowed somewhat,
  overall, upward mobility still outweighs downward
  mobility (in general).
• Occupational inheritance in the U.S. is fairly
  high at the top and bottom of the occupational
  structure. Between the extremes, inheritance is
  less and intergenerational mobility is relatively
  greater.
• Overall, most social mobility in U.S. is
  short-range mobility.

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Basic Conclusions from Mobility and Status
Attainment Research

• The occupational pattern for Blacks in the U.S.
  indicates that there is much occupational
  inheritance at the bottom of the occupational
  hierarchy and occupational disinheritance at the
  top.
• Women, in general, are concentrated in lower
  non-manual positions. No matter where women
  originate (in terms of parental occupation), they
  are likely to move into lower non-manual
  positions.

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Basic Conclusions from Mobility and Status
Attainment Research

• Both family background and education are strongly
  related to career success.
• Family background can give some people a double
  boost if they are from a privileged background
• Parental status can affect career success (e.g.
  parent may have connections)
• High parental status affects educational
  attainment (thus, family background has an
  indirect effect on career success through
  education)

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Basic Conclusions from Mobility and Status
Attainment Research

• Background variables account for nearly half of
  the variance in occupational attainment. This
  includes parental occupation, parental education,
  income, and race.
• Though the effect of education on career success
  matches that of background, there is a persistent
  problem of lack of access to education among
  various groups (especially low income, and racial
  minorities).

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Basic Conclusions from Mobility and Status
Attainment Research

• The most recent research on occupational mobility
  indicates that occupational inheritance is on the
  rise and the affect of education on attainment is
  declining.

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Sample Annotation

• Korenman, Sanders, David Neumark. 1991. Does
  Marriage Really
• Make Men More Productive? The Journal of Human
• Resources 26(2)282-307.
•   Addresses the question of why married men earn
  more than non-married meneven after controlling
  for relevant human capital variables, region, and
  industry. Examines the hypothesis that the
  marriage premium is based on productivity
  differences between married and non-married men.
  The authors confirm the existence of a marriage
  premium for white men even controlling for human
  capital variables. Data is dated (1984). Results
  are in contrast to 1992 article by same author
  which explores marriage/motherhood penalty for
  women. Article has very nice review of the
  research done on the causes of the marriage
  premium for men.

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Rank the following occupations according to their
general standing in society

• Doctor
• Secretary
• School teacher
• Waiter/waitress
• Maid/servant

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NORC Ranking/Duncan SEI

• Doctor (92)
• School teacher (70-72)
• Secretary(44)
• Waiter/waitress (16)
• Maid/servant (7)