Functionalism Theory Of Social Inequality

Social Class is one system of Social Stratification, social class is a form of structured inequality which has been apparent in many generations over time. A definition of Social Class is that people are classed as more ‘important’ and placed at the top of the hierarchy if they have a lot of wealth and higher status but lower if they do not. Social class can impact people in many ways including their chances in education, employment, and health but there is possibility for people to move up the hierarchy or even move down, this is called Social Mobility.
Social mobility is a problem as it can be hard for people to move up the classes from the lower they are. With the gap between social classes growing and being at the highest financial point recorded its becoming increasing harder to move around the
Davis and Moore claimed, the inequalities in society are needed and help it function. The inequalities arise because skilled jobs that have extensive time preparing and gaining qualifications get a lot more rewards including higher income. This is because people who are qualified to fill these jobs need some kind of motivation in comparison the less important jobs require less intensive training leading up and this results in lower pay. So this theory shows that Social Mobility will work as the more effort and hard work you put in the bigger rewards you will achieve meaning that you will have better chances to move upwards on the social ladder. Strengths of this theory is that it shows comparisons of Social Class to social structure and it’s contribution to society and it also shows the functional importance of certain positions which get high reward attached. A weakness for this theory is that it denies the conflict aquired by the inequalities of Social Class and how hard it is to move up the social ladder. (Haralambos et al,