Differentiation is the method of relating
people in terms of certain social characteristics
and then classifying them into social categories
based on these characteristics.
Social Stratification is a society’s
categorization of people into socioeconomic
strata based on their occupation and income,
wealth and social status or derived power
(social and political). In other words,
stratification is the relative social position of
persons within a social group, category,
geographic region, or social unit.
Social Stratification is distinguished as
three social classes:
1. The Upper Class - consist of the elite
families who are the most prolific and
successful in their respective areas.
2. The Middle Class - these are mostly
professional people like lawyers, doctors,
managers, owners of small business,
executives etc.
3. The Lower Class - these are the office and
clerical workers, skilled and unskilled
craftsman, farm employees,
underemployed and indigent families.
STATUS
The individual’s position in the social
structure is called status. The higher or lower
positions that come about through social
stratification are called statuses.
For example, some people are government
officials like senators, congressmen, mayors,
councilors, etc. while others are just sales
representatives, electricians or driver. Each
person has a status in the society in relation to
other persons. Statuses do not relate the
individuals themselves but rather to the social
category or position into which they have been
placed.
Ascribed and Achieved Statuses
Ascribed statuses, which are assigned or
given by the society or group on the basis of
some fixed category, without regard to a
person’s abilities or performance. Example of
ascribed statuses are sex, family background,
race, and ethnic heritage.
Achieved statuses are earned by the
individual. With achieved statuses, you
establish which statuses you want. Frequently
you struggle and exert more effort with others
to get hold of them.
Prestige and Esteem
Prestige refers to the evaluation of status.
You have prestige according to your status.
The prestige is not applied directly to you as a
person, but rather to the social category you
are in.
Esteem refers to the assessment of our
role behavior. The measure of esteem we have
depends on how well carry out our role.
*Prestige is based on your status, and esteem
is based on your role behavior.
Cause of Social Stratification
Karl Marx (1818-1883), said that the
organization of a society is determine
economic forces. According to Karl Marx it
was the Industrial Revolution that divide
society in two social classes.
A social class is generally referred to as a
number of people who are group relatively
because they have similar professional/
occupational statuses, amount of present
lifestyle.
Political Stratification
Political Stratification is the extent to
which inequalities are encapsulated in, or
influenced by political structures and
processes regarding influence, power and
authority.
Political stratification from an
institutional perspective can be related to
laws, norms, values, class structures,
associations and status groups, which
structure or form the relations among
individuals and group of actors.
Political inequality structures from a
relational perspective appear from
differentiated interactions among agents. At
the foundation are actors such as individuals,
political bodies, associations, and nation-
states, which intermingle with each other.
These exchanges are patterned not only
according to institutionalized rules but also on
rules that created or changed in the course of
the exchanged. Societal structures from this
perspective are based on and created from the
recurring patterns of relations.
Political stratification can be expressed in
many different ways. At this time individuals
are at front position and, during the constant
acts of self-definition, construe and make
sense of norms and values as they interrelate
with each other.
Political stratification is categorized by
power volume. Power is the ability to carry
out the spirit to delineate and take charge of
activities of other people through various
ways. The power volume is measured first by
number of people on which the high-handed
judgement extends.
Social Mobility System/Structure
The act of moving from one social status to
another is called social mobility. Social mobility
makes the inequality of social class reasonable
and, in the point of view of some even
justifiable. If social mobility is high, even though
individuals have unequal social origins,
everyone believes that they are equal in having
an opportunity of getting a higher social class
positions. And if social mobility is low, it is clear
that majority of the people are stationary with
respect to the status of their ancestors.
Mobility applies to both groups and
individuals. The two kinds of mobility very
often go together. A disadvantaged group
may produce an occasional celebrity, but the
higher the status of the group, the greater the
number of achievers. Group upward mobility
may reflect to the hard work and planning of
individuals who make up the group or it may
be largely the accidental result of
circumstances.
Open class system means that individuals
can change their social class position in the society.
The degree of downward individual mobility is
one of the tests of an open class society. If mostly
all people remain in the social class rank of their
parents, then we call it a closed class society in
which acknowledgement accounts for more than
achievements.
Though “caste” and “closed-class system”
are approximately the same things, the concept of
open and closed classes is more useful than the
concept of caste because it can be used as a
measure of the amount of mobility in different
societies.
Types of Social Mobility
People may change their social class
position either of two ways.
1. They can move from one position to
another position is within their social class.
2. They can move into another class.
Horizontal mobility is the movement of
a person within a social class level.
Vertical mobility is the movement of the
person between social class levels. The
movement may be upward or downward.
Social Inequality
The existence of uneven opportunities and
rewards for a diverse social positions or statuses
within a group or a society is referred to as
social inequality. Social inequality occurs
when resources in a given society are
distributed unevenly, generally through norms
of allocation, that bring about specific patterns
along lines of socially defined categories of
persons.
Social inequality is shaped by a range of
structural factors, such as geographical location
or citizenship status.
Gender Inequality
Sex and gender-based prejudice and
discrimination, called sexism are major
distributing factors to social inequality.
Almost all societies have some sexual division
of labor. The emphasis on gender inequality is
born out of the deepening division in the role
assigned to men and women, particularly in
the economic, political and educational
spheres. Gender discrimination, particularly
regarding the lower social status of women ,
has been a topic of discussion.
Cultural ideas about women’s work can
also affect men whose outward gender
expression is considered “feminine” within a
given society. Transgender and variant
persons may express their gender through
their appearance, the statements they make or
official documents they present. In this
perspective, gender normatively produces
widespread cultural/institutional
devaluations of trans identities, homosexually
and femininity. Trans persons in particular,
have been defined as socially unproductive
and disruptive.
The Struggle for Equal Rights
The modern concept of women as people
with full legal rights is a relatively new idea
for many years. Like in the United States, in
the 1940’s, eleven states did not permit a
woman to maintain her own earnings without
her husband’s approval. Sixteen states ruled
that a married woman could not make legal
contracts. In seven states women were banned
from serving on juries. And many states
controlled the kinds of jobs that women could
hold.
The Women’s Rights Movement
In 1848 a group of women led by Elizabeth Cady
Stanton, held a convention in Seneca Falls, New York to
have a discussion about women’s rights and this
marked the start of women’s suffrage (voting)
movement. While it is true that the fight is not easy the
suffragists had to rally, demonstrate, and even chain
themselves to railings before they finally got vote in
1920. Almost 70 years after the Seneca Falls
Convention, the 19th Amendment to the United States
Constitution was ratified , thus given the right to vote.
The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was first
introduced into Congress in 1923.
The Beginnings of Today’s Women’s
Movement
The “modern women’s movement” is the
progression of actions that have occurred since
the year 1950s. There are important factors
that laid the foundation for this movement.
First, there was the long history of
suffragists activity in the US. As we have seen
the suffragists movement dates back to the
1840s.
Second, women had been called out of
the home during World War II.
They had worked in factories, in shops, and on
farms while men were away.
Third, advances in medical science and
public health give women more choices,
during the 1950s and early 1960s improved
methods of birth control allowed women to
limit the number of children they had. Also,
improvements in the health field designed that
people be living longer. Instead of dying at 45,
as many women did, women in 1950s and
1960s could look forward to an average life
expectancy of 75 years.
Fourth, the advances in technology
shorten the amount of time women required to
involve them with household chores. The
availability of canned foods and easy to
prepare foods mean that women will
definitely have less time to spend in preparing
their foods to eat. washing machine and
dryers, electric floor polisher , vacuum
cleaners will certainly reduce the work needed
to wash cloths and clean the house.
The Use of Political Action
In the past, women thought of special
work-related problems, such as not being
offered the same promotion opportunities as
men as personal problems.
Even before the 1950s there had been
groups, such as the League of the Women
Voters that were involved in taking various
forms of political action. In 1966, Betty Friedan
and other women established the National
Organization of Women (NOW), calling for
necessary reform and an end to sex
discrimination.
One of the first political battles centered
on the Civil Rights Act of 1964. this law
forbade discrimination in employment on the
grounds of both race and sex. National
Organization for Women threatened to take
this action against public officials if the sex
discrimination law was not enforced.
Sex discrimination laws began to be
enforced. Educators began to look how they
were steering women into lower-paying,
lower statue field.
Racial and Ethnic Inequality
Racial and ethnic inequality is the
consequences of hierarchical social distinctions
between racial and ethnic categories within a
society and are often recognized based on
characteristics such as skin color and other
physical characteristics or an individual’s
place of origin or culture.
Racial inequality can also result in
diminished opportunities for members of
marginalized group, which in turn can lead to
cycles of poverty and political marginalization
Minorities in the Social Structure
Members that have more power than
other people in a society are called the
dominant members. Dominant members set
the standards and establish the values and
norms of the society. By controlling powers,
the dominant members enjoy certain
privileges such as better housing, better
schools, and higher incomes. Other people
who are barred from some degree of power,
prestige or wealth are called minorities and
are usually denied equal treatment by the
dominant members of the society.
Discrimination and Prejudice
Minorities are being deprived of equal
treatment and are kept in a lower status by
dominant members of the society and the
resistance of equality is called discrimination.
Discrimination is a damaging act, which can
take many forms. It could be individual such as
calling someone a malevolent name.
Prejudice is a negative attitude toward
the members of a particular group. It is a
preconceived idea or “prejudgement” of others
tat allows us to brand/label them in various
pessimisticways.
Stereotyping
More often than not, prejudice involves
stereotyping; which refers to our propensity to
picture all members of a particular category as
having the same qualities. Usually stereotyping
is the result of overgeneralization. If we have
encountered negative attitudes with a member
of a particular social category, then we
overgeneralize by judging the everyone else in
the category just like that person.
Ethnocentrism
The belief that our own nation, race, or
group is the best is called ethnocentrism. The
consequences is we suppose that other groups
or societies are inferior to our own. We also
believe that we all belong to social or cultural
groups and have a tendency to believe that
“we” are better than “they”. Thus the tendency
is to set ourselves apart as the better one, and
this usually leads to prejudice.
Scapegoating
This is the situation when people
encounter problems that they do not know
how to solve. Often, they feel frustrated. From
time to time this frustration lead to aggression.
When it happens, people usually look for a
way to expose that aggression. The term
“scapegoat” is taken from the goat into the
wilderness. This kind of attitude which is
looking for someone or something else to be
blamed for our own troubles or problems
continues up to this time.
Racism
It is the thinking that one’s own race is
superior and has the right to control or direct.
It helps maintain the myth that other people
are inferior because of certain differences.
Racism remains as one of the foremost ways
that the dominant members of a society sustain
the power over the minorities. Like other forms
of prejudice, racism provides a means for
reducing minorities to a lower status.
Ethnic Minorities
It is the fact that in every society there are
some people whose manner of life departs
from the principles of the society as whole.
When people dwell in a society that does not
share their cultural heritage, they are labelled
an ethnic minority. Ethnic minorities then, are
people whose cultural background differs from
that of the dominant members of a society.
Ethnic minorities also experience
discrimination.
How People Become Minorities
1. Migration
When people move, or migrate from one
society to another, they are commonly called
minorities in the new society. Migration could
be voluntary (by choice) or it could be
involuntary.
2. Colonialism
Some people become minorities in their
own country, without ever leaving their place
of birth. This happens when people from
another country decides to settle in a new land
and then take control of society.
3. Annexation
Citizens may turn out to be a minority
when their country is joined, or annexed, to
another nation. Annexation could either be
voluntary or involuntary. Annexation usually
happens after a war ends.
How Minorities are Treated
The existence of minorities in society
means that the dominant group of people must
deal with or treat them in some other way.
When some people in a society consider others
as inferior, the behavior patterns of everyone
involved are affected.
Six Pattern of Dominant-Minority
Relationships Could Develop
1. Extermination
The most tremendous form of rejection by
dominant members of a society toward
minorities is to kill or exterminate them.
Extermination is the most brutal of all the
treatments of minority people.
2. Expulsion
Expulsion is less severe form of rejection,
compared to extermination. Expulsion is the
elimination of the minority group from the
dominant society. Sometimes minorities are
expelled to an unused tract of land.
3. Segregation
Segregation is the spatial separation of the
minority from the dominant members of the
society. Segregation often involves not only
housing but also schools, jobs, transportation,
restrooms, theatres, and restaurants.
4. Cultural pluralism
Cultural pluralism is the acceptance and
recognition of cultural differences in subgroups
among the residents, with no single subgroup
dominating the others.
5. Assimilation
Assimilation occurred when previously
design social categories blend into one unified
social category.
6. Amalgamation
Amalgamation blending through accepted
intermarriage. Through this process, the
differences between dominant and minority
members of society disappear.
Global Inequality
The financial systems of the world have
developed unevenly, historically, such that the
entire geographical regions were left stalled in
poverty and illness, while the rest of the world
began to reduce poverty and illness.
Global inequality is an intensifying worry
for elites. According to the World Economic
Forum (WEF), income inequality is currently
the number one global concern.
Inequality and Economic Growth
Some economists think that economic
inequality is an essential prerequisite for
economic growth. Economic inequality does
have a positive correlation with economic
growth, but inequality in general is not
positively correlated with economic growth.
Under some condition, inequality shows a
negative correlation with economic growth.
Income Inequality is one of the key
challenges of our time.
The Top Solutions to Income Inequality
1. Improved Education
2. Tax Policy
3. Social Welfare Policy
4. Redistribution
5. Job Creation
6. Work Force Development
Disability
A disability is normally a condition either
caused by genetics or disease, accident, trauma,
which may hamper a person’s mental, sensory,
or mobility functions to carry out or perform a
task in the same way as a person who does not
have a disability.
Conditions causing disability are classified by
the medical community as:
a. Inherited (generally transmitted);
b. Congenital, meaning caused by a mother’s
infection or other disease during pregnancy,
c. Embryonic or fatal developmental
irregularities, or by injury during or soon after
birth;
d. Acquired, such as conditions caused by
illness or injury;
e. of unknown origin
Ways of Categorizing Disability
Physical Disability
Any impairment which limits the physical
function of limbs, fine bones, or gross motor,
ability is a physical impairment, not necessarily
a physical disability. Physical disability affects
a person’s mobility or dexterity.
Sensory Disability
Sensory Disability is impairment one of
the senses. Sensory disability affects a person’s
ability to hear or see.
a. Vision impairment
Vision impairment is vision loss of person
resulting from disease, trauma, or congenital or
degenerative conditions that cannot be
corrected by conventional means, such as
refractive correction, medication, or surgery.
This functional loss of vision is typically
defined to manifest with:
1. Best corrected visual acuity of less than
20/60, or significant central field defect,
2. Significant peripheral field defect including
homonymous or heteronymous bilateral
visual,
3. Field defect or generalized contraction or
constriction of filed, or
4. Reduced peak contrast sensitivity with
either of the above conditions.
b. hearing impairment
Hearing impairment or hard of hearing or
deafness refers to conditions which individuals
are fully or partially incapable to recognize or
perceive at least some frequencies of sound
which can typically be heard by most people.
Intellectual Disability
Intellectual Disability is a broad concept
that ranges from mental retardation to
cognitive deficits too mild or too specific to
qualify as mental retardation. Intellectual
disabilities may appear at any age. Mental
retardation is a subtype of intellectual
disability, and the term intellectual disability is
now preferred by many advocates.
Metal health and emotional disabilities
A mental disorder or mental illness is a
psychological or behavioral pattern generally
associated with subjective distress or disability
that occur in an individual, and perceived by
the majority of society as being outside of
normal development or cultural expectations.
Intellectual disability affects a person’s
disability to learn.
Developmental disability
Any disability that results in problems
with growth and developmistis called
developmental disability.
Non-visible disability
Several chronic disorders, such as
diabetes, asthma, inflammatory bowel disease,
epilepsy, narcolepsy, fibromyalgia and some
sleep disorder may be counted as non-visible
disabilities, as opposed to disabilities which are
clearly visible, such as those requiring the use
of a wheelchair.
Disability Laws
Republic Acts
Anti-Bullying Acts
Republic Act Number 10627, dated 05
June 2013. “Bullying shall refer to any severs or
repeated use by one or more students written,
verbal or electronic expression or a physical act
or gesture, or any combination ther of, directed
at another student that has the effect of actually
causing or placing the latter in reasonable fear
of physical or emotional harm or damage to his
property”
Equal Opportunity Employment
Republic Act Number 10524, dated 23 July
2012. “At least one percent (1%) of all positions
in all government agencies, offices or
corporations shall be reserved for persons with
disability: Provided, that private corporations
with more than one hundred (100) employees
are encouraged to receive at least one percent
of all position for persons with disability.”
Accessible Polling Place Exclusively for
Persons with Disability and Senior Citizens
Republic Act Number 10446, dated 23 July
2012. “The state shall ensure that persons with
disabilities and senior citizens are able to
exercise their right to political participation
without discrimination or restrictions.”
COMELEC Resolution 9763, dated 30 August
2013. this contains the implementing rules
and regulations around RA 10336.
Implementation of Programs and Services for
Persons with Disabilities in every Province, City
and Municipality.
Republic Act Number 10070, dated 27 July
2009. PDAO shall be created in every province,
city and municipality. The local chief executive
shall appoint a PWD affairs officer who shall
manage and oversee the operations of the office,
pursuant to its mandate under this Act.”
Department of the Interior and Local
Government Memorandum Circular No. 2010-
103, dated 23 September 2010. this contains the
implementing rules and regulations around RA
10070.
Magna Carta for Persons with Disabilities
Republic Act Number 7277, dated 24
March 1992. This laws provides for the
rehabilitation, self-development and self-
reliance of disabled persons and their
integration into the mainstream of society and
for the other purposes.
Department of Tourism Memorandum
Circular No. 2011-04, dated 11 February 2011.
this clarifies conditions around twenty
percent (20%) discount entitlements to
persons with disabilities.
Department of Interior and Local
Government Memorandum Circular 2009-
129, dated 09 September 2009. This clarifies
the procedure on the issuance of IDs and
booklets foe PWDS.
Joint Department of Trade and Industry and
Department of Agriculture Administrative
Order 02, dated 27 July 2009. This clarifies
rules and regulations on the grant of special
discounts to persons with disability on the
purchase of basic necessities and prime
conditions.
Republic Act 9442, dated 24 July 2006. This
laws contains expanded provisions of RA
7277.
Implementing Rules and Regulations for Ra
9442, dated 24 July 2006.
Implementing Rules and Regulations for RA
7277, dated 24 March 1992.
Presidential Proclamations
UN International Day of Persons with
Disabilities
Presidential Proclamation No. 1157, dated
16 October 2006. The proclamation designated
December 3 as the International Day of Persons
with Disabilities in the Philippines, in keeping
with United Nations declaration.
National Disability Prevention and
Rehabilitation Week
Presidential Proclamation No. 361, dated
29 August 2000. The proclamation ordered the
assignment of the third week of July as the
National Disability Prevention and
Rehabilitation Week, culminating on the birth
date of the sublime paralytic, Apolinario
Mabini on July 23.
National Autism Consciousness Week
Presidential Proclamation No. 711, dated
January 19996. The proclamation ordered the
assignment of the third week of January as the
National Autism Consciousness Week,
enjoining the Department of Health, the
Department of Education, Culture and Sports,
the Department of Social Welfare and
Development, and the Department of Interior
and Local Government to serve as the national
focal point for the commemoration of this
event.
National Commission On Disability Affairs.
Presidential Decree No. 1509, dated 11
June 1978. “The national government
recognizes responsibility to provide the
handicapped with the fullest measure of
protection and assistance to help develop their
abilities in all fields of endeavor and to
promote their integration and mental
disabilities.”
Executive Order 33, dated 05 April 2011. the
order transfers NCDA from the Office of the
President to DSWD.
Executive Order 709, dated 26 February 2008.
The order redefines the functions and
organization of NCDA.
Executive Order 676, dated October 2007.
The order transfers NCDA from DSWD to
the Office of the President.
Executive Order 232, dated 22 July 1987. The
order redefines the functions and
organization of NCDA.
Administrative and Executive Orders
Community Based Rehabilitation for Persons
with Disabilities.
Executive Order No. 437, dated 21 July
2005. The proclamation enjoins local
government units to adopt the Community-
Based Rehabilitation Program in delivering
services to their constituents with disabilities
and to all allocate funds to support the
program.
Department of Interior and Local
Government 2009-37, dated 20 March 2009.
Economic Independence for Persons with
Disabilities.
Executive Order No. 417, dated 27 March 2005.
“The General Appropriations Act explicitly
provides funding mechanisms for programs
and projects of PWD and their organizations
from at least one percent (1%) of the total
yearly budget of all National Government
Agencies and instrumentalities including
Government Financial Institutions and
Government owned and controlled
corporation.”
Other Policies
DepED Child Protection Policy dated 14
May 2012. The documents outlines the
Philippine Department of Education’s Policies
and Guidelines on protecting children in school
from violence, exploitations, discrimination,
bullying, neglect, abuse, cruelty, and other
conditions prejudicial to their development.
