Social Class Reproduction

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Recommended: Social class mobility

Social mobility refers to, “the degree to which individuals move up or down the class structure” compared to their parents class (Owens 3/21/18: 4). Social class reproduction refers to, “the degree to which social class is reproduced over generations” (Owens 3/21/18: 4). MU provides social class reproduction rather than social mobility. For the women who were affluent-privileged families, 65% were on track to maintain their social class thanks to their family connections and family finances, partly because their social class and family background “primed” them to make social networking the primary purpose of college. 35% of privileged women were at risk for downward mobility due to their low GPA’s and easy/unpractical majors. Further, women from less privileged backgrounds mostly experienced class reproduction although some experienced downward mobility. 25% of unprivileged women were on track to upward mobility, but 4 left MU; while 75% had their mobility at risk due to. For these students, attending MU was something to overcome due to the financial constraint that MU had placed on them …show more content…

Many of these women came from highly privileged families and from out of state. Women who enter this track can participate and succeed thanks to high levels of parental support. Women chose this pathway because they had taken a similar path of being highly involved socially during high school, and their families covered tuition and were able to support them after graduation. The affluent women or socialites were able to succeed on this path thanks to their family support and developed social networks. The “wannabes” who followed this path didn’t succeed because they lacked family financial support and social connections, in addition to low GPA’s and easy

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