Social Inequality And Stratification In Australian Society

Social inequality and stratification are becoming increasingly prevalent in Australian society, consequently becoming more harmful towards individuals receiving the short end of the stick (M. McCrindle, 2016). Looking at the recent figures from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) from around 2014, Australia is above the OECD average Gini coefficient and is the 15th most unequal country of the 34 OECD countries (ref). This may come as a surprise for many Australians, an idea of an egalitarian and classless society had been established firmly into Australian identity, however, these ideologies are under threat and becoming further from the truth.

Mackay isn't immune from social stratification and inequality either,

it becomes more apparent once different suburbs are compared. This is because people are distributed across Mackay's suburbs based on their socio-economic conditions, such as the wealthy and upper class living in neighbourhoods with other wealthy people and the poor and lower class living in neighbourhoods who share similar disadvantages (N. Biddle, F, Markham, 2017). Due to this distribution/stratification, people living in different suburbs enjoy or deal with different opportunities and resources, for example, higher class suburbs may enjoy more land and facilities while lower class suburbs may have less land and facilities. During this investigation, three different suburbs of Mackay will be examined to demonstrate disparities in occupations, employment, income and education. Surrounding facilities and services will also be reviewed to determine the differences of opportunities within the suburbs. The suburbs in question are Richmond, Andergrove and Mackay Central, ordered presumably from upper to lower class.