Power and inequality, including power in everyday life and the state, social mobility, and inequalities of gender, ethnicity, age and disability.

What this dot point is asking

AQA wants you to explain power in everyday life and through the state, what social mobility is (and its two types), and the inequalities faced by groups defined by gender, ethnicity, age and disability. The topic insists that inequality is not only about class.

Power in everyday life and the state

Looking at power at both levels matters. At the micro level, power shapes who makes decisions in families and workplaces. At the macro level, the state holds power over the whole of society and can make and enforce laws. Stratification is partly about who holds power: the upper and middle classes tend to hold more economic and political power than the working class.

Social mobility

Social mobility is the measure of how open a stratification system really is. Sociologists study it to test whether Britain is genuinely meritocratic: if mobility is low and most people stay in the class they were born into, the claim that success is purely earned looks weak, linking this topic to the education debate about meritocracy.

Inequalities of gender, ethnicity, age and disability

Inequality is not only about class. Other groups face disadvantage too, and the specification names four:

• Gender: women on average face the gender pay gap (earning less than men) and the glass ceiling (invisible barriers to the top jobs). Feminists link this to patriarchy.
• Ethnicity: some minority ethnic groups face discrimination in employment, housing and pay, and are more likely to be in poverty.
• Age: both the young and the old can face disadvantage, for example in employment, where age discrimination affects hiring and promotion.
• Disability: disabled people often face barriers to work, services and equal treatment, leading to lower incomes and reduced life chances.