social mobilization and education
Meet Sandra, a mother recently divorced from her abusive middle-class husband. Her previous life had been comfortable; she now lives day-to-day with her children, working as a secretary while attending college courses in her little spare time, all while attending to her home and family. She finally ends up attaining her degree, yet can still find no job paying higher than her secretarial job, so she takes on a second job as a grocery checkout person, still barely making ends meet for her family. As described in Ch. 9 of the Giddens text, this woman had obviously worked very hard to attempt to restore her life back to her previous pre-divorce middle-class state. She says, “You try to do the responsible thing, and you’re penalized, because the system we have right now doesn’t provide you with a way to make it.” (p. 169) However, she learned the hard way that class is not quite as easy to transcend in this so-called “land of opportunity.” The United States is the most highly stratified society of the industrialized world. Class distinctions operate in virtually every aspect of our lives, determining the nature of our work, the quality of our schooling, and the health and
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Meet Sandra, Roughnecks” Saints, Holly Sklar, Functions Poverty”, Herbert Gans, social mobility, William Chambliss’s, one’s status, middle class, extremely difficult, white middle class, economic class, downward mobility, society makes, movement classes, poor woman, mobility society,
Approximate Word count = 1272
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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