Michael Mann - A Crisis in Stratification Theory? Persons, Households/Families/Lineages,
Genders, Classes and Nations
● Society can’t be captured as neatly as as particle physics, though we attempt to make it so
○ Marxist and Weberian analyses define three nuclei of social stratification:
social class, social status/ideology and political power
■ some aspects of stratification are difficult to fit to this
model
● e.g. ethnic, religious struggle, gender
relations
■ the difficulty of fitting gender within a Marxist/Weberian
analysis has led to families being treated as the basic unit of society, not
individual
Patriarchy in Agrarian Societies
● Patriarchal society:
○ one in which male heads of households hold power
○ clear separation between public and private spheres
○ in the private sphere the head dominates women, junior males and
children
○ in the public sphere power is shared between men according to the other
principles of stratification that obtain (e.g. class)
■ ‘no female holds any formal public position of
economic, ideological, military or political power’
■ hence women’s only access to power is through
influencing their private patriarch
● In a patriarchal society:
○ women are protected to some extent by the law and custom
○ less was in the public sphere than is now
○ women and men belonged/belong to different households in their
lifetimes, confusing power relations somewhat
● Because of the public/private division in patriarchal societies, we can examine political
power/history (the public sphere) in patriarchal societies without referring to gender
○ that is to say, the internal structure of public stratification in a patriarchal
society is not gendered
○ but we must acknowledge that women always existed in the private
sphere
● As the particularism of agrarian society gave way to the universal, diffused stratification
of modern society (i.e. as women were absorbed into the public sphere AND/OR the
public/private divide broken down), stratification became gendered internally
Three Modern Transformations of Gender and Stratification
1. The Capitalist Economy - Neo-patriarchy and gendered classes
● As capitalism developed, women were absorbed in the labour force, despite the periodic
successful efforts of men to deny them this access
○ their wages meant they were unable to support themselves or their
families, hence they remained dependent on men
Genders, Classes and Nations
● Society can’t be captured as neatly as as particle physics, though we attempt to make it so
○ Marxist and Weberian analyses define three nuclei of social stratification:
social class, social status/ideology and political power
■ some aspects of stratification are difficult to fit to this
model
● e.g. ethnic, religious struggle, gender
relations
■ the difficulty of fitting gender within a Marxist/Weberian
analysis has led to families being treated as the basic unit of society, not
individual
Patriarchy in Agrarian Societies
● Patriarchal society:
○ one in which male heads of households hold power
○ clear separation between public and private spheres
○ in the private sphere the head dominates women, junior males and
children
○ in the public sphere power is shared between men according to the other
principles of stratification that obtain (e.g. class)
■ ‘no female holds any formal public position of
economic, ideological, military or political power’
■ hence women’s only access to power is through
influencing their private patriarch
● In a patriarchal society:
○ women are protected to some extent by the law and custom
○ less was in the public sphere than is now
○ women and men belonged/belong to different households in their
lifetimes, confusing power relations somewhat
● Because of the public/private division in patriarchal societies, we can examine political
power/history (the public sphere) in patriarchal societies without referring to gender
○ that is to say, the internal structure of public stratification in a patriarchal
society is not gendered
○ but we must acknowledge that women always existed in the private
sphere
● As the particularism of agrarian society gave way to the universal, diffused stratification
of modern society (i.e. as women were absorbed into the public sphere AND/OR the
public/private divide broken down), stratification became gendered internally
Three Modern Transformations of Gender and Stratification
1. The Capitalist Economy - Neo-patriarchy and gendered classes
● As capitalism developed, women were absorbed in the labour force, despite the periodic
successful efforts of men to deny them this access
○ their wages meant they were unable to support themselves or their
families, hence they remained dependent on men
