Social Class Index: A New Measurement for Gender Social Stratification

Abstract

This research studied the Chinese gender social stratification by creating the Direct and Indirect 'Social Class Index' (SCI) for each observation. Adopting the Principal Component Analysis, both indices combined many social aspects, such as occupation, ownership, industry, job stability, year of school and hourly earnings etc. In addition, with a changed variable set, which included the occupation concerning information in labour market, and also the household redistribution and exchange impact, a new 'SCI' was formed. This new 'SCI' reconstructed the original social structure and changed the individual's social rank. After comparing the two indices, it was found that the impact of the household in China helped diminish social disparities between couples, genders and social groups. Marital status had a positive effect on the lower social strata and on women.