eotypes begin while still in school, as seen in William Chambliss’s piece, “Saints and Roughnecks.” The Saints were a group of upper class teenage boys, just as delinquent as their lower class counterparts, the Roughnecks. However, due to “selective perception and labeling”, the Roughnecks were targeted as the “bad kids who didn’t want to make something of themselves”, while the Saints were seen as leaders of their peers, just out for a good time. These labels can be psychologically detrimental to one’s sense of self, and can actually cause more oppression of the poor by their own selves, who feel trapped in their position. The poor do not hold enough power to correct the stereotypes that have been placed on them, and therefore continue to be exploited unjustly so that others may rise above them. Another group that as a whole remains socially immobile are those that constitute half of the population; these are the women of our society. Social mobility also plays along gender lines, as well as class, making the plight of a poor woman extremely difficult, as seen in the example of Sandra, the working single mother. Despite the large amount of progress made by women in the workforce, particularly upper class women, men are still intimidated by women in rising social positions. For example, men and women claim to agree that women should be given equal work opportunity, but the majority of both agreed that it would be better if women could just stay at home to raise children. Those who do work, at jobs that pay them 74 cents to the man’s dollar, must come home to put in a “second shift” as a homemaker as well. Being expected to be the sole caretaker for a family, this is what also causes downward mobility for women as well. Women with promising careers often abandon them after giving birth to children, and after a long period of absence, they do not find the sam...
