Who Cares? Social Mobility and the ‘Class Ceiling’ in Nursing

Nursing is often associated with providing working-class women a route to upward social mobility. This article argues that although nursing is a relatively open profession, the impact of social class endures, with the main division between nurses who are from higher professional backgrounds and the rest. We utilise the Great British Class Survey (GBCS) to explore nurses’ social origins; the relationship between background and economic, social, and cultural capital; and the impact of origin and capitals on income (and inferred career trajectory). While recognising the methodological limitations of the GBCS, we suggest there may be a ‘class ceiling’ in nursing, and that class advantages are still significant in lower professions of the public sector. Class identification endures regardless of whether nurses have been upwardly or downwardly mobile. We also suggest future directions for intragenerational mobility and gender in social mobility research and make a case for longitudinal and qualitative analysis of nurses’ trajectories. Our findings indicate that the downwardly mobile children of the middle classes retain their classed advantages as they establish their own careers.

The Variability of Occupational Attainment: How Prestige Trajectories Diversified within Birth Cohorts over the Twentieth Century

This study develops and applies a framework for analyzing variability in individuals’ occupational prestige trajectories and changes in average variability between birth cohorts. It extends previous literature focused on typical patterns of intragenerational mobility over the life course to more fully examine intracohort differentiation. Analyses are based on rich life course data for men and women in West Germany born between 1919 and 1979 from the German Life History Study and the German National Educational Panel Study ( N = 16,854 individuals). Mixed-effects growth-curve models with heterogeneous variance components are applied. Results show that birth cohorts systematically differ in their variability; cohorts who entered the labor market in the late 1950s and 1960s and experienced mostly closed employment relations have exceptionally homogenous trajectories. Earlier and later cohorts, who experienced more open employment relations, are more heterogeneous in their trajectories. Cohorts with higher variability at labor market entry are characterized by persistently strong intracohort differentiation. Women’s variability within employment is similar to men’s but markedly increases once employment interruptions are considered.

Social mobility, accumulation of disadvantages and health. An analysis with retrospective data from the GSOEP (2002–14)

Background Socioeconomic position (SEP) in different life stages is related to health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Yet, research on the relevance of life course processes is scarce. This study aims to analyse the association between accumulation of disadvantages, social mobility and HRQoL. Methods Analyses were conducted using population-averaged panel-data models and are based on data from the German Socio-Economic Panel 2002–14, including retrospective biographical information, comprising 25 473 observations from 8666 persons. Intergenerational and intragenerational mobility included the occupational positions in childhood (parental position), first job and middle age. Accumulation of disadvantages was measured using an accumulation index. HRQoL was assessed using the Mental and Physical Component Summary Scores of the SF12v2. Results Accumulation of disadvantages was the main predictor for the Physical Component Summary in mid-age. Men and women in a stable low SEP or with a steep downward mobility showed the least favourable physical HRQoL. This holds for intergenerational and intragenerational mobility. Mental HRQoL did not seem to be associated with accumulation or social mobility. Conclusion The results show that physical HRQoL is related to social mobility and accumulation of (dis-)advantages. Further research is needed thoroughly analysing this association.

Occupations, Organizations, and Intragenerational Career Mobility

Intragenerational mobility—persistent or secular upward or downward changes in individuals’ economic positions or occupational standing over their working lives—is intimately related both to intergenerational mobility and inequality as well as to labor market theories and behaviors. Careers are job sequences or patterns of mobility/immobility within and between occupations and organizations, the two major work structures that shape the opportunities available in the labor market. This article reviews research that links occupations and organizations to careers and intragenerational mobility. We emphasize the multidisciplinary nature of contributions to this topic and focus on integrating research by sociologists and economists. We also highlight cross-national research and emphasize the literatures that address questions related to social stratification and labor markets. Finally, we suggest fruitful areas for future research.

Rising Intragenerational Occupational Mobility in the United States, 1969 to 2011

Despite the theoretical importance of intragenerational mobility and its connection to intergenerational mobility, no study since the 1970s has documented trends in intragenerational occupational mobility. The present article fills this intellectual gap by presenting evidence of an increasing trend in intragenerational mobility in the United States from 1969 to 2011. We decompose the trend using a nested occupational classification scheme that distinguishes between disaggregated micro-classes and progressively more aggregated meso-classes, macro-classes, and manual and nonmanual sectors. Log-linear analysis reveals that mobility increased across the occupational structure at nearly all levels of aggregation, especially after the early 1990s. Controlling for structural changes in occupational distributions modifies, but does not substantially alter, these findings. Trends are qualitatively similar for men and women. We connect increasing mobility to other macro-economic trends dating back to the 1970s, including changing labor force composition, technologies, employment relations, and industrial structures. We reassert the sociological significance of intragenerational mobility and discuss how increasing variability in occupational transitions within careers may counteract or mask trends in intergenerational mobility, across occupations and across more broadly construed social classes.