Library: Socio-economic Issues

Ideas about class remain mired in prejudice and mythology. "Enlightened" people who might flinch at a racial slur, have no trouble listing the character defects of an ill-defined "underclass", defects which routinely include ignorance, promiscuity, and sloth. There is, if anything, even less inhibition about caricaturing the white or "ethnic" working class its tastes are "tacky" its habits unhealthful, and its views are hopelessly bigoted and parochial

Fear of Falling

I grew up in a family with a "mixed" marriage; my father's family came from a working class background and my mother's family came from a professional middle class background. As a result of this experience, it was always clear to me how differently these two groups viewed the world, (particularly child-raising), and where these views created cultural conflict.

Worlds of Pain is a beautifully written book that details the author's intensive look at the values, attitudes, and behavior of fifty California white working class families. The author compared this group with a group of professional middle class families who were matched in every way except for educational level and occupation. Fear of Falling written by a prominent feminist journalist, examines the history and anxieties of the white professional middle class from the viewpoint of a social critic

Two books, Fear of Falling: the Inner Life of the Middle Class, (1990) by Barbara Ehrenreich and Worlds of Pain: Life in the Working Class Family (1976) by Lillian Breslow Rubin started me thinking about how the history of class in American cul ture, (specifically the history of the relationships between the working class and the professional middle class), might tint our ability, as agency staff, to partner with people who are in a class different from our own.

The "working class" is described as people who work with their hands (plumbers, mechanics, construction trades, assembly line workers), while the professional middle class is comprised of people who, by the virtue of acquiring particular certifications in college and graduate school, are assumed to be "expert" in some profession ( law, medicine, business, social work, education, computer science). The "professional middle class" is described as working primarily with ideas and concepts- "mental work."

Both authors describe numerous misperceptions that occur between professional middle class and working class families because of differing life experiences and values-particularly around issues of child-raising. In Rubin's fifty working class families, children are supposed to be, above all else, respectful of adults, orderly and clean-values that are of utility in working class occupations. Schools are to be strict, teach basic skills and respect for authority. In professional middle class families, the focus of child-raising since the late 1940s has been to inculcate self-initiative, autonomy, innovation, and creativity-values of importance in professional careers.

Ehrenreich cites this focus on innovation in the professional class as conflicting with the need for raising children who can also tolerate the lengthy process of education needed to maintain membership in the class-creating ambiguity and guilt on the part of middle class parents about when to be strict and instill respect for authority and when to encourage children to learn how to make choices and their own decisions.

Marriage in the working class families occurred earlier. The professional middle class is expected to find a suitable partner in that class in college. College and establishing careers lead to a delay of marriage and child-raising in the professional class.

In both types of families, decision-making and authority are reported by the families to be "50-50" partnerships, but when pressed for more detail about who made which decisions and who did what tasks in the household, the working class families were more open about referencing the man as "bottom line on decisions" and women as doing the housework (although actual behaviors in both classes were similar).

Both Rubin and Ehrenreich state that historically, sociology and social work students were taught that the working and "lower" classes were in these classes because of their "inability to defer gratification" -assumed to be needed to complete the long years of school required to enter the guilds of the professions. Both authors believe this to be a culturally insensitive interpretation of working class realities by the professional class and that the teaching of this particular interpretation is a major reason for professional disdain for the tastes and values of working class people. Another reason for derision about working class tastes is the "fear of falling" into the working class-middle class anxiety about losing their membership in the professional class.

Working class people have their own prejudices about the professional class: they don't do real work, they can cause trouble for working class people because of their alleged power and authority, and their children are spoiled brats.

Professional class biases sometimes influence child welfare assessments of both client and foster families. Families are described as "authoritarian" as opposed to the more neutral term "respectful of authority," or "rigid" instead of "has strong beliefs that children should be respectful of their elders." Sometimes families are viewed from the professional prism of university-based expertise, instead of through the eyes and experiences of the families themselves.

It will be impossible to truly partner with families until we give up beliefs that because we are the " experts" we have all the answers about the meanings of family behavior. This is particularly difficult for members of the professional class, since our only 11 capital" for membership in the professional class is the knowledge and skills we gained from education. To give up the illusion of power we believe we have as a result of our expertise challenges our membership in the class. But without giving up that sense of superiority, we can't allow families to come to the child welfare case planning table as equals.