Social Class Origin and Academic Success: The Influence of Two Stratification Systems on Academic Careers

Although a prestigeful occupation may be relatively open to lower class recruits, success may not be equally available to all, regardless of social class origin. Using the academic profession as an example of a prestigeful occupation, a secondary analysis of samples of university professors and recent recipients of doctorates in the arts and sciences and in several professional fields reveals that social class origin is related to academic success, defined as holding positions at top-ranking universities. This effect is due in part to the fact that lower class respondents are more likely to have received degrees from low-ranking universities from which the staff of high-ranking universities is less likely in general to be recruited. However, lower class recipients of the doctorate with Ph.D.s from major universities are also less likely than their middle class counterparts to obtain positions in major universities. The role of public universities is shown to have a democratizing effect upon these relationships.