Opportunity and attainment in Australia

Abstract

Australia is often referred to as a classless society, with few of the class distinctions of the old world, but this description has never been tested systematically. More radical writers now assert that there is a rigid class structure and much special privilege. They maintain that there is little opportunity for persons to advance materially by their own efforts. This book attempts to provide an answer to these conflicting claims. It examines how far equality of opportunity exists, in the educational system and elsewhere. It describes the long-term trend in the distribution of wealth and income and estimates how far Australian society is stratified compared with other countries. These and related questions are examined systematically by means of the results of a national sample survey conducted by the authors in 1965 and by comparison with other evidence relating to education, employment and income. The authors{u2019} main conclusion is that, while Australian society is clearly stratified in each generation, high rates of mobility limit significantly the extent to which inequality is transmitted within the family from one generation to the next. Though primarily intended for use in senior undergraduate and graduate courses in the social sciences there is much to interest readers concerned with contemporary Australian society in particular and advanced industrial countries generally.