The distribution of poverty | AQA A-Level Sociology
Updated: 12 hours ago
For Specification 7192
AQA A-Level Sociology | Free Revision Notes
Estimated study time:Â 80 minutes
The distribution of poverty A-Level Sociology revision examines whether different social groups face the same risk of poverty and why these differences occur. AQA requires students to understand both evidence and sociological explanations for the distribution of poverty, wealth and income between social groups.  Social class, gender, age and ethnicity are particularly important dimensions for analysing poverty. This lesson builds on why poverty continues [The persistence of poverty] and prepares you to examine the wider distribution of economic resources [Wealth and income inequality].
Learning Objectives 🎯
By the end of this revision page, you should be able to:
Describe how poverty may be distributed differently between social groups.
Explain differences in poverty risk by social class, gender, age and ethnicity.
Analyse structural and cultural explanations for these differences.
Compare Marxist, feminist and New Right interpretations of the distribution of poverty.
Evaluate sociological evidence and explanations concerning the social distribution of poverty.
Revision Notes đź“š
What does the distribution of poverty mean?
The distribution of poverty refers to the way poverty is spread between different groups within society.
AQA's specification requires students to study:
"the distribution of poverty, wealth and income between different social groups".
The key point is that poverty is not necessarily experienced equally across the population.
Sociologists therefore ask:
Which groups are more likely to experience poverty?
Why do poverty risks differ between groups?
Are these differences caused mainly by social structures?
How important are culture, attitudes and individual behaviour?
How do class, gender, age and ethnicity interact with employment and welfare?
The focus here is who is more vulnerable and why. The broader question of why poverty continues at all was considered in explanations of continuing poverty [The persistence of poverty].
Social differentiation and poverty
The distribution of poverty is closely linked to one of AQA Sociology's core themes, social differentiation, power and stratification. AQA requires this theme to run through substantive topics such as Work, Poverty and Welfare.
Social differentiation refers to differences between groups in society.
When these differences are associated with unequal resources, power or opportunities, they can contribute to differences in people's life chances.
For poverty, this means asking whether membership of a particular social group is associated with greater exposure to:
low income
worklessness
insecure employment
restricted opportunities
discrimination
social exclusion.
AQA's 2023 mark scheme explicitly identifies social class, age, gender and ethnicity as groups students could examine when evaluating the distribution of poverty.
An important warning about poverty statistics
The supplied AQA materials establish that poverty is unevenly distributed and identify the social groups and explanations students should understand.
In an examination, accurate sociological evidence and carefully explained patterns are better than unsupported statistics.
Overview of the social distribution of poverty
AQA assessment material supports examination of the following patterns:
Dimension | Pattern supported by the AQA materials | Relevant explanations |
Social class | Working-class people are identified as more likely to experience poverty than other social classes | Capitalism, exploitation, labour-market position, structural constraints, unemployment |
Gender | Women are identified as being at greater risk of poverty | Patriarchy, pay inequalities, caring responsibilities, labour-market marginalisation |
Ethnicity | Poverty distribution may vary between ethnic groups | Racism, discrimination, employment opportunities, class position and other material factors |
Age | AQA expects age to be considered when discussing the distribution of poverty | Relationship with work, worklessness, resources and welfare, although supplied materials do not give a complete current age pattern |
These categories should not be studied as completely separate. People's social positions can overlap.
For example, gender inequalities in employment may operate differently for women from different ethnic or social-class backgrounds.
Social class and poverty
Social class is one of the clearest dimensions of poverty distribution in the supplied materials.
AQA's 2025 Paper 2 states directly that:
working-class people are more likely to experience poverty than other social classes.Â
This means social class is associated with different levels of vulnerability to poverty.
Why might working-class people face a greater poverty risk?
AQA mark schemes recognise a number of relevant explanations:
capitalism
exploitation
structural constraints
marginalisation
the reserve army of labour
worklessness
low-paid or insecure employment
social exclusion
globalisation.
These can be grouped into structural and cultural explanations.
Structural explanations of class differences
A structural explanation argues that differences in poverty risk result from the organisation of society.
From a Marxist perspective, class inequalities arise from capitalism.
AQA's 2023 poverty item explicitly presents the argument that:
capitalism leads to working-class poverty.Â
The basic argument is:
Class structure → unequal access to economic resources and opportunities → increased vulnerability among lower classes → unequal poverty risk
Employment is especially important.
People whose position in the labour market involves:
unemployment
insecure employment
lower earnings
declining occupational opportunities
may be at greater risk of poverty.
This links directly with the significance of being without paid employment [Worklessness].
Marxist interpretation
Marxists emphasise structural inequality rather than explaining working-class poverty primarily through individual behaviour.
Concepts recognised by AQA include:
capitalism
exploitation
reserve army of labour
structural constraints
marginalisation.
Marxist explanations therefore see an unequal distribution of poverty as connected to an unequal distribution of economic power and resources.
This relationship is developed further in differences in wealth and income [Wealth and income inequality].
Cultural explanations of class differences
Not every explanation places primary importance on economic structure.
AQA's 2020 Paper 2 item suggested that the values and attitudes of some members of the working class might lead them to accept their social position. Its mark scheme developed this through the concept of fatalism.
A cultural explanation might therefore argue:
Socialisation or particular attitudes → acceptance of disadvantaged position → reduced likelihood of changing economic circumstances → increased poverty risk
Concepts that AQA recognises as potentially relevant include:
fatalism
culture of poverty
socialisation
dependency culture
underclass.
Evaluation
The central problem is causation.
Do particular attitudes increase the likelihood of poverty?
Or could long-term structural disadvantage itself produce reduced expectations or fatalism?
A structural sociologist might therefore reverse the causal direction:
Poverty and limited opportunities → fatalism
rather than:
Fatalism → poverty
This material should be familiar from explanations of continuing poverty [The persistence of poverty].
Gender and poverty
Gender is another major dimension of the social distribution of poverty.
AQA's 2023 examination item states that women are at greater risk of poverty than other social groups.
AQA also directly examined the relationship between women's work and poverty in 2021.
The feminisation of poverty
AQA recognises the concept of the feminisation of poverty in its indicative content for questions about poverty distribution.
This refers to the relationship between gender inequalities and women's greater vulnerability to poverty.
It should not be treated as meaning that all women experience poverty or that all women are poorer than all men.
Instead, the sociological question is why gender can affect poverty risk.
Women's position in paid employment
AQA's 2021 mark scheme identifies several ways women's experiences of employment may contribute to poverty:
the gender pay gap
greater exposure to job insecurity
concentration in routine non-manual work
difficulties finding work because of family commitments
reduced access to employment benefits and pension funds
gaps in employment affecting promotion
marginalisation from the labour market
the relationship between lone parenthood and time available for paid work.
The relationship can therefore operate as:
Gendered employment pattern → reduced or less secure earnings → greater economic vulnerability → increased poverty risk
Caring responsibilities
AQA also recognises unequal caring responsibilities as a possible explanation.
The 2020 mark scheme connects patriarchal values with the unequal distribution of caring roles and the feminisation of poverty.
Caring responsibilities may affect:
whether paid work can be undertaken
the number of hours worked
continuity of employment
opportunities for promotion
access to employment-related resources.
This illustrates why poverty cannot always be explained only by individual employment choices. Feminist explanations ask how those choices may be shaped by wider gender inequalities.
Feminist explanations
Feminist approaches emphasise patriarchy, meaning social arrangements in which gender inequalities advantage men and disadvantage women.
Relevant factors may include:
unequal caring responsibilities
inequalities within paid employment
labour-market marginalisation
unequal economic resources.
AQA's mark schemes explicitly recognise patriarchy, feminisms and the feminisation of poverty when explaining poverty distribution.
Evaluation
Gender alone does not explain every individual's position.
Women do not form one economically identical group. Social class, ethnicity, age and family circumstances can also influence poverty risk.
A useful evaluation is therefore to examine combined inequalities rather than assuming gender operates independently.
The 2025 examiner report praised answers that considered how racism and patriarchy could operate together when explaining women's employment opportunities.
Ethnicity and poverty
AQA identifies ethnicity as another relevant social division when discussing the distribution of poverty.
The supplied material does not support a simple claim that every minority ethnic group experiences the same level of poverty.
That would be an important mistake.
Instead, the sociological focus should be on why poverty risk may differ between ethnic groups.
Employment and ethnicity
Employment provides one mechanism linking ethnicity with poverty.
AQA's specimen assessment asks why members of some minority ethnic groups may be more likely to be unemployed than others.
Its indicative content includes:
differences in educational achievement
racial or religious discrimination
difficulties faced by newly arrived refugees or asylum seekers
language barriers for some groups
regional differences in employment opportunities
cultural or religious barriers to employment
the interaction of class and gender with ethnicity.
Because employment affects income and life chances, inequalities in employment opportunities can contribute to unequal poverty risks.
The causal chain is:
Restricted employment opportunities → increased risk of worklessness or reduced income → increased poverty risk
Racism and discrimination
AQA's poverty mark schemes recognise both racism and discrimination as structural explanations for the unequal distribution of poverty.
A structural interpretation argues that unequal outcomes between ethnic groups cannot necessarily be explained by culture or behaviour.
For example, discrimination may:
restrict access to employment
affect occupational opportunities
contribute to economic marginalisation.
This makes racism a possible structural constraint.
Cultural explanations and ethnicity
Some explanations may instead focus on cultural or behavioural factors.
AQA's specimen material allows issues such as language or cultural barriers to be considered where relevant.
However, students need to distinguish carefully between:
cultural explanations
structural discrimination
social-class position
recent migration
gender.
Ethnic groups are internally diverse.
Therefore, avoid sentences such as:
"Ethnic minorities are poor because of their culture."
This is both sociologically crude and unsupported by the supplied material.
A better argument would identify a specific factor and explain the mechanism through which it could affect employment or income.
Age and poverty
AQA's 2023 mark scheme explicitly identifies age as one of the social groups that may be considered when discussing poverty distribution.
Age can matter because people's relationship with employment, income and welfare changes across the life course.
AQA also recognises worklessness among groups such as retired people and those unable to work when discussing lives and life chances.
For examination purposes, students should therefore understand why age may influence poverty risk, while avoiding unsupported numerical claims.
Potential mechanisms supported by the broader Work, Poverty and Welfare content include:
differences in participation in paid work
differences in access to employment
worklessness
dependence on different sources of income
welfare provision
changing life chances.
Worklessness and the distribution of poverty
Employment is one of the strongest links connecting different social groups with different poverty risks.
AQA explicitly requires students to understand the significance of work and worklessness for people's lives and life chances.
Worklessness is not distributed randomly.
For example, AQA's 2024 assessment recognised differences in unemployment between groups caused by factors including:
technological change affecting lower social classes
racism
disability discrimination
decline of traditional industries
lack of experience among young people
difficulties facing some recent arrivals to the UK.
This means unequal poverty risk may partly result from unequal access to secure employment.
You will examine these consequences more closely in worklessness and life chances [Worklessness].
Material explanations of poverty distribution
A useful way of organising the topic is to contrast material and cultural explanations.
AQA explicitly identifies this as a possible route to high-level evaluation.
Material explanations focus on people's objective economic circumstances and opportunities.
These may include:
class position
earnings
employment
unemployment
job insecurity
discrimination
access to welfare
caring responsibilities
economic marginalisation.
For example:
Patriarchal division of caring roles → reduced opportunities for full-time employment → reduced earnings → greater poverty risk for some women
or:
Racial discrimination → restricted employment opportunities → increased risk of worklessness → increased poverty risk
Material explanations therefore focus on resources and structural opportunities.
Cultural explanations of poverty distribution
Cultural explanations focus more on:
values
attitudes
behaviour
socialisation
fatalism
dependency culture
culture of poverty.
The New Right is particularly associated with arguments that behavioural differences help explain poverty.
AQA's 2023 item directly contrasts:
structural explanations, including Marxist arguments about capitalism
New Right explanations based on attitudes and behavioural differences.
Comparing material and cultural explanations
Consider working-class poverty.
A cultural argument might suggest:
Fatalistic attitudes → acceptance of social position → continuing poverty
A structural argument might suggest:
Limited employment and economic opportunities → working-class poverty
The disagreement concerns which factor has greater causal importance.
A particularly effective evaluation is to ask whether the two interact:
Structural disadvantage → long-term poverty → changes in attitudes and expectations → further disadvantage
This avoids an overly simple "structure versus culture" debate.
Marxist explanations of poverty distribution
Marxists explain much of the distribution of poverty through social class and capitalism.
Their argument is structural:
Capitalist society is characterised by class inequalities.
Resources and economic opportunities are unequally distributed.
Working-class people occupy a structurally disadvantaged position.
Poverty is therefore concentrated more heavily among some classes.
AQA specifically identifies:
Marxism
capitalism
exploitation
reserve army of labour
structural constraints
as relevant to poverty distribution.
Strength
Marxism provides an explanation for why poverty may follow a systematic class pattern rather than being randomly distributed between individuals.
Limitation
It can be argued that social class alone cannot explain every variation in poverty.
Gender, ethnicity and age also matter, and individuals within the same class do not necessarily experience identical circumstances.
New Right sociologists also challenge Marxist accounts by emphasising behaviour and culture.
Feminist explanations of poverty distribution
Feminists focus particularly on gender inequalities.
From this perspective, women's greater vulnerability may reflect:
patriarchy
unequal caring responsibilities
unequal labour-market opportunities
lower or less secure earnings
marginalisation from paid work.
AQA recognises feminisms, patriarchy and the feminisation of poverty as relevant material.
Strength
Feminist approaches highlight a dimension of poverty that cannot be reduced entirely to social class.
They explain why people from broadly similar class positions may still experience different economic risks because of gender.
Limitation
Gender cannot be considered in isolation.
Differences between women based on class, ethnicity, age, family situation and employment mean there is no single female experience of poverty.
New Right explanations of poverty distribution
The New Right places greater emphasis on attitudes, behaviour and individual responsibility.
AQA's 2023 poverty question identifies New Right arguments as an alternative to structural explanations.
Relevant concepts include:
dependency culture
underclass
fatalism
individual behaviour
welfare dependency.
From this perspective, poverty may be concentrated among particular groups because behavioural patterns make economic disadvantage more likely.
Evaluation
Structural sociologists argue that this explanation can confuse cause and consequence.
For example:
Is worklessness primarily caused by dependency?
Or does a shortage of secure employment create dependence on welfare?
Likewise:
Do attitudes produce poverty?
Or can long-term poverty shape attitudes?
This debate is central to strong evaluation.
The role of the welfare state
The distribution of poverty may also be affected by state welfare.
AQA recognises the role of the welfare state and taxation as relevant to explanations of poverty distribution.
State provision can alter the resources available to groups facing:
worklessness
low incomes
caring responsibilities
other forms of disadvantage.
However, sociologists disagree over the effectiveness and consequences of welfare.
This debate is examined fully in government action on poverty [State responses to poverty].
For this lesson, the important point is that poverty patterns do not simply reflect the market. They may also be influenced by policies that redistribute resources or alter people's life chances.
Social class, gender and ethnicity can overlap
A major weakness of studying each social division separately is that people's lives involve several social positions at once.
For example, the employment situation of a working-class woman may be affected by both:
social-class inequalities
gendered caring responsibilities.
Similarly, ethnic inequalities may also be influenced by:
class position
gender
employment
discrimination.
The 2025 examiner report noted that some strong answers successfully considered the combined effects of racism and patriarchy on women's employment opportunities.
This is valuable for evaluation because it prevents overly deterministic claims.
Instead of arguing:
gender causes poverty
a more sociological explanation would be:
gender may shape poverty risk through its interaction with employment, caring responsibilities, class and other inequalities.
Relative poverty and differences between groups
Understanding distribution also requires remembering what relative poverty means.
If poverty is judged in relation to socially accepted standards, sociologists can compare the resources and life chances of different social groups.
This links back to different understandings of poverty [The nature and existence of poverty].
AQA's 2023 mark scheme identifies relative poverty and social exclusion as relevant concepts when explaining poverty distribution.
A group may therefore experience disadvantage through:
low economic resources
restricted opportunities
reduced participation
poorer life chances.
This makes poverty a question of both economic position and wider social inequality.
Poverty risk does not mean everyone in a group is poor
This distinction is essential.
If sociologists say that one group has a higher risk of poverty, this does not mean that:
every member of that group is poor
everyone outside the group is economically secure
group membership automatically causes poverty.
Sociological patterns are about probabilities and inequalities between populations.
For example:
Women may face a greater poverty risk because gender inequalities affect employment and caring responsibilities.
is much stronger than:
Women are poor.
Similarly:
Some minority ethnic groups may experience employment disadvantages because of discrimination.
is more accurate than treating all ethnic minorities as having identical experiences.
Evaluating evidence about poverty distribution
AQA requires students to consider both evidence and sociological explanations for topic content.
When evaluating evidence, ask four questions.
1. What definition of poverty is being used?
Different definitions may identify different numbers of people as experiencing poverty.
This was covered in the nature and existence of poverty [The nature and existence of poverty].
2. Are differences within groups being hidden?
Broad categories such as "women", "working class" or "minority ethnic groups" contain considerable diversity.
3. Are two factors being confused?
An apparent ethnic difference, for example, may partly involve:
class
employment
gender
migration
discrimination.
4. Does correlation prove causation?
If a social group has a higher poverty risk, group membership does not automatically explain why.
Sociologists need an explanatory mechanism.
For example:
Gender → caring responsibilities → reduced labour-market participation → lower income
is an explanation.
Simply writing:
Women experience more poverty because they are women
is not.
Evaluating sociological explanations of poverty distribution
AQA's 2023 mark scheme indicates that top-level answers may evaluate through:
Marxism
functionalism
feminisms
New Right approaches
comparison of material and cultural explanations
discussion of class, age, gender and ethnicity.
A useful comparison is:
Explanation | Why poverty is unevenly distributed | Evaluation |
Marxism | Capitalist class structures disadvantage the working class | Strong on class structure, but class alone may not explain gender, ethnic and age differences |
Feminism | Patriarchy disadvantages women economically | Highlights gender inequality, but women's experiences vary by class, ethnicity and other factors |
New Right | Attitudes and behavioural differences increase poverty risk | Highlights agency, but may underestimate structural constraints |
Structural explanations | Employment, discrimination and unequal opportunities create group inequalities | Explain patterned disadvantage, but individuals in similar circumstances may have different outcomes |
Cultural explanations | Socialisation, attitudes or dependency can reproduce disadvantage | May explain persistence within some groups, but culture itself may result from poverty |
The strongest essays use these perspectives to answer the question, rather than writing a separate textbook paragraph on each theory.
A model evaluative chain
Suppose the question asks whether structural factors best explain why women face a greater poverty risk.
A developed chain might be:
Feminist explanations identify patriarchy as a structural cause.
Gendered caring responsibilities may restrict women's participation in paid employment.
AQA material also identifies employment gaps and job insecurity as possible contributors to women's poverty.
This supports the view that poverty risk is shaped by social arrangements rather than simply personal choices.
However, not all women experience poverty equally.
Class and ethnicity may also influence employment opportunities.
Therefore, patriarchy may be important, but gender should be understood alongside other structural divisions rather than as a complete explanation.
That is analysis and evaluation, rather than description.
Key Words 🔑
Key word | Student-friendly definition | How it may be used in an exam |
Distribution of poverty | The pattern showing how poverty is spread between different groups in society | Use when comparing poverty risks by class, gender, age or ethnicity |
Poverty risk | The likelihood that members of a particular group may experience poverty | Helps avoid claiming that every member of a group is poor |
Structural constraints | Social or economic conditions that restrict people's opportunities | Use to explain unequal poverty risks without blaming individuals |
Feminisation of poverty | The relationship between gender inequalities and women's greater vulnerability to poverty | Use when analysing gender differences |
Patriarchy | Social arrangements in which gender inequalities advantage men and disadvantage women | Apply to women's employment, income and caring responsibilities |
Discrimination | Unequal treatment that can restrict people's opportunities | Apply when explaining differences linked to ethnicity, gender or other social divisions |
Marginalisation | Being pushed towards a disadvantaged position with reduced access to resources or opportunities | Link to employment and poverty risks |
Social exclusion | Disadvantage that restricts full participation in social life | Use to show that poverty affects wider life chances |
Fatalism | A belief that an individual has little ability to change their situation | Use in cultural explanations and evaluate against structural accounts |
Material factors | Economic circumstances such as income, employment and access to resources | Compare with cultural explanations of poverty distribution |
Hints from the Examiner Reports đź’ˇ
Examiner hint:Â Be selective. The 2023 question on the distribution of poverty could be answered using many different explanations, and examiners reported that students benefited from selecting a smaller number and developing them in depth.
Examiner hint:Â Do not simply describe poverty. The 2023 mark scheme distinguishes basic discussion of poverty in general from stronger answers that explicitly explain its distribution between social groups.
Examiner hint:Â Compare material and cultural explanations. AQA specifically identifies this as one way students can develop evaluation in an essay about poverty distribution.
Examiner hint:Â Make links between the social group and the mechanism causing disadvantage. In 2021, weaker answers about women's poverty discussed gender differences generally without applying them specifically to women's experiences of work.
Examiner hint:Â Avoid anecdotal answers. The 2025 examiner report noted elsewhere in Work, Poverty and Welfare that less successful answers sometimes lacked studies and relied on anecdotal evidence. Use sociological concepts and evidence instead.
Examiner hint:Â When different inequalities overlap, explain the relationship. The 2025 report praised responses that considered how racism and patriarchy could combine to affect employment opportunities.
Examiner hint:Â In a 20-mark essay, evaluation needs to do more than introduce another theory. Compare the explanations directly and reach a reasoned judgement about which factors best explain the pattern.
Common Mistakes ⚠️
Mistake: Saying that everybody in a particular group is poor
Why this is incorrect: Poverty distribution concerns differences in risk and pattern, not universal characteristics of every individual within a social group.
How to improve: Use phrases such as "greater risk", "more vulnerable" and "more likely to experience poverty" where supported.
Mistake: Describing poverty without discussing social groups
Why this is incorrect: A distribution question asks how poverty differs between groups.
How to improve: Name the relevant dimension early, such as class, gender or ethnicity, then explain why the risk differs.
Mistake: Treating gender as a complete explanation
Why this is incorrect: Gender can influence poverty through employment, caring responsibilities and other mechanisms. Simply being female is not itself a sociological causal explanation.
How to improve: Construct a chain:
gender inequality → labour-market/caring pattern → economic consequence → poverty risk
Mistake: Treating all minority ethnic groups as identical
Why this is incorrect: The supplied AQA material refers to differences between ethnic groups and recognises class and gender as additional influences.
How to improve: Refer to some ethnic groups where appropriate and identify a specific mechanism such as discrimination or employment opportunities.
Mistake: Confusing correlation with explanation
Why this is incorrect: Knowing that one group has a greater poverty risk does not explain the pattern.
How to improve: For every pattern, add the question: Why? Then provide a structural, material or cultural mechanism.
Mistake: Assuming cultural explanations prove that poor people are responsible for poverty
Why this is incorrect: Culture of poverty, fatalism and dependency are contested sociological explanations.
How to improve: Evaluate whether attitudes are causes of poverty or possible consequences of long-term structural disadvantage.
Mistake: Writing separate theory essays
Why this is incorrect: A paragraph on Marxism followed by feminism followed by the New Right does not automatically answer a distribution question.
How to improve: Organise paragraphs around specific patterns or debates, then use perspectives to explain and evaluate them.
Exam-Style Questions ✍️
Question 1
Outline and explain two reasons why women may be at greater risk of poverty than men. [10 marks]
Question 2
Outline and explain two reasons why poverty may be distributed unevenly between social classes. [10 marks]
Question 3
Read Item A below and answer the question that follows.
Item A
Some groups experience disadvantages in the labour market that restrict their employment opportunities. Other groups may have caring responsibilities which affect the amount of paid work they can undertake.
Poverty is distributed unevenly between social groups.
Applying material from Item A, analyse two reasons why poverty risks may differ between social groups. [10 marks]
Question 4
Read Item B below and answer the question that follows.
Item B
Structural sociologists argue that unequal poverty risks result from inequalities in society. For example, capitalism may disadvantage the working class and patriarchy may disadvantage women.
Other sociologists argue that attitudes and behaviour are more important in explaining why poverty is concentrated among some groups.
Applying material from Item B and your knowledge, evaluate structural explanations of the distribution of poverty. [20 marks]
Question 5
Read Item C below and answer the question that follows.
Item C
Women may experience inequalities within paid employment and may also take greater responsibility for caring. However, women's experiences vary according to other aspects of their social position.
Applying material from Item C and your knowledge, evaluate sociological explanations of gender differences in the risk of poverty. [20 marks]
Question 6
Read Item D below and answer the question that follows.
Item D
Some sociologists explain differences in poverty through people's material circumstances, including employment opportunities and economic resources. Others place greater emphasis on socialisation, values and behaviour.
Applying material from Item D and your knowledge, evaluate the view that material factors provide the best explanation of the distribution of poverty between social groups. [20 marks]
Mark scheme
Question 1: Outline and explain two reasons why women may be at greater risk of poverty than men. [10 marks]
A strong answer should identify and develop two separate reasons.
Indicative content may include:
inequalities in earnings
job insecurity
caring responsibilities
reduced opportunities for full-time employment
gaps in employment
reduced access to employment benefits or pensions
marginalisation from the labour market
lone parenthood
patriarchy.
For each point:
identify the factor
explain how it affects women's economic position
develop the relationship with poverty risk.
No evaluation is required.
Question 2: Outline and explain two reasons why poverty may be distributed unevenly between social classes. [10 marks]
Indicative content may include:
capitalist class inequality
exploitation
unemployment or worklessness
reserve army of labour
insecure employment
structural constraints
globalisation
fatalism
culture of poverty
differences in economic resources.
A top answer will develop two reasons fully rather than listing several possibilities.
Question 3: Applying material from Item A, analyse two reasons why poverty risks may differ between social groups. [10 marks]
Students should apply both item hooks.
Hook 1: "disadvantages in the labour market"
Possible development:
class inequality
discrimination
racism
unemployment
insecure employment
structural constraints.
Students should analyse how restricted access to paid employment or earnings may increase poverty risk.
Hook 2: "caring responsibilities"
Possible development:
gender
patriarchy
unequal caring roles
reduced working hours
employment gaps
feminisation of poverty.
Two clearly separated and developed applications are needed.
Question 4: Evaluate structural explanations of the distribution of poverty. [20 marks]
Indicative content may include:
Marxism
capitalism
exploitation
class inequality
reserve army of labour
structural constraints
feminism
patriarchy
feminisation of poverty
racism
discrimination
marginalisation
employment inequalities
New Right alternatives
culture of poverty
dependency culture
fatalism
socialisation.
Strong evaluation may consider:
whether structural explanations account for clear group patterns
whether class is sufficient to explain gender and ethnic differences
cultural versus material explanations
whether attitudes are causes or effects of structural disadvantage
diversity within social groups.
A reasoned conclusion should judge how far structural explanations account for the unequal distribution, rather than simply the existence, of poverty.
Question 5: Evaluate sociological explanations of gender differences in the risk of poverty. [20 marks]
Indicative content may include:
feminisation of poverty
patriarchy
labour-market marginalisation
gender differences in employment
caring responsibilities
employment gaps
job insecurity
pension and employment benefits
lone parenthood
structural explanations
cultural explanations
interaction with class and ethnicity.
Strong evaluation should avoid treating all women as one homogeneous group.
A good conclusion might argue that gender is important because it shapes access to employment and resources, but that its effects cannot be separated completely from class and other social inequalities.
Question 6: Evaluate the view that material factors provide the best explanation of the distribution of poverty between social groups. [20 marks]
Indicative material factors include:
class position
employment and worklessness
earnings
capitalism
exploitation
discrimination
patriarchy
marginalisation
welfare provision
structural constraints.
Cultural alternatives may include:
culture of poverty
socialisation
fatalism
dependency culture
underclass explanations
individual behaviour.
Higher-level answers should directly compare the two.
Useful evaluation could include:
material disadvantages can help explain persistent patterns across whole social groups
cultural differences may contribute to variation within groups
cultural attitudes may themselves develop as a result of long-term material deprivation
neither type of explanation necessarily works independently
the most convincing explanation may involve interaction between structural circumstances and people's responses to them.
The conclusion should reach a justified judgement about the relative importance of material and cultural factors in explaining why poverty is distributed unevenly.
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