Background to the Research

• The authors sought to explore four main issues in relation to social mobility in the North and South of Ireland. How do the class structures in each region differ from each other? Are the differences in relative mobility such that class inequalities are greater in one region than in the other? Are differences in mobility, according to gender, greater in one region than in the other and in the case of the North, are mobility patterns distinct in terms of ethnicity?
  

Research Approach

• In order to address the above questions, the authors drew on data from the Living in Ireland Survey, carried out in the South in 1994 (a sub-sample of 3,000 men and 1,425 women aged between 21-65 years was used). Data for the North was drawn from a mobility survey carried out in 1996 (a sub- sample of 538 Catholic men, 816 Protestant men, 587 Catholic women and 801 Protestant women between the ages of 21-65 years was used).
• Six separate mobility tables were created, cross-classifying an individual's class of origin by his or her current or most recent class position. The CASMIN class schema of 5 social classes was used: Professional, administrators and managers (the service class, I + II): Routine non-manual employees (class III): The petty bourgeoisie of small proprietors and farmers (class IV): Skilled manual workers and supervisors of manual workers (classes V +VI): Unskilled manual workers (class VII).
  

Main Findings

• Post-partition, the South had a rural economy and a class structure in which a large proportion of the population were farmers/agricultural workers. The North was nearer to an industrial society, and the class structure changed little despite industrial decline and the 'Troubles' and this was reflected in the numbers of skilled- and non-skilled manual workers. The class structure, North and South, has been gradually converging, especially after 1958, when the South underwent industrialisation, a growth in the service sector and a decline in farming.
• Amongst men, the North has a larger upper-middle class and larger manual classes, whilst the South has larger agricultural and lower-middle classes.
• Amongst women in 1961, the proportion in agriculture was greater in the South than in the North, the difference had all but disappeared by 1991. A much smaller proportion of women in the South were in the non-skilled manual classes than found in the North.
• In 1961, participation in the labour force was higher for women in the North, especially for married women. The participation of married women in the labour force rose sharply between 1961-91, so that the rates for all women and for married women are nearly identical in both parts of Ireland. However, women in the North have higher overall rates of labour force participation.
• There is evidence of convergence in the current class distributions - notably in the size of the petty bourgeoisie and manual classes. The number of women in routine non-manual work has risen considerably in both regions.
• In both regions women are over-represented in classes IV and V+VI.
• In class origin, Protestants are over-represented relative to Catholics in the professional/managerial classes and in the skilled manual class. Catholics are more numerous in the petty bourgeoisie and non-skilled manual classes.
• In terms of the current class position of women, there is hardly any differences between Protestants and Catholics. However, Catholic men continue to be under-represented in the service class relative to Protestants, though the differences are less than in the class origin distributions.

Absolute Social Mobility

• The overall levels of absolute mobility do not differ across the two countries, however, the level for women is higher than for men. Mobility into the professional and managerial class varies little between women North and South, but is significantly higher for men in the North, with 21% of Protestant men and 18% of Catholic men moving up the hierarchy compared to 15% of men in the South.
• In relation to the move from working class to professional and managerial class, only 6% of men and women in the South achieve this mobility, whilst the figure in the North is 11% for men and 9% for women.
• Long-range downward mobility varies little between North and South for men, and is higher for women - forming a clearer pattern in the North. Among Catholic women, 6% more had been upwardly mobile into the professional and managerial class than had been downwardly mobile into the non-skilled working class - the figure for Protestant women is 1%. Among men, the advantage lies with Protestant men with a figure of 10% compared to 5% for Catholics.

Relative Mobility

• Patterns of social fluidity are different in the South than in the North. The South is a less open society and competition for a more desirable social class is more heavily biased by class origin than in the North.
• The class in which class position is most easily inherited - the petty bourgeoisie - makes up a larger share of the class origin distribution in the South than in the North.

The Effects of Migration

• In the North, the relationship between class origins and education is the same among migrants and non-migrants. It appears unlikely that migration has had any biasing effect on conclusions about social fluidity. There is a different relationship between class origins and educational attainment among migrants and non-migrants in the South. The conclusions drawn from patterns of social fluidity in the South might have been different if there had been no migration.

Conclusions

• There has been a convergence in the class distributions between Protestant and Catholic women in the North and a lessening of the advantage of Protestant women in terms of long-range upward and downward mobility.
• Despite some convergence in class distributions between Protestant and Catholic men in the North, Catholic men are still disadvantaged, being less likely to be found in the professional and managerial class and more likely to be found in the non-skilled manual class and the advantage in terms of long-range mobility still lies with Protestant men.
• The gender differences in the current class distribution is far larger in both the North and South and among Catholics and Protestants than the ethnic difference.
• In the North, there is no difference in social fluidity between Catholics and Protestants of the same gender.
• Mobility chances in the South are more closely tied to class origin than in the North, and therefore equality of opportunity in the South is less.
• Migration in the South removed a disproportionate share of better qualified people from less advantaged class origins. This increased the association between class origins and educational qualifications among non-migrants, and may have led to lower rates of social fluidity.
• Rates of class inheritance are greater in the South and insiders appear more able to retain their class position. Education is a means of social mobility, and class inequalities in education are more substantial in the South than in the North, and may also form part of the reason for lower social fluidity in the South.