Falling sideways? Social status and the true nature of elite downward mobility

Abstract

Downward mobility is an essential, but commonly overlooked component of social mobility. Existing estimates of downward mobility are routinely based on unidimensional measures of income and social class. This ignores the potential for substantial retention of advantage in other domains of stratification – particularly social status.

In this paper, I use highly detailed occupational data from a representative UK sample to examine patterns of multidimensional mobility among those from the most advantaged backgrounds. I find that multidimensional measures reveal dramatically different patterns of downward mobility – particularly for women, who, when downwardly mobile in terms of social class, often retain privileged social status positions.

I also find that those whose parents held jobs at the very top of the status distribution were much less likely to be downwardly mobile than previous mobility estimates have suggested – consistent with public perceptions of a ‘glass floor’.