Religion, social mobility and education in Scotland

Abstract

The relationship among religion, education and social mobility in Scotland is analysed statistically using the Scottish Household Survey of 2001. The large sample size allows much greater statistical power for this purpose than any previous source, and thus allows a more reliable assessment of claims that the stratifying effect of religion in Scotland may have declined. The questions investigated are as follows. What are the religious differences in the distributions of class origins and class destinations, in the movement between these (absolute mobility), and in the association of these (relative mobility, or social fluidity)? Do changes in social fluidity across cohorts vary among people with different religious affiliation? Are there religious differences in the association of origins and education, in the association of education and destinations, or in the role of education in social fluidity, and do any of these vary over cohorts? The conclusions are that, in younger cohorts, there is no religious difference in social status, and that in older cohorts Catholics are generally of lower status than Protestants and the non-religious. Social fluidity does not, however, vary among religious groups, even for older cohorts, and does not change over time. The reason for convergence in social status of religious groups over time is probably the equalizing of educational attainment among the groups: there is no evidence for any of the cohorts that the labour-market rewards to education differ by religion.

Catholic schools in Scotland and divisiveness

“…Examining the literature within the Scottish context, issues of state funding for faith schools, faith schools and divisiveness, and faith schools and social cohesion all apply (McCrone and Rosie 1998;Fitzpatrick 1999Fitzpatrick , 2003Paterson 2000;Bradley 2000;Conroy 2001Conroy , 2002Kelly 2003aKelly , 2003bPaterson, Bechhofer, and McCrone 2004;Paterson and Iannelli 2006). However, the faith schools and social cohesion issue becomes re-configured to faith schools and sectarianism (Kelly 2003b).…”

Education, employment and school religious denomination in Scotland in the 1950s

“…Probably because of various kinds of invidiuous discrimination in employment until at least the 1940s, there was blocked social mobility by Catholics even by the third quarter of the 20th century, in the sense that their status attainment was lower than their educational potential would indicate (McPherson & Willms, 1986;Paterson, 2000;Paterson & Iannelli, 2006;Payne & Ford, 1977;Willms, 1992). Such patterns of recruitment could operate in the industrial economy that dominated central Scotland until the 1950s, in which enterprises were mainly family-owned and mainly served geographically clustered communities (Bruce et al, 2004).…”

“…This change thus opened up professional careers to Catholics as never before, with the long-term result that, by the end of the century, the overall socio-economic status of the Catholic population was the same as that of the majority (Bruce et al, 2004, pp. 76-81;Paterson & Iannelli, 2006).…”

“…That economy collapsed between the 1930s and the 1970s, so that recruitment became increasingly meritocratic, either because new employers were large multinational firms or because a growing share of employment was by the state. The resulting more open labour market enabled Catholics born from the 1950s onwards to use the new system of secondary schools as a route to social mobility (Paterson & Iannelli, 2006). The remaining relative social disadvantage in the Catholic population was largely confined to people born earlier than the 1950s (Williams & Walls, 2000, pp.…”

Sectarianism: myth or social reality? Inter-sectarian partnerships in Scotland, evidence from the Scottish Longitudinal Study

“…Others dispute that the evidence supports sectarian discrimination, arguing instead that the rural backgrounds of Catholics meant that they lacked the skills and education needed for employment in developing industries (Paterson and Iannelli 2006). It has however been documented and accepted that the marginalization of Catholics was Church of Scotland policy during the 1920s; in 2002 their General Assembly issued a public apology for its role in this sectarianism (Conroy 2003, p. 406).…”