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

Downward mobility is an essential, but commonly overlooked component of social mobility. Where it has been estimated, the prevalence of downward mobility is routinely given solely in terms of 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 sample of the UK population to examine patterns of multidimensional mobility among those from the most advantaged backgrounds. I find that a unidimensional focus on social class conceals substantial retention of advantage among those from advantaged backgrounds. This is particularly the case among women who, when downwardly mobile in terms of social class, often retain privileged social status positions. This tendency is even stronger if status is measured at the family, rather than the individual level.

I also find that particular class and status origins within the most advantaged categories are substantially more likely to avoid downward mobility. Only a minority of those originating in these most privileged groups are meaningfully downwardly mobile, and only a vanishingly small minority fall into working class occupations.

These results demonstrate that the picture of downward mobility developed from unidimensional measures of social class is drastically incomplete. The extent to which it distorts our understanding, particularly of women’s downward mobility, has important implications, both for future academic work, and for social policy targeted at improving social fluidity.