IELTS vocabulary: Social Class and Mobility

Social class and mobility is one of the more abstract Task 2 and Part 3 subjects, and abstraction is exactly what makes it dangerous for candidates who reach for "rich and poor" vocabulary and stop there. A prompt asking whether social background determines a person's life outcomes, or whether class differences are becoming more or less significant, needs vocabulary that distinguishes between class as a structure, mobility as a process, and inequality as a measurable outcome — three related but genuinely separate ideas that a vague answer collapses into one. This article works through the vocabulary for describing class structure itself, the specific barriers that limit movement between classes, and how that movement is actually measured, along with the confusions candidates most often make when writing about this topic.

Start with the core concept vocabulary. "Social class" refers to a group of people sharing a broadly similar economic and social position, historically categorised in tiers such as working class, middle class, and upper class, though modern usage often treats class as more of a continuum than a small number of fixed tiers. "Social mobility" is the ability of individuals or families to move between these classes, and "intergenerational mobility" narrows this specifically to movement across generations — how much a person's economic position differs from their parents', which functions in this article as the primary, most precise term for describing movement between classes; a closely related term, meritocracy, the belief that such movement should be determined by talent and effort, has its own dedicated article, since it raises a distinct set of questions about fairness and legitimacy beyond mobility itself. "Social stratification" is the broader academic term for a society being organised into these hierarchical layers at all, useful when an essay wants to discuss the existence of class structure as a general phenomenon rather than any specific individual's position within it. "Socioeconomic background" is a genuinely useful compound term for a person's combined class and economic starting position, often used precisely because it avoids committing to a single, potentially contested class label.

Vocabulary for barriers to mobility moves an essay past the vague claim that "some people have more opportunities than others." "Structural inequality" describes disadvantage built into a society's systems and institutions rather than resulting from any individual's choices or effort, a genuinely important distinction for essays discussing why mobility might be limited independent of personal ability. "Unequal access to education" is one of the most commonly cited specific mechanisms behind that structural inequality, worth naming directly rather than gesturing at "education matters." "Inherited advantage" describes benefits, both financial and social — capital, connections, unpaid opportunities such as internships — passed from one generation to the next, distinct from an individual's own effort or ability, and worth using specifically when an essay wants to complicate a narrative that treats success as purely earned. "Generational wealth" is a related, more specific term for accumulated family assets passed down over time, which can enable mobility for one family while its absence constrains another regardless of either family's current effort. "Glass ceiling" is a more specific, widely recognised term for an invisible but real barrier limiting advancement for a particular group — most commonly discussed in relation to gender, but also applicable to class-based barriers to reaching senior positions. "Class-based discrimination" names more direct, attitude-driven barriers — being judged, hired, or excluded based on perceived class background specifically — as distinct from the more structural, systemic barriers described above.