Dalton Conley, the Director of the Center for Advanced Social Science Research and professor of sociology and public policy at NYU, gave a lecture titled "Is the Family Home a Level Playing Field?" on Sept. 9. Conley, the author of several books on socioeconomic inequality as it is transferred across generations, has most recently published "The Pecking Order: Which Siblings Succeed and Why." In his talk, Conley discussed the findings of this book, including that while family class is an important predictor of eventual socioeconomic success, there is often pronounced inequality in the outcomes of different siblings.
Conley began his lecture with the stories of three different American presidents and their siblings. Bill Clinton emerged from a childhood environment of poverty, alcoholism and abuse to become President, while his half-brother Roger became involved in substance abuse and illegal activity, eventually spending time in prison for dealing cocaine. The affluent and connected Kennedy family had 4 brothers, each of whom passed on the mantle of privilege and political promise to the next, producing a President and two US Senators. Jeb Bush, while initially considered the star sibling with an excellent academic record and successful business ventures, has been surpassed in his political career by his brother George W. Bush. Conley explained that each of these stories of famous American families are archetypal expressions of the fact that the family is not a level playing field. "It is not a haven from the harsh world of capitalism," he said.
Two siblings, on average, are only 25% closer together in income than any two random people would be, Conley explained. This means, he said, that while the class you are born into "weights the dice you have to roll," socioeconomic class at birth is by no means deterministic of future economic success, an assertion that disagrees with the analysis of many sociologists. Conley was quick to point out, however, that he did not believe that his findings strongly support the right-wing belief that American society is a level playing field with equal opportunity - in fact, he said, "not all sibling differences are created equally." Rich families (such as the Kennedy or Bush families) have far more equality between siblings than poor families do. In terms of race, black siblings have twice as much inequality between them as white siblings do.
Birth order also plays a large roll in the differing outcomes of siblings, but its exact impact is dependent on many other factors in the family environment, Conley said. For example, while the first-born child usually does better in traditional nuclear families, this situation can be flipped when an event like a divorce or the death of a parent can force the oldest child (particularly females) to take on added responsibility and pressure. The concept of "middle child syndrome" does hold true, as Conley found in his research of families that went from two children to three - while the oldest child suffered no effects from the addition of a third sibling, the second child often suffered academically.
Conley also touched on some other factors that can affect sibling outcomes. For example, when a family has a stay-at-home mother, the daughters in the family tend to have less eventual success than the sons. However, this inequality disappears in families with working mothers, which Conley said was an indication that social norms and values within the family impact economic success. Differing sexual orientation and levels of religiosity (both factors that can make children outsiders from their families) actual had similar effects on sibling inequality, Conley said. When people come from affluent families, having a different sexual orientation or religious beliefs will put them at a disadvantage compared to their siblings. The effect works in reverse for people who start out at a low socioeconomic level.
Family is not merely a receptacle of social forces, Conley said in summary. The family home both reflects and creates social dynamics, such as those which cause economic inequality, and cannot be isolated from them. As long as we have the high level of inequality we have in the United States, large inequalities will also exist between siblings, causing even greater rifts in the American family structure.
Conley's lecture was co-sponsored by the Sociology Department, the Dean of the Faculty's office, and as part of the Kirkland Project's 2004-2005 "Class in Context" series. The next event in the series is a lecture by author Jonathan Kozol titled "Savage Inequalities: Class, Race, and Social Justice in U.S. Public Schools." It will take place on Thursday, Sept. 16 at 7:30 pm in the College Chapel.
-- by Caroline R. O'Shea '07
