Abstract Book of the 9th World Conference on Social Sciences
Year: 2025
[PDF]
Gender Matters: Exploring Class-Models Using Latent Class Analysis
Ankit Kumar Senapati, Arjun Mukerji, Ayushi Dhar
ABSTRACT:
Classes in contemporary societies emerge from distinctions based on individuals’ possession of economic and symbolic capital. These classes can be represented as groups of actors occupying different positions in an imaginary societal field based on their possession of various forms of capital. Existing research has extensively documented gender-based inequalities that persist across both the global North and South, shaping access to resources such as education, employment, and technology. Building on this, our study explores the change in the number of classes when gender is considered as an indicator for class formation, and otherwise. Using a sample dataset of 3279 individuals for Kolkata, India, we estimated two latent class models: one using nine indicators excluding gender, which yielded five classes, and another including gender, which yielded eight classes. Model-fit and diagnostic criteria were analyzed to select possible class solutions in both cases. Further, a test of local independence of the indicators was conducted, for the class models in both scenarios, to visualize the statistical independence based on which the final class models were selected. The increase in the number of classes when gender is introduced indicates that gender differentiates actors with similar economic and symbolic capital profiles, producing new configurations that reflect contemporary patterns of gendered access to capital. This study reiterates the Bourdieusian argument of symbolic capital creating distinctions in the social field in contemporary societies.
Keywords: Bourdieu; Capital; Contemporary Societies; Global South; Kolkata