Intergenerational Class Processes and the Asymmetry Hypothesis

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Abstract
The asymmetry hypothesis is central to current controversy about the unit of class composition. It is argued by those who support a conventional approach to class analysis that marital partners themselves recognise that it is the occupational position of the husband that confers status on the household in modern industrial societies. This paper confirms that the conventional approach better explains observed patterns of socio-political class formation among partnered females in Britain than does an alternative individualist strategy. The recent suggestion that this household composition effect can be attributed mainly to intergenerational class processes is shown, irrespective of the degree of labour-market participation among women, to be unwarranted. These findings are based on three recent large-scale social surveys.