Table of Contents
Build class literacy
We need to build our class literacy, particularly if we have not personally experienced classism. Building class literacy is critical in order to avoid finding ourselves in a situation in which we are told that classism is wrong, but we do not understand why, what it looks like, or how we can effectively address it.
Use our resources to explore what class and classism look like in Australian organisations, and how you can address it.
- What is class?
- The case for class inclusion
- What can leaders do?
- Class at Work (2020)
Count class at work
Social class and socioeconomic status (SES) can be a complex demographic to capture and a sensitive question to ask employees. DCA suggests using the MacArthur Scale of Subjective Social Status, a single-item subjective measure of social class and SES that captures status and social position.
Read our D&I Data at Work Guide for an example social class diversity questions and response option, along with other questions you can use to collect baseline diversity data in your organisation.
Recruit for class diversity
Avoid recruiting and promoting someone because they attended an elite private school or university. Access to these institutions is much harder for class marginalised candidates to access. While lists of formal qualifications can simplify recruitment decisions, they do not predict job performance.1 Instead, focus on skills and experiences when making recruitment decisions. Where a university degree is vital, question whether an elite university education is necessary, or simply a biased preference that is excluding class marginalised job seekers.
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- R Knight, ‘When to Take a Chance on an Imperfect Job Candidate’, Harvard Business Review, 2021.
- OK Burhan, E Van Leeuwen, and D Scheepers, ‘On the hiring of kin in organizations: Perceived nepotism and its implications for fairness perceptions and the willingness to join an organization’, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 2020, pp 34–48, doi:10.1016/j.obhdp.2020.03.012.
- L Jain, É Gál, and G Orosz, ‘Nepotistic Hiring and Poverty From Cultural, Social Class, and Situational Perspectives’, Frontiers in Psychology, 2022, pp 780629, doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2022.780629.
- AP Carnevale and N Smith, Balancing Work and Learning: Implications for Low-Income Students, Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, Washington, 2018; D Oliver, A Stewart, A Hewitt, and P McDonald, ‘Unpaid work experience is widespread but some are missing out: new study’, The Conversation, 2017, accessed 22 July 2025, https://theconversation.com/unpaid-work-experience-is-widespread-but-some-are-missing-out-new-study-70737; S O’Shea, Literature Review: ‘Mind the Gap!’ Exploring the post-graduation outcomes and employment mobility of individuals who are first in their family to complete a university degree, National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education, 2019, accessed 7 July 2025, https://www.ncsehe.edu.au/app/uploads/2019/05/SarahOShea_FellowshipLiteratureReview.pdf.
- CH Ellersgaard, AG Larsen, and MD Munk, ‘A Very Economic Elite: The Case of the Danish Top CEOs’, Sociology, SAGE Publications, 2013, 47(6):1051–1071, doi:10.1177/0038038512454349; A Leigh, ‘Australian Mobility Report Cards: Which Universities Admit the Most Disadvantaged Students?’, Australian Economic Review, 2021, 54(3):331–342, doi:10.1111/1467-8462.12430.
- MW Kraus, B Torrez, JW Park, and F Ghayebi, ‘Evidence for the reproduction of social class in brief speech’, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2019, 116(46):22998–23003, doi:10.1073/pnas.1900500116.
- N Hester and E Hehman, ‘Dress is a Fundamental Component of Person Perception’, Personality and Social Psychology Review, 2023, 27(4):414–433, doi:10.1177/10888683231157961; D Oh, E Shafir, and A Todorov, ‘Economic status cues from clothes affect perceived competence from faces’, Nature Human Behaviour, 2019, 4(3):287–293, doi:10.1038/s41562-019-0782-4; B Tranter and R Grant, ‘A class act? Social background and body modifications in Australia’, Journal of Sociology, 2018, 54(3):412–428, doi:10.1177/1440783318755017.
- G Bellavance, ‘The multiplicity of highbrow culture: Taste boundaries among the new upper middle class’, in L Hanquinet & M Savage (eds), Routledge International Handbook of the Sociology of Art and Culture, Routledge, 2015, pp 324–336, doi:10.4324/9780203740248; D Carter, ‘Jane Austen, Monet and Phantom of the Opera – middlebrow culture today’, The Conversation, 2020, accessed 23 April 2025, https://theconversation.com/jane-austen-monet-and-phantom-of-the-opera-middlebrow-culture-today-145176.