Abstract:
The purpose of this study was to investigate the occupational prestige and esteem in Thai society. A sample of 728 respondents were asked to rank 89 occupations according to their esteemed prestige. The 89 occupations were grouped into 9 categories namely: professional and technical workers, administrative and managerial workers, clerical and related workers, sales workers, service workers, agricultural – animal husbandry – forestry workers – fishermen and hunters, production workers – transport equipment operators and laborers. The armed forces and police officers. and others which include those who live off income from their property. Research findings revealed that the highest prestige scores were given to occupations in professional and technical work and administrative and managerial work. Occupations at the top levels in clerical work, sales work, service work, and armed forces and police officers ranked second. Other occupations at the lower levels in these four groups plus occupations in agricultural work and production and labor received moderate and low prestige scores. Geographical regions. urban-rural differences and educational levels seemed to affect the way respondents gave prestige scores. Respondents in the South gave higher scores to most occupations. especially those in professional and technical group. Northeasterners tended to give higher scores to occupations which imply job security and life security. Respondents from the Central Part gave lowest score to armed forces and police officers. In terms of the urban-rural differences. urban people gave higher scores to occupations in professional and technical work. administrative work and sales work; while rural people gave higher scores to occupations in clerical work, agricultural work, production work and laborers and armed forces and police officers. In general. Rural respondents gave higher scores to occupations with which they were familiar or had contact. Regarding educational levels. primary school graduates gave low scores to occupations in professional and technical work and administrative group while secondary school graduates gave the group higher scores while those who had higher than secondary education gave highest scores to the same groups. On the other hand. Occupations in service work, agricultural work, production work, and laborers received highest scores from primary school leavers. Lower scores from secondary school leavers and lowest scores from those who had received more than secondary education. No patterns emerged in score ranking for occupations in clerical work and sales work. It was notable that secondary school gradates gave highest scores to armed forces and police officers. When the prestige scores of all occupations were ranked. The top five occupations were: cabinet minister, medical doctor – dentist – veterinarians – pharmacist, armed force general, ambassador and director-general/governor respectively. The lowest ranked five occupations were masseuse and bargirl, bus ticket collector, fortuneteller, other service workers e.g. watchman – attendant – carkeeper – elevator operator, and laborer or worker. Respondents also tended to rank the prestige scores according to their own social background. Reasons which were given for the selection of the highest occupations were: a) prestige, importance and social recognition, b) power, c) helpfulness, d) income, e) challangefulness, f) independence, The selection of ranked lowest occupations had the following rationales: a) lack of prestige and social recognition, b) being blue collar job, c) deceitfulness and corruption, d) insecurity, c) income, f) dependence, and g) uselessness and tediousness. In comparing the Thai occupational prestige scores to Treiman’s Standard International Prestige Scale, a high correlation at 0.89 was found. Twenty occupations in Treiman’s Scale and Thai scale got similar scores. The occupational structure of Thai society as classified by the grouping of prestige scores in this study can be devided into 4 strata. The high occupational prestige stratum consists of 12 occupations. The higher-middle prestige stratum consists of 30 occupations, the lower-middle prestige stratum consists of 31 occupations. And he other 15 occupations are in the low prestige stratum. This occupational structure may be used as an indicator of social stratification in Thai society. When we compared the stratification structure of the present. Thai society with the Thai feudal society in the past. The emergence of the middle class was the most significant change. However, the composition of occupations at the top stratum and at the bottom stratum remained the same through the two periods. i.e., prestigious occupations were related directly or indirectly to power while occupations at to bottom stratum were related to labor and hard working. It was remarkable what while middle class people in service – commercial sectors could gain upward mobility; low class people were mostly deprived of this opportunity over times.