Molly-Mae reminds us why Britain is so unequal
As influencer Molly-Mae Hague found out this week, punching down is the best way to fire up social media. Her comments that “we all have the same 24 hours in a day” to be a success have, rightly, caused a huge backlash — the differences between a day in poverty and a day in the life of Beyoncé blindingly obvious to all except Molly-Mae.
Hague genuinely believes she has laboured to get to where she is. But, in repeating the myth that ‘you can get anywhere if you work hard enough’, she reminds us of the troublesome ideas that Britons share about ‘hard work’, society being a level playing field and who ‘deserves’ success. These pervasive and potent ideas create huge barriers to a more equal society.
Myths of meritocracy and level-playing fields endure because of how we ‘want’ the world to be, and who gets celebrated in culture. It is preferable to believe we live in a country where ability trumps the circumstances of birth; just as it is to think that the Alan Sugars of the world are the example, not the exception, to the rule.
The reality is more uncomfortable. I work at the Social Mobility Foundation which helps high-achieving young people from low-income backgrounds access the top universities and professions. The fact the Foundation’s work is needed, that it helps 2,000 young people on free school meals a year, shows the complexity of social mobility: students can get triple A* grades and still need help navigating university admissions, graduate schemes and professional life.
Our experience shows that poorly designed systems hold back people with potential. Systems that are often designed by privileged people who do not understand the reality of ordinary lives. For example, research from the Foundation showed that apprenticeships — long heralded as the silver bullet to social mobility — are today more likely to be considered by the middle-classes than the working-classes. This is because low wages and a concentration of opportunities in London — both easily resolved problems — means apprenticeships are unviable to those without an aunt to lodge with in Islington or parents to provide a financial stipend.
There are other major forces at play too. Nepotism means opportunities are hoarded by those with wealth and privilege. A failure to ‘level-up’ means children in many parts of the country have fewer opportunities than their parents did and face having to move to major cities to ‘get on’ in life. A private education is too-often held up as the ‘gold standard’; blinding recruiters — not least the Prime Minister — to the talent that makes up 93% of the country.
To design better systems we must shatter the myths that people like Molly-Mae believe. Instead a more compelling story of how inequality works in Britain is needed. Marcus Rashford has led the way and Raheem Sterling’s social mobility charity has the potential to follow suit. The Department of Opportunities (The Social Mobility Foundation’s new campaigning and advocacy arm) is putting the voice of young people at the centre of its work. It is all desperately needed. Without change, the myths we share will hold us back from creating a fairer society that benefits us all.
