But when Centers added working class it turned out to be the self-identification of half of American men. Centers also demonstrated that class identification made a difference in people's views of a variety of economic and political issues. Nonetheless, the notion of the United States as quintessentially middle class and homogenous in outlook worked its way into popular writing and scholarship. This bias only deepened with the postwar boom, as even poor Americans seemed to share in economic prosperity. But in fact, twenty years after the postwar boom ended, Americans continue to identify themselves according to class much the same way they did in 1940.
Results sharply contradict the assertion of a big middle- class tent.
Women, not surprisingly, are more likely to choose lower class and less frequently upper class than are men. NORC studies of class identification in the 1970s and '80s demonstrated the same general profile of Americans' class identification. While we shouldn't put too much credence on changes over one or two years, differences in NORC findings between 1991 and 1993 are also worth noting. Upper-class identifiers, however, increased from 2.3 percent to 3.1 percent. More people felt poor and more people felt rich, but fewer felt middle.