This article explores the relationship between social class and educational achievement measured by grades among Norwegian law graduates over a span of 200 years. We argue that class inequalities may arise due to mechanisms favouring ‘insiders’, meaning students whose families have legal backgrounds. Alternatively, a broader category of students with origins in educated or elite families could also enjoy special advantages. Our results indicate that there were insignificant class inequalities in grades before the beginning of the 20th century, when they first appeared, and that class inequalities increased to some extent subsequently. Graduates with origins from families with legal backgrounds or origins in the cultural upper class tend to be awarded the highest grades and those with farming or working-class origins tend to be awarded the lowest grades. Inequalities according to class origin can be explained only to a limited extent by performance at secondary school. Unlike class origin, however, the impact of grades at secondary school appears to be highly stable over time. We ask whether mechanisms favouring legal ‘insiders’ may have become less important over time, whereas the impact of cultural capital may have increased.

中文翻译：

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精英职业的历史变迁——200多年来法学院毕业生的班级起源和成绩

本文探讨了 200 年来挪威法律毕业生以成绩衡量的社会阶层与教育成就之间的关系。我们认为，阶级不平等可能是由于有利于“内部人士”的机制而产生的，这意味着家庭具有法律背景的学生。或者，来自受过教育或精英家庭的更广泛的学生类别也可以享受特殊优势。我们的研究结果表明，在 20 世纪初首次出现阶级不平等之前，阶级不平等并不显着，随后阶级不平等在一定程度上有所增加。具有法律背景的家庭或文化上流阶层出身的毕业生往往被授予最高等级，而具有农业或工人阶级出身的毕业生往往被授予最低等级。根据班级出身的不平等只能在有限的程度上用中学成绩来解释。然而，与班级出身不同，中学成绩的影响似乎随着时间的推移高度稳定。我们询问有利于合法“内部人员”的机制是否随着时间的推移变得不那么重要，而文化资本的影响可能增加了。