Why Status Matters for Inequality

Ridgeway · Power & Equity · American Sociological Review · 2014 · Open access

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Presidential address to the American Sociological Association arguing that status — esteem and respect-based inequality — is a central mechanism behind durable patterns of social inequality, operating alongside resource and power inequalities. Cultural status beliefs about groups bias evaluations of competence and suitability for authority, direct higher-status members toward positions of power, and actively resist challenge from lower-status members. Connects Status Characteristics Theory to structural inequality at scale.

Ridgeway, C.L. (2014) 'Why status matters for inequality', American Sociological Review, 79(1), pp. 1–16.

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