Free Social Stratification MCQs with Answers

• A. Social class
• B. social groups
• C. social mobility
• D. None of these

Explanation: Social mobility means movement from one social class or status position to another, either upward, downward or horizontally. Social class and social group refer to categories or memberships, not the movement itself.

• A. achieved status
• B. ascribed status
• C. master status
• D. status set

Explanation: Master status is the position that becomes the most important basis for a person’s social identity and overall standing. Achieved and ascribed status describe how a status is acquired, while a status set is the collection of statuses a person occupies.

• A. a position
• B. a role
• C. a performance
• D. an impression

Explanation: A role is the set of socially defined expectations and behaviours attached to a particular status. A position is the status itself, while performance concerns how the role is enacted in practice.

• A. gender and race
• B. class and income
• C. education and occupation
• D. family and peer groups

Explanation: Master statuses often centre on highly visible and socially significant characteristics, especially gender and race. Class, education and occupation can affect status but are not the usual pair identified as the most common master statuses.

• A. industrial capitalism separated the middle-class home from the workplace
• B. those who enter paid employments have been sidelined into particular fields
• C. it is difficult to succeed in malestream politics without compromising their femininity
• D. all of the above

Explanation: Industrial capitalism separated the home from paid work, while women who entered employment were concentrated in limited occupations and faced political expectations about femininity. These processes together restricted women’s access to the public sphere, making “all of the above” appropriate.

• A. Their father's status
• B. Marriage
• C. Their children's status
• D. None of these

Explanation: Employment gives women an independent route to status and upward mobility rather than making their position depend mainly on marriage. In traditional status arrangements, a woman's position was often derived from her father and later her husband.

• A. Status of women in society
• B. Status of their husbands
• C. Both a and b
• D. None of these

Explanation: In strongly patriarchal systems, a woman’s social position and mobility were often defined through her husband’s occupation, class, or status. This reflects the historical treatment of women’s status as dependent rather than independently achieved.

• A. Open
• B. Broad
• C. closed
• D. None of these

Explanation: In a closed mobility system, status positions are largely fixed by birth or ascription, so equal opportunity has little effect on movement between statuses. Open systems, in contrast, formally allow achievement and opportunity to influence mobility.

• A. the belief that women control the private sphere
• B. women's increasing labor market participation
• C. the allocation of men and women to different types of job
• D. relations between men and women in the workplace

Explanation: Occupational gender segregation means that men and women are concentrated in different occupations or types of jobs, such as men being overrepresented in some technical fields and women in care work. It refers to job allocation, not simply workplace relations or women's participation rates.

• A. comprehensive
• B. meritocratic
• C. selective
• D. elitist

Explanation: A meritocratic education system allocates achievement or status according to ability, effort, and performance rather than family background. Selective systems may screen students, but selection alone does not necessarily mean that outcomes are based on individual merit.