Free Social Stratification MCQs with Answers

• A. doctor
• B. long-distance runner
• C. daughter
• D. each of the above

Explanation: Being a daughter is normally an ascribed status because it is assigned through birth and kinship rather than earned.

• A. movement into different occupational categories between generations
• B. movement into a different occupational category over a person's lifetime
• C. movement into a higher occupational category
• D. movement into an occupation that generates a lower income

Explanation: Intergenerational mobility compares the social or occupational position of people in one generation with that of another, commonly…

• A. Only by individuals
• B. By individual or by entire group
• C. Only groups
• D. None of these

Explanation: Social mobility can occur at the individual level, such as one person changing class position, or at the group level, such as a whole…

• A. quite different
• B. all alike
• C. growing more nearly alike
• D. none of these

Explanation: Men's and women's career and mobility patterns have become more similar as women's education and labour-force participation have…

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

Explanation: Historically, women's social and economic position was often tied to the status of their husbands, especially in societies where marriage…

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

Explanation: A closed mobility system assigns people to social positions largely by birth, so individual equality of opportunity does not determine…

• A. Inter-generational mobility
• B. Structural mobility
• C. Intra-generational mobility
• D. None of these

Explanation: Intra-generational mobility occurs within one person's lifetime, such as moving from a junior job to a senior position.

• A. Vertical mobility
• B. None of these
• C. social mobility
• D. Horizontal mobility

Explanation: Horizontal mobility changes a person's occupation or social role without changing their position in the hierarchy, such as moving between…

• A. Individual factor
• B. Structural
• C. both a and b
• D. None of these

Explanation: Education, work habits and mobility-oriented behaviour are individual factors because they reflect personal qualities or choices that…

• A. Class factor
• B. Social factors
• C. Individual factors
• D. None of these

Explanation: Mobility rates depend both on structural opportunities, such as expansion of professional jobs, and on individual factors such as…

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

Explanation: Social mobility means movement from one social class or status position to another, either upward, downward or horizontally.

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

Explanation: Master status is the position that becomes the most important basis for a person’s social identity and overall standing.

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

Explanation: A role is the set of socially defined expectations and behaviours attached to a particular status.

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

Explanation: Master statuses often centre on highly visible and socially significant characteristics, especially gender and race.

• 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…

• A. Marriage
• B. Their father's status
• 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.

• 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…

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

Explanation: In a closed mobility system, status positions are largely fixed by birth or ascription, so equal opportunity has little effect on movement…

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

• 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…