Table of Contents
Definition of Ascribed Status
(noun) A status assigned at birth or assumed involuntarily later in life, often based on biological factors, that cannot be changed through individual effort or achievement.
Examples of Ascribed Status
- age
- birth order
- caste position
- daughter or son
- ethnicity
- inherited wealth
Etymology of Ascribed Status
- Coined along with achieved status by Ralph Linton (1893–1953) in The Study of Man: An Introduction (1936).
Ascribed Status Pronunciation
Syllabification: as·cribed stat·us
Audio Pronunciation
Phonetic Spelling
- American English – /uh-skrIEbd stAY-tuhs/
- British English – /uh-skrIEbd stAY-tuhs/
International Phonetic Alphabet
- American English – /əˈskraɪbd ˈstætəs/
- British English – /əsˈkraɪbd ˈsteɪtəs/
Usage Notes
- Plural: ascribed statuses
- Ascribed statuses are often master statuses.
- Ascribed status is the opposite of achieved status.
- An individual can have multiple ascribed statuses that engage with each other intersectionally.
- Ascribed statuses such as ethnicity and gender directly impact the likelihood of acquiring achieved statuses due to inequality and oppression.
- A physical trait, biological in origin is an ascribed characteristic.
- An ascribed identity refers to “identity-based” ascribed statuses, such as race, religion, or sex.
- Also called ascription.
Related Quotations
- “About 5000 years ago, people developed plow agriculture. By attaching oxen and other large animals to plows, farmers could increase the amount they produced. Again thanks to technological innovation, surpluses grew. With more wealth came still sharper social stratification. Agrarian societies developed religious beliefs justifying steeper inequality. People came to believe that kings and queens ruled by ‘divine right.’ They viewed large landowners as ‘lords.’ Moreover, if you were born a peasant, you and your children were likely to remain peasants. If you were born a lord, you and your children were likely to remain lords. In the vocabulary of modern sociology, we say that stratification in agrarian societies was based more on ascription than achievement” (Brym and Lie 2007:225).
- “Caste and class systems of stratification are opposite, extreme points on a continuum. The two systems differ in the ease of social mobility, the relative importance of achieved and ascribed statuses, and the extent to which each restricts interaction among people considered unequal” (Ferrante 2011:204).
Related Video
Additional Information
Related Terms
- achieved status
- caste
- class
- master status
- role
- status
- status inconsistency
- status quo
- status symbol
- stereotype
- stratification
References
Brym, Robert J., and John Lie. 2007. Sociology: Your Compass for a New World. 3rd ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Ferrante, Joan. 2011. Sociology: A Global Perspective. 7th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Works Consulted
Andersen, Margaret L., and Howard Francis Taylor. 2011. Sociology: The Essentials. 6th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Brinkerhoff, David, Lynn White, Suzanne Ortega, and Rose Weitz. 2011. Essentials of Sociology. 8th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Bruce, Steve, and Steven Yearley. 2006. The SAGE Dictionary of Sociology. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
Brym, Robert J., and John Lie. 2007. Sociology: Your Compass for a New World. 3rd ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Delaney, Tim, and Tim Madigan. 2015. The Sociology of Sports: An Introduction. 2nd ed. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.
Ferrante, Joan. 2011a. Seeing Sociology: An Introduction. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Ferris, Kerry, and Jill Stein. 2010. The Real World: An Introduction to Sociology. 2nd ed. New York: Norton.
Giddens, Anthony, and Philip W. Sutton. 2014. Essential Concepts in Sociology. Cambridge: Polity.
Griffiths, Heather, Nathan Keirns, Eric Strayer, Susan Cody-Rydzewski, Gail Scaramuzzo, Tommy Sadler, Sally Vyain, Jeff Bry, Faye Jones. 2016. Introduction to Sociology 2e. Houston, TX: OpenStax.
Henslin, James M. 2012. Sociology: A Down-to-Earth Approach. 10th ed. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Hughes, Michael, and Carolyn J. Kroehler. 2011. Sociology: The Core. 10th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Kendall, Diana. 2011. Sociology in Our Times. 8th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Kimmel, Michael S., and Amy Aronson. 2012. Sociology Now. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Kornblum, William. 2008. Sociology in a Changing World. 8th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Macionis, John. 2012. Sociology. 14th ed. Boston: Pearson.
Macmillan. (N.d.) Macmillan Dictionary. (https://www.macmillandictionary.com/).
Ravelli, Bruce, and Michelle Webber. 2016. Exploring Sociology: A Canadian Perspective. 3rd ed. Toronto: Pearson.
Schaefer, Richard. 2013. Sociology: A Brief Introduction. 10th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Scott, John, and Gordon Marshall. 2005. A Dictionary of Sociology. New York: Oxford University Press.
Shepard, Jon M., and Robert W. Greene. 2003. Sociology and You. New York: Glencoe.
Shepard, Jon M. 2010. Sociology. 11th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Stolley, Kathy S. 2005. The Basics of Sociology. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
Thompson, William E., and Joseph V. Hickey. 2012. Society in Focus: An Introduction to Sociology. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Tischler, Henry L. 2011. Introduction to Sociology. 10th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Turner, Bryan S., ed. 2006. The Cambridge Dictionary of Sociology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wikipedia contributors. (N.d.) Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation. (https://en.wikipedia.org/).
Cite the Definition of Ascribed Status
ASA – American Sociological Association (5th edition)
Bell, Kenton, ed. 2013. “ascribed status.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Retrieved February 9, 2025 (https://sociologydictionary.org/ascribed-status/).
APA – American Psychological Association (6th edition)
ascribed status. (2013). In K. Bell (Ed.), Open education sociology dictionary. Retrieved from https://sociologydictionary.org/ascribed-status/
Chicago/Turabian: Author-Date – Chicago Manual of Style (16th edition)
Bell, Kenton, ed. 2013. “ascribed status.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Accessed February 9, 2025. https://sociologydictionary.org/ascribed-status/.
MLA – Modern Language Association (7th edition)
“ascribed status.” Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Ed. Kenton Bell. 2013. Web. 9 Feb. 2025. <https://sociologydictionary.org/ascribed-status/>.