Cecilia Ridgeway

Cecilia L. Ridgeway is the Lucie Stern Professor of Social Sciences in the Sociology Department at Stanford University. She is particularly interested in the role that social hierarchies in everyday social relations play in the larger processes of stratification and inequality in a society.   Recent projects have included the development and empirical tests of status construction theory, which is a theory about the power of interactional contexts to create and spread status beliefs about social differences.  Examples of this work can be found in papers such as “How Easily Do Social Differences Become Status Distinctions? Gender Matters,” (American Sociological Review, 2009), “Consensus and the Emergence of Status Beliefs (Social Forces 2006), “Creating and Spreading Status Beliefs” (American Journal of Sociology, 2000), “How Do Status Beliefs Develop? The Role of Resources and Interaction (American Sociological Review, 1998), and “The Social Construction of Status Value: Gender and Other Nominal Characteristics” (Social Forces, 1991).

Another ongoing project addresses the role of interactional processes in preserving gender inequality despite major changes in the socioeconomic organization of society.  A recent book on this topic is titled, Framed By Gender: How Gender Inequality Persists in the Modern World (Oxford University Press, 2011).  A current related paper is:  “Intersecting Cultural Beliefs and Social Relations: Gender, Race, and Class Binds and Freedoms” (draft manuscript, 2011). Examples of other publications on social hierarchies, status, and gender inequality include “Framed Before We Know It: How Gender Shapes Social Relations.” (Gender & Society, 2009); “Sociological Approaches to Sex Discrimination” (2007), “Motherhood as a Status Characteristic” (Journal of Social Issues, 2004), “Unpacking the Gender System: A Theoretical Perspective on Cultural Beliefs and Social Relations” (Gender & Society, 2004)“Gender, Status, and Leadership” (Journal of Social Issues, 2001), “Interaction and the Conservation of Gender Inequality” (American Sociological Review, 1997), and Gender, Interaction, and Inequality (Springer-Verlag, 1992).

Newer projects include 1) the development and experimental testing of a theoretical analysis of the role of social coordination and accountability in the use of status information (“It’s the Conventional Thought that Counts: The Origins of Status Advantage in Third Order Inference” draft manuscript, 2011);  2) a theoretical account of the processes that bind low status members to a group.

 

Curriculum Vitæ

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RESEARCH AREAS

Social Psychology, Gender Stratification, Group Processes, Status Processes, Sociology of Culture.

PUBLICATIONS

Recent Books:

  • Cecilia Ridgeway. Framed by Gender: How Gender Inequality Persists in the Modern World. Book manuscript in preparation.

 

Recent Papers:

  • Cecilia L. Ridgeway. “Framed Before We Know It: How Gender Shapes Social Relations.” Gender & Society, 2009, 23(2-Apr):145-160.

  • Cecilia L. Ridgeway, Kristen Backor, Yan E. Li, Justine E. Tinkler, and Kristan G. Erickson. “How Easily Does a Social Difference Become a Status Distinction: Gender Matters.” American Sociological Review, 2009, 74(1-Feb):44-62.

  • David L. Faigman, Nilanjana Dasgupta, and Cecilia L. Ridgeway. “A Matter of Fit” The Law of Discrimination and the Science of Implicit Bias.” Hasting Law Journal, 2008, 59(6-June):1389-1434.

  • Cecilia L. Ridgeway. “Gender as a Group Process: Implications for the Persistence of Inequality.”  Pp. 311-333 in The Social Psychology of Gender, edited by S. Correll. New York: Elsivier, 2007.

  • Cecilia L. Ridgeway and Paula England. “Sociological Approaches to Sex Discrimination in Employment.” Pp. 189-211 in Sex Discrimination in the Workplace: Multidisciplinary Perspectives, edited by F. J. Crosby, M. S. Stockdale, and A. S. Ropp. Oxford: Blackwell, 2007.

  • Cecilia L. Ridgeway and Shelley J. Correll. “Consensus and the Creation of Status Beliefs.” Social Forces, 2006, 85(1-Sept):431-454.

  • Cecilia L. Ridgeway. “Expectation States Theory and Emotion” Pp. 347-367 in Handbook of Sociology of Emotions, edited by J. E. Stets and J. H. Turner. New York: Springer Press, 2006.

  • Cathryn Johnson, Timothy Dowd, and Cecilia L. Ridgeway. “Legitimacy as a Social Process.” Annual Review of Sociology, 2006, 32:53-78.|

  • Cecilia L. Ridgeway. “Linking Social Structure and Interpersonal Behavior: A Theoretical Perspective on Cultural Schemas and Social Relations.” Social Psychology Quarterly, 2006, 69:5-16.

  • Cecilia L. Ridgeway.  “Status Construction Theory.” Pp. 301-323 in Contemporary Social Psychological Theories, edited by P. J. Burke. Stanford University Press, 2006.

  • Cecilia L. Ridgeway. “Gender as an Organizing Force in Social Relations: Implications for the Future of Inequality.” Pp. 265-287 in The Declining Significance of Gender?, edited by F. D. Blau, M. B. Brinton, and D. G. Grusky. New York: Russell Sage, 2006.

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