Cecilia L. Ridgeway, M.S. ’69, Ph.D. ’72, Stanford University’s Lucie Stern Professor of Social Sciences, Emerita, will deliver the annual Alice Cook–Lois Gray Distinguished Lecture on Oct. 23.

“Status: What Is It? Why Does It Matter for Race and Gender Inequality?” will begin at 4:30 p.m. in Ives Hall, Room 115. The public is invited, and refreshments will follow the lecture. The lecture is geared to an in-person audience, but a Zoom link will be sent in the confirmation email to those who register.

Professor Ridgeway studies how interpersonal status hierarchies relate to inequalities based on gender, race and social class. The lecture will explore what Ridgeway describes as the “common mistake” of underestimating status in the perpetuation of patterns of inequality. 

“People are startlingly oblivious to status,” says Ridgeway. “This superficially laudable perspective can blind us to what’s happening.” 

Ridgeway obtained a bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan before earning her master’s degree and Ph.D. in sociology from Cornell University.

The annual ILR lecture is named after deceased ILR faculty members Alice Hanson Cook and Lois Spier Gray and is held to advance their visions of social justice and equality. This year’s lecture was organized by Pamela Tolbert, the Lois S. Gray Professor of ILR and Social Sciences in the Department of Organizational Behavior.

This year’s lecture is co-sponsored by the Department of Sociology, Cornell University’s Center for the Study of Inequality, Cornell Population Center, and the Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy.

Read more on the ILR website.
Tonya Engst is a writer for the ILR School.