The matrix of domination contends that stratification is an overarching system across multiple axes such as race, gender, class, and sexuality, with each system reinforcing others. Which statement best captures this concept?

• A. Each type of stratification (race, gender, class, sexuality) is part of an overarching system of beliefs that some groups are superior while others are inferior; each system relies on the others.
• B. Stratification is determined by a single factor such as class alone.
• C. It denies any interaction between different forms of oppression.
• D. It asserts that inequality is entirely natural and not connected to beliefs.

Answer: (A)

The main idea here is that domination is built from interlocking systems of oppression that reinforce each other across race, gender, class, sexuality, and more. These forms of stratification don’t operate in isolation; they share beliefs, institutions, and practices that keep some groups at the top and others at the bottom, and each system helps sustain the others.

That’s why the statement describing an overarching set of beliefs that some groups are superior while others are inferior, with each form of oppression relying on the others, best captures the concept. In real life, people who belong to multiple marginalized groups experience how racism and sexism, for example, amplify barriers in work, education, and daily life in ways that can’t be understood by looking at one axis alone. The matrix of domination highlights this interdependence and the ideological rationale that supports it.

Choices that suggest stratification comes from a single factor, deny interaction between oppressions, or claim inequality is natural and unconnected to beliefs misrepresent how intertwined and ideologically grounded these systems are.