Power and Stratification overview: Component 3 of WJEC A-Level Sociology

This overview maps Component 3 (Power and Stratification) of WJEC A-Level Sociology: the compulsory study of stratification, the four power options, and the perspectives that run through every topic.

What Component 3 covers

Component 3 examines inequality and power. Section A is compulsory and studies how society is stratified; Section B applies the theme of power to one chosen option. As in Component 1, your centre selects the option, so two students can sit different questions.

The structure of Component 3

1. Section A: social differentiation and stratification (compulsory). Systems of stratification; inequality by class, gender, ethnicity and age; functionalist, Marxist, Weberian and feminist theories; social mobility and life chances; and the changing class structure.
2. Section B power option (one of four). Crime and deviance (theories, patterns, measurement, control); health and disability (the social construction of health, inequalities, models of disability, medical power); politics (power, authority, the distribution of power, voting, participation); or world sociology (development, global inequality, theories of development, globalisation).

The perspectives toolkit

Every topic is analysed through the sociological perspectives: functionalism, Marxism, feminism, interactionism, postmodernism, the New Right and, in stratification, Weber. The page on sociological theories and perspectives is the toolkit you reuse across the qualification.

How to study Component 3

1. Master Section A first. It is compulsory and frames the whole theme of inequality and power.
2. Learn your power option in depth. You answer only on the option you have studied, so know its theories and evidence thoroughly.
3. Apply perspectives, do not just describe them. Use the theories to build arguments on stratification and on your option.
4. Build evidence banks. Statistics, studies and examples make essays concrete.
5. Practise reaching judgements. Essays reward a supported verdict, not a survey.

For the official specification

WJEC publishes the full specification, past papers and mark schemes at wjec.co.uk. Always revise from the current specification and WJEC's own past papers, because question style and option lists are board-specific.