Abstract In this paper I discuss methods of integrating women into social stratification studies. Traditional stratification studies have focused only on the male “heads” of households. While considering this problem within a conceptual framework of theoretical assumptions and empirical evidence, I would like to review some of the earlier work in this area.I propose to differentiate social stratification into “occupational stratification” and “consumption stratification” in order to facilitate the integration of women into these studies. I shall use data from a nationwide survey to show how and why the traditional male head‐of‐household approach is inappropriate in determining the social stratification of households.Rather than considering the occupation of the male head of the household, I use the concept of “substantive complexity of work” to compare paid work with housework. If a married woman is working outside the home, I define her occupation as that which scores higher in this comparison.I also suggest that we further subcategorize consumption stratification. Finally, I propose integrating the suggestions made in this paper with the status inconsistency approach to