the achievements of feminist sociology A manda Cross (1981: 148) writes of ‘the new forms possible to women’. This chapter focuses on the achievements of feminist sociology in making those new forms, and in colonising the old forms which were male strongholds. Achievement is in the eye of the beholder. As there are many different […]

Sociology in Britain in 2001 is very different from 1968. It is much big­ger: far more staff, students and departments, and far more sociologists teaching medical students, dental students, nurses, social workers, and other professions. Whole new areas of empirical research have been opened up, which I have discussed in Chapter 3. There is, however, […]

Feminist sociologists set out to get their ideas into print. However, ‘just’ getting work published is not enough. The work needs to be read, to be treated seriously, and to be cited. All these three audience responses are social matters. Sociologists read sociology, treat it seri­ously or discard it, and decide whether or not to […]

The goal of getting published was complicated by a dilemma. Feminist sociologists had to decide whether to aim their publications at existing sociological journals and get books published by existing publishing houses; to establish new journals or book series or even new publish­ing houses specifically for feminist sociology; or to establish and pub­lish in the […]

One of the priorities in the early days of feminist sociology was draw­ing attention to the gaping holes in the sociological coverage of the social world where women had not been studied, and/or where topics women thought important had not been studied. A landmark collection from the USA was Millman and Kanter (1975). This collection […]

There are several French women thinkers whose ideas have been influential in British and American feminist sociology. Christine Delphy’s ideas were publicised in Britain by Diana Leonard from the mid-1970s onwards, from her inclusion in Barker and Allen (1976) through to Leonard and Adkins (1996). Delphy is certainly a sociolo­gist, with a commitment to a […]

developments in feminist sociology 1968-2002 The Leicester sociology department in which I studied from 1967 to 1972 was large, prestigious, and had a male-dominated academic staff. (Deem, 1996: 7) F or the women who became feminist sociologists in Britain after 1965, what Deem describes at Leicester is instantly recognisable. Deem argues that the Leicester Department […]

Amanda Cross (1981: 22) has a sympathetic character say: ‘when the patriarchy gets worried, it goes into action’. The action of the patri­archy is apparent in many of the chapters, and the ‘backlash’ against feminism is discussed in Chapter 7. Feminism is a controversial ideolo­gy, even in sociology which is generally a broad church, tolerant […]