ERIC ED432980: Sociology: Discipline Analysis. Women in the Curriculum Series.

34 Pages·1997·0.59 MB·English

by  ERIC

DOCUMENT RESUME
ED 432 980
HE 032 688
AUTHOR
Johnson, Jacqueline; Risman, Barbara J.
TITLE
Sociology: Discipline Analysis. Women in the Curriculum
Series.
INSTITUTION
Towson Univ., Baltimore, MD. National Center for Curriculum
Transformation Resources on Women.
SPONS AGENCY
Ford Foundation, New York, NY.; Fund for the Improvement of
Postsecondary Education (ED), Washington, DC.
ISBN
ISBN-1-885303-29-7
PUB DATE
1997-00-00
NOTE
33p.; For related documents in this series, see HE 032
663-689.
AVAILABLE FROM
Towson University, 8000 York Road, Baltimore, MD 21252; Tel:
800-847-9922 (Toll Free); Fax: [phone]; Web site:
http://www.towson.edu/ncctrw ($7).
PUB TYPE
Information Analyses (070)
Reference Materials
Bibliographies (131)
EDRS PRICE
MF01/PCO2 Plus Postage.
DESCRIPTORS
*College Curriculum; *College Instruction; Curriculum
Development; Ethnicity; Females; Feminism; *Feminist
Criticism; Higher Education; Models; Race; Research
Methodology; *Sex Bias; Sex Differences; *Sex Fairness; Sex
Role; Social Class; Social Science Research; *Sociology;
Teaching Methods; Theories
IDENTIFIERS
Gender Issues
ABSTRACT
This essay examines the ways in which sociology, as a
discipline, has been influenced by feminist scholarship in the field, and
three major contributions of feminist scholarship are presented: the
introduction of women into sociological theory and research during the era of
"sex role" analysis; the shift to analyzing gender as a basic axis of
stratification built into social organization; and a more inclusive
sociological perspective that focuses on the simultaneous operation of
gender, race, and class in people's lives. The essay notes that in addition
to critiques of traditional sociology, feminist scholarship has transformed
the discipline by developing the study of sex and gender as a subfield of
sociology. It concludes by noting that feminist sociologists are currently
exploring the ways that researchers can understand gender as multifaceted,
supporting, reinforcing, and intersecting with many other forms of
inequality. An 89-item bibliography contains information on background
readings for faculty; suggested readings for undergraduate courses;
curriculum resources; and professional organizations.
(MDM)
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Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made
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iscipline Analysis
Jacqueline Johnson
Barbara ,als a
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fi/This document has been reproduced as
received from the person or organization
originating it.
O Minor changes have been made to
improve reproduction quality.
AVAILABLE
BEST COPY
°
Points of view or opinions stated in this
document do not necessarily represent
official OERI position or policy.
Women the Curriculum
SOCIOLOGY
Discipline Analysis
Jacqueline Johnson
Barbara J. Risman
North Carolina State University
National Center for
Curriculum Transformation
Resources on Women
1997
3
National Center for Curriculum Transformation Resources
on Women
Institute for Teaching and Research
on Women
Towson University
8000 York Road
Baltimore, MD 21252
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
E-mail: [email protected]
http://www.towson.edu/ncctrw
Copyright
1997
National Center for Curriculum Transformation Resources
on Women
All rights reserved. No part of this publication
may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic
or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording, or by
any information storage and
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the National Center
for Curriculum Transformation Resources
on Women.
The National Center for Curriculum Transformation Resources
on
Women is partially supported by grants from The Ford Foundation and
the U.S. Department of Education, Fund for the Improvement of
Postsecondary Education,
support is gratefully acknowledged.
whose,
The viewpoints expressed herein, however, do not necessarily reflect
those of the funding agencies.
Printed on recycled paper by Uptown Press, Baltimore, MD
ISBN 1-885303-29-7
Sociology
iii
PREFACE
Since the 1970s feminist and multicultural scholar-
organiza-
ship has been challenging the traditional content,
academic
tion, methodologies, and epistemologies of the
in both
disciplines. By now this scholarship is formidable
complex
quantity and quality and in its engagement of
Transforma-
issues. The National Center for Curriculum
publishing a series
tion Resources on Women is therefore
overviews of the new
of essays that provide brief, succinct
scholarship. Outstanding scholars in the disciplines gener-
intended to help
ously agreed to write the essays, which are
of the new in-
faculty who want to revise courses in light
by
formation and perspectives. Each essay is accompanied
includes references for further reading,
a bibliography that
and electronic resources.
resources for the classroom,
Elaine Hedges
Series Editor
Towson University, Baltimore, MD
Sociology
1
SOCIOLOGY
The intellectual history of sociology is one in which
ideas were developed by "founding fathers" Marx,
Weber, and Durkheimwho brought their European male
standpoints to the theories they created (Sprague, 1993).
As in many other disciplines, mainstream thought reflected
the perspective of the elite European men who developed
it. Women were largely absent from their theories. When
they did appear, women were usually relegated to the
study of physical or s_ ocial reproduction, socialization, and/
or the family.
As the second wave of the women's movement ma-
tured, feminist scholars began to challenge male-biased
presumptions that had previously informed the founda-
tions of social science and the humanities. Feminists such
(1988) main-
as Stacey and Thorne (1985) and Gergen
tained that most theories and methodologies were literally
"man-made" and thereby resulted in observations and
interpretations which largely reflect male perceptions of
reality. Comparing sociology with other disciplines, they
argued that feminist perspectives remained peripheral and
isolated from mainstream sociological theory and research
well into the middle and late 1980's, while other fields,
such as English and anthropology, had already begun to
radically transform their centers.
In the last decade, however, feminists have perse-
vered, and at times succeeded, in bringing the study of
Towson University, Baltimore, MD
2
Discipline Analysis
women and gender from the margins to the center of soci-
ology. In a recent update of their earlier critique of sociol-
ogy, Stacey and Thorne (1996) contend that theoretical
contributions of feminist scholarship have enhanced the
discipline of sociology by highlighting how all social insti-
tutions are gendered. Once gender was recognized and
problematized as a social construction, previously hidden
or erased topics were brought to the forefront of sociolog-
ical theorizing, such as wage gaps by gender, and
sex seg-
regation within and across jobs and occupations (Kanter,
1977; England, 1985; Reskin and Hartman, 1986). In addi-
tion, this new focus on gender, also referred to
as a "gen-
der lens" perspective (Howard et al., 1996), encouraged
the development of new topics within sociological dis-
course and theorizing which are directed towards bringing
together and challenging notions concerning public versus
private domains. These topics include research
on sexual
harassment, sexuality, sociology of emotions, the political
nature of bodies, and feminist epistemology.
In this short overview, we address three contribu-
tions of feminist scholarship: the introduction of
women
into sociological theory and research during the era of "sex
role" analysis; the shift to analyzing gender as a basic axis
of stratification built into social organization; and
a more
inclusive sociological perspective which focuses on the si-
multaneous operation of gender, race, and class in people's
lives, referred to as the "matrices of domination" perspec-
tive (Collins, 1991).
Feminist "Sex Role" Research
In the early days of sociology, women were invisible,
with the exception of their status as wives and mothers.
7
National Center for Curriculum Transformation Resources on Women
Sociology 3
vis
Functionalist theorists did write about women but only
assuming that women's specializa-
a vis their "sex roles,"
for society
tion in family roles was efficient and effective
feminist
(Parsons and Bales, 1955; Zelditch, 1955). Thus,
identifying
contributions to sociology first focussed on
outside of
women's very existence and their contributions
Much of this
the family (Epstein, 1970; Lorber, 1984).
within the
early feminist discourse existed comfortably
dif-
prevailing "sex-roles" framework, as it examined the
How-
ferent roles that men and women played in society.
"sex roles" also criticized their ex-
ever, feminist work on
their useful-
istence rather than accepting and endorsing
Giele, 1978; Holier, 1972).
ness (Weitzman, 1979;
Before long, however, feminist sociologists began to
Constantinople
question the use of "role" terminology itself
documen-
(1979) suggested that there was little empirical
Furthermore,
tation that a unitary sex role even existed.
paradigm of
the language of roles appeared to accept a
actual differ-
seemingly natural difference that exaggerates
rather than highlighting
ences between men and women,
sociologists
similarities. Thorne (1982) suggested that
because the
should not use the language of "race roles"
foreign to
notion that roles ought to be based on race is
American values. Yet, until recently, using biological sex
dichotomy by
and the language of "sex roles" as a basic
acceptable to
which to organize society seemed perfectly
however, feminist scholars
many. During this decade,
stopped
(Ferree, 1990; Stockard and Johnson, 1992) have
analyzing gender as "sex roles" because the use of role ter-
social
minology reinforced an ideology which justified a
outside the
organization in which men focus their attention
home and women remain within it.
Towson University, Baltimore, MD
4
Discipline Analysis
From "Sex Roles"
to "Gender"
The feminist focus on women's oppression and
sub-
ordination led from a theoretical redefinition of
the study
of sex roles into an investigation of gender relations
within
sociological discourse. Feminists moved beyond
an exclu-
sive focus on women within family relations and
sex roles
to expose underlying patterns and mechanisms through
which unequal distributions of
power between men and
women are produced and reproduced throughout many in-
stitutions and structures in society (Reskin and Padavic,
1994; Lorber, 1994). No longer content
to settle for mod-
ified versions of traditional theories, i.e. the "add-women-
and-stir" method, feminist scholars such
as Smith (1987;
1990) and Collins (1991) question the validity of
main-
stream methodologies and theories in sociology.
Smith
(1987) asserts that the goal of "value-free" sociology
merely masks underlying patterns of male domination
and
the categorization of women that
occurs in much social
research. To resist these "relations of ruling" which result
in abstractions and misinterpretations of. the actual
experi-
ences of women, she argues that the context of social envi-
ronments must be captured from the subject's point of
view, which is derived from
a point of lived experience
rather than some version of so-called objective reality.
When a "gender lens" (Howard et M., 1996) is used,
all of society, and therefore the curriculum, looks different,
and new questions emerge in
every substantive area of
sociology. Such questions include: Are organizations
gen-
dered? How does the gender distribution of health
care
workers affect the definition of appropriate care? Why
are
most violent criminals male; might the social construction
of masculinity help explain this?
9
National Center for Curriculum Transformation Resources
on Women
Sociology 5
The "gender lens" perspective shifts our focus to en-
institutions are
able us to see how even the most common
gendered. For instance, by analyzing the gendered nature
Acker (1989)
of organizations, feminist scholars such as
organizational
found that social stratification involves the
of society in
ranking of men and women within every realm
women's overall cultural worth
a way that disadvantages
and prestige.
and limits their access to resources, power,
when gender is
West and Zimmerman (1987) contend that
which
examined from a social constructionist perspective,
actions at-
focuses on the social creation of meanings and
reproduction of
tached to culturally prescribed scripts, the
is revealed in
gender inequality between men and women
the process of "doing gender."
Standpoint Theory and
Matrices of Domination
has
Another contribution of feminist scholarship
from which
been a critique of the limited viewpoints
from the
theories evolve. The argument that theory grows
experiences of the theorist, commonly referred to as
chal-
"standpoint" theory (Sprague, 1993; Smith, 1987),
Spe-
lenges the very meaning of "woman" and "gender."
theory
cifically, standpoint theory proposes that feminist
the different experiences
must be broadened to assure that
lesbians, and
of poor women, American women of color,
societies are considered as much
women in less developed
the experiences and
at the center of feminist scholarship as
American
viewpoints of white, heterosexual, middle-class
and European women. Thus, standpoint theory forces us
to theorize about difference.
10
Towson University, Baltimore, MD