The Feminist Perspectives Series seeks to provide concise, accessible and engaging introductions to key feminist topics and debates. The texts in the series are designed to be used on a wide range of courses touching feminist issues and are written by experienced teachers who are also well known in their respective fields. Each book in the series includes the most up-to-date statistics, research data, key sources and suggestions for further reading.
Feminist Perspectives on Sociology examines how sociology has been transformed under the influence of feminism in recent years. This transformation consists both of a critique of established areas and the opening up of new ones. Areas and issues covered include approaches to knowledge and research, patriarchal relations, work in and outside the home, body politics, sport and fitness, migration, violence, the state, and globalisation. The book also reviews a range of ‘post’ perspectives and arguments including postmodernism, postcolonialism and postfeminism. Feminism is also a transformative social movement. Its political impact, from local to transnational levels, has to be taken into account in assessing developments in sociology, providing it with a connection between research and action.
Key features
- Provides a comprehensive and accessible introduction to feminist perspectives in sociology
- Discusses and assesses sociological and feminist theories in relation to case studies
- Covers a wide range of current issues that will interest readers from many disciplinary backgrounds
- Includes end of chapter summaries, suggestions for further reading and a glossary of key terms
Barbara Littlewood is Lecturer in Sociology, University of Glasgow.
(Each chapter ends with Summary and Further Reading).
1. FEMINIST PERSPECTIVES IN SOCIOLOGY
Chapter outline
Many sociologies, many feminisms
Feminism in sociology: influences
Feminism and sociology: developments and directions
2. THE EPISTEMOLOGY CHALLENGE
Chapter outline
Introduction
The theoretical background: functionalism and conflict theory
Conflict theory, knowledge and ideology
Feminist critiques of sociological knowledge
Feminist empiricism
Feminist standpoint
Academics and activists: the politics of research
Useful knowledge
3. DIVISIONS OF LABOUR
Chapter outline
Feminist sociology in the 1970s
‘Production’ and ‘reproduction’ in sociology
The social and domestic division of labour: the historical background
Women and employment: contemporary issues
Features of women’s employment
Factors contributing to women’s employment patterns
Theories of women’s work
The feminisation of the labour force
Moving beyond the ‘West’: gender and colonialism
The gendering of the global economy
Work and non-work
The demise of the male breadwinner
The ‘family-friendly’ public sector?
4. PATRIARCHY: PUBLIC AND PRIVATE
Chapter outline
‘Patriarchy’: radical and Marxist feminist
Patriarchy as ideological or material
Where is patriarchy?
Patriarchy’s relation to racial domination
Is patriarchy a system?
The state and patriarchy
Violence and the state
5. BODY POLITICS
Chapter outline
The background to feminist interest in body politics
Resisting naturalisation
Early campaigns
Sexed bodies and history
Women’s experiences of their bodies: medicine
Bodies and physical activities: sport, dance and fitness
Getting ‘the look’
Racialised bodies
White, male bodies and deviance from the norm
The dominated and the subversive body
Challenging domination
6. LIVING IN A POST WORLD?
Chapter outline
Gendering modernity
Gendering modernist movements
Postmodernity
Critique or condition?
Sociology and postmodernism
. . . and feminism
Postmodernism, feminism and cultural studies
Postfeminism
Academic postfeminism
Postmodernism and feminism
Conclusion: last posts?
7. POSTCOLONIALISM AND FEMINISM
Chapter outline
International and sexual divisions of labour: colonialism
Gender relations in the colonial world
International and sexual divisions of labour: postcolonial conditions
Postcolonialism as critique
Postcolonialism and feminism
8. GLOBALISING FEMINISMS
Chapter outline
‘Globalisation’ in social sciences
Globalisation and postcolonialism: condition and critique
Globalisation and feminist development studies
‘The globalised woman’
Globalising politics
Feminist politics and globalisation
Global feminisms
Glossary
Bibliography
Index
Biography
Barbara Littlewood
