theory of gender feminism

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Theory on Gender/Feminism on Theory by Paula EnglandReview by: Lise VogelGender and Society, Vol. 8, No. 4 (Dec., 1994), pp. 627-629Published by: Sage Publications, Inc.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/189822 .

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BOOK REVIEWS

627

Theory

on Gender/Feminism

on

Theory.

Edited

by

Paula

England.

New

York:

Aldine, 1993, 380 pp., $51.95 (cloth), $23.95 (paper).

Imagine you

could

shop

for

sociological theory

at a local

bazaar.

You would

stop

at each

colorfully

decorated

booth

that

caught

your

eye.

And

you

would listen as

the

enthusiastic

entrepreneurs

auntedtheir wares.

That is what

reading

this

interesting

book is like.

More

precisely,

Paula

Englanddesigns

Theory

on

Gender/Feminism

n

Theory

as both a

bazaarand

a

conversation.

Ten commissioned

essays

make

up

two-thirdsof

the

book,

each

considering

a

specific

tradition

on

sociological

theory.

The

authors,

partisansall, overviewthe theories

from which

they

work and discuss the extent to

which

gender

is

incorporated.

An

eleventh

essay

addresses

he

question

of feminist

methodology.

Then

comes

the

dialogue, staged

by

England:

our scholarsfrom three

different

disciplines

comment

on the

essays

and the

authors

reply.

England's

purpose

is to contribute

o ...

our

understanding

f the forces that

produce,

reproduce,

and

challenge gender

nequality,

and

of the

strengths

and limita-

tions,

including gender

biases,

of

sociological

theories (p.

22).

While

most

of her

authors

remain well

within

the borders

of

mainstream

ociology,

several

proceed

along

more venturesome

paths.

In

many essays,

the mission

is to

salvage sociological theory.

Miriam Johnson

disentangles

unctionalism rom its badreputation s conservative n its implications

for women.

Debra

Friedman

and

Carol

Diem

argue

hatrational-choice

heory

can be

made to

incorporate

altruism, connectedness,

and collective action-and hence

gender.

Lynn

Smith-Lovin

andJ.

MillerMcPherson

uggest

thatnetwork

analysis

has

the

potential

to shed

light

on

gender nequality.

Cecilia

Ridgeway

does the same for

expectation

states

theory.

Norman

Denzin triesto

merge

symbolic

nteractionism

with

poststructuralism

n a

too-compressed

analysis

of

gender

and

sexuality.

Other

contributors

put

more

emphasis

on

developing

a feminist

sociological

perspective

than

on

making

mainstream

ociological theory

accommodate

gender.

ChristineWilliams reviews feministsociologists'adaptation f psychoanalytic he-

ory, especially

object

relations.

Dana

Dunn,

Elizabeth

Almquist,

and

Janet

Saltzman

Chafetz

compare

andcontrast

our feministmacrostructural

heories,

dentifying

ive

clusters

of

independent

variables

as fundamental.Candace

West and SarahFenster-

maker

lucidly

discuss

the

already

nfluential

notion of

gender

as

an

interactional

accomplishment.

oey Sprague

and

Mary

Zimmerman

ritique sociological

meth-

odology, arguing

that feminist

sociologists

should work

across

the

subject/object,

abstract/concrete,

ational/emotional,

nd

quantitative/qualitative

ualisms.

Kathryn

Ward's

ssay,

strongest

n the

collection,

likewise

reflects a commitment

to

thoroughgoing

eminist

transformation

f

sociological investigation.

Ward akes

the reader

hrough

her own

intellectual

evolution

as

she

struggled

o include

women

in world

system theory.

Moving

quickly

beyond

the addwomen and

stir

approach,

she

critiques

efforts

to

incorporate

women via the

study

of

household

reproduction

and concludes

that world

system theory

needs

to be recast

totally

to

incorporate

gender

and

race at

its

center

p.

49).







628 GENDER& SOCIETY

December 994

I wish I could

say

thatMarxist

heory

s

well

represented

ere,

for it

is the

tradition

in

which

I

have done much of

my

own

work.

Unfortunately,

he

essayby Beth Anne

Shelton and

Ben

Agger

offers a

gloomy

and

unattractive

icture.

Devoting

most

of

their

space

to a

rejection

of

socialist-feminist

cholarship, hey

set

as their standard

Marxism hathas somehow been made

feministand to which

they

alone have

access.

The

reader,

eager

to learn

more,

is

grantedonly

a

short

critique

of

the

hierarchy

of

value and valuelessness as exhibited

in

household labor.Shelton and

Agger ignore

social

scientists

who have

sought,

as

they

do,

to

constructa

unitary

eministMarxism

(e.g.,

Gimenez

1982;

Sacks

1989;

Vogel

1983),

and

they

do not

mention

the

current

resurgence

of interest in

the

relationship

between

Marxism and feminism

(e.g.,

Chinchilla and Gimenez

1991;

Collins and Gimenez

1990;

Hansen and

Philipson

1990).Theirdourpresentation oes a disservice o the Marxist heoretical

perspective.

To conclude

Theory

on Gender/Feminism on

Theory,

England

orchestrates

a

discussion between

authorsand critics.

Sociologists

Linda Molm and

John

Wilson,

philosopher

Nancy

Tuana,

and economist

Nancy

Folbreoffer valuable

comments

and

the authors

respond.

The commitment

o

dialogue

is

important,

lthough

found

the

back-and-forth ometimes scattered.

Paula

England

has done

a

fine

job

of

assembling

his

collection.Its storiesof heroic

feminist efforts to reclaim

mainstream

ociological theory

will

be

especially

appre-

ciated

by many,

but

this

strength

s also a

weakness. Mainstream

ociology

tends to

overlookrace and misreadclass, and these criticaldimensionsof social experience

are

also

largely

absent

here.

Some

authors

give

a

nod

in

the directionof

race and class

but

only

Ward,

West

and

Fenstermaker,

prague

and

Zimmerman,

nd Folbre

make

serious

efforts to

incorporatediversity

into their

analysis.

Sexuality

is

virtually

invisible;

also,

the rich resource that

interdisciplinarity

rovides

modem feminist

thought goes

untapped.

Taken

together,

the

essays

in this

collection

suggest

that

feminist

sociological

theory

needs to move more

forcefully

across the boundariesof

mainstream

ociology.

LISE VOGEL

Rider

University

REFERENCES

Chinchilla,

orma

toltz,

ndMartha

.

Gimenez,

ds.1991.

Special

ssueon Marxist-feminist

theory.

Gender

&

Society

5:286-407.

Collins,

Jane

L.,

and Martha

Gimenez,

eds. 1990.

Workwithout

wages: Comparative

tudies

of

domestic abor and

self-employment.Albany:

State

University

of New YorkPress.

Gimenez,MarthaE. 1982. The oppressionof women. In Structural ociology, editedby Ino

Rossi.

New

York:Columbia

University

Press.

Hansen,

Karen

V.,

andIlene J.

Philipson,

eds.

1990.

Women,

lass,

and

thefeminist

magination:

A

Socialist-feminist

eader.

Philadelphia:

Temple

University

Press.

Sacks,

Karen Brodkin.

1989. Toward

a unified

theory

of

class, race,

and

gender.

American

Ethnologist

16:534-50.







BOOK

REVIEWS 629

OOK

REVIEWS 629

Vogel,

Lise.

1983.

Marxism and the

oppression

of

women:

Towarda

unitary theory.

New

Brunswick,

J:

RutgersUniversity

ress.

Lives

on

the

Edge: Single

Mothersand

Their

Children

n

the OtherAmerica.

By

Valerie Polakow.

Chicago: University

of

Chicago

Press, 1993,

222

pp.,

$22.50

(cloth).

ValeriePolakow

portrays

he

Americansocial welfare

system

gone

astray

and its

effects

on

single

mothersand

their

children. She

provides

dramaticaccounts of the

fears,

struggles,

and ambitionsof

poor

single

mothers,both

young

andold,Black and

white

in

America.

As she

attempts

o recreate heirvoices

in

the

larger

andscape

of

history

p.

186),

Polakow

s successful

n

telling

of the

everydaystruggles

of

working

mothersabandoned

by

social welfare

programs,

of

families

devastated

by

the

many

government

cuts to

programs

uch as Aid to Families with

Dependent

Children,

and

of

poor

mothers' difficulties

finding

child care.

In

addition,

this

study

reveals

the

everyday

experience

of

poverty

for childrenwithin

preschoolprograms

and

elemen-

tary

schools.

This inside view of

poor

children

and

public

child care confirms

many

previous findings

in the social science

literature,

cknowledging

structural

lass and

race bias in the educationof Americanyouth.Polakowcomparesseveral Head Start

programs

n

Michigan,

noting

the

many

difficulties hatbeset the

programs:

onsistent

underfunding,

high

rates of

staff

turnover,

and uneven

quality

of

staff.

Using

an

interpretive

thnographicapproach nvolving time-consuming

and la-

bor-intensive

nterviews and field

observations,

Polakow

shatters he

image

of the

welfare

mother s

hopeless.

Instead,

he

presents

a diverse

picture

of

single

mothers

who

want more for themselves and theirchildren.Some seek

low-wage

employment

and

in

the

process

risk

eligibility

for

public

assistance.

To

survive,

women create

fragilesupport ystems

for

themselves.Polakowdiscusses the

feminization

of

poverty

that affects

not

only

the

employment

and

child care

struggles

of

single

mothers

but

also

the

education

poor

children

receive in the

publicsystem

or in

special

education

settings.

The mothers' stories are based

on

eleven oral interviews in

Michigan

between

1989 and 1991. Polakow

purposely

chose to

tell

the

stories of resilient

women,

because n the

struggle

are

many

lessons to be

learned

and

many myths

unveiled

(p.

185).

As an educational

psychologist

and

early

childhood

specialist,

Polakow's

astute

analysis

of

poor

children's

experiences

is one of the

highlights

of

the

study.

She

points

out that

it is

critical to

recognize

and

supportdiversity

to

restructure n

education inimical to students

from differentcultural

groups

who

experience

'self-

alienation' (p. 162). She emphasizesthat Americaneducatorsareresponsiblefor

making

schools

a

place away

from

the

edges

(p.

162).

In

Michigan,

Polakow visited over

twenty

classrooms.

In

the book she

portrays

five

classrooms

from

selected

public

school

and

preschool programs

observed over

two and a half

years.

What she finds

in

preschool

and

kindergarten

lassrooms,

with

Vogel,

Lise.

1983.

Marxism and the

oppression

of

women:

Towarda

unitary theory.

New

Brunswick,

J:

RutgersUniversity

ress.

Lives

on

the

Edge: Single

Mothersand

Their

Children

n

the OtherAmerica.

By

Valerie Polakow.

Chicago: University

of

Chicago

Press, 1993,

222

pp.,

$22.50

(cloth).

ValeriePolakow

portrays

he

Americansocial welfare

system

gone

astray

and its

effects

on

single

mothersand

their

children. She

provides

dramaticaccounts of the

fears,

struggles,

and ambitionsof

poor

single

mothers,both

young

andold,Black and

white

in

America.

As she

attempts

o recreate heirvoices

in

the

larger

andscape

of

history

p.

186),

Polakow

s successful

n

telling

of the

everydaystruggles

of

working

mothersabandoned

by

social welfare

programs,

of

families

devastated

by

the

many

government

cuts to

programs

uch as Aid to Families with

Dependent

Children,

and

of

poor

mothers' difficulties

finding

child care.

In

addition,

this

study

reveals

the

everyday

experience

of

poverty

for childrenwithin

preschoolprograms

and

elemen-

tary

schools.

This inside view of

poor

children

and

public

child care confirms

many

previous findings

in the social science

literature,

cknowledging

structural

lass and

race bias in the educationof Americanyouth.Polakowcomparesseveral Head Start

programs

n

Michigan,

noting

the

many

difficulties hatbeset the

programs:

onsistent

underfunding,

high

rates of

staff

turnover,

and uneven

quality

of

staff.

Using

an

interpretive

thnographicapproach nvolving time-consuming

and la-

bor-intensive

nterviews and field

observations,

Polakow

shatters he

image

of the

welfare

mother s

hopeless.

Instead,

he

presents

a diverse

picture

of

single

mothers

who

want more for themselves and theirchildren.Some seek

low-wage

employment

and

in

the

process

risk

eligibility

for

public

assistance.

To

survive,

women create

fragilesupport ystems

for

themselves.Polakowdiscusses the

feminization

of

poverty

that affects

not

only

the

employment

and

child care

struggles

of

single

mothers

but

also

the

education

poor

children

receive in the

publicsystem

or in

special

education

settings.

The mothers' stories are based

on

eleven oral interviews in

Michigan

between

1989 and 1991. Polakow

purposely

chose to

tell

the

stories of resilient

women,

because n the

struggle

are

many

lessons to be

learned

and

many myths

unveiled

(p.

185).

As an educational

psychologist

and

early

childhood

specialist,

Polakow's

astute

analysis

of

poor

children's

experiences

is one of the

highlights

of

the

study.

She

points

out that

it is

critical to

recognize

and

supportdiversity

to

restructure n

education inimical to students

from differentcultural

groups

who

experience

'self-

alienation' (p. 162). She emphasizesthat Americaneducatorsareresponsiblefor

making

schools

a

place away

from

the

edges

(p.

162).

In

Michigan,

Polakow visited over

twenty

classrooms.

In

the book she

portrays

five

classrooms

from

selected

public

school

and

preschool programs

observed over

two and a half

years.

What she finds

in

preschool

and

kindergarten

lassrooms,

with





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