An Introduction to Sociology LONDON AND NEW YORK An Introduction to Sociology Feminist perspectives SECOND EDITION ■ Pamela Abbott ■ Claire Wallace First published 1997 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledges collection of tjhousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” \© 1997 Pamela Abbott and Claire Wallace All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Abbott, Pamela. An introduction to sociology: feminist perspectives/ Pamela Abbott and Claire Wallace. —2nd ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Sociology–Philosophy. 2. Sociology–Methodology. 3. Feminist theory. I. Wallace, Claire. II. Title. HM24.A215 1996 301′.01—dc20 95–49777 ISBN 0-203-13859-7 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-29193-X (Adobe eReader Format) ISBN 0-415-12292-9 (Print Edition) Contents List of tables vi Preface viii Acknowledgements xi 1 Introduction: Feminist critiques of malestream sociology, and the way forward 1 2 Feminist theory and sociology 13 3 Women and stratification 41 4 Education 67 5 Women and the life course 94 6 The family and the household 109 7 Women, health and caring 128 8 Women’s work 154 9 Women, crime and deviance 182 10 Women and politics 211 11 The production of feminist knowledges 227 References 243 Author Index 266 Subject Index 279 Tables 3.1 Market and work situation of men and women in full-time employment 50 3.2 Current class and class of origin, percentaged by current class 51 3.3 Current class and class of origin, percentaged by class of origin 52 4.1 Highest qualification of school leavers by sex 69 4.2 Full- and part-time enrolments in higher education by sex, 1970/1–1992/3 (thousands) 69 4.3 Full-time first degrees by subject and sex 1992/3 (thousands) 70 4.4 Percentage distribution of academic staff across ranks by sex in Great Britain 1991/2 71 4.5 Percentage distribution of each sex across grades in England and Wales 1990 76 6.1 Division of household tasks, 1991 – actual and ideal 123 7.1 Social class, gender and GP (NHS) consultations in Great Britain, 1980 132 7.2 Ratio of symptoms noted to consultations with medical practitioners (based on health diaries) 134 8.1 Civilian labour force economic activity rates by gender and age – estimates for 1993 164 8.2 Percentages of full- and part-time employment by gender in 1994 164 8.3 Economic activity as a percentage of the total population of women aged 16+, by ethnic group 164 8.4 Economic activity rates in the female population of working age, 1994, by ethnic group and age 165 8.5 Economic activity status of women aged 16–59 by age of youngest child, 1994 166 8.6 Percentages in employment of mothers and fathers with children aged less than 10, 1988 167 8.7 Female earnings as a percentage of male earnings across Europe, 1980/91 175 8.8 Labour market distribution by gender in the UK, 1991 176 8.9 Women in routine non-manual work, by ethnic group 177 9.1 Persons sentenced or cautioned for indictable offences in 1993, by sex and age, in England and Wales 185 9.2 Offenders found guilty of indictable offences at all courts in England and Wales in 1993, by type of offence 185 9.3 Offenders found guilty of theft offences in all courts in England and Wales in 1986, by sex and type of offence 186 9.4 Offenders found guilty at all courts in England and Wales, by sex and type of offence, 1977/93 188 9.5 Self-report of delinquent acts and offences committed by girls in research by Shaklady Smith 194 Preface Five years after the first edition of An Introduction to Sociology: Feminist Perspectives we are writing the second edition. During this time the debates within feminism and within sociology have moved on. Debates about postmodernism, about sexuality, about ‘race’, about the body and about culture have begun to dominate the feminist agenda, displacing to some extent more traditionally sociological preoccupations with work, family and stratification. The original text embodied the argument that an appreciation of society from a women’s perspective leads to a recasting of traditional sociological distinctions between, for example, work and the family or between crime and sexuality. Now the blossoming of Gender/Women’s Studies within higher education has led to a recasting of former boundaries between disciplines as well as within them. Much of the material in the first edition remains relevant, but we have brought the statistical data up to date and included material on new debates and issues. One important debate which has developed since we wrote the first edition is that some writers, influenced by postmodernist perspectives, have challenged the view that a unitary category ‘woman’ exists at all. Our own position is that while there are important differences in women’s experience, there are also important commonalities; while acknowledging the contributions postmodernist scholars have made to the study of gender, we nevertheless argue that sociology as a critical discipline can help to elucidate women’s position and that feminist sociology still has an important contribution to make – one that is by no means universally recognised. Some of the criticisms we made of malestream sociology have now in the main been taken on board by sociologists, but feminist arguments still tend to be ignored or marginalised in many areas. Although feminism has had more of an impact in sociology than in many other disciplines, it is still the case that the reconceptualisation of the discipline which we argue that accepting the feminist critique entails has not taken place in many texts and research projects. Despite the proliferation of feminist studies over the last twenty years in sociology, their impact has been uneven. Our book still stands as the one feminist commentary and corrective to the other introductory textbooks in sociology. The first edition of the textbook was written from a British perspective – we were British sociologists who had spent our working lives in Britain and were reporting British research. However, the textbook has been used in many countries of the world and translated into Chinese and Korean. Moreover, the mood within British sociology over the last five years has been towards becoming less ethnocentric. To take account of the wider readership and the shift in British thought we have therefore introduced a more comparative perspective. This is by necessity centred on European and Anglo-Saxon material, however, because of the lack of easily accessible materials from elsewhere in the world: the text should therefore be read as one about women’s position in core capitalist counties, with a particular focus on Britain. This book, intended for students and the general reader interested in understanding the feminist contribution to sociology, provides an introduction to feminist perspectives in sociology that stands on its own or can be used in conjunction with more conventional introductory textbooks. For those readers who want to incorporate feminist perspectives into their sociological understanding we suggest reading the appropriate chapter in this book after reading the corresponding chapter of a conventional textbook. The chapters in this book do not have to be read in the order in which they are written. We would suggest that you read Chapters 1 and 2 first. After that, you can follow your own interests or read the relevant chapters in line with the sequencing of the syllabus that you are following. We are not presenting this as a ‘true’ account of social reality, nor do we see ourselves as neutral scientists merely recounting the work of sociologists and feminists. Sociology textbooks have been criticised for being biased and leaving out key areas of sociological concern (see Marsland, 1988, and correspondence in Network, the newsletter of the British Sociological Association – particularly issues dated October 1987 and June and July 1988). Indeed, we are ourselves critical of sociology textbooks because of the ways in which they have marginalised feminist knowledge. We write this book as two feminists who argue that malestream research has ignored, distorted and marginalised women and that feminists are concerned to reconceptualise the production of knowledge. All knowledge is partial and provisional, and this applies as much to feminist as to malestream knowledge. However, feminist knowledge takes account of the experiences of women as women. It starts from the position that in modern Britain women are subordinated and that it is necessary to explain this subordination in order that women can be liberated. We take this as a truth, as the starting point, not something that needs to be proved. Feminism is not one theoretical perspective within sociology, but a political movement concerned with furthering the cause of women’s liberation. However, feminist knowledge has made an important contribution to sociology and has challenged the basic theoretical assumptions of malestream work, arguing that sociological theories, methods and explanations need to be reconceptualised.