Dorothy Smith : The Theorist That I Chose

The Political, Feminist, and Religious view of Frances E.W. Harper, Phllis Wheatley, and Alice Dunbar-Nelson

Imagine the possibilities of a school environment where students learn academics through the arts. This alternative method has become greatly beneficial to students with learning disabilities, whom struggle to reach a proficient level like their peers. The common standards that have been placed upon children with learning disabilities has created an increasingly large population of frustrated students not meeting grade level. Sally Smith’s alternative method of an art-based curriculum proves to be effective with helping students with learning disabilities comprehend academic material. In The power of the arts: creative strategies for teaching exceptional learners the book breakdowns the issues of self-worth in students with learning disabilities,

Their stance may not have been as boisterous then as it is now, but they have always played an important role within the formation of todays’ society. The final attribute, studied within this chapter, supports this notion with the rise of female workers within America. Some of the most famous women social employees were: Jane Addams, Charlotte Gilman, Anna Cooper, Ida Wells-Barnett, Marianne Weber, and Beatrice Webb. Each of these women were still looked upon as inferior to men despite their contributions to society as a whole. These women believed sociology was developed from scholarly investigations that helped to attribute to the ideology of improving ones’ life through education and learning means. The women believed that this change would bring about both a sense of belong for women within cultural societies as well as modeling the community into a world in which everyone can coincide together. Their work would not be accounted for under the sociological realm of study… but it would be attributed to the greater sense of communal study as it is known

Locating a pattern of events that would validate the negative impacts the social world has on women is nearly impossible given the organization of gender roles and expectations of both women and men in 1973. Sociologist and author Dorothy Smith attempts to convey the conflicting roles of the women in relation to men. Writing Women's Perspective as a Radical Critique of Sociology to serve as a representation of the classic Marxist dilemma. A women, a single mother and a scholar Dorothy has first hand knowledge of the flaws in the gender hierarchy found in a male dominated society. Even so it can not be denied that this perspective casts a shadow over the way In which she chooses to define the social world,women and experiences in her writing. An achieved collective identity consciousness is at the core of Dorothy’s way of thinking. Calling into question the structure of the disciple of Sociology. Expanding she asks the read the central questions,“ What can we ask of this social reality that was previously unavailable was indeed repressed? What happens as we begin to relate it in terms of the disciple? At the crux of her argument of a collective experience she pulls a second objective that is geared toward the analysis of the lack of female representation in the field of sociology. Insinuating that the collective experience of women as a

Through the substance of her essay, Rebecca Solnit provides both statistics and examples of gender inequality to fulfill her purpose of inciting change.

In her article, author Leslie Mann uses a study conducted by Paula England, a professor of sociology at New York University. In England’ study, she followed educated and uneducated women that were born between 1958 to 1964. The study included black, Hispanic, and Asian women, but most of the women studied were white women. These women were interviewed and asked questions based on their education history, career, relationships, and marriages. In her article, Mann included an interview with a woman named Vicki Rautiokoski, as well as statements from England and another professor named Barbara Risman. Because England and Riseman were both professors of sociology and Rautiokoski had the experience of an educated married woman, Mann used their knowledge in her article to support her analysis.

To this day the women’s suffrage movement ignites women in the present to keep those right burning. Alice Paul and her fellow women suffrages demonstrated through speeches, lobbying and petitioning Congressional Committees, with parades, picketing and demonstrations, and with arrest that lead to imprisonment. These women express courage that women still uphold for years after their legacy has passed on, such as the article “Women’s Strike for Equality,” by Linda Napikoski, in the demonstration that was held on August 26, 1970 on the 50th anniversary of women’s suffrage. As well as an article “Women to Protest For Equality Today,” by United Press that talks about on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the women’s suffrage and “declared war on firms that Damage the Image,” of the fair sex. Alice Paul, set the stage for inspiring women to fight for their rights everywhere across the world.

I will start with the compare and contrast of what three theorists were concerned with when forming their theories of feminism. As all three theorists claimed that the problem of women’s rights was not the simple one of the democratic demand of women for equal prerogatives with men, their initial concerns were all essentially twofold: to show how women and society were disastrously affected due to the continued suppression of female; and to demonstrate, both in theories and practice means whereby women could fight for their rights and equalities in society. However, since they three had different focuses on progress for women, Gilman, Cooper and Collins’ principal concerns when forming their theories were also different, and I will explain the differences in the following paragraphs.

The economic “market revolution” and the religious “Second Great Awakening” shaped American society after 1815. Both of these developments affected women significantly, and contributed to their changing status both inside and outside the home. Throughout time, women’s roles and opportunities in the family, workplace, and society have greatly evolved.

“The subject of the Education of Women of the higher classes is one which has undergone singular fluctuations in public opinions” (Cobbe 79). Women have overcome tremendous obstacles throughout their lifetime, why should higher education stand in their way? In Frances Power Cobbe’s essay “The Education of Women,” she describes how poor women, single women, and childless wives, deserve to share a part of the human happiness. Women are in grave need of further improvements in their given condition. Cobbe suggests that a way to progress these improvements manifests in higher education, and that this will help further steps in advance. Cobbe goes on to say that the happiest home, most grateful husband, and the most devoted children came from a woman, Mary Sommerville, who surpassed men in science, and is still studying the wonders of God’s creations. Cobbe has many examples within her paper that shows the progression of women as a good thing, and how women still fulfill their duties despite the fact that they are educated. The acceptance of women will be allowed at the University of New England because women should be able to embrace their abilities and further their education for the benefit of their household, their lives, and their country.

The foundation of colleges for women as well as events at women’s rights conventions intellectually challenged society’s views on women’s traditional roles. As education became more of a public governmental service, the educational

In the article “End of Men” by Hanna Rosin, Hanna Rosin, a writer, a co-host of the NPR show Invisibilia, about the invisible forces that shape human behavior, she went to Stanford University, Rosin explains how over the years the women’s position has considerably ascended professional, educational and social. In this way, based on research she has demonstrated that all women have the capacity to carry any role that was considered against their nature. Nevertheless, it has been taken into account that women are still the minority in the top professional area. It has been taken into account that women are still the minority in the top professional area, with the women's empowerment this will change because of this: "Women dominate today's colleges

Smith began her journey of reconstructing the ideology of sociology of the feminine perspective at the University of British Columbia. She attributes most of her transformation of perspective to the women educators at the university at the time; Annette Kolodny, Helga Jacobson, and Meredith Kimball, as well as the 70s and 60s women’s movement. The women and women’s movement helped her to recognize the need for change in sociological perspective of women, for which it had previously been constructed by men. Through this recognition she began to centralize her work around her personal experience in the roles of a mother and housewife.

Women have pushed forward in the struggle for equality. Today women are staples in the professional world. More women are attending college than men as proved in recent studies. Women have outnumbered men on college campuses since 1979, and on graduate school campuses since 1984. More American women than men have received bachelor's degrees every year since 1982. Even here on Haverford's campus, the Admissions Office received more applications from women for early decision candidacy than men for the eighth straight year. The wage gap is slowly decreasing and the fight for proper day care services along with insurance coverage for birth control pills are passionate issues for women across America.

In this paper, we will analyze Catharine MacKinnon’s work Feminism, Marxism, Method, and the State: An Agenda for Theory, and the unique way in which she tries to form a metaphorical parallel between Marxist theory and relate this to her stance on feminism. She uses this distinctive technique to develop her feminist theory of law. While most would agree that she is very innovative in her approach, we will try to examine the problems with looking at feminism and feminist theory in this manner. While not completely discrediting MacKinnon, the purpose of this paper will be to shed light on the dangers of trying to hijack Marxist theory, stifle it into a corner, and cover it in feminist theory, much like An Agenda for Theory does. We will then look at ways in which we can liberate Marxist theories form MacKinnon’s tight associations and give ideas to help them guide modern feminism as a helpful resource, instead of making it a clear cut metaphorical dictator to truthfully understanding Feminism and feminist theory.