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Theory on Gender/Feminism on Theory by Paula England

Review by: Lise Vogel


Gender and Society, Vol. 8, No. 4 (Dec., 1994), pp. 627-629
Published by: Sage Publications, Inc.
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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).
Imagineyou could shop for sociological theoryat a local bazaar.You would stop
at each colorfully decoratedbooth thatcaughtyour eye. And you would listen as the
enthusiasticentrepreneursvauntedtheirwares. Thatis what readingthis interesting
book is like.
More precisely, Paula Englanddesigns Theoryon Gender/Feminismon Theory
as both a bazaaranda conversation.Tencommissionedessays makeup two-thirdsof
the book, each consideringa specific traditionon sociological theory.The authors,
partisansall, overview the theoriesfrom which they work and discuss the extent to
which gender is incorporated.An eleventh essay addressesthe question of feminist
methodology.Then comes the dialogue, stagedby England:four scholarsfrom three
differentdisciplines commenton the essays and the authorsreply.
England's purpose is "to contributeto ... our understandingof the forces that
produce,reproduce,andchallengegenderinequality,andof the strengthsand limitations, including gender biases, of sociological theories"(p.22). While most of her
authors remain well within the bordersof mainstreamsociology, several proceed
along more venturesomepaths.
In many essays, the mission is to salvage sociological theory.MiriamJohnson
disentanglesfunctionalismfrom its badreputationas conservativein its implications
for women. DebraFriedmanandCarolDiem arguethatrational-choicetheorycan be
made to incorporate altruism, connectedness, and collective action-and hence
gender.LynnSmith-LovinandJ. MillerMcPhersonsuggestthatnetworkanalysishas
the potentialto shed light on genderinequality.Cecilia Ridgeway does the same for
expectationstatestheory.NormanDenzintriesto mergesymbolicinteractionismwith
poststructuralismin a too-compressedanalysisof genderand sexuality.
Other contributorsput more emphasis on developing a feminist sociological
perspective than on making mainstreamsociological theory accommodategender.
ChristineWilliams reviews feminist sociologists' adaptationof psychoanalytictheory, especially object relations.Dana Dunn, ElizabethAlmquist,and JanetSaltzman
Chafetzcompareandcontrastfourfeministmacrostructural
theories,identifyingfive
clusters of independentvariablesas fundamental.CandaceWest and SarahFenstermaker lucidly discuss the alreadyinfluentialnotion of "genderas an interactional
accomplishment."Joey Spragueand Mary Zimmermancritiquesociological methodology, arguing that feminist sociologists should work across the subject/object,
dualisms.
abstract/concrete,rational/emotional,and quantitative/qualitative
reflects
a commitment
in
the
likewise
Ward's
collection,
essay, strongest
Kathryn
to thoroughgoingfeminist transformationof sociological investigation.Wardtakes
the readerthroughher own intellectualevolution as she struggledto include women
in world system theory.Moving quicklybeyond the "addwomen and stir"approach,
she critiquesefforts to incorporatewomen 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).

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628

GENDER& SOCIETY/ December1994

I wish I could say thatMarxisttheoryis well representedhere,for it is the tradition


in which I have done muchof my own work.Unfortunately,the essay by Beth Anne
Shelton and Ben Agger offers a gloomy and unattractivepicture.Devoting most of
their space to a rejectionof socialist-feministscholarship,they set as theirstandarda
Marxismthathas somehowbeen madefeministandto which they alone have access.
The reader,eager to learn more, is grantedonly a short critiqueof the hierarchyof
value and valuelessness as exhibitedin household labor.Shelton and Agger ignore
social scientistswho have sought,as they do, to constructa unitaryfeministMarxism
(e.g., Gimenez 1982; Sacks 1989; Vogel 1983), and they do not mentionthe current
resurgence of interest in the relationshipbetween Marxism and feminism (e.g.,
Chinchilla and Gimenez 1991; Collins and Gimenez 1990; Hansen and Philipson
1990). Theirdourpresentationdoes a disserviceto theMarxisttheoreticalperspective.
To conclude Theory on Gender/Feminism on Theory, England orchestrates a

discussion between authorsand critics. Sociologists LindaMolm and John Wilson,


philosopherNancy Tuana,andeconomistNancy Folbreoffer valuablecommentsand
the authorsrespond.The commitmentto dialogueis important,althoughI found the
back-and-forthsometimesscattered.
PaulaEnglandhasdone a finejob of assemblingthiscollection.Its storiesof heroic
feminist efforts to reclaimmainstreamsociological theory will be especially appreciated by many,but this strengthis also a weakness.Mainstreamsociology tends to
overlook race and misreadclass, and these criticaldimensionsof social experience
arealso largelyabsenthere.Some authorsgive a nod in the directionof raceandclass
but only Ward,West and Fenstermaker,Spragueand Zimmerman,and Folbre make
serious efforts to incorporatediversity into their analysis. Sexuality is virtually
invisible; also, the rich resource that interdisciplinarityprovides modem feminist
thought goes untapped.Taken together, the essays in this collection suggest that
feminist sociological theoryneeds to move more forcefullyacrossthe boundariesof
mainstreamsociology.
LISEVOGEL
Rider University

REFERENCES
E.Gimenez,
eds.1991.Specialissueon"Marxist-feminist
NormaStoltz,andMartha
Chinchilla,
theory."Gender& Society 5:286-407.
Collins, JaneL., andMarthaGimenez,eds. 1990. Workwithoutwages: Comparativestudies of
domesticlabor and self-employment.Albany:StateUniversityof New YorkPress.
Gimenez, MarthaE. 1982. The oppressionof women. In Structuralsociology, edited by Ino
Rossi. New York:ColumbiaUniversityPress.
Hansen,KarenV., andIlene J. Philipson,eds. 1990. Women,class, and thefeministimagination:
A Socialist-feministreader.Philadelphia:TempleUniversityPress.
Sacks, Karen Brodkin. 1989. Towarda unified theory of class, race, and gender.American
Ethnologist16:534-50.

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BOOK REVIEWS

629

Vogel, Lise. 1983. Marxism and the oppression of women: Towarda unitary theory. New

NJ:RutgersUniversity
Press.
Brunswick,

Lives on the Edge: Single Mothersand TheirChildrenin the OtherAmerica.


By Valerie Polakow. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993, 222 pp.,

$22.50 (cloth).
ValeriePolakow portraysthe Americansocial welfare system gone astrayand its
effects on single mothersand theirchildren.She provides dramaticaccounts of the
fears, struggles,andambitionsof poor single mothers,bothyoung andold, Black and
white in America.As she attemptsto "recreatetheirvoices in the largerlandscapeof
history"(p. 186), Polakowis successfulin tellingof the everydaystrugglesof working
mothersabandonedby social welfare programs,of families devastatedby the many
governmentcuts to programssuch as Aid to Families with DependentChildren,and
of poor mothers'difficulties finding child care. In addition,this study reveals the
everydayexperienceof povertyfor childrenwithinpreschoolprogramsandelementary schools. This inside view of poor childrenand public child care confirmsmany
previous findings in the social science literature,acknowledgingstructuralclass and
race bias in the educationof Americanyouth. PolakowcomparesseveralHead Start
programsin Michigan,notingthe manydifficultiesthatbesetthe programs:consistent
underfunding,high ratesof staff turnover,and uneven qualityof staff.
Using an interpretiveethnographicapproachinvolving time-consumingand labor-intensiveinterviews and field observations,Polakow shattersthe image of the
"welfaremother"as hopeless.Instead,she presentsa diversepictureof single mothers
who want more for themselvesandtheirchildren.Some seek low-wage employment
and in the process risk eligibility for public assistance. To survive, women create
fragilesupportsystemsforthemselves.Polakowdiscussesthefeminizationof poverty
that affects not only the employmentand child care strugglesof single mothersbut
also the educationpoorchildrenreceive in the publicsystem or in "specialeducation"
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,
"becausein the struggle are many lessons to be learnedand many myths unveiled"
(p. 185). As an educationalpsychologist and early childhood specialist, Polakow's
astute analysis of poor children'sexperiences is one of the highlights of the study.
She points out that it is critical"to recognize and supportdiversityto restructurean
education inimical to studentsfrom differentculturalgroups who experience 'selfalienation'" (p. 162). She emphasizes that Americaneducatorsare responsiblefor
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 preschoolprogramsobserved over
two and a half years. Whatshe finds in preschooland kindergartenclassrooms,with

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