Chapter 63: Feminist Theories

ROBERTA HAMILTON

Feminist theories What do we love most about sociology? Surely, it is that we can take her anywhere. Sociological theories, methods, and critiques make it possible to research virtually anything where social relationships occur, indeed wherever the fingerprint of human beings has touched—or damaged—the ecosphere. Yet its practitioners often forgo acknowledgment of sociology's own debts: sociology of knowledge, yes, but really only as a subdiscipline, not as a grounding for the whole enterprise. In some of sociology's guises, and certainly in the positivism that has predominated in American sociology, there is much to be gained by covering up the tracks: As a “science,” sociology claims to have, as part of its birthright, the necessary arsenal for forwarding its knowledge claims. Disciplining the questions, insights, and critiques that come from elsewhere involves shaping them up, trimming their sails, and in short, making them “fit” the prevailing sociological discourses. Sociology stands as ...

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