• Feminist theory is a generalized, wide-ranging system of ideas about social life and human experience developed from a woman-centered perspective.

• Feminist theory is woman-centered in two ways:

  1. It starts from the situations and experiences of women in society.

  2. It aims to describe the social world from the distinctive vantage points of women.

• Feminist theory differs from most sociological theories by being the work of an interdisciplinary and international community of scholars, artists, and activists.

• Feminist sociologists seek to broaden and deepen sociology by reworking disciplinary knowledge to incorporate discoveries from this interdisciplinary community.

• The chapter begins by outlining the basic questions guiding feminist scholarship.

• It provides a brief history of the relation between feminism and sociology.

• It describes the various types of contemporary feminist theory, emphasizing sociologists’ contributions.

• The chapter concludes with an integrated statement of feminist sociological theorizing as it develops from these various theoretical traditions.

Feminism’s Basic Questions

• The impetus for contemporary feminist theory begins with the question: “And what about the women?”

• Feminist inquiry asks where women are in any social situation, why they may be absent, what roles they play, how they experience situations, and what their contributions and meanings are.

• Women are present in most social situations; absence is due to deliberate exclusion, not lack of ability or interest.

• Women have played roles different from popular conceptions (not just passive wives/mothers) and have actively created social situations alongside men.

• Despite their presence, women’s roles are often less privileged, subordinate, and largely invisible, signaling inequality.

• Feminism’s second question is: “Why is all this as it is?” leading to the development of the concept of gender.

• Starting in the 1970s, feminists distinguished between biological sex and socially learned gender behaviors (masculinity and femininity), defining gender as a social construction.

• The essential qualities of gender remain debated, but most feminist theories agree gender is created through social processes, not nature.

• The third feminist question is: “How can we change and improve the social world for justice?”

• Feminist theory shares with other critical social theories (Marxism, neo-Marxism, racial/ethnic minority theories, postcolonial theories) a commitment to social transformation and justice.

• Patricia Hill Collins highlights that critical social theory tackles questions faced by groups situated differently in contexts of injustice.

• Feminist theorists are committed to ensuring their work improves the daily lives of people studied.

• As feminist inquiry expands internationally and across diverse backgrounds, a fourth question arises: “What about differences among women?”

• Answers emphasize that invisibility, inequality, and role differences among women are deeply affected by social location—including class, race, age, sexuality, marital status, religion, ethnicity, and global context.

• Feminist theory is not only about women nor just about gender relations; it parallels Marx’s epistemological achievement by revealing that dominant knowledge reflects experiences of the ruling class.

• Feminism reveals that what was taken as universal knowledge actually reflects the perspective of men as “masters”, ignoring the experiences of women who sustain society in subordinated but essential roles.

• This relativizes dominant knowledge, transforming sociological understanding by centering previously invisible women’s experiences.

• Feminist theory deconstructs established knowledge systems by exposing their masculinist bias and the gender politics underlying them.

• To deconstruct knowledge is to uncover that what is presented as natural or universal is a socially constructed product shaped by power relations.

• Feminism itself faces internal deconstruction pressures:

  1. Critiques from women marginalized by mainstream feminism (women of color, postcolonial women, working-class women, lesbians) who reveal multiple women-centered knowledge systems opposing hegemonic feminist claims.

  2. Postmodernist critiques challenge gender as an undifferentiated concept and question the individual self as a stable center of consciousness and identity.

• These internal challenges primarily impact feminist epistemology and its frameworks for making truth claims.

Historical Framing: Feminism, Sociology, and Gender

• Feminism and sociology share a long-standing relationship, with feminism turning to sociology to answer key questions: what about the women, why is it as it is, how to change for justice, and differences among women.

• From the start, activist women identified sociology as a source for explanation and social change.

• Women sociologists have been central to identifying and conceptualizing gender as a variable distinguishing biological sex from social masculinity and femininity.

• Feminism and sociology are both systems of ideas and social organizations—feminism as theory and social movement, sociology as academic discipline and profession.

• Despite women’s active involvement in developing sociology, their achievements have often been erased by male-dominated professional elites.

• The feminist perspective endures because women’s subordination is nearly universal and they have persistently protested this situation throughout history.

• Feminist writing has grown from a thin trickle (1630s–1780) to a significant collective effort expanding in participants and scope of critique.

• Feminist writing is closely linked to feminist social activism, which has had waves or “moments” of intense mobilization, especially in Western history.

• First Wave feminism (1830s–1920) focused on women’s political rights, especially suffrage (key events: Seneca Falls 1848, Nineteenth Amendment 1920).

• Second Wave feminism (1960–1990) expanded goals to economic and social equality, reconceptualizing relations via the concept of gender.

• Third Wave feminism responds to critiques from women of color, lesbians, and working-class women toward Second Wave ideas and reflects feminist ideas shaping the 21st century.

• Feminist ideas were present when sociology was coined (Auguste Comte, 1830s), and Harriet Martineau played a key role in early sociology, recognized mainly due to Second Wave feminism’s influence.

• Feminist women like Jane Addams, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Florence Kelley, and Marianne Weber contributed substantially to early sociology as theorists, methodologists, and activists.

• Women of color such as Anna Julia Cooper and Ida B. Wells-Barnett developed important social theory and sociological activism despite racial exclusion.

• Gilman introduced the idea of “excessive sex distinction”, an early conceptualization of gender as socially maintained differences beyond biological sex.

• From 1920 to 1960, feminist thinking and activism waned due to social crises and the sense of victory from suffrage; women sociologists worked in isolation and continued research on women using frameworks like “sex roles.”

• The 1960s resurgence (Second Wave) revitalized feminist sociology with women organizing via the Women’s Caucus and founding Sociologists for Women in Society (SWS) and the journal Gender & Society.

• Second Wave feminism led to unprecedented increases of women in sociology as students, scholars, and professionals, with women holding leadership positions beyond their proportional representation.

• Central achievement of Second Wave feminism: establishing gender as a core sociological concept, a social construction classifying people/behaviors as masculine or feminine.

• Gender as a variable carries a normative commitment to gender equality and explains social inequality via gender discrimination.

• Feminist scholarship expanded to include men as well, with contributions from prominent male feminists.

• Despite progress, there remains unease about feminism’s impact on sociology; feminist theory is a distinct group often acknowledged but not fully assimilated into dominant sociology frameworks.

• Feminist focus on gender may have shifted attention from feminism’s original goals: women’s liberation and articulating social reality from women’s experiences.

• The study of gender is important but not identical to feminist theory’s full project.

• This awareness helps explain newer feminist theoretical developments like intersectionality, sexual difference theory, and the persistence of materialist/socialist feminism.