Symbolic interaction explains the world of social behavior and the development of the “self” as a function of social learning. As such, it plays an instrumental role in describing the processes that create women’s everyday lives and also, their gender-specific behaviors. Originally published in 1987, the readings collected for this volume were designed to link the sociological study of women to the well-developed and well-known tradition of symbolic interactionists’ research and theory.
The volume brings together an outstanding collection of readings on women from a symbolic interactionist perspective. The majority of these carefully selected and classroom-tested readings were published in the 1980s. One early study is included to provide a historical perspective on contemporary works. Topics addressed include childhood socialization, marriage and the home, the marketplace and social class, and adult socialization.
Students and professors alike will welcome this collection designed specifically for use in a wide range of sociology and women’s studies courses.
Tribute to Mary Jo Deegan Joe R. Feagin. Preface. Section I: Beginning 1. Symbolic Interaction and the Study of Women: An Introduction Mary Jo Deegan Section II: The Emergence of Women from Social Interaction 2. The Woman Movement and Social Consciousness Jesse Taft 3. The Arrangement between the Sexes Erving Goffman Section III: Acquiring Gender: Childhood Socialization 4. Directions for an Interactionist Study of Gender Development Spencer E. Cahill 5. What Does Children’s Art Work Tell Us about Gender? Joy B. Reeves and Nydia Boyette Section IV: Acquiring and Negotiating Gender: Adult Socialization 6. The (Mis)Acquisition of Gender Identity Among Transsexuals Barbara J. Risman 7. College Women and Sororities: The Social Construction and Reaffirmation of Gender Roles Barbara J. Risman 8. Biography Building to Insure the Future: Women’s Negotiation of Gender Relevancy in Medical School Judith M. Hammond 9. Race, Class and Gender: Prospects for an All-Inclusive Sisterhood Bonnie Thornton Dill Section V: Marriage and the Home: The Family Claim for Wives 10. Corporate Wives: Longing for Liberation or Satisfied with the Status Quo? Margaret L. Andersen 11. The Phenomenon of the Public Wife: An Exercise in Goffman’s Impression Management Joanna B. Gillespie 12. Couples Who Live Apart: Time/Place Disjunctions and Their Consequences Harriet Engel Gross Section VI: Marriage and the Home: The Family Claim for Mothers 13. The Social Psychology of a Miscarriage: An Application of Symbolic Interaction Theory and Method Schulamit Reinharz 14. Passion, Submission and Motherhood: The Negotiation of Identity by Unmarried Innercity Chicanas Ruth Horowitz 15. Like Other Women: Perspectives of Mothers with Physical Disabilities Susan Shaul, Pamela J. Dowling and Bernice F. Laden Section VII: The Marketplace and Social Class: The Social Claim 16. Some Effects of Proportions on Group Life: Skewed Sex Ratios and Responses to Token Women Rosabeth Moss Kanter 17. Sexual Politics in the Workplace: The Interactional World of Policewomen Susan E. Martin 18. Race, Sex, and Class: Black Female Tobacco Workers in Durham, North Carolina, 1920-1940, and the Development of Female Consciousness Beverly W. Jones 19. The Making of a Female Researcher: Role Problems in Field Work Lois Easterday, Diana Papademas, Laura Schorr and Catherine Valentine Section VIII: Working Hypotheses as Problematic “Solutions” 20. Collective Protest and the Meritocracy: Faculty Women and Sex Discrimination Lawsuits Emily Abel 21. Negotiating Trouble in a Battered Women’s Shelter Kathleen J. Ferraro 22. Feminism and the Mass Media: A Case Study of The Women’s Room as Novel and Television Film Linda M. Blum 23. Sexuality, Class, and Conflict in a Lesbian Workplace Kathleen M. Weston and Lisa B. Rofel Section IX: Concluding and Beginning 24. Working Hypotheses for Women and Social Change Mary Jo Deegan. Index.
Biography
Mary Jo Deegan (1946–2024) was professor emerita in sociology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and executive director of the the Jane Addams Research Center in St. Joseph, Michigan. Deegan earned the B.S. in chemistry and mathematics at Western Michigan University (1969) and the Ph.D. in sociology at the University of Chicago (1975). She is widely known for archival studies of Jane Addams and the Chicago schools of sociology and for recovering the stories of dozens of early women sociologists. She was also an authority on George Herbert Mead, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and the core codes embedded in American ritual dramas. The recipient of numerous honors, Deegan was made an Admiral in the Nebraska Navy in 1995 by order of E. Benjamin Nelson, Governor of the State of Nebraska, for distinguished service to the citizens of Nebraska. She received the 2002 Distinguished Scholarly Career Award from the American Sociological Association Section on the History of Sociology and Social Thought.
Michael R. Hill (b. 1944) is associate director of the Jane Addams Research Center in St. Joseph, Michigan. Hill’s prior teaching posts include: Iowa State University, Albion College, The University of Nebraska at Omaha, The University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and the University of Notre Dame. He earned doctorates in geography (1982) and sociology (1989) at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He is an authority on archival research, Nebraska sociology, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and Harriet Martineau. Hill received the 2003 Distinguished Scholarly Career Award from the American Sociological Association Section on the History of Sociology and Social Thought.
