Ir al contenido principal

Harriet Martineau (1802-1876)


Resultado de imagen para Harriet Martineau

Harriet Martineau was a british sociologist,  economist, writer and a social activist. She is very important for the history of women in the social science, it was a hard time to women in the academic world. She written more than fifty books and articles, and even with of all her achievements she was forgotten by the classic theory (made by men). She was one of the first journalists, in 1821 she started to write to Monthly Repository anonymously, there she started to touch topics about women and their rights. 

Her circle of friends when she moved to London were a lot of intellectuals, like Darwin, the two of them were interested in equality and emancipation of all humans (they were against slavery). 

Is between 1832 and 1833 that she started to be interested in social theory, is at this time that she published two books, Illustrations of Political Economy, and Illustrations of Taxation, is in these publications that she reveals her passion for social reform, she directs her writings to people of all social classes.

In 1839 she writes Deerbook, with this book she started to critique de society through literature. When she started this theoric path is that she became an atheist, being influenced by Comte (positivism). She started to travel around the world and writing in a critical way about the realities she saw.  

But it 1848 she started to write about feminism, against Comte, because he believed that feelings were for woman and intelligence belonged to man, Harriet refused to believe this, she says that woman are as capable as man, that woman can be intellectuals and investigate the nature. She did not believe in social division of work, she thought that all women are self-sufficient. Is with this process that she saw things that the other sociologist at the time didn’t, but she was ignored by those men. 
Besides of that she had an important role in sociology, she translated to english her essays, she introduced sociology to England and the United States.

Comentarios

Entradas populares de este blog

Women who influenced sociology

Sociology is the study of society, the patterns in relationships and the culture in everyday life. Sociologist tries to discover all the human’ mechanisms that explains all our behaviors.  In European develop of industry and science. Karl Marx and Auguste Comte  are the first in making the study about the changes from a traditional society to a modern one.  Then, a lot of other authors, professors and intellectuals made a long work in this area, trying to give life a reason: Anthony Giddens, Pierre Bourdieu, Emile Durkheim, Karl Marx, Max Weber and a lot of other mens are the most famous exhibitors of this field, but, where are women?  Is necessary to take conscience about our position in the field as women. because a lot of us had made an incredible work making theory and revealing all the gender oppression that the men's didn't wanted to see in their theory.  So, this is a space from women to appreciate these women work, that made sociology a litt...

Margaret S. Archer (1943-today)

Margaret Archer is a british professor of sociologist who had change the history of sociology because she criticized an important author in this area: Pierre Bourdieu, one of the most relevant authors of the XX century. Also she developed her ‘Morphogenetic Approach’ to social theory.  She was elected as the first woman President of the International Sociological Association at the 12th World Congress of Sociology. She think that it is fundamental to be concerned with the "problem of structure and agency", that is with justifying these as irreducible entities with their own emergent properties and powers. From that follows the question of how to theorise the interplay between society, culture, structure and its human agents and to explain how their interaction leads to an elaboration of all three elements. Pierre Bourdieu, in his work about “habitus”,  gives an explanation about why we do what we do, he is very paternalistic because he takes all the reflex...

Rosa Luxemburgo (1871-1919)

Rosa Luxemburgo was a Marxist theorist, philosopher, activist and revolutionary socialist from Poland. She was an antimilitarist, defender of democracy, considered the most important Marxist woman leader in history. Rosa studied although the difficulties and prejudices against women in that time and despite the anti-Semitic discrimination in Europe. She obtained a doctorate in legal sciences in a period when very few women even went to university, and her thesis later was useful as a basis for the program of the Social Democratic party of Poland. During the First World War, she adopted a pacifist position and sent a message, to the workers around the world, to stay away from the dispute based in her beliefs that the war was a confrontation between imperialists. Luxemburgo founded, along with Clara Zetkin and Karl Libnecht, the anti-war Spartacus League in 1914, which later became the Communist Party of Germany. In 1919, she participated in the Berlin Revolutio...