3.5 Modern and Emerging Sociological Theories
Kelly Szott and Kimberly Puttman
After the Second World War, sociologists expanded on previous sociological thought. They developed a variety of theoretical frameworks that explore race, class, and gender. They explored the intersections between these classifications of power and oppression. While the classical theories remain useful, the new set of theories digs deeper into why structures and practices of inequality persist. They also leverage new understandings of systems thinking and global interdependence. You will meet many of these sociologists in this section.
Feminism and Intersectionality
In early sociology, sociologists often studied the experiences of White wealthy men and generalized what they discovered to “all people.” Du Bois made it clear that race matters. Similarly, early female sociologists asserted that gender matters. Sociologists like Martineau, Wells, and Cooper examined women’s lives to see how they were different from men’s lives. They also looked at how race mattered specifically to women. Although we know today that binary structures of gender do not fully capture the human experience, the sociologists at that time were revolutionary in differentiating women’s and men’s experiences.
In the 1970s, as women began to enter college in greater numbers and more researchers were female, they created a new theoretical approach in sociology. Feminist theory is a theoretical perspective stating women are uniquely and systematically oppressed and that challenges ideas of gender and sex roles. Despite the variations between different types of feminist approaches, four characteristics are common to the feminist theory:
- Gender is a central focus or subject matter of the perspective.
- Gender relations are viewed as a problem: the site of social inequities, strains, and contradictions.
- Gender relations are sociological and historical in nature and subject to change and progress.
- Feminism is about an emancipatory commitment to change: the conditions of life that are oppressive for women need to be transformed (Little 2014).
One of the sociological insights that emerged with the feminist perspective in sociology is that “the personal is political” (Hanisch 1969). In other words, how women live their lives from washing dishes, to caring for children, to deciding not to have children, to the experience of sexual violence give them a unique political perspective. Until female sociologists looked at women’s lives, their experiences were invisible or unimportant. You are welcome to read more about the Personal Is Political.
White British-born Canadian sociologist Dorothy Smith’s development of standpoint theory was a key innovation in sociology that enabled women’s experiences and issues to be seen and addressed in a systematic way (Smith 1977). Scientists of the time argued that science was logical and objective. In standpoint theory, Smith argued that where you stand, or your point of vie