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Review: The Gendering of Social Theory: Sociology and Its Discontents

Author(s): Barbara Laslett


Review by: Barbara Laslett
Source: Contemporary Sociology, Vol. 25, No. 3 (May, 1996), pp. 305-309
Published by: American Sociological Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2077437
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CONTEMPORARYSOCIOLOGY

305

majorrole in bringingculturalanalysisback overlappingLogic of Practice) as the most


into the center of sociological analysisin important
of the relativelyfew generaland
general.In encouragingthe attemptto see synthetic
statements
Bourdieuhas offered
of
both actors (and thereforeactions) and his"theory"(a labelhe doesn'tlike).The rest
as shapedbyculturalschemas(to of his publicationsrange across a wide
institutions
borrowSewell'srecentterm),it also opens varietyof empiricalobjectsof analysis,from
up the possibilityof analysisof the way in museums and literatureto kinship,class,
whichthoseschemasare shapedin struggle. Algerianworkers,and FrenchhighereducaThis is the largertaskto which Bourdieu's tion.Outlineis not a cure forthe common
accountof"symbolicviolence"speaks;it has fragmented
readingof Bourdieu,but it does
alreadybeen put to use in a varietyof more go some way towards showing what is
many
specificanalyticcontexts.Outlinealso fore- centralto hisperspectiveand situating
shadowed Bourdieu's developmentof the of his key concepts in relationto broader
conceptof culturalcapital,and moregener- theory.In a senseit explicatesandprovidesa
formsof rationale for what Brubaker(1992) has
ally the theoryof how different
accumulatedresourcesmay have differentdescribedas Bourdieu'ssociologicalhabitus,
and maybe converted.In one related his characteristicmode of improvisingin
effects,
sense, however,Outline may have misled empiricalanalysis.
readers.Bourdieu'ssociologyis aimedlargely
at an account of power relations,and
especiallyof themanywaysin whichpower References
is culturallyproduced, reproduced, and
manipulated.Partlybecause of the heavy Bourdieu,Pierre.1988. "Vivela crise!ForHeterodoxy
in Social Science," Theoryand Society,17(5), pp.
language,thisis not
emphasison strategizing
773-88.
in Outlineas in some of the rest
as manifest
Brubaker,Rogers. 1992. "Social Theory as Habitus,"
ofBourdieu'swork.
pp. 212-234 in C. Calhoun, E. LiPuma, and M.
The influenceof Outline remainslarge, Postone, eds.: Bourdieu: Critical Perspectives.
of Chicago Press.
Chicago,IL: University
partlybecause it appears (along with the

The Gendering of Social


Theory: Sociology and
Its Discontents
BARBARALASLETT

Universityof Minnesota
Original review, CS 8:4 (January 1979), by
Rose Laub Coser:

This book will have consequences in


sociological as well as in psychoanalytic
theorizing at the same time as it may
provide some of the underpinningsfora
theoryof feminism.
Nancy Chodorow and I have known each
otherformore than 15 years as colleagues and
as friends.Partofthatfriendshiphas developed
out of our mutualintellectualinterestsin gender and familyrelationsand in social theory.In
our many conversations that have engaged
those interests,therehas been mutualcritique

TheReproduction
ofMothering:
Psychoanalysis and theSociologyof Gender,by NancyJ.
Chodorow. Berkeley: Universityof California
Press, 1978. 253 pp. $15.00 paper. ISBN:
0-520-03892-4.

as well as appreciation.This essay continuesin


the spiritof those conversations.
The Reproduction of Mothering: Psychoanalysis and the Sociology of Gender (hereafter,Mothering), published in 1978 by the
Universityof California Press, was a major
intellectual event in the emerging field of
feministscholarship and in social theory.Its

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306

CONTEMPORARYSOCIOLOGY

originalsuccess reflected,in part,the desires


of feministsto finda grand theorythatcould
address the normativequestions with which
theywere so concerned-women's subjectivity,sexuality,and constructionsof self in the
contexts of gender inequalities.It came at the
height of feministstruggles for intellectual
space and legitimacyin the academy,and also
argued for the potential of psychoanalytic
theory to be incorporated into sociological
thinking.Attentionwas almost immediate.
The intellectual contributionsof Mothering were at least twofold.First,it presented
an argument that problematized women's
mothering-nurturance, child care, and socialization, as well as pregnancy,childbirth,
and lactation. Eschewing a biological explanation, Chodorow's central question was
"Why do women mother?"Her answer drew
on psychoanalytictheory,especially objectrelations theory, and developed it using
feminists'interest in and insightsabout the
socially constructed nature of gender relations. Focusing on the pre-Oedipal period of
development in which the primaryrelationship of infants is with their mothers,
Chodorow argued that the development of
gendered personalitiesin women and men is
such that women have a deeply internalized
psychological impetus to reproduce the
intimacy of their relationship with their
mothers,their primaryand primordial caretakers, and are able to do so through
becoming mothers themselves. In contrast,
she contended, and especially in nuclear
familiesbuilt on a division of labor in which
men are the primary breadwinners and
women are the primary homemakers and
nurturers (i.e., the Parsonian model of
Western nostalgia, to paraphrase William J.
Goode, 1963), personality development for
men fosters separation, not connectedness,
and the search for emotional distance, not
emotional intimacy.1It is thus, Chodorow
argued, that the reproduction of mothering
in women occurs at a deep intrapsychic
level, and cannot be adequately explained by
the concept of "sex roles," by socialization
theories,or by coercion in a male-dominated
culture, in male-dominated institutions,or
throughmale economic privilege.
1By providing such an abbreviated version of
Chodorow's theory,I obviouslycannot do justice to
its nuances and complexities.

Second, Chodorow connected the development of gendered personalities in women


and men not only to the reproduction of the
desire to mother among women, but also to
problematics in the relationships between
women and men and to women's inequality.
In so doing, she presented a powerful
argument for the potential usefulness of
psychoanalytic theory for sociologists in
general, not feministsalone. In contrast to
theories of social structureand/or the gendered division of labor in which women's
motheringas socially, culturally,and biologically organized behavior was takenas a given,
Chodorow raised a question to be answered,
rather than one whose answer seemed
self-evidently"natural."Gender relations,the
gendered division of labor, and gender
inequality-key concerns of feminists and
feminist scholars-became, in Chodorow's
hands, a theoretical problematic for social
theoristsin general, ratherthan a taken-forgranteddimension of social structure.
While Motheringwas an event of moment
forsociologists of the familyand of gender as
well as for feminist scholars across many
disciplines, it became, almost immediately,
the object of criticism among sociologists,
including (perhaps especially) feminists.At
the meeting of the American Sociological
Association in Boston in 1979, I attended a
panel session in which Mothering was
discussed by prominentwomen sociologists
then identifiedwith the newly emergingfield
of feministscholarship. I no longer have the
program fromthose meetings but recall the
participantsto have been Alice Rossi, Judith
Lorber,Rose Laub Coser, and Jessie Bernard.
(Coser was the reviewer of Reproduction in
Contemporary Sociology.) If my memory
serves me, with the exception of Rose Coser,
whose commentswere both appreciativeand
critical,the commentaries were almost uniformly negative. Lorber argued that economic relations, not psychoanalysis, explained women's oppressionand theirdecision
to mother. Rossi was disturbed by Chodorow's rejection of biological explanations and
evidence. Jessie Bernard commented on the
need to just get on with it and test
empiricallyifand how psychoanalytictheory
mightbe useful to sociologists.2There was a
2The commentsby Rossi,Lorber,and Coser were

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CONTEMPORARYSOOOLOGY
way, however, in which The Reproduction of
Mothering quickly became, despite (or,
perhaps, because of) its widespread recognition and influence, a book that sociologists
loved to hate. It has, nevertheless,continued
to receive attentionby scholars, both feminist and nonfeminist.3
The original and continued impact of
Chodorow's theory needs to be understood
within the intellectual context in which it
developed-the Parsonian model of family
set of gender
life,with its taken-for-granted
roles and relationships that were seen as
"functional"forthe society (if not necessarily
always for women) and the concerns of
contemporary feminist scholars to disrupt
precisely what that model took for granted.
But Chodorow's work posed a challenge to
feministscholarship as well. Making analytic
use of Freudian-inspiredpsychoanalytictheory,she validated its usefulnessto analyses of
gender relations, rather than relegating the
theoryin toto to the dustbin of a patriarchal
intellectual history,as some feministswere
then doing. Chodorow was not alone either
in her uses of psychoanalytictheoryor in her
questioning of the adequacy of functionalist
theories of familylife.Her rich articulationof
a feministcritique,however, came at just the
right moment to be taken up and noticed.
Having identified"gender" as a theoretical
category,Mothering became a classic work
in feministtheory, and influentialin many
disciplines-e.g., political theoryand literary
criticism.Ironically,although Chodorow is a
sociologist, it has been more resisted than
embraced in thatfield.
Should Chodorow's psychoanalyticallyfocused theory of gender relations be of
sociological interest now, in 1996, especially since she has revised some of her
ideas since the publication of Mothering?4

307

My answer-that Chodorow's theoretical


workcontinuesto have majorcontributions
to make to sociology-reflectscurrenttheoreticaldebates thatare not about personbut
alityor microlevelsocial relationships,
about macrohistoricalprocesses of social
changeand social reproduction,
i.e.,debates
humanagency,and
about social structures,
theirintersections
under concreteand historicallyspecific conditions.(See Abrams
1981.) Quite simply,Chodorow's theory
providesa way to theorizehuman action
and the linkbetweenindividualagentsand
largersocial structures.
She does so not by
relyingon a simplisticlogic of market
relationsas unmediatedby the subjective
and interpretive
capacitiesof social actors,
but by directingattentionto the power of
to genemotions,to familyrelationships,
dered culturesand experiences,and to the
sociologicalrelevanceof sexualityand sexual identitiesas they are constructedby
societies.Chodorpersonswithinpatriarchal
ow's attention to the ways in which
personalitydevelops and to the place of
emotion in the constructionof meaning
of how
contributesto our understanding
and whypeople act as theydo more richly
thanthetheorieseitherof "rationality"
or of
socializationthatinfusemanycontemporary
sociologicalmodelsof action.She also gives,
in myview,intellectual
weight
appropriately
and emotional
to genderrelations,
sexuality,
life in ways that can informthe kinds of
political,economic,cultural,and organizational questions with which sociologists
have traditionally
been concerned.Pierce's
(1995) analysisof the genderedemotional
dynamicsin contemporarylaw firms,for
instance,and my own work on the history
of Americansociology (Laslett 1990) use
Chodorow'stheoryto understandorganizationaland historicaldynamics.
PierreBourdieu(1977) arguesthatecoand thatto differentinomicsis everywhere,
ate the economic and symbolic,treating
them as qualitativelydifferentrealms of
social experienceand activity,
is to particiof the linksbetween
pate in a mystification
them in all social formations.
Chodorow's
is a similarlyradical
theoryof "mothering"

publishedin Signs:Journalof Womenin Cultureand


Societyin the Springof 1981 (vol. 6: 482-514) and it
is to those I have referredin preparingthis essay.
Chodorow's publishedresponse in the Signs symposium meritsreadingtodayas it did then.
3 As editorof Signs:Journal of Women in Culture
and Society between 1990 and 1995, I know that
Motheringremainsa major focus of debate among
feministscholars; recently, however, it is being
consideredin more positive,althoughnot uncritical,
lights.(See, forinstance,Seguraand Pierce 1993).
4 In Feminism and Psychoanalytic Theory, rejected her earlierimplication"thatwomen's mothChodorow discusses some of the ways in which her ering was the cause or prime mover of male
has changedover time;she has,forinstance, dominance."(See Chodorow 1989:1-19.)
thinking

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308

CONTEMPORARYSOCOLOGY

and demystifying
argument:"Gender" is and constraints
to constructtheirown lives
We carry and become actors on as well as in
presentin all social relationships.5
and construct"gender" in our multiple societies. (See Chodorow 1994 for furrealmsofexperienceandactivity
through
the therelaborationofher argument
in "Individemotionsthatenergizeour actions,through uality and Difference. . ."; for another,
the symbolsand meaningswe constructto related,theoreticalstatementsee Mahoney
make sense of those actions,throughour and Yngvesson1992; for empiricalexamexplanations-to ourselves and others-of ples, see Lawrence-Lightfoot
1994.) Her
how and whywe become the social actors case studies also illustratehow situations
thatwe do.
beyond the realm of personal life can
For all theirrichpotentialto engagewith become infused with meaning and the
contemporary social theory, however, power of feeling.And her theoryallows us
Chodorow's interestshave remained fo- to understand
how jobs can become sitesof
cused on, indeed have become more firmly struggleover masculinityand femininity
attached to, theorizingthe person, not (Pierce 1995), how sports and locker
linkagesto social structure.This is, in my rooms can become sites of struggleover
view, a limitationof her work,althoughit sexuality,and how both can become sites
does not by itselfinvalidateits sociological forstrugglesover control(Disch and Kane
relevance,especially as it has developed 1996).
over the last 25 years.Yet she has,perhaps
Yet, some of the critiquethatRose Coser
not surprisingly,
givenher fascination
with articulatedin the original Contemporary
"forits own sake" (1989:6), Sociology review of Mothering-that
psychoanalysis
become even more focusedon persons as Chodorowdoes notpay enoughattention
to
creative actors. In one of her recent structure-remains.
fromthe outAlthough,
publications,"Genderas Personaland Cul- set, Chodorow has clearlyrecognizedthat
turalConstruction"
(Chodorow 1995), part meanings,actions, and relationshipsare
of a book-lengthproject on which she is constructedwithin particularsocial concurrentlyworking,Chodorow expands on texts, her fascinationwith persons has
themesthathave been presentin her work resultedin an inattention
to how personal
since the beginning,
but thatalso reflecther action and society connect. Drawinglinkrecentpsychoanalytic
trainingand her cur- ages betweenthequestionsthatintrigueher
rent work as a clinician as well as an and other approaches to social theory,
academician.
however, is not necessarilyChodorow's
In this work,Chodorow is more exclu- responsibility
alone, althoughnot doing so
sively concerned with how persons con- may limitrecognitionof the relevanceof
structmeanings,in thisinstancethe mean- her work to social theorists.Like us,
ings of gender,withinthe highlyspecific she needs to be free to pursue her
contexts of individuallives and clinical intellectualinterestsand sociologicalimagiexperiences. But she does not, unfortu- nation where they take her. The chalnately, explicitlylink insightsfrom her lenge-to draw out the implicationsof
present location at the intersectionof Chodorow's contributionsto social theoeitherto socio- ry-is also ours. In 1996, it continuesto
sociologyand psychoanalysis
logical analysisor to social theory.Her serve our intellectualintereststo take that
currentfocus,however,whateverits limits, challengeseriously,
as did thepublicationof
has importantthingsto say to those of us Motheringin 1978.
interestedin understanding
humanagency,
in learninghow people use the available
resources Works Cited
social,cultural,and organizational
5While gender relationsare present in all social
situations-indeed, gender is present even when
women are not (see Scott 1988)-it does not follow
that gender is uniformlysalient in all times and
places; see "SeventiesQuestionsforThirtiesWomen:
Gender and Generationin a Studyof EarlyWomen
in Chodorow 1989.
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Abrams,Philip. 1981. Historical Sociology. Ithaca,


NY: CornellUniversity
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Bourdieu, Pierre. 1977. Outline of a Theory of
Practice.Cambridge:CambridgeUniversity
Press.
Chodorow,NancyJ. 1989. Feminismand PsychoanPress.
alytic Theory.New Haven:Yale University
. 1994. Femininities,Masculinities, Sexuali-

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CONTEMPORARYSOCIOLOGY 309
ties: Freud and Beyond. Lexington:Universityof Mahoney, Maureen and Barbara Yngvesson. 1992.
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"The Constructionof Subjectivityand the Paradox
. 1995. "Gender as a Personal and Cultural
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Disch,Lisa and MaryJo Kane. 1996. "Whena lookeris Pierce, Jennifer.1995. Gender Trials: Emotional
reallya bitch:Lisa Olson, Sport,and the HeterosexLives in ContemporaryLaw Firms. Berkeley:
ual Matrix."Signs 21:278-308.
University
of CaliforniaPress.
Goode, William J. 1963. World Revolution and
Scott,Joan W. 1988. "Gender:A UsefulCategoryof
Family Patterns.New York:Free Press.
HistoricalAnalysis."Pp. 28-50 in Genderand the
Laslett,Barbara. 1990. "UnfeelingKnowledge: EmoPolitics of History.New York:ColumbiaUniversity
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Sociological Forum 5:413- 433.
Segura, Denise A. and JenniferPierce. 1993. "ChiSara. 1994. rve Known Rivers:
Lawrence-Lightfoot,
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Chodorow,Familism,and Psychoanalytic
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What's Race Got To Do


With It?*
ALDON MORRIS

Northwestern
University
Originalreviews,CS 9:1 (January1980), by
ThomasF. Pettigrewand Cora BagleyMarrett.FromCora BagleyMarrett's
review:
The positionof[theblackmiddleclass]may
be far more precarious than Wilson suggests... [The Bakke]case and similarchallenges to special minorityprogramsindicatetomanyobserversthataffirmative
action
programsare notfirmly
entrenched... The
progressofthemiddleclassmaybe shorterlivedand less sweepingthantheWilsonpresentationmightimply.

The Declining Significance of Race: Blacks


and Cbanging American Institutions, by
William Julius Wilson. Universityof Chicago
Press [1978] 1980. 204 pp. $9.95 paper. ISBN:
0-226-90219-7.

DSR was importantto his election as only the


second Black president of the century-old
American Sociological Association. Wilson's
staturehas also made him a valued consultant
to President Clinton.
Why did DSR have such an impact?I argue
here
that this book had a huge impact
In 1978 the University
of Chicago Press
because
1) it carried a message that was
published WilliamJ. Wilson's book, The
enormously
appealing to manyAmericans;2)
Declining Significance of Race (hereafter
its title skillfullyalerted the public to its
referred
to as DSR), whose provocativetitle
conveyed its stunningnew message. The message; 3) Wilson's race and institutional
book's popular and scholarlyimpact was affiliationlegitimizedthe message; and 4) the
immediateand widespread,and it has re- message developed in the book allowed
mainedon thepress'stop 100 bestsellers
list. America's race problem to be conceptualized
Thanks to its success, Wilson became froma differentangle of vision.
DSR is theoreticallyambitious. It attempts
famous,securingmillionsof researchdollars
by
way of a macrohistorical argument to
and winninga MacArthur"genius"award.
explain how racial stratificationhas worked
in America, from slavery to the 1970s. For
* Numerous colleagues provided criticalfeedback the modern period, Wilson argued that only
on thisessay and I thankthemall. I especiallythank some Blacks were at the bottom of the
ChristopherJencks,CherylJohnson-Odim,Michael stratificationsystem, and what kept them
Schwartz,Charles Willie, Donald Brown, and Terry there was not their skin color or current
Murphy.I thank Clarence Page for agreeing to be
interviewed.My greatestdebt is to WilliamJ.Wilson racial discrimination. For Wilson, a brand
who agreed to lengthyinterviewsand graciously new phenomenon had emerged in modern
providedrelevantsources.
America that fundamentallychanged racial

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