Female Sociology as a Source of Empowerment of Women in Academia, Sociology, and Society

Abstract

Even though there are many influent female sociologists, they are not well introduced in literature, and academic journals, because of double standards, in recognition of academic works of women. Jessie Bernard (Wharton, 2012, p. 5) strives for the female enlightenment, questioning the sociology as male stream, and therefore focused only to male experiences, in famous statement: “Can sociology become science of society rather than science of male society?” (Wharton, 2012, p. 5). Dorothy Smith wrote her famous work Sociology for women as antecedents of later formed discipline of sociology of gender. She was lecturer at University of Oregon, where in the academic staff of 44 persons she was the only woman: “The chilly climate for women” (Ritzer, 1997, pp. 308-309), is the way in which Dorothy Smith explains her experience in teaching Gender studies in early seventies. Radical feminism, with its notion of violence over the women in public and private sphere, demands the identification of these spheres, in order for women to be involved in academic life with overcoming the negative stereotypes regarding the roles of women and man.