Students in any Introduction to Sociology course will quickly become familiar with a host of male figures, such as Durkheim, Weber and Marx. These men are credited with founding sociology and are given titles such as the “father of sociology.” However, what the introductory texts fail to include is the women who were practicing sociology in its early days as it was being formally established – who were also helping to define, enrich, and strengthen the discipline. Two of these women were Jane Addams and Charlotte Perkins Gilman. The pair both lived from 1860-1935 in similar sociohistorical contexts, being influenced by Progressivist ideals and American patriarchy and capitalism. However, vastly different theoretical voices are evident in their writing.
Best known as the founder of Hull House, Addams lived among its residents “as a neighbor” and used the settlement as a platform to argue and rally for social change. Additionally, Addams was involved in a multitude of civic organizations, meetings of labor congresses, women’s rights groups, and peace groups. Her writings reflect her tendency to use narratives to illustrate the complexity of social issues, analyzed from multiple vantage points. For her, the purpose of sociology was to effect immediate change in the world – which she did as a social worker, sociologist, activist, and reformer. Most of the problems she sought to correct stemmed from what she saw as the conflict between individualism and collectivism in American society.
Gilman’s most famous work is the short story titled, The Yellow Wallpaper. It details the downward mental spiral of a woman on forced bed rest while suffering from postpartum depression and combines the themes of gender and agency in work, two of Gilman’s most popular subjects. Gilman strongly believed in the power of theory to debunk false concepts and illogical common sense of the day. According to her, the new perspectives that arose from improved thinking were necessary to jump-start social change. Gilman’s goal was not to use theory to effect change in her immediate environment, but rather to expose the corruption in human social relations and to suggest a new social system that would promote fairness, especially between genders.
In sociology, as in other disciplines, there is often an internal debate about the pros and cons of applied vs. academic work. However, both of these approaches are necessary and relevant to understanding social problems, and both types of sociologists are needed to triangulate the sources of and solutions to complex issues. Labeled as “a theorist who distrusted theory,” Addams definitely favored the applied approach, while Gilman’s main focus was on developing theories with a distanced approach to everyday conflicts.
There will always be a need for practical approaches to alleviate the myriad of social problems that face us. Social workers, activists, lobbyists, and reformers are needed to directly help those in need and to fight on their behalf; after all, theory cannot feed or clothe a homeless child. But, there is also always a need to step back from the immediacies and details of everyday life to view these same social problems through the lens of the larger inconspicuous forces at play, such as power and control, that endure over centuries and throughout generations.
Addams and Gilman, even with differing theoretical perspectives, were able to acknowledge the strength of each other’s work. It has been said that Addams and her colleagues enthusiastically read Gilman’s book, Women and Economics, when it was released. Likewise, Gilman was quoted as saying that Addams’s mind “had more ‘floor space’ in it than any other I have known. She could set a subject down, unprejudiced, and walk all around it, allowing fairly for everyone’s point of view.” To be able to appreciate and admire each other’s gifts and to work together towards a common goal serves as one more example of successfully “doing sociology.”