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

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.

Transformando o Círculo Interno: o Desafio de Dorothy Smith à Teoria Sociológica

Recentemente, as traduções para o português das produções de mulheres negras da diáspora têm ganhado maior relevância em periódicos e editoras nacionais. Esta mudança de enfoque responde ao crescente interesse acadêmico por discussões que proponham uma análise crítica dos paradigmas hegemônicos das ciências sociais, sob um olhar feminista. No presente artigo, Collins busca elucidar a perspectiva crítica de Dorothy Smith sobre a produção da sociologia contemporânea, ao apontar suas contradições. As autoras destacam os limites do círculo interno da teoria sociológica, indicando este lugar como de exclusão de grupos historicamente marginalizados. Lançam o desafio da construção de novos ângulos de visão, que transcendam o discurso dominante a partir da experiência das mulheres no campo da sociologia.

Reviewing Methods Studying Violence in Women’s ‘Everyday’

Every day of all individuals subsumed under the everydays of society. The mundane, the repetitive individual’s everyday is challenged when it becomes the starting point studying the unorganised every day. Looking at the repetitiveness character of everyday, this article questions the involvement of the forces of domination in women’s lives. Taking a feminist standpoint this article deals with the reverse, ‘transposing knowing into objective forms in which the situated subject and her actual experiences and location are discarded’. A concept developed by Dorothy Smith, ‘relations of ruling’ is used in this article to understand how the everyday repetitive struggles of women against violence can be studied, what methodological position, which methods of studying can be considered appropriate.

Choosing the home planned childbirth: a natural and drug-free option / A opção pelo parto domiciliar planejado: uma opção natural e desmedicalizada

Objetivo: analisar com base no referencial teórico de Dorothy Smith, a opção de mulheres pelo parto domiciliar planejado com fator de segurança e conforto para a mulher. Métodos: estudo etnográfico institucional, com 17 mulheres que pariram no domicílio no período de 2008 à 2010 no município do Rio de Janeiro aplicando entrevista semiestruturada na coleta dos dados, e analisados conforme a análise temática articuladas com a Teoria de Dorothy Smith. Resultados: A expressão do parto natural se faz presente nas concepções das mulheres, expressando em maior conforto e liberdade, uma relação de confiança com o profissional de saúde, transmitindo uma segurança para a opção do parto domiciliar. Conclusão:Concluiu-se que o encontro com o referencial ratifica a conscientização e fortalecimento da mulher, que empodera-se, em defesa ao acesso da informação, e uma relação saudável com o profissional de saúde.

Heteronormativity made me lesbian: Femme, butch and the production of sexual embodiment projects

Queer theory argues that ruling heteronormative discourses are productive of sexualities. How then does heteronormativity produce lesbians? We theorize femme and butch as sexual embodiment projects—processual, relational responses to patriarchal heteronormativity incessantly textually threaded throughout our lives. Drawing on radical feminisms updated with Foucault and Dorothy Smith, we offer autoethnographic accounts of our sexual embodiments of butch and femme, arguing not that rape experiences, but the constant threat of rape in everyday life can produce lesbian desire and embodiment. Ultimately, we understand sexual embodiment as not based on a fixed ontological ground but always in the relational, everyday doings of people and, hence, malleable within the social context, discursive moment, and individual intersections of one’s life within relations of power (gender, race, class, religiosity, nationality, and so on).

Information for the option of planned home birth: women's right to choose

This article is part of an investigation which used the institutional ethnography of Dorothy Smith, aiming to describe women's process of choice in planned home birth. It used interviews held with 17 women who gave birth at home between 2008 and 2010 in Rio de Janeiro. We selected one category: information - a step for the option for planned home birth. The category was constructed based on six subcategories: knowing persons who had a home birth; knowing persons with negative experiences; the Internet as a source of information; books as a source of information, information from health professionals; and, the exchanging of information between women. The information acts as a network of knowledge, reports and experiences in their symbolic dimensions, favoring the raising of consciousness and the social organization of support. These knowledges and practices are a foundation for a social understanding and the women's discourse in the option for planned home birth.