Race and Gender in Non-Durkheimian French Sociology, 1893-1914

The non-Durkheimian sociologists in the institutions founded by René Worms were not simply biological determinists. A hard-line contingent among Wormss associates continued to accept the anthropological paradigm of racial hierarchy, but a larger group questioned the validity of the concept of race as its anthropological precision faltered. The critique of race, however, did not challenge the French civilizing imperial mission. The male sociologists did not parallel this critique with a corresponding critique of gender roles. The positivists in the Worms group, sometimes more liberal on race, believed in an essential, complementary nature of women. However, the participation of well-known feminists revealed that most male sociologists endorsed a relational feminism that was based less on essential nature than on the need for stable social roles. The sociologists discussions displayed the cultural assumptions about stable households that prevented revision of old gender stereotypes. At the same time the degree of responsiveness to feminist claims foreshadowed a more expanded notion of citizenship

Citizenship · Epistemology · Feminism · Hierarchy · Political science · Politics · Positivism · Race (biology · Sociology · Academic and Historical Perspectives in Psychology · Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice · Emile Durkheim and Sociology · Gender Studies · Law · Philosophy

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