The Everyday World As Problematic: A Feminist Sociology

by Dorothy E. Smith

In this collection of essays, sociologist Dorothy E. Smith develops a method for analyzing how women (and men) view contemporary society from specific gendered points of view. She shows how social relations - and the theories that describe them - must express the concrete historical and geographical details of everyday lives. A vital sociology from the standpoint of women, the volume is applicable to a variety of subjects, and will be especially useful in courses in sociological theory and methods.

Genres: Sociology, Feminism, Gender, Nonfiction, School

251 pages, Paperback

First published November 30, 1987

About the author

Dorothy Edith Smith CM (born July 6, 1926) is a Canadian sociologist with research interests in a variety of disciplines, including women's studies, feminist theory, psychology, and educational studies, as well as in certain subfields of sociology, such as the sociology of knowledge, family studies, and methodology. Smith founded the sociological sub-disciplines of feminist standpoint theory and institutional ethnography.

Reviews

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incredibly significant and underrated critical sociological work. In a series of essays, Smith sets out to develop a method of exploring and explicating the social organisation of (social relations/ongoing processes that coordinate and organise) the oppressive and an objectivising social system of contemporary capitalism, with a reflexive sociology beginning from the local standpoint of women -- based in an account of their specific activity/work (broadly conceived)- an approach that she holds neither completely relativizes, unduly generalises, nor subsumes the experiences/standpoint it begins from within the objectivising discourse of what she calls "the relations of ruling". The standpoint is merely the starting point of an inquiry into these extralocal forms of organisation and the ways in which the (women) subjects are active through their work within them (and take part in producing them), but invisibled and subordinated as a result of them, and how this is expressed in the dominant ideational content.

A double edged rebuke to both structuralist and post-structuralist approaches to sociology, and a solid historical materialist basis of situating subjectivity as an ongoing social achievement and struggle in relation/contradistinction to the objectivising powers of discourse.

See Himani Bannerji for another brilliant Marxist-Feminist social theorist who develops a similar methodological approach to DE Smith, though seems less concerned to generate a full research program (such as the Institutional Ethnography borne out of DE Smith's work) or as focussed on a purely inductive (local -> extralocal) methodology.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

**Read for my 2021 gender and sexuality comprehensive exams**

This series of essays discussed the formation of knowledge through various institutions, and critiqued the fact that many of these institutions are male-dominated. Women struggle to find their experiences represented or taken seriously in these institutions, whether it be media, academia or politics. While a lot has changed since these essays were written, I think many women (and other marginalized groups) can recognize the struggle of existing in a world where large parts of it are run/influenced by rich white men. This is what Smith describes as the "relations of ruling" and they hold a lot of power. Smith also discusses standpoint theory/method in which she describes the importance of looking at marginalized perspectives, and doing research that treats individuals as subjects, not objects, and involves the researcher (and their inevitable bias) as well.

The first half of this book was particularly great and well explained. Large parts of the second were a bit more abstract and difficult to read (maybe it was just me. I've been doing a lot of reading lately and I am so, so tired lol) but after reading some reviews on the book and getting clarity I can see there's a lot of value in them. This was a very good foundational text for feminist sociologists.

[June Graham · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dated and makes some broad assumptions about domestic feminism

[Caroline · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not sure where I saw feminist sociologist Dorothy Smith's work mentioned. Since my husband was a sociologist, I was curious about her approach. My local library borrowed this book from a midwestern university library. I read it intermittently.

Smith was trying to work out ways to broaden the way the discipline of sociology addresses the totality of the lives of people they study, and the essays included here attempt to do that. Unfortunately, the language she uses is so convoluted it is not easy to read. If I were to pursue this avenue, I would want to take her sentences apart and find ways to explain her ideas in everyday language, because I sense that they are valuable. In any case, reading this brought me back to the days of the "new feminism," and that was enjoyable.

[Tara Brabazon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This remains a stunning book. A profound book.

This book summons "a standpoint of women." This is not a perspective or a worldview, but a method that "creates the space for an absent subject."

Most importantly, Smith probed how to create a sociology that enables the people we study to remain subjects with presence, rather than objects frequently masked by absences.

This is a book that asks scholars to remain connected to the everyday and consider how we research, and why we research. More powerfully Smith provokes us to consider how to organize (and) struggle.

[aj · Rating 5 out of 5]

read this for my sociology class. so so good! truly so informative and perfectly explains the everyday problems that all women relate to and face because of the patriarchy and the society created by males for males.

[Leonardo]

El trabajo afectivo es entendido mejor partiendo de lo que los análisis feministas del “trabajo de la mujer” han denominado “trabajo en modo corporal”.

Imperio Pág.221

[Penelope, pronounced comme tu veux · Rating 5 out of 5]

Re-reading right now, but from what I recall, a classic on gender if there ever were one.

[Amira · Rating 2 out of 5]

God rest your soul, Cynthia Nelson.