Feminist Criticism Founders Of Sociology

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Emile Durkheim, Max Weber and Karl Marx have been labelled the founders of modern sociology, however, according to feminist perspective, their theories failed to fully acknowledge women and their relationship to society.

During the time of Durkheim, Weber and Marx, women had little to do with the social and economic aspects of society, specifically outside of the home and family. As capitalism and industrialism began to flourish, men made up this public sphere while women had little involvement in it. The women became restricted to the private sphere, the world of the household and family. As a result of this, classical definitions of the social world excluded a large portion of humanity. Analysis of the community where women were involved did not occur.

The general complaint, regarding these three classical sociologists, from the feminist perspective, is that they failed to adequately portray the female involvement and contribution to society.

Women were generally ignored, although touched upon briefly. By and large, women were disregarded when it came to the analysis of the social world. Although each of the classical sociologists had comments regarding women and family it was generally limited. The social models of Durkheim, Weber and Marx would be affected very little if women did not exist.

Durkheim's social theory concentrated on the division of labour and the public economy while analyzing their implications in social development and social solidarity. As women generally had no involvement in the labour force during Durkheim's time, little was included of them in his theory. Although women played a key role in the household and in family life, Durkheim did not include this aspect of social life and failed to consider what would happen if their household actions became apart of the economy.

Again, Weber focused on the public sphere, which women played...