Tumis dorothy smith essay

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Running head: Life, Theories and Relevance of Dorothy Smith







Tumi Adegoroye
1329840
Sociology 2S06
Professor: Dr. D. Young
TA: Jessica Ritz
January 27, 2015










Introduction
The name of the chosen theorist is Dorothy Smith and I selected her because of my interest in feminist theory and Dorothy's early personal life. My interest in feminist theory was since I was in grade 12, especially with the fact that it related more to a subjective point of view, having to do with symbolic interactionism. My interest grew when I learnt about the glass ceiling effect, which is still present in today's practice. I decided to find out more information about Dorothy Smith before doing the readings and I found that in most of her works she wrote about subjectivity and Dorothy Smith vividly explains feminism and how women are often viewed as "the subordinate", forgetting that these women even have more duties to perform even after work. Dorothy was also chosen because her early life is similar to that of my grandmother's. She was a strong woman, who understood that the problem of inequality (also at home) started from the society's objectivity and society's ideologies, which are socially constructed.
Biography
Dorothy Smith was in a born into a middle class family in England in 1926 during the great depression. Her father was a businessman and Dorothy was made to work in the factory when she was eighteen years of age. She had to work due to the war, but she only did for a couple of months. During this period, the industrial workers had a class-consciousness of talking about political issues, which Dorothy was involved in. Dorothy was also involved in some social work, but she thought it was not needed and thought other things needed to be done, other than social work (W. K. Carroll, personal communication, July 8, 2010). Dorothy had a relationship with her cousin; she lived with her cousin for a while and during this time she worked for a Labor member of the parliament in Essex. When she was 26, she started an undergraduate degree in LSE, London school of economics in, she took a "degree in sociology, with a major in anthropology and was fascinated" (Smith, n.d.). Dorothy started her graduate school at the University of California, in Berkeley, in 1955, where she met William Reid Smith who later married her. They later had two children while she was doing her doctorate, but some months before she finished her doctorate her husband divorced her, leaving her to be a single mother to take care of the children alone. She had to work hard on her own to earn a living, by working many hours and also having to take good care of her two boys. She also moved to Toronto in 1975, when she had finished her BA at Brock University in St Catherine's, Ontario. (W. K. Carroll, personal communication, July 8, 2010). Dorothy had no family to assist her in taking care of her children when she went to work; there was also the absence of daycare, which made life less easy for her.
Despite Dorothy being the only female professor teaching in Berkeley, she still had to teach in order to earn a living. It was difficult because that position was scarce for a female. Smith explains, she began "teaching in Berkeley and was the only woman teaching in the 44 faculties" (n.d.). This was an unusual case because men were in charge of most things, and women were viewed as those who belonged to the home. It was a very rare situation to see a female teach a course especially in the university. During this period, she was unaware of the "nonexistence of female scholars" in the United States, this was why Dorothy was surprised with the fact that there hardly females teaching in the university.
Dorothy Canada to Vancouver and taught women's studies in the University of British Columbia, she became involved in the women's organizations, academics, meetings and discussions. She also taught at the Ontario Institute for studies in Education in 1977, other feminists like Mary O'Brien was there. The teachings paved way for enlightenment; Dorothy began paying attention to the books she read many years back (about Marx) and some courses and speeches (which involved the works of George Hebert Mead). Dorothy's interest in these sociologists' works and her interest in women's experiences in and out of the public sphere showed in her own sociological work. Dorothy is still alive today and her work is very relevant in today's world. Dorothy was involved in a lot of conferences and saw it as a way of other women sharing their different life experiences. (Smith, n.d.). Her first writing was "women's perspective as a radical critique of sociology". Later in 1975, she wrote a collection of papers and examples of them are, "Women look at psychiatry: I'm not mad, I'm angry", "Feminism and Marxism: a place to begin, a way to go", "The Conceptual Practices of Power: a feminist sociology of knowledge", "Texts, Facts, and Femininity: exploring the relations of ruling" and many other which paved way for her success. (W. K. Carroll, personal communication, July 8, 2010). Dorothy's sons are married and she is still alive while her works are also very relevant till today.
Ideas
Dorothy Smith's ideas were very much related to the school of Frankfurt, while some of her ideas came from Marx. Dorothy thought critically and questioned inequality not only in the public sphere, but also in the private sphere. Dorothy introduced many sociological theories and ideas - The standpoint theory, exclusion and silencing of women, the experience of knowing from within, the ideology and relations of ruling and gender gap. In this paper, these theories would be focused on and examined in relation to how are her early life impacted her ideas.
Dorothy is not only a feminist but she is also a Marxist who developed some of her ideas through Marx's ideas. Marx's wanted to understand the concept of inequality in the society and the things causing class struggles in capitalism, leading to the oppression of the proletariat. As a Marxists and a feminist, Dorothy wanted to understand women's oppression in the society, why it was happening and the social and economic determinants of the issue. These questions were "almost imperceptibly into an attempt to work with a Marxist framework as a way of understanding how society is put together" (Hier, 2005, p. 226). According to Dillon (2014), "the relations of the ruling are institutional and cultural routines which govern and maintain the unequal positions of women in relation to men within and across all societal domain" (p. 336). In business, management or professional work, Dorothy argues that men are usually given these positions and this model has been in existence since the beginning of time. Dorothy believed it was hard to evaluate this model due to the ideologies of the society and living in a patriarchy society where a woman is believed to belong to the home. Dorothy brings in the concepts of "everyday and night worlds" by explaining that even as a working class woman, ones job does not end after work, but women still have duties to perform when they get home. (Dillon, 2014, p. 334). This is reflected in Dorothy's early life. Although, she was a woman who working, she still had to take care of her two sons after work, feeding them, taking care of them and making sure they get to bed early. Dorothy vividly explains that a woman's work has still not ended after that- it is a 24/7 job.
The ruling texts of feminity are the things that define power relations in the society, organizing women as objects. Dorothy focuses women being represented as sexual objects or the subordinate in advertisements, movies, television, magazines and other textual discourses. (Dillon, 2014, p. 334). She explains that even in branding and packaging of some products these doctrines are also reproduced; it is very problematic for the society because these ideas become normalized, leaving young children to believe females can be seen as the other.
Dorothy states that the standpoint of women is normally excluded in sociologists work. Dorothy explains, "The disciplines, text, conceptual and methodological rules and procedures that organize sociological practices- marginalize women" (Dillon, 2014. P. 335). The subjective and personal experiences of women are not carefully observed or taken into consideration. When doing research, Dorothy criticizes sociologists for not taking women's personal everyday/night experiences into consideration; this concept is linked to theory of "knowing from within". (Dillon, 2014. P. 337). This concept is very useful for understanding our socially constructed world. One must understand what is going on in the private sphere so it would be easier to understand the private sphere and its link to the public sphere. Objectivity is crucial for sociology, but subjectivity helps one to understand what the truth of people's worlds. This relates to her early life due to the struggles she went through. Her ability to take care of her two sons was unknown by the public, only if she was asked her personal life and understood the hardship she went through. She tries to explain that in today's world, so many women do face a lot of problems in the private sphere and are later oppressed in the public sphere.
Dorothy argues that a woman's standpoint is trivialized also in the workplace, which leads to gender gap and what we can relate to today as the glass ceiling effect. According to Dillon (2014), "at work, women have to behave as if they have no children... at home, they have to suppress the body aches and injuries that accompany them from work" (p. 340). Women are considered as subordinate therefore, any form of weakness in the work place or at home, she would not be seen as useful. She uses Marx's ideas in relation to the bourgeoisie and the proletariat and male and female. The standpoint of the proletariat helped them to understand the alienation and oppression that came along with capitalism, but also gave them a collective consciousness. Dorothy explains that the female standpoint needs to be understood so gender inequality would be transformed. She explained that there needs to be an alternative sociology which involves understanding the standpoint of women, and putting it into everyday practices and also the laws that govern us. (Dillon, 2014, p.343).
Relevance
There is no doubt that Dorothy Smith's work is still relevant today and that is shown in most of her ideas. She is very relevant because the issues Smith wrote about are still present today, but not as much as 60 years ago. Dorothy explains the today's ruling texts and the relations of ruling as being problematic, they are still problematic now because in so many parts of the world, the ruling texts are controlled by the male stand point. (Dillon, 2014, p.334). It is still believed that women are not capable of doing certain things; therefore, their opinions or ideas are not needed. In schools, churches, organizations, government, the female standpoint is still not viewed as valid, making bureaucracies have a limited number of women in charge. This may be criticized as it may vary in some part of the world. But specifically in North America, there is still gender inequality present both in the private and public sphere.
Dorothy's concept of "advertising feminity" is still relevant and present in our society today. Women are portrayed as sex objects and subordinate to the man. On video games, music videos, television shows, magazines and other forms of communication, women are always represented as objects for men. Dorothy's concepts disagree with these concepts and some recent feminist today also disagrees, because this encourages children (especially males) to see women as their objects. A woman who is working with a good job may be questioned if she is not married, she is expected to be married, have children and take care of her husband. In recent days, a female trying to accomplish life goals first before marriage may be problematic in some parts of the world (where culture is influenced by patriarchy). It is still believed that woman's place belongs in the private sphere, to serve the man.
Dorothy ideas of exclusion are still present in society, although it has been improved in in the last few years. Excluding women from everyday practice is paving way for gender gap in the society and the glass ceiling effect. According to Hier (2005), "the unemployment rates among women in this province have gone up and that they are substantially higher than rates among men" (p. 231). A wife earning more money than a husband in the family is considered to be a threat. If a couple is working in the same organization, most organizations make it possible that the wife does not get a higher position than the husband even when she is qualified. The glass roof ceiling theory suggests that there is an invisible barrier stopping women from reaching a higher position or achieving success and this is due to gender inequality. Although many presidents and CEO of organizations are men, women are also rising up to this level due to continuous feminism movements. In today's world, the dominant culture is beginning to accept feminism and it is slowly growing to become part of the dominant culture.
Looking at things from within also means the personal is political. Looking at a female's point of view from both the public and private sphere is very crucial. Although objectivity is crucial, sociologist and also the society as a whole cannot understand the personal experience of a woman until someone encountering it is sharing their experience. The reason why sociologists need to incorporate subjectivity in their model is because people have different social reality. Two women who have similar life stories may experience or see life differently. Dorothy Smith's work paved way for more feminist movements and gender equality in the society. Today, there are feminist magazines, radio programs, shows and other forms of media, which helps to contribute to the movement of gender equality. There are also activist groups in the society today that are interested in the day-to-day life of a typical female. Women sit around and discuss their day-to-day experiences.
Conclusion
I do not regret choosing this paper because I do agree with Dorothy's theories and I like how she uses real life and personal examples to explain her theories. Dorothy Smith's life experiences and personality can be seen in the concept of her theories. I learnt the relevance of the woman's standpoint theory and her theories took me back to the "glass ceiling effect" which I had forgotten about. She vividly analyzes the relations of the ruling class and from that I learnt we still live in a patriarchy world, but taking a step to put into practice the alternative sociology - looking at things from women and other minority groups' point of view, inequality would reduce gradually. Dorothy Smith's life would pave way for young feminists, not to be discouraged, but to keep fighting for the equality of women in the society. There are many places that believe it is a taboo for a female to go to school; Dorothy's life proves that although it may be seen as a taboo, equality is meant for all, therefore women should not give up.







References
Carroll, W. K. (2010). 'You are here': Interview with Dorothy E. Smith. Socialist Studies, 6(2): 9- 37.
Dillon, M. (2014). Feminist Theories. In Introduction to sociological theory: Theorists, concepts, and their applicability to the twenty-first century (2nd ed., pp. 328-367). Chichester, U.K.: Wiley-Blackwell. Print.
Smith, D. (2005). Feminism and marxism – A place to begin, a way to go. In S. P. Hier (Ed.), Contemporary sociological thought: Themes and theories. Toronto: Canadian Scholars Press.
Smith, D. (n.d.). Dorothy Smith (from Institutional ethnography: Online resources and discussion). URL: http://faculty.maxwell.syr.edu/mdevault/dorothy_smith.htm