Page 260 - DENG502_PROSE

Prose

Notes engage the problem of social inequality, and offer solutions to ameliorate social problems. This
chapter discusses the work of several women theorists, activists, and social reformers, and it
presents the case for why it should be included in the canon of classical sociological theory.
Self Assessment
1. Choose the correct options:
(i) Martineau was born in
(a) 1802 (b) 1805 (c) 1810 (d) 1819
(ii) Harriet described childhood as
(a) Burdensome (b) Joyful
(c) Most pleased (d) Golden
(iii) ‘The book’ How to observe morals and manners’ published in
(a) 1836 (b) 1838 (c) 1850 (d) 1831
(iv) “On Female Education” was written in
(a) 1822 (b) 1820 (c) 1815 (d) 1825

23.6 Summary

• Martineau has come to be known as the “founding mother” of sociology for both her theoretical
and empirical work. A prolific writer, Martineau published twenty-five didactic novels in a
series called Illustrations of Political Economy; the first sociological research text, How to
Observe Morals and Manners; three volumes on her field work in the United States, Society
in America; and a book on her research in the Middle East, Eastern Life: Present and Past.
She also translated and edited Comte’s Positive Philosophy, a volume that was so highly
acclaimed that Comte translated her rendition of his book back into French.
• Martineau viewed the central concern of sociology to be what she called “social life in
society,” the patterns, causes, consequences, and problems of the social world. Like Comte
and Spencer, she was a positivist who believed in social laws and the progressive evolution
of society. According to Martineau, the most important law of social life is human happiness,
and much of her work sought to understand the extent to which individuals developed
“morals and manners” to achieve this end.
• Martineau used a comparative methodological approach to study the moral principles in
different societies and to uncover the degrees to which these societies had progressed. She
devised three measures to study progress, including the condition of the less powerful groups
in society, the cultural attitudes towards authority and autonomy, and the extent to which
all individuals were provided the tools to realize autonomous moral action.
• Unlike Spencer, Martineau was overwhelmingly concerned with gender, racial, and class
inequality. For example, when researching the moral condition of America, Martineau focused
on marriage patterns and slavery. She also studied the conditions of wage-earning women in
Great Britain and the lives of the poor in her field work in the Middle East.

23.7 Key-Words

1. Positivism : It is a philosophy of science based on the view that in the social as well as
natural science.
2. Perseverance : Steadfastness in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving.

254 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY