Abstract
This epigraph from a poem by Charlotte Perkins Gilman neatly conveys the theme of this chapter; it is indeed hard to lift the weight of the many years whence the ‘habits, methods and ideas’ of male classical theorists have presided over social theory. Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860–1935) and the earlier Harriet Martineau (1802–1876) are the neglected contemporaries of the male theorists usually recognised as the originators of the classical sociological canon, such as Auguste Comte, Émile Durkheim, Herbert Spencer, Lester Ward and Max Weber. In this chapter, it is argued that an examination of their work provides a glimpse of how the sociology of health, illness and medicine might have been if the wider discipline of sociology had developed differently according to the precepts Martineau and Gilman endeavoured to bring to public attention. In particular, it proposes that as they grappled with the mind/body relationship in illness, especially as this concerned women, they advanced a nascent embodied sociology of health and illness and sociology of gender and health.
It takes great strength to train
To modern service your ancestral brain; To lift the weight of the unnumbered years
Of dead man’s habits, methods and ideas... (Gilman 1898, in Davis 2010:3).
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abrahamson, M. (2010) Classical Theory and Modern Studies. Prentice Hall: London.
Annandale, E. (2007) ‘Assembling Haniet Martineau’s Gender and Health Jigsaw’ Women’s Studies International Forum 30(4):355–366.
Annandale, E. (2009) Women’s Health and Social Change. Routledge: London.
Annandale, E. (2010) ‘Egalitärer Feminismus und der Gesundheitsstatus von Frauen: Eiene kritische Reflexion’ (‘Equality feminism and women’s health status: A critical reflection’, translated into German by Hannah Steiner) in G. Maurer (ed.) Frauengesundheit in Theorie und Praxis. Feministische Perspektiven in den Gesundheitswissenschaften. Transcript: Bielefeld, pp. 27–51.
Annandale, E. (2014) The Sociology of Health and Mediane: A Critical Introduction. Wiley: Cambridge.
Arni, C. and Müller, C. (2004) ‘More Sociological than the Sociologists? Undisciplinary Thinking About Society and Modernity in the Nineteenth Century’ in Marshall, B. and Witz, A. (eds.) Engendering the Social. Open University Press: Maidenhead, pp. 71–97.
Bland, L. (1995) Banishing the Beast. Feminism, Sex and Morality, 1885–1914. Penguin: London.
Carel, H. (2008) Illness. Acumen: Durham.
Cockerham, W.C. (2013) ‘Sociological Theory in Medical Sociology in the Early Twenty-First Century’ Social Theory and Health 11(3):241–55.
Collyer, F.M. (2010) ‘Origins and Canons: Medicine and the History of Sociology’ History of the Human Sciences 23(2):86–108.
Comte, A. (1896) The Positive Philosophy of Auguste Comte (freely translated and condensed by Haniet Martineau). George Bell and Sons: London.
Connell, R.W. (1997) ‘Why Is Classical Theory Classical?’ American Journal of Sociology 102(6):1511–1557.
Cutter, M. (2001) ‘The Writer as Doctor: New Models of Medical Discourse in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Later Fiction’ Literature and Medicine 20(2): 151–182.
Davis, C.J. (2010) Charlotte Perkins Gilman. A Biography. Stanford University Press: Stanford, CA.
Deegan, M.J. (1991) Women in Sociology. A Bio-bibliographical Sourcebook. Greenwood Press: London.
Deegan, M.J. (2003) ‘Making Lemonade: Haniet Martineau on Being Deaf in Hill, M.R. and Hoecker-Drysdale (eds.) Harriet Martineau: Theoretical and Methodological Perspectives. Routledge: London, pp. 41–58.
Durkheim, É. [1895] 1964 The Rules of Sociological Method. Free Press: New York.
Frank, A. (1995) The Wounded Storyteller. Body, Illness, and Ethics. University of Chicago Press: London.
Frawley, M. (2004) Invalidism and Identity in Nineteenth-Century Britain. University of Chicago Press: London.
Fuller, S. (2006) The New Sociological Imagination. Sage: London.
Gilman, C.P. (1903) The Home: Its Work and Influence. McClure, Phillips: New York.
Gilman, C.P. ([1898] 1906) Women and Economics. G. P. Putnam’s Sons: London.
Gilman, C.P. (1908) ‘A Suggestion on the Negro Problem’ American Journal of Sociology 14(1):78–85.
Gilman, C.P. (1909) ‘How Home Conditions React Upon the Family’ American Journal of Sociology 14(5):592–605.
Gilman, C.P. (1916a) ‘The Nervous Breakdown of Women’, Reprinted in Erskine, T.L. and Richards, C.L. (eds.) (1993) The Yellow Wallpaper. Rutgers University Press: New Brunswick, NJ. pp. 67–75.
Gilman, C.P. ([1916b] 1999) “The Vintage’, reprinted in Knight, D. (ed.) Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Herland. The Yellow Wallpaper and Selected Writings. Penguin Books: London. pp. 297–304.
Gilman, C.P. ([1935] 1963) The Living of Charlotte Perkins Gilman: An Autobiography. D. Appleton Co: New York.
Gilman, C.P. ([1892] 1973) The Yellow Wallpaper. The Feminist Press: New York.
Gilman, C.P. ([1915] 1998a) Herland (unabridged), Dover Publications: Mineola, NY.
Gilman, C.P. ([1915] 1998b) The Yellow Wall-paper and Other Stories, ed. R. Shulman. Oxford University Press: Oxford.
Goffman, E. (1963) Stigma. Prentice-Hall: Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
Hamilton, R.F. (2003) ‘American Sociology Rewrites Its History’ Sociological Theory 21(3):281–297.
Hill, M.R. (1980) Charlotte Perkins Gilman: The Making of a Radical Feminist 1860–1935. Temple University Press: Philadelphia, PA.
Hoecker-Drysdale, S. (2003) ‘Haniet Martineau’in Ritzer, G. (ed.) The Blackwell Companion to Major Classical Theorists. Blackwell: Maiden, MA. pp. 41–46.
Jordanova, L. (1999) Nature Displayed. Gender, Science and Medicine 1760–1820. Longman: London.
Kuhlmann, E. and Babitsch, B. (2002) ‘Bodies, Health and Gender — Bridging Feminist Theories and Women’s Health’ Women’s Studies International Forum 25(4): 433–442.
Lehmann, J. (1994) Durkheim and Women. University of Nebraska Press: London.
Lemert, C. (2003) ‘Charlotte Perkins Gilman’ in Ritzer, G. (ed.) The Blackwell Companion to Major Classical Theorists. Blackwell: Maiden, MA. pp. 267–289.
Logan, D. (2010) Harriet Martineau, Victorian Imperialism, and the Civilising Mission. Ashgate: Farnham, Suney.
Madoo Lengermann, P. and Niebragge-Brantley, J. (1998) The Women Founders. Sociology and Social Theory 1830–1930. McGraw Hill: London.
Madoo Lengermann, P. and Niebrugge, J. (2003) ‘The Meaning of “Things’: Theory and Methods in Haniet Martineau’s How to Observe Morals and Manners (1838) and Émile Durkheim’s The Rules of Sociological Method (1895)’ in Hill, M.R. and Hoecker-Drysdale, S (eds.) Harriet Martineau. Theoretical and Methodological Perspectives. Routledge: London. pp. 75–98.
Madoo Lengermann, P. and Niebragge-Brantley, J. (2004) ‘Early Women Sociologists and Classical Sociological Theory: 1830–1930’ in Ritzer, G. and Goodman, D. (eds.) Classical Sociological Theory. Fourth edition. McGraw Hill: London, pp. 271–300.
Martineau, H. (1838) How to Observe Morals and Manners. Charles Knight and Co.: London.
Martineau, H. (1848) Eastern Life, Present and Past. Lea and Blanchard: Philadelphia.
Martineau, H. (1861) Health, Husbandry, and Handicraft. Bradbury and Evans: London.
Martineau, H. (1877) Harriet Martineau’s Autobiography. Smith, Elder and Co.: London.
Martineau, H. ([1836/1837] 1962) Society in America, ed. M. Lipset, Anchor Books: New York.
Martineau, H. ([1844] 2003) Life in the Sickroom, ed. M. Frawley, Broadview Press: Ormskirk.
Martineau, H. ([1832] 2004a) Illustrations of Political Economy: Selected Tales, ed. D. Logan, Broadview Press: Peterborough.
Martineau, H. ([1839] 2004b) Deerbrook. Penguin Books: London.
Parsons, T. (1951) The Social System. Free Press: New York.
Parsons, T. ([1937] 1968) The Structure of Social Action. Free Press: New York.
Renwick, C. (2012) British Sociology’s Lost Biological Roots. Palgrave Macmillan: London.
Rossi, A.S. (1973) The Feminist Papers. Columbia University Press: New York.
Ryall, A. (2000) ‘Medical Body and Lived Experience: The Case of Harriet Martineau’ Mosaic (Winnipeg) 33:35–52.
Sanders, V. (1986) Reason over Passion. Harvester Press: Brighton, Sussex.
Spencer, H. (1851) Social Statics. John Chapman: London.
Spencer, H. (1873) The Study of Sociology. Henry S. King: London.
Spender, D. (1982) Women of Ideas. Pandora: London.
Teny, T. (1983) ‘Bringing Women... In: A Modest Proposal’ Teaching Sociology 10(2):251–261.
Ward, L. (1888) ‘Our Better Halves’ Forum 6:266–275.
Winter, A. (1998) Mesmerized: Powers of Mind in Victorian Britain. University of Chicago Press: London.
Wegener, F. (1999) ‘“What a Comfort a Woman Doctor Is!” Medical Women in the Life and Writing of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’ in Rudd, J. and Gough, V. (eds.) Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Feminist Reformer. University of Iowa Press: Iowa City. pp. 46–75.
Witz, A. and Marshall, A. (2004) “The Masculinity of the Social: Towards a Politics of Interrogation’ in Marshall, B. and Witz, A. (eds.) Engendering the Social. Open University Press: Maidenhead, pp. 20–35.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2015 Ellen Annandale
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Annandale, E. (2015). Harriet Martineau and Charlotte Perkins Gilman: Forgotten Women in the Study of Gender and Health. In: Collyer, F. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Social Theory in Health, Illness and Medicine. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137355621_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137355621_2
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-47022-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-35562-1
eBook Packages: Palgrave Social Sciences CollectionSocial Sciences (R0)