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 Harriet Martineau (1802 –1876)
 Karl Marx (1818-1883)
 Herbert Spencer (1820-1903)
 Emile Durkheim (1858-1917)
 George Herbert Mead (1863-1931)
 Max Weber (1864-1920)
 Charles Horton Cooley (1864-1929)
 W. E. B. DuBois (1868-1963)

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Before Durkheim, Engels, Marx, or
Weber…
Martineau examined social class, religion, suicide, national character, domestic relations, women’s status, criminology, and interrelations between institutions and individuals.

 Born June 12,1802
 Daughter of textile worker
 Middle class
 6 th of 8 children
 Before age 16, lost her sense of smell , taste , and hearing

Harriet Martineau
 Single female in a very male-
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 Father: Died during 1820s
 Fiancé: Me ntal & physical collapse
 Remained single & independent
 By 1829, committed to writing profession
5

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 Writer : Fictional and Sociological works
 Pioneer in field of sociology

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 Work includes over 1,500 columns and about
61 books
 An advocate for freedom and emancipation of women and slaves .
 “… Is it to be understood that the principles of the Declaration of Independence bear no relation to half of the human race?”
 Society in America

 First “methodological essay” ever
Manners (1838)
 published, How to Observe Morals and
 Translated and abbreviated Comte’s
Positive Philosophy
 Spread Comte’s word far and wide
 Comte had it retranslated into French
8

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 Strong believer in feminism
 First to speak on women being viewed as secondary partner in a relationship (marriage)

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 Women could contribute more to society than just as a house wife
 Talks of abuse that women endure
 Revolutionary in helping women learn to fight back
 Few followers: Unlike women to disobey husbands

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 In 1869 , supported the Ladies’ National
Association for the Repeal of the
Contagious Diseases Act.
 In 1886 , the Acts were repealed
 Call for repeal of laws that gave authority to police to detain and examine women on suspicion of prostitution as means to control the spread of syphilis and gonorrhea
11

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 through social reforms
 Belief in social reform :
 Component of Necessarianism
 Also reflects Unitarian background

Necessarianism
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 Theory that every event
 Including action of human will
 Is necessary result of a sequence of causes
 Determinism

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 Denies Trinity , God is one
 Rejects doctrine of “original sin”
 Unlimited nature of the Redemption by Christ
 All souls will be saved
 No hell



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 Autonomous
 Moral
 Practical
 Agent

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 Unitarian background encouraged her to see the quest for knowledge and the betterment of society as being
 For the growth of the individual member of society

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 Social interaction and human association existed for the happiness of the individual
 Purpose of society : Serve social needs of individuals
 To empower individuals to make their lives better

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 Autonomy essential to individual happiness and
 Progress of society
 The subjugation of women and the enslavement of other humans
 Denied society assets that would be much more valuable if they were allowed autonomy

Harriet Martineau: Sociology of Slavery
 Between 1834 and 1836, Martineau
States
 travelled through the United
 Indentured servitude of white immigrants had been abolished
 Introducing any form of servitude prohibited in Northern and Western regions of U.S.
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Harriet Martineau:

 Slavery confined to 13
Southern states that grew tobacco, rice, cotton, and sugar
 Slave population 2.5 million

 Through individuals:

 Explore boundaries of intellectual capacity
 Contribute to social progress

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 Autonomy = Selfhood
 Without autonomy , women were only an extension of the “self” of the men in society

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 Took trip to the Middle-East
 Wrote Eastern Life Past and Present
 After trip, she became an atheist
 Left with very few supporters , including her family
 In 1876, she died from an illness
 Now remembered as the first woman sociologist