Does Gender Fit? Feminism, Bourdieu, and Conceptions of Social Order

How to theorize the relationship between structures of male domination and the intersubjective experience of women can be termed a “central problem” in feminist theory. Yet feminists have not engaged the sociological literature on the related topic of the relationship between structure and interaction because these accounts rarely consider gender in any systematic fashion. Although this criticism applies to Pierre Bourdieu’s writings on the articulation of structure in practical action, feminists will nevertheless find in his work a powerfully elaborate conceptual framework for understanding the role of gender in the social relations of modern capitalist society. Furthermore, Bourdieu’s epistemological and methodological approach to social science research parallels and enhances feminist positions on this important subject. He recognizes, like feminists, that theoretical narratives and political programs are themselves embedded in social relations, no matter how relevant and applicable to their empirical referents. In this article, I employ a rich body of feminist research in order to present, critique, and then develop Bourdieu’s sociological, epistemological, and methodological writings with respect to gendered social life.

Link: Does Gender Fit? Feminism, Bourdieu, and Conceptions of Social Order (PDF)