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CONTEMPORARYSOCIOLOGY
305
Universityof Minnesota
Original review, CS 8:4 (January 1979), by
Rose Laub Coser:
TheReproduction
ofMothering:
Psychoanalysis and theSociologyof Gender,by NancyJ.
Chodorow. Berkeley: Universityof California
Press, 1978. 253 pp. $15.00 paper. ISBN:
0-520-03892-4.
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306
CONTEMPORARYSOCIOLOGY
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CONTEMPORARYSOOOLOGY
way, however, in which The Reproduction of
Mothering quickly became, despite (or,
perhaps, because of) its widespread recognition and influence, a book that sociologists
loved to hate. It has, nevertheless,continued
to receive attentionby scholars, both feminist and nonfeminist.3
The original and continued impact of
Chodorow's theory needs to be understood
within the intellectual context in which it
developed-the Parsonian model of family
set of gender
life,with its taken-for-granted
roles and relationships that were seen as
"functional"forthe society (if not necessarily
always for women) and the concerns of
contemporary feminist scholars to disrupt
precisely what that model took for granted.
But Chodorow's work posed a challenge to
feministscholarship as well. Making analytic
use of Freudian-inspiredpsychoanalytictheory,she validated its usefulnessto analyses of
gender relations, rather than relegating the
theoryin toto to the dustbin of a patriarchal
intellectual history,as some feministswere
then doing. Chodorow was not alone either
in her uses of psychoanalytictheoryor in her
questioning of the adequacy of functionalist
theories of familylife.Her rich articulationof
a feministcritique,however, came at just the
right moment to be taken up and noticed.
Having identified"gender" as a theoretical
category,Mothering became a classic work
in feministtheory, and influentialin many
disciplines-e.g., political theoryand literary
criticism.Ironically,although Chodorow is a
sociologist, it has been more resisted than
embraced in thatfield.
Should Chodorow's psychoanalyticallyfocused theory of gender relations be of
sociological interest now, in 1996, especially since she has revised some of her
ideas since the publication of Mothering?4
307
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308
CONTEMPORARYSOCOLOGY
and demystifying
argument:"Gender" is and constraints
to constructtheirown lives
We carry and become actors on as well as in
presentin all social relationships.5
and construct"gender" in our multiple societies. (See Chodorow 1994 for furrealmsofexperienceandactivity
through
the therelaborationofher argument
in "Individemotionsthatenergizeour actions,through uality and Difference. . ."; for another,
the symbolsand meaningswe constructto related,theoreticalstatementsee Mahoney
make sense of those actions,throughour and Yngvesson1992; for empiricalexamexplanations-to ourselves and others-of ples, see Lawrence-Lightfoot
1994.) Her
how and whywe become the social actors case studies also illustratehow situations
thatwe do.
beyond the realm of personal life can
For all theirrichpotentialto engagewith become infused with meaning and the
contemporary social theory, however, power of feeling.And her theoryallows us
Chodorow's interestshave remained fo- to understand
how jobs can become sitesof
cused on, indeed have become more firmly struggleover masculinityand femininity
attached to, theorizingthe person, not (Pierce 1995), how sports and locker
linkagesto social structure.This is, in my rooms can become sites of struggleover
view, a limitationof her work,althoughit sexuality,and how both can become sites
does not by itselfinvalidateits sociological forstrugglesover control(Disch and Kane
relevance,especially as it has developed 1996).
over the last 25 years.Yet she has,perhaps
Yet, some of the critiquethatRose Coser
not surprisingly,
givenher fascination
with articulatedin the original Contemporary
"forits own sake" (1989:6), Sociology review of Mothering-that
psychoanalysis
become even more focusedon persons as Chodorowdoes notpay enoughattention
to
creative actors. In one of her recent structure-remains.
fromthe outAlthough,
publications,"Genderas Personaland Cul- set, Chodorow has clearlyrecognizedthat
turalConstruction"
(Chodorow 1995), part meanings,actions, and relationshipsare
of a book-lengthproject on which she is constructedwithin particularsocial concurrentlyworking,Chodorow expands on texts, her fascinationwith persons has
themesthathave been presentin her work resultedin an inattention
to how personal
since the beginning,
but thatalso reflecther action and society connect. Drawinglinkrecentpsychoanalytic
trainingand her cur- ages betweenthequestionsthatintrigueher
rent work as a clinician as well as an and other approaches to social theory,
academician.
however, is not necessarilyChodorow's
In this work,Chodorow is more exclu- responsibility
alone, althoughnot doing so
sively concerned with how persons con- may limitrecognitionof the relevanceof
structmeanings,in thisinstancethe mean- her work to social theorists.Like us,
ings of gender,withinthe highlyspecific she needs to be free to pursue her
contexts of individuallives and clinical intellectualinterestsand sociologicalimagiexperiences. But she does not, unfortu- nation where they take her. The chalnately, explicitlylink insightsfrom her lenge-to draw out the implicationsof
present location at the intersectionof Chodorow's contributionsto social theoeitherto socio- ry-is also ours. In 1996, it continuesto
sociologyand psychoanalysis
logical analysisor to social theory.Her serve our intellectualintereststo take that
currentfocus,however,whateverits limits, challengeseriously,
as did thepublicationof
has importantthingsto say to those of us Motheringin 1978.
interestedin understanding
humanagency,
in learninghow people use the available
resources Works Cited
social,cultural,and organizational
5While gender relationsare present in all social
situations-indeed, gender is present even when
women are not (see Scott 1988)-it does not follow
that gender is uniformlysalient in all times and
places; see "SeventiesQuestionsforThirtiesWomen:
Gender and Generationin a Studyof EarlyWomen
in Chodorow 1989.
Psychoanalysts"
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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
CONTEMPORARYSOCIOLOGY 309
ties: Freud and Beyond. Lexington:Universityof Mahoney, Maureen and Barbara Yngvesson. 1992.
KentuckyPress.
"The Constructionof Subjectivityand the Paradox
. 1995. "Gender as a Personal and Cultural
of Resistance:Reintegrating
FeministAnthropology
Construction."Signs 20:516-44.
and Psychology."Signs 18:44-73.
Disch,Lisa and MaryJo Kane. 1996. "Whena lookeris Pierce, Jennifer.1995. Gender Trials: Emotional
reallya bitch:Lisa Olson, Sport,and the HeterosexLives in ContemporaryLaw Firms. Berkeley:
ual Matrix."Signs 21:278-308.
University
of CaliforniaPress.
Goode, William J. 1963. World Revolution and
Scott,Joan W. 1988. "Gender:A UsefulCategoryof
Family Patterns.New York:Free Press.
HistoricalAnalysis."Pp. 28-50 in Genderand the
Laslett,Barbara. 1990. "UnfeelingKnowledge: EmoPolitics of History.New York:ColumbiaUniversity
tion and Objectivityin the Historyof Sociology."
Press.
Sociological Forum 5:413- 433.
Segura, Denise A. and JenniferPierce. 1993. "ChiSara. 1994. rve Known Rivers:
Lawrence-Lightfoot,
cana/o Family Structureand Gender Personality:
Lives of Loss and Liberation. New York: Penguin
Chodorow,Familism,and Psychoanalytic
Sociology
Books.
Revisited."Signs 19: 62-91.
Northwestern
University
Originalreviews,CS 9:1 (January1980), by
ThomasF. Pettigrewand Cora BagleyMarrett.FromCora BagleyMarrett's
review:
The positionof[theblackmiddleclass]may
be far more precarious than Wilson suggests... [The Bakke]case and similarchallenges to special minorityprogramsindicatetomanyobserversthataffirmative
action
programsare notfirmly
entrenched... The
progressofthemiddleclassmaybe shorterlivedand less sweepingthantheWilsonpresentationmightimply.
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