Marianne Weber (1870-1954)

1
Marianne Weber (1870-1954)

• Critical Feminist Theorist
• Women as focus of sociological studies
• Women as starting point of her studies

• Viewpoint informed by herexperience of sexual
  inequality
• Believed in sexual liberation and an end to the
  double standard

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Marianne Weber (1870-1954)

• Disagreed with Max Weber on the issue of value
  freedom
• Marianne

• Took a strong value position with regard to
  feminism
• Believed that sociology should be used to improve
  status of women

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Marianne Weber (1870-1954)

• Methodology
• Historical analysis
• Verstehen(insider understanding)

• What about the women?
• Criticizes Maxs analysis of power and authority
• Notes that democratic rights are not given to
  everyone

4
Marianne Weber (1870-1954)

• Patriarchy
• Woman as husbands property
• Interferes with true intimacy

• Historically conditioned
• Industrialization led to greater autonomy for
  woman in marriage
• because it made her an independent wage earner

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Marianne Weber (1870-1954)

• Cultural Feminism
• Belief that women have special spiritual and
  ethical qualities (e.g., care givers)

• Also believed that both men and women had the
  capacity to work.
• Society assigns women the work of producing daily
  existence.

6
Marianne Weber (1870-1954)

• Class analysis
• Understood that womens experiences differed by
  their economic positions

• Disagreed with Charlotte Perkins Gilman that
  work was the solution to inequality
• Because working-class women would not have access
  to the same jobs as educated women

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Marianne Weber (1870-1954)

• After Maxs death
• Edited his unfinished work
• Wrote his biography

• Lived 34 more years
• Influential feminist writer speaker
• Worked for advancement of women
• Weekly intellectual salon
• Honorary doctorate, Heidelberg