The Contest for Social Science: Relations and Representations of Gender and Class
Sheila Rowbotham reviews two titles on aspects of social history
- The Contest for Social Science: Relations and Representations of Gender and Class by Eileen Janes Yeo (Rivers Oram Press xx + 396 pp.)
- Death in the Victorian Family by Pat Jalland (Oxford University Press xii + 464 pp.)
The science of society arrived clearly stamped by utilitarianism, conceived by the philosophic radical, James Mill, in terms of the individual's pursuit of 'Wealth, Power, Dignity, Ease'. In The Contest for Social Science, Eileen Janes Yeo points out that his restricted 'roll call of desire' omitted salvation, morality, love, friendship, benevolence and family. These were to be the women's part and her account shows how middle-class women ingeniously 'carved a pathway into public scientific work' by mobilising the moral role of the 'social mother' as one who could both discipline and redeem.
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