In the early 1950s, women comprised less than one-third of the labor force, with the vast majority relegated to low-paying, less prestigious positions. By that time, Helen Mayer Hacker had established herself as a groundbreaking feminist scholar. Her 1951 article, “Women as a Minority Group,” has been cited approximately 500 times by world-renown scholars such as Candace West, Joan Acker, Myra Marx Ferree, and Arlie Hochschild. Professor Hacker’s larger publication record is demonstrative of an active mind that always pushed for the study of new topics and for innovative ways of measuring social phenomena, particularly within the areas of gender, family, and sexuality. As a sociologist and social activist, Hacker was an advocate for women and other marginalized groups for over 60 years.
Beginning when we were University of Minnesota Ph.D. students, we worked with Regents Professor Christopher Uggen to take on the task of reinvigorating interest in Dr. Hacker’s work among the next generation of scholars. Now professors, (at Oklahoma State and Utica College, respectively), our teaching and research in the areas of gender and work, our editorial experience gained from serving on the graduate board of Contexts magazine, and our active engagement in the Sociologists for Women in Society organization positioned us well to compile and edit this volume. The two primary goals of this book are outlined below.
Engaging Scholarship
We have brought together Professor Hacker’s most significant contributions to the field, ranging from well-known essays to unpublished manuscripts and reflections. In this volume, we have selected and organized these works, to make them available in book form and in a permanent open-access home at the University of Minnesota. In addition to celebrating more than 30 years of scholarship, we include brief introductory comments to draw connections to contemporary scholarship
A Life History
This book also includes a biographical account of Professor Hacker’s life, including her undergraduate “awakening” at the University of Minnesota in the 1930s, her acceptance (or lack thereof) as a woman scholar in the 1950s, and the specific context of academia and larger society in which her research was conducted at various points in her lengthy career. Hacker’s case is particularly compelling because she was not only building her name in a discipline dominated by men, but was also pushing marginalized areas of study. By framing the research with biographical detail and Eugenia Smith's engaging personal profile of Dr. Hacker, we witness the development of the discipline of sociology and the rise of gender studies. In October 2011, we interviewed Dr. Hacker for over two hours about her experiences in academia over the past six decades. Excerpts from our conversation will be used to provide a more nuanced account of Dr. Hacker’s struggles and triumphs in her research and teaching, activist work, and other endeavors.
The Audience
This open-access book is the first attempt to compile research—including yet-to-be published manuscripts—that reflects Dr. Hacker’s entire academic career. As such, this book will greatly interest sociologists and other interdisciplinary scholars in the areas of gender, family, and sexuality. Moreover, this book will also appeal to sociologists interested in the development of their discipline, as well as historians, feminists, or a general audience interested in the history of women in higher education. We expect to attract readers who were contemporaries of Helen, as well as a younger generation of scholars who have drawn on, and benefited from, her work.
In Spring 2011, we organized a panel presentation on Professor Hacker’s work at the Sociology Research Institute, sponsored by the University of Minnesota’s Department of Sociology (see the attached Appendix for more details). The panel consisted of six sociology graduate students who read and critically engaged with Dr. Hacker’s research within their individual areas of expertise. We were very much encouraged by the audience’s positive response, and believe that this book will hold similar appeal for a wide audience.
Organization
As editors, we have gathered and read in detail Professor Hacker’s extensive work, selecting exemplary research for this volume which speaks to the strengths and breadth of Dr. Hacker’s research. We open with a brief foreword, written by Regents Professor Christopher Uggen, which highlights the value of revisiting her work. The remainder of the book is organized into five sections, outlined below: (1) Gender, (2) Sexuality, (3) Family, (4) Women of All Types and Locations, and (5) Helen Mayer Hacker: Critic and Provocateur. Each section begins with a brief introduction that places Dr. Hacker’s ideas in conversation with current scholarship. Throughout, we contextualize Dr. Hacker’s work with biographical and historical details -- including our wide-ranging personal interview with Professor Hacker.