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“Please don’t think of me as a sociologist”: Sophonisba Preston Breckinridge and the early Chicago school

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Abstract

There has been a concerted effort in the last three decades to identify early female sociologists and to add or restore their works to the sociological canon. This effort has generated a substantial body of work, much of which examines the relationship between the women and men of the Chicago School in its early years (1892–1920). Two primary assumptions about this relationship have emerged over the years: (1) the women were frustrated sociologists; frustrated by a lack of acceptance in the discipline and a department run by men; and (2) the women were displaced sociologists, forced out of the discipline by the men into disciplines such as household administration and social work. This paper examines these assumptions through a case study of the life and work of Sophonisba Preston Breckinridge. Breckinridge is among those characterized by the literature as a frustrated and displaced sociologist, but Breckinridge’s own words to a friend, “Please don’t think of me as a sociologist,” suggest that this was not always the case.

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  1. Institutional Research, Texas Christian University, TCU Box 297020, 76129, Forth Worth, TX

    Catherine L. Coghlan (assistant director)

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  1. Catherine L. Coghlan
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Coghlan, C.L. “Please don’t think of me as a sociologist”: Sophonisba Preston Breckinridge and the early Chicago school. Am Soc 36, 3–22 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12108-005-1007-z

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