Among the many achievements of the feminist movement of the 1970s was the unprecedented influx of women into academia. Over the last 25 years, women have entered the social sciences in huge numbers - bringing with them new perspectives and new insights into the social world.

This special issue of The Annals reflects on this multivocal, richly textured, and dynamic revolution. From anthropology to psychology to geography to criminology and more, leading feminists reflect on the most significant contributions of feminist activism and feminist research to their fields. Two main themes run through this volume: the relationship between feminist scholarship and feminist activism, and the enduring controversies and future direction of feminist social science.

The contributions run the gamut from the impact of feminism on specific social science disciplines such as family studies, archaeology, political science, and media studies to the influence of feminist thought on specific topics such as federally funded social science, migration, media practices, and sexuality. The main conclusion of this volume is that, "where reigning paradigms are strong and the accepted methodologies are limited, feminist perspectives tend to be marginalized. On the other hand, fields that are theoretically eclectic and interdisciplinary appear to be the most welcoming to feminist influence."

The oil and gas industry is one of the richest and most powerful industries in the world. In recent years, company avowals in support of diversity, much-touted programs for "women in STEM," and, most importantly, a tight labor market with near parity in women pursuing geoscience credentials might lead us to expect progress for women in this industry's corporate ranks. Yet, for all the talk of "the great crew change," the industry remains overwhelmingly white and male. Sociologist Christine L. Williams asks, where are the women? To answer this question, Williams embarked on a decade-long investigation-one involving one hundred in-depth interviews, a longitudinal survey, and ethnographic research-that allowed her to observe the industry in times of boom and bust. She found that when the industry expands, women may be able to walk through the door, but when the industry contracts, the door becomes a revolving one, whirling ever faster, as companies retreat to their white male core. These gendered outcomes are obscured by firms' stated commitments to diversity in hiring and the language of merit. The result is organizational gaslighting, a radical dissonance between language and practice that Williams exposes for all.

"Why do white women shoppers more often refuse to check their bags at the counter than African American or Latina women shoppers do? Why do male shoppers act more annoyed at having to be in the store than their female counterparts? Based on her experiences working in two toy stores, Christine Williams offers a cornucopia of illuminating observations. By focusing on the various ways gender, race and class influence how we shop and sell, she exposes the concept and ideal of consumer citizenship. In this, Williams give us an important idea and an original angle of vision."--Arlie Russell Hochschild, author of "The Commercialization of Intimate Life," and editor (with Barbara Ehrenreich) of "Global Woman: Nannies, Maids and Sex Workers in the New Economy"
"In this brilliant book Williams lays bare the social complexities of shopping for toys in America. She describes how shopping and working in toy stores are shaped by race, class and gender, and how children are taught how to consume. This is sociology at its best-laying bare the intricate nature of everyday life, showing us how the world can be different and better, all the while documenting the human drama that swirls around us. This book will change the way you shop, and the way you think about consumerism, inequality and the nature of 21st century American life."--Mary C. Waters, author of "Ethnic Options: Choosing Ethnic Identities in America"
"Williams doesn't just talk about consumption. She goes out and gets herself tough jobs selling toys, and comes back to tell the rest of us what selling and buying for kids are all about. Readers who care little about social scientific treatments of consumption will nevertheless learnfrom her lively account. Specialists will rapidly adopt her stories, observations, and arguments."--Viviana Zelizer, author of "The Purchase of Intimacy"
"Christine Williams has really gotten inside the big box selling machines of our day to reveal for all of us the strange, perverse logic of work, authority and sales in a retail industry driven by ethnic, gender, and class hierarchies. Read this book and you'll never buy another toy without thinking about the men and women who put it on the shelf!"--Nelson Lichtenstein, editor of "Wal-Mart: the Face of 21st Century Capitalism"

Among the many achievements of the feminist movement of the 1970s was the unprecedented influx of women into academia. Over the last 25 years, women have entered the social sciences in huge numbers - bringing with them new perspectives and new insights into the social world.

This special issue of The Annals reflects on this multivocal, richly textured, and dynamic revolution. From anthropology to psychology to geography to criminology and more, leading feminists reflect on the most significant contributions of feminist activism and feminist research to their fields. Two main themes run through this volume: the relationship between feminist scholarship and feminist activism, and the enduring controversies and future direction of feminist social science.

The contributions run the gamut from the impact of feminism on specific social science disciplines such as family studies, archaeology, political science, and media studies to the influence of feminist thought on specific topics such as federally funded social science, migration, media practices, and sexuality. The main conclusion of this volume is that, "where reigning paradigms are strong and the accepted methodologies are limited, feminist perspectives tend to be marginalized. On the other hand, fields that are theoretically eclectic and interdisciplinary appear to be the most welcoming to feminist influence."

Men who do "women's work" have consistently been the butt of jokes, derided for their lack of drive and masculinity. In this eye-opening study, Christine Williams provides a wholly new look at men who work in predominantly female jobs. Having conducted extensive interviews in four cities, Williams uncovers how men in four occupations--nursing, elementary school teaching, librarianship, and social work--think about themselves and experience their work.
Contrary to popular imagery, men in traditionally female occupations do not define themselves differently from men in more traditional occupations. Williams finds that most embrace conventional, masculine values. Her findings about how these men fare in their jobs are also counterintuitive. Rather than being surpassed by the larger number of women around them, these men experience the "glass escalator effect," rising in disproportionate numbers to administrative jobs at the top of their professions. Williams finds that a complex interplay between gendered expectations embedded in organizations, and the socially determined ideas workers bring to their jobs, contribute to mens' advantages in these occupations.
Using a feminist psychoanalytic perspective, Williams calls for more men not only to cross over to women's occupations, but also to develop alternative masculinities that find common ground with traditionally female norms of cooperation and caring. Until the workplace is sexually integrated and masculine and feminine norms equally valued, it will unfortunately remain "still a man's world."

Nurses and marines epitomize accepted definitions of femininity and masculinity. Using ethnographic research and provocative in-depth interviews, Christine Williams argues that our popular stereotypes of individuals in nontraditional occupations - male nurses and female marines for example - are entirely unfounded. This new perspective helps to account for the stubborn resilience of occupational stratification in the face of affirmative action and other anti-discrimination policies.

The oil and gas industry is one of the richest and most powerful industries in the world. In recent years, company avowals in support of diversity, much-touted programs for "women in STEM," and, most importantly, a tight labor market with near parity in women pursuing geoscience credentials might lead us to expect progress for women in this industry's corporate ranks. Yet, for all the talk of "the great crew change," the industry remains overwhelmingly white and male. Sociologist Christine L. Williams asks, where are the women? To answer this question, Williams embarked on a decade-long investigation—one involving one hundred in-depth interviews, a longitudinal survey, and ethnographic research—that allowed her to observe the industry in times of boom and bust. She found that when the industry expands, women may be able to walk through the door, but when the industry contracts, the door becomes a revolving one, whirling ever faster, as companies retreat to their white male core. These gendered outcomes are obscured by firms' stated commitments to diversity in hiring and the language of merit. The result is organizational gaslighting, a radical dissonance between language and practice that Williams exposes for all.

"For nearly fifty years, Neil Smelser has been one of the world's most distinguished sociologists. His intellectual range is remarkable, and so too his influence over the discipline. The essays collected here are a fitting tribute precisely because they are intellectually rich, diverse, thought-provoking and unafraid of controversy. They offer commanding views of a dozen subfields, syntheses of important lines of work, and agendas for the future."--Craig Calhoun, President, Social Science Research Council

"If the legacy of scholars is measured by the work of their students, Neil Smelser has done very well indeed. The great range of topics covered in this volume is a testament to his sociological breath. This collection should be read for what it reveals about the many dimensions of an intellectual life well lived, as well as for what it teaches about the past and the present of our discipline."--Michele Lamont, co- author of" Rethinking Comparative Cultural Sociology: Repertoires of Evaluation in France and the United States

"A brilliant collection of essays giving expression to the diversity and depth of Neil Smelser's scholarly and intellectual achievement. The authors show how Smelser's multidisciplinary synthesis represents a summary of the achievements of economics, psychology and sociology in the second half of the twentieth century."--Bryan S. Turner, author of "The Body and Society