ABSTRACT
This chapter examines various strands of sociological theory; feminist sociology, action and structural theories. Macro or structural theory, and in particular the work of Marxists and Marxist feminists, provides a framework for analysing the impact of gender and class upon the lives of women. Micro or action theory, such as the work of E. Goffman and H. S. Becker, are valuable in looking at how the women’s identities changed as a result of being socialised into a student career and academic culture. Critics argue that structural theory is too deterministic: humans are portrayed as having no free will; their destiny is mapped out for them by social, economic and political forces. Action theory emerged partly as a response to dissatisfaction with positivist functionalism. In action theory the individual plays a central role in shaping her/his behaviour and consciousness. Structural theory maintains that institutions control human behaviour.
