ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the origins of American sociology at the University of Chicago and observe the claims that were advanced by the first generation of sociologists to legitimate the social construction of the discipline of sociology. Professional sociologists and social activists, though with different strategies and tactics, attempted to create a new and unique ideology. Sociologist Janet Chafetz promotes one definition of feminist theory. Many women a hundred years ago privileged differences between men and women. Equality versus difference is probably the oldest debate in feminist thought. In an important effort to define gender for contemporary feminist scholarship, historian Joan W. Scott, suggests that gender be understood as a social rather than a biological depiction. The debate between theory and practice has also been a long-standing problem in the movement. Sociologists tend to privilege the present over the past as an arena for social research.
