Jessie Taft: biography of this symbolic interactionist reference.
This philosopher is linked to the Chicago Women's Sociological School.
Jessie Taft (1882-1960) was a philosopher and sociologist a philosopher and sociologist who pioneered symbolic interactionism, the women's movement and the discipline of women's sociology.the women's movement and the discipline of Social Work. However, these contributions are often overlooked as she is best known for having made important translations of the works of psychoanalysts Otto Rank and Sigmund Freud.
Moreover, Taft belongs to a generation of women scientists who faced multiple forms of exclusion and professional segregation, among other things as a consequence of the strong rejection of the assimilation of feminine values in the public sphere, reserved exclusively for men.
She was also one of the members of the Chicago School of Women and addressed from the perspective of social consciousness the booms of the women's movement, emphasizing the psychological conflicts that women scientists of the time were going through.
In this article we will follow the work carried out by García Dauder (2004; 2009) in order to approach the life and work of Jessie Taft through a brief biography, paying attention to both her contributions and her work.We will pay attention both to her theoretical contributions and to the social context in which they were developed.
Biography of Jessie Taft: a pioneer of Social Work.
Jessie Taft was born on January 24, 1882 in Iowa, United States. She was the eldest of three sisters, daughters of a businessman and a mother who was a homemaker. After attending high school at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, he studied higher education at the University of Chicago.
At the latter he trained with George Mead, a sociologist known for having laid the foundations of symbolic interactionism and who participated as his thesis director. He was also trained in the pragmatist was trained in the pragmatist tradition of the Chicago School of Sociology..
In the same context, Taft met Virginia Robinson, a woman with whom he adopted two children and who was his life partner for more than 40 years. Among the many subversive phrases she contributed, Jessie Taft said that in America, where business ran riot over culture, it was not unusual to find the single woman seeking companionship and refuge in another woman with whom to build bonds of similar criteria and values, difficult to find in a husband (Taft, 1916).
On the other hand, Jessie Taft's doctoral dissertation in the same context was entitled "The Women's Movement from the Point of View of Social Consciousness," in which she problematized the tensions between the private and the public. problematized the tensions between the private and the publicShe also focused on how political, economic and social transformations had shaped the self, especially in relation to the conflicts women faced at home and at work.
The Hull House and the beginnings of Social Work
Founded in 1889 by Jane Addams and Ellen Gate Starr, the Hull House social center became a meeting place for many women (several reformers and social scientists who came from the University of Chicago). They soon generated an important network of contacts and collaboration.
This network resulted in qualitative and quantitative a work of qualitative and quantitative research that is recognized as the Chicago Women's Sociological SchoolAmong other things, it had a major impact not only on American sociology, but also on the social and legislative situation, for example on the issue of social and racial inequalities, immigration, health, child labor and labor exploitation.
At the same time, this was a context of important social transformations generated by industrial capitalism. The women of the Chicago School, together with some already renowned sociologists, such as Mead, Dewey, William Isaac Thomas, and others, questioned the strong androcentrism that marked the discipline and recognized the need to broaden both the participation of women and the presence of feminine values in the public space.
Meanwhile, on the other hand, the management of and access to higher education was marked by both sexual and disciplinary segregation, the management of and access to higher education was marked by both gender and disciplinary segregation, i.e., there were "junior" colleges for women only, aimed at curbing the growing feminization of the university student body.This meant that there were "junior" colleges for women only, aimed at curbing the growing feminization of the university student body.
Likewise, in the disciplinary field, sociology ceded part of its content to a new school, which also took on much of the reform work and political content that the Chicago School of Women had been developing. This school was the "Social Work" school.. And it was precisely in this context that Jessie Taft was displaced from sociology to Social Work, and subsequently inaugurated a school known as "clinical sociology".
Among other things, this resulted in the displacement of feminine values to activities related to the new and later undervalued discipline of social work, and masculine values to the academic institution and the sociology that was developed there. As a result, Jessie Taft and many other women scientists found it very difficult to gain access to teaching or research positions in various universities.
Social Work and clinical sociology
In the context of a reformatory for women in New York State, Jessie Taft was critical of considering these women as having "mental deficiencies," and argued that there could be a rehabilitation focused not so much on themselves, but rather on their environment and their living conditions.. For example, by ensuring that they had sufficient economic resources or adequate education.
These were the beginnings of "clinical sociology", which later moved to the social assistance of children in various difficulties and to the restructuring of adoption practices. the restructuring of adoption practices..
After facing various difficulties in accessing employment both as an interventionist and as a researcher in sociology, Jessie Taft joined the School of Social Work at the University of Pennsylvania, which among other things made her a leading woman in that discipline.
Symbolic interactionism and the women's movement.
Jessie Taft argued that the women's movement (which was provoked by a malaise that was becoming increasingly evident), had its roots in a psychic conflict of this group.. They had desires for emancipation that they could not act upon because social conditions did not allow them to do so.
He strongly emphasized the need to make changes in a "social conscience" that promoted domestic individualism around a depersonalized industrial order. promoted domestic individualism around a depersonalized industrial order..
In analyzing the social and economic transformations of industrial societies, Taft was careful to detail how gender made the lived experiences different for men and women. Thus she argued that reforms could take place only when one's "self" became conscious of the subjectivities and social relations that were being constructed in industrial societies.
Bibliographical references:
- García Dauder, S. (2009). Jessie Taft. Symbolic interactionism, feminist theory and clinical social work. Social Work Today, 56: 145-156.
- García Dauder, S. (2004). Conflict and social consciousness in Jessie Taft. Athenea Digital, 6: 1.14.
- Taft, J. (1916). “The Women's Movement from the Point of View of Social Consciousness. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
- The University of Chicago (2018). Ahead of her time. UChicago Magazine. Recuperado 20 de junio de 2018. Disponible en https://mag.uchicago.edu/education-social-service/ahead-her-time.
(Updated at Apr 14 / 2024)