Please see details below of a colloquium to celebrate the important academic contribution of leading sociologists, Harriet Bradley and Anna Pollert, both of whom are retiring in 2011.

After careers motivated by socialist feminist politics and activism, Anna and Harriet have made a huge contribution to the study of women’s work, gender and class and its inter-relationship, although in both cases their work extends beyond this.


WOMEN IN BRITISH SOCIOLOGY

Friday 25th November 2011
11 a.m. - 5 p.m.
The Women’s Library, London EC1

Colloquium celebrating the work of 
Harriet Bradley and Anna Pollert

We are holding a colloquium to celebrate the important academic contribution of leading sociologists, Harriet Bradley and Anna Pollert, both of whom are retiring in 2011.  After careers motivated by socialist feminist politics and activism, Anna and Harriet have made a huge contribution to the study of women’s work, gender and class and its inter-relationship, although in both cases their work extends beyond this.

Both have not only contributed to the theorization of class and gender, but also explored gender and class consciousness in the lived relationships of working class women and the possibility and nature of activism, feminism and class politics. They have both written on the sociology of work and on the flexibility engendered by modern capitalism.

Anna’s book Girls, Wives, Factory Lives (1981) is a landmark in reflecting and conceptualizing the experience of women at work and in its methodological contribution – an ethnography of a workplace based upon non-participant observation. Her key 1996 article on the poverty of patriarchy moved beyond the conceptualization of class and gender as two separate structures as an explanation of women’s oppression. She has also written on comparative labour relations, notably on Central and Eastern Europe, including on changing gender relationships in post-communist transitions. More recently she has focused upon unorganized workers. 
 
Harriet’s deep contribution to gender and work began with her ground-breaking study on Men's Work, Women's Work – history of sex-typing jobs in Britain (1989).  Her book Fractured Identities (1996) reasserted the importance of class, but theorized its interaction with gender, ethnicity and age in the context of modern and post-modern sociological theory. She has explored and helped to define the concept of social identity and how the intersectionality of ethnicity, gender, age and class is central to social processes in the workplace, the community and the family and in the ways in which racism and sexism are constructed and reproduced. Her work also embraces the role of women in trade unions and her reflection upon the legacy of the Miners’ Strike underlined the crucial role of gender in the dispute and the conceptualization of gender consciousness. In addition she has researched workers’ responses to flexible capitalism, young workers in the labour market and women’s health and maternity.

The day’s main themes include: 
(i)	Gender and class and its inter-relationships; 
(ii)	Intersectionality and the interaction of ethnicity and age with gender and class;
(iii)	Women in the workplace;
(iv)	Gender, workplace resistance, representation and organization;  
(v)	Gender and class in Central and Eastern Europe;
(vi)	Studying class and gender – methodological considerations. 

Speakers include
Ranji Devadason, University of Bristol
Gus Fagan, Editor of Labour Focus on Eastern Europe 1992-2004
Geraldine Healy, Queen Mary, University of London
Gail Hebson, Manchester Business School
Sian Moore, University of Leeds
Sheila Rowbotham, University of Manchester
with responses by Harriet Bradley and Anna Pollert.
 
Lunch will be provided and there will be a drinks reception following the event. If you would like to attend the colloquium please follow the link to register with our online store: 
http://eshop.qmul.ac.uk/browse/extra_info.asp?compid=1&modid=2&prodid=193&deptid=34&catid=1

There will be a £25 charge to cover costs, but the event will be free for students and unwaged - please contact Hazel Conley at [log in to unmask] for further details.

The colloquium will be held  25th November the at the Women’s Library which is within easy reach of Aldgate, Aldgate East and Liverpool underground stations, see:  http://www.londonmet.ac.uk/thewomenslibrary/about/location.cfm

Organisers: 
Hazel Conley, Queen Mary, University of London;
Geraldine Healy, Queen Mary, University of London 
Sian Moore, University of Leeds
Stephanie Tailby, University of West of England