Who is often regarded as the first female sociologist?
Harriet Martineau (1802-1876) was an English social theorist often seen as the first female sociologist. Martineau wrote from a feminine perspective at a time when it was rare for a woman to express her opinion so publicly. Not only that, she earned enough money from her works to support herself entirely, a rare feat for a Victorian woman.
At a young age, Martineau started to lose some of her senses, beginning with taste and smell, then hearing. By adulthood, she was profoundly deaf and required an ear trumpet, an old form of hearing aid. Determined not to let her disabilities get the better of her, Martineau started to write anonymously for the 'Monthly Repository', a Unitarian periodical concerned with the abolition of slavery, women’s suffrage and the reform of the Church of England.
At the beginning of the 1830s, Martineau received her first book commission. Martineau wrote 'Illustrations of Political Economy', published in 1832, as a work of fiction intended to help readers understand the capitalist ideas of ”The Father of Economics” Adam Smith (1723-1790). The publisher, assuming it would not sell well on account of her gender, only printed 1500 copies. Very soon, the public demanded more copies and the book eventually surpassed the sales of works by Charles Dickens (1812-1870).
Martineau wrote many more books and articles of a sociological nature. Charles Darwin (1809-1882) and Queen Victoria (1819-1901) were amongst her fans.
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