- Engels was observing society and thus a sociologist, not just a philosopher and political theorist.
- Deegan might have thought that Engels' observations were markedly male.
Aside from trying to make connections, Engels description of Manchester, England made me think of Carolina Maria de Jesus's autobiography Child of the Dark, which is her observations of living in a Sao Paulo slum in the 1950s. In reading Engels one likes to think that we've come so far, that society will not tolerate those kind of squalid conditions for our fellow humans, but yet we do.
Deegan's observations of sexism in the University of Chicago's school of sociology were interesting, but not ground breaking for a female raised in the 1980s/1990s. Just this past weekend my friends (male and female) and I discussed sexism in the work place, how likely it was that the man perpetrating it was completely unaware, what is to be done about it, etc.
I am acutely aware that the findings in Deegan's study relates to my work in public transportation planning. Attending the transportation research board's annual meeting is very much like walking into a white male frat party - transportation engineering and planning are very white male dominated in the US and Latin America (white is relative in Latin America). Aside from being conscious of this, I'm not really sure what my take aways from Deegan's work should be.
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