Power, Knowledge, and Gender: The Historical Marginalization of Women in Sociology

The history of sociological theories is conventionally told as a story of male agency, a narrative of theoretical contributions divided into a "founding generation" that includes Auguste Comte, Herbert Spencer, and Karl Marx, and a "classical generation" that includes Emile Durkheim, Max Weber, Georg Simmel, George Herbert Mead, and Robert E. Park. This history is presented as a natural account, beyond the power of human beings to change it. On the contrary, as sociology teaches us, history is a social construction (Berger, Luckmann, 1966) shaped by the power dynamics within the discipline, and like all histories, it reflects a conflict between exclusive and inclusive values and practices (Becker, 1971; Lemert, 1995; D. Smith, 1987).Over time, due to cultural and political processes, women have experienced both the institutionalization of the discipline and the gradual definition of the sociological canon (Politics of Knowledge) (Lengermann, Brantley, 1998), as well as processes that delegitimized their scientific contributions based on their gender identity. Through these processes, the authority of their thought was diminished or denied, and their audience was relegated to that of the men close to them (Politics of Gender). Political, social, and economic power has influenced the production, dissemination, and use of knowledge, relegating female empirical contributions to oblivion.This research aims to explore the processes of knowledge erasure experienced by female figures in the field of sociology during the canonization process, considering the broader historical phenomenon in which women are often depicted in historical narratives as lacking genius and scientific talent. In reality, they were systematically deprived of opportunities and hindered in disseminating their knowledge to future generations. The primary object of this contribution is to adopt a critical approach towards conventional paradigms of social and scientific knowledge, questioning the practices and styles of thought, action, and writing typical of sociology (Stalel 1985).