This book brings together edited extracts from classic texts by the internationally renowned feminist sociologist, Ann Oakley. Many of Oakley’s early works are out of print and this collection makes them available again. There are extracts from pioneering studies such as Sex, Gender and Society, The Sociology of Housework, Becoming a Mother and Women Confined, presented alongside some of Ann Oakley’s more recent reflections on methodology, scientific method and research practice.

The book illustrates how Oakley’s thinking has evolved over a period in which much in the field of gender and women’s studies has changed. Each section of the book is prefaced by Oakley’s reflections on how her original studies relate to more recent research and theoretical perspectives. There are many points of intersection with modern debates about how (and whether) to ‘do’ gender and what terms such as ‘women’ and ‘men’ really mean. The result is a valuable commentary on thirty years’ work on women, gender and social science methodology which will be of interest to many, especially undergraduate and A-level students, as well as all those grappling with current issues about the past and future of work in the contested areas of gender, women’s studies and feminist social science.