Harriet Martineau: Pioneer Female Sociologist and Journalist

Khari Webber

SOC 110 – 04

10 – 5 – 2016

Harriet Martineau was born in the city of Norwich in England in 1802, where she later was considered the first female sociologist of her time, who ended up translating early works form French to English so that English scholar could start to learn of August Comte’s work, who what we know of today as the father of sociology. She was also one of the first female journalists and worked as a speech writer and translator who wrote novels that gave readers situations to consider following the current social issues of that time. She had many ideas about society and political views about the economy that she wrote in the form of stories, in which case she had them accessible and appealing to the general reader,

She pointed her theoretical perspectives in the direction of the stance of a certain area and how did it or didn’t it correspond to economic, political, and social relations of it’s society. One of Martineau’s key contributions to the sociology field is her assertion that when one is studying a society, one must put focus on all of the aspects of that society. She seemed to clearly explain how important it is when examining religious, political, and social institutions and believed that by studying society this way, she could understand why the issue of inequality exists, specifically directed towards young girls and women. She brought up an early perspective on feminism to discuss issues such as marriage, religious life, children, and race

One of her early published works was “On Female Education.” She published it as an anonymous author in 1823 for a Unitarian journal called the Monthly Repository. At the time that her brother James found out she wrote it, he said to her, “Now, dear, leave it to the other women to make skirts and darn stockings, and you devote yourself to this,” (James Martineau). Martineau also went on and published two religious books in 1826: Devotional Exercises for the Use of Young Persons and Addresses for the Use of Families (1826). After her father’s business went under in 1829, she went to earn a living for her family by becoming a writer full time. Her writings turned into a monthly series over the time of two years. During that time, she critiqued economic and political practices by publishing the ideas of Jon Stuart Mill, Adam Smith, Malthus, and David Ricardo. She argued in one of her critiques that the only ones who benefited from the tariffs in American society are the rich and how it hurt the working class, both in the States and Britain. Later in 1831, Martineau left Unitarianism for what is called freethinking. It was a position of philosophical thinking that seek truth based on the foundations of empiricism, reason, and logic, rather than following truths that were brought forward by authoritative figures, religion, or cultural traditions. She went on to