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571 Annals Am. Acad. Pol. & Soc. Sci. 8 (2000)

handle is hein.cow/anamacp0571 and id is 1 raw text is: PREFACE Among the many achievements of the feminist movement of the 1970s was the unprecedented influx of women into academia. The social sciences were a major beneficiary of this effort. Over the last 25 years, women have entered the social sciences in huge numbers. Among these new entrants are many feminists who have introduced novel ways of understanding and studying the social world. Although the impact of feminism varies widely, every one of the social science disciplines has been touched by the feminist movement. From anthropology to geography to sociology, feminist scholars have reached the highest rungs of their disciplines: feminists are now chairs of major depart- ments, holders of endowed professorships, and even presidents of profes- sional associations. Several social science journals are now devoted exclu- sively to feminist theory and research. In some fields, graduate students are third-generation feminists; they can be overheard reflecting on the influ- ences of their feminist grandmothers. Feminism is so strong in a few areas that it has inspired backlashes, with prominent academics expending a great deal of time and energy trying to debunk feminist perspectives. This special issue of The Annals reports on this revolution in progress. I invited several leading and up-and-coming feminist researchers to reflect on the most significant insights and contributions of feminism to their fields of study. About half of the authors discuss the impact of feminism on their aca- demic disciplines, including anthropology, archaeology, criminology, geogra- phy, political science, and psychology. The others discuss feminism's influ- ence on specific social science topics, including studies of the mass media, work, migration, sexuality, and family. These somewhat idiosyncratic choices, based largely on my personal interests and background in sociology, led me to an unanticipated observation: it seems that feminism has had the strongest impact on fields that are open to interdisciplinary research. Where reigning paradigms are strong and the range of accepted methodologies is limited, feminist perspectives tend to be marginalized. On the other hand, fields that are theoretically eclectic and interdisciplinary appear to be the most welcoming to feminist influence. This is but one of several general impressions I garnered from the insight- ful articles that are collected in this volume. In this introduction, I will draw out two more specific themes that emerged from my reading of these works: first, the relationship between feminist scholarship and feminist activism; and, second, the ongoing controversies and future directions of feminist social science. Since this entire volume is devoted to feminism, I will begin by defin- ing what feminism means to social scientists. It was surprising to me that few of the authors attempted to define femi- nism themselves. This may be a sign of the successful incorporation of femi- nist perspectives into the canon of social science. Perhaps feminism is taken for granted now; perhaps everyone already knows what it means. Alter- 8

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