Introduction

In writing a chapter about Giddens on women and gender in society, I must first express disappointment that, along with so many other social theorists even today, he has largely ignored these from his field of study. This chapter therefore starts with a critique of what he has omitted, and of some of the consequences of this omission, rather than of a substantive body of Giddens's writings. However, it also shows how the omission of women and gender relations from a supposedly broad social theory, and associated with this, the omission of spheres of social activity particularly associated with women, results in other fallacies and limitations of as great importance, and which have been less commented upon elsewhere. Not only is half of society (and the relationship between that half and the other half) virtually omitted from his analysis, but also, partly by association, half of the activities carried on in that society. I then explore how some of the concepts elaborated by Giddens might usefully be developed further for analysing these areas as well as pointing to how some of the shortcomings in Giddens's work might be made good. Rather than discussing gender relations and ‘women’ in general terms, I have limited my comments here to specific areas of social activity: those that take place in the domestic sphere, and more generally activities concerned with the production of people. These both illustrate some of the more general problems of ignoring women and gender in sociological analysis, and stand in their own right as core areas of social activity which theoretical texts such as those produced by Giddens ought to encompass.