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On 22 September 2006, I was privileged to talk with Joan Acker, feminist scholar and activist, about her work in the field. Rather than an "interview", it was a very inspiring and open conversation about her life and work.
As Professor Emeritus at the University of Oregon (USA), Joan Acker is one of the most influential scholars in the field of gender inequality. A sociologist by training, Acker began working as a social worker (where, as she said, she could "earn a living without being too socially damaging", having been very active in political things "on the left" since she was a teenager). After receiving her PhD at the University of Oregon, Acker was hired there as the first woman in the sociology department. There, fittingly, she embarked upon her first study of gender inequality at the University of Oregon. Over the five decades of her work in the field, she has been instrumental to the study of inequality. She is the author of two books, Doing Comparable Worth ([1] Acker, 1989), and Class Questions; Feminist Answers ([2] Acker, 2006). Her new book, co-authored with Sandra Morgen and Jill Weigt, is entitled Neoliberalism on the Ground: Welfare Restructuring in Practice and will appear in 2007 ([3] Acker et al. , 2007). She has authored dozens of articles and book chapters as well.
This conversation provides insights into the stimuli behind Acker's ideas and thoughts about her life's work. The influences of her individual personal experiences, coupled with her willingness to question the status quo in organizations and in society in general are clear. In a career that has spanned five decades, Acker has contributed immeasurably to the study of gender, diversity, and equality. Her recommendations for budding scholars and activists are to "have courage" to pursue campaigns on justice and equity issues, to "consider the intersectionality of race, gender, and class", and to work across disciplinary boundaries. Acker's voice is more powerful than any attempt to summarize her words or to restate them. Thus, let us listen to her words directly.
Will you give some historical background of your work in equality, for example, when and where you studied and what you studied when you were in school?
Well, actually I started out as social...