Harriet Martineau and Emile Durkheim

     

    Emile Durkheim contributed to the study and understanding of sociology in many ways. He is known as the father of the French School of Sociology. Emile Durkheim was enrolled originally at a rabbinical school, but decided he wanted to switch and study sociology. He then went the École Normale Supérieure in 1879 to further study sociology. His first major work "The Division of Labor in Society" where he introduced anomie, the concept of breaking down the influence of social norms on individual people within a society, was published in 1893. He published another major work in 1897, "Suicide: a Study in Sociology" this explored differing suicide rates among Protestants and Catholics and argued that the stringer social control of Catholics resulted in lower suicide rates. Durkheim's life goal of getting an influential position in Paris was achieved in 1902 when he became the chair of education in Sorbonne. He later died of a stroke in 1917.

    Harriet Martineau is considered to be one of the earliest sociologists. She was a self taught expert in political economic theory and was a very productive writer throughout her career. She mainly wrote about the relationship between politics, economics, social life, and morals. When she saw injustice, whether it was enslavement or gender inequality, she spoke out against it. She wrote about how tariffs would only benefit the rich and would hurt both the working class in the U.S. and the working class in Britain. She was remembered my many as a social reformer due to her belief in the progressive evolution of society. Her main contribution to the field of sociology was her belief that to when you study sociology, you have to study all aspects of it. By studying this way she saw that inequality had no reason to exist, especially toward women.