Raewyn Connell (born 3 January 1944), usually cited as R. W. Connell, is an Australian
feminist
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...
sociologist and professor emerita at the
University of Sydney
The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...
, mainly known for co-founding the field of
masculinity studies and coining the concept of
hegemonic masculinity
In gender studies, hegemonic masculinity is part of Raewyn Connell, R. W. Connell's Gender theory, gender order theory, which recognizes multiple masculinities that vary across time, society, culture, and the individual. Hegemonic masculinity is d ...
, as well as for her work on Southern theory.
Life and career
Connell was born in Sydney, Australia. Her father, William Fraser (Bill) Connell (
OBE), was a professor of education at the University of Sydney for many years, where she focused on educational research and teaching. Her mother, Margaret Lloyd Connell (née Peck) was a high school science teacher. Connell has two sisters,
Patricia Margaret Selkirk and Helen Connell.
Connell was educated at Manly and North Sydney High Schools, and has degrees from the
University of Melbourne
The University of Melbourne (colloquially known as Melbourne University) is a public university, public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in the state ...
and
University of Sydney
The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...
. She has held academic positions at universities in Australia, including being the founding professor of sociology at
Macquarie University
Macquarie University ( ) is a Public university, public research university in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Founded in 1964 by the New South Wales Government, it was the third university to be established in the Sydney metropolitan area. ...
1976–1991.
In the United States Connell was visiting professor of Australian studies at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
1991–1992, and professor of sociology at
University of California Santa Cruz 1992–1995. She was a rank-and-file member of the
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also known as the Labor Party or simply Labor, is the major Centre-left politics, centre-left List of political parties in Australia, political party in Australia and one of two Major party, major parties in Po ...
until the early 1980s and a
trade unionist, currently in the
National Tertiary Education Union. She has been considered a prominent intellectual of the Australian
New Left
The New Left was a broad political movement that emerged from the counterculture of the 1960s and continued through the 1970s. It consisted of activists in the Western world who, in reaction to the era's liberal establishment, campaigned for freer ...
.
She was appointed University Professor at the
University of Sydney
The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...
in 2004, and retired from her University Chair on 31 July 2014.
[Her Bio in her official personal website. http://www.raewynconnell.net/p/about-raewyn_20.html] She has been professor emerita at the University of Sydney since her retirement.
Connell serves on the editorial board or advisory board of numerous academic journals, including ''
Signs'', ''
Sexualities'', ''
The British Journal of Sociology'', ''
Theory and Society'', and ''The International Journal of Inclusive Education''.
Connell is a
trans woman
A trans woman or transgender woman is a woman who was assigned male at birth. Trans women have a female gender identity and may experience gender dysphoria (distress brought upon by the discrepancy between a person's gender identity and their ...
, who formally began
transitioning late in life. Almost all her earlier work was published under the gender-neutral name "R. W. Connell" up to the second edition of "Masculinities" in 2005. Since 2006 all her work has appeared under the name Raewyn Connell. Connell has also written about
trans women and feminism from an international perspective. Connell identifies as a "
hardline
In politics, hardline or hard-line is an adjective describing a stance on an issue that is inflexible and not subject to compromise. A hardliner is a person holding such views. The stance is usually far from the centrist view. People, policies, ...
feminist
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...
" and "dangerous
lefty".
Major contributions
Connell's sociology emphasises the historical nature of social reality and the transformative character of social practice. Her writing tries to combine empirical detail, structural analysis, critique, and relevance to practice. Much of her empirical work uses biographical (life-history) interviewing in education, family life and workplaces. She has written or co-written twenty-one books and more than 150 research papers, and her work has been translated into 18 languages.
Class and education
Connell first became known for research on large-scale class dynamics ("Ruling Class, Ruling Culture", 1977 and "
Class Structure in Australian History", 1980), and the ways class and gender hierarchies are re-made in the everyday life of schools ("Making the Difference", 1982).
Gender
In the late 1980s she developed a social theory of gender relations ("Gender and Power", 1987), which emphasized that gender is a large-scale social structure not just a matter of personal identity. In this text, she proposed that the word "gender" be discussed in terms of three structures (power, production/labor and emotion/sexual relations). In applied fields she has worked on poverty and education, sexuality and AIDS prevention, and labour movement strategy. Connell and Messerschmidt collaborated on a piece, "Hegemonic Masculinity: Rethinking the Concept", 2005, in response to scepticism that the outcome of her theory creates a fixed typology. In addition to supporting the categorization of her theories, Connell emphasizes the relationship between men and emotions. Connell argues that in today's society, men may be so emotionally disconnected that they are not conscious of their emotional states, such as depression. Many males have learned from their parents, friends, or other peers that they should not show emotion as it can be seen as a weakness. Once these boys become adults, they have developed the ability to suppress their emotional responses, such as crying or even sad facial expressions, to the point where they are really unaware of these emotions and unable to connect with them. One gender cannot be examined in isolation from another and emphasizes that there are disparities among males, even though neither one chooses the Postmodern practice of completely undermining this concept. Connell's writings emphasize the heterogeneous nature of masculinity. In contrast to feminism, masculine politics, according to Connell, cannot be a political movement. Women's marginalized identities frequently undergo positive evaluation on the part of feminists. On the other hand, authors on masculinity are almost always critical of the benefits that come with being a man.
Masculinities
Connell is best known outside Australia for studies of the social construction of
masculinities. She was one of the founders of this research field, and her book "Masculinities" (1995, 2005) is the most-cited in the field. Hegemonic masculinity, a theory developed by Raewyn Connell, has had a significant impact on feminist sociology. In their critique of the sex-role theory, Connell and her co-authors claim that the emphasis on internalized norms, attitudes, and behaviours of society obscures structural inequalities and power dynamics and misrepresents the gendering process. For instance, girls and women are frequently expected to behave politely, be accommodating, and be caring. Men are typically supposed to be powerful, combative, and fearless. Gender role expectations exist in every country, ethnic group, and culture, although they can vary greatly among them. The concept of
hegemonic masculinity
In gender studies, hegemonic masculinity is part of Raewyn Connell, R. W. Connell's Gender theory, gender order theory, which recognizes multiple masculinities that vary across time, society, culture, and the individual. Hegemonic masculinity is d ...
has been particularly influential and has attracted much debate. She has been an advisor to
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...
and UNO initiatives relating men, boys and masculinities to gender equality and peacemaking.
Southern theory
Connell has developed a sociology of intellectuals that emphasizes the collective character of intellectual labour, and the importance of its social context. Her 2007 book ''Southern Theory'' extended this to the global dynamics of knowledge production, critiquing the "Northern" bias of mainstream social science which is predominately produced in "metropolitan" universities. In doing so, she argues, metropolitan social theory fails to adequately explain social phenomena in the Southern experience.
She analysed examples of theoretical work deriving from the global South: including the work of
Paulin Hountondji,
Ali Shariati,
Veena Das,
Ashis Nandy and
Raúl Prebisch.
Connell has also explored the implications of Southern Theory on
gender theory,
neoliberalism
Neoliberalism is a political and economic ideology that advocates for free-market capitalism, which became dominant in policy-making from the late 20th century onward. The term has multiple, competing definitions, and is most often used pe ...
, and other global knowledge projects. She continues to argue in these contexts that historical power differentiations are maintained through imperialistic privileging of thought and that decolonizing this construction of knowledge can revolutionize societies across the globe. In her essay in
Planning Theory for example, Connell calls for social science to accept subaltern views that have traditionally been ignored so that modern resources can be maximised in various fields such as
urban planning
Urban planning (also called city planning in some contexts) is the process of developing and designing land use and the built environment, including air, water, and the infrastructure passing into and out of urban areas, such as transportatio ...
,
geography
Geography (from Ancient Greek ; combining 'Earth' and 'write', literally 'Earth writing') is the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. Geography is an all-encompassing discipline that seeks an understanding o ...
, and
youth studies.
Criticism
In an essay titled "Under Southern Skies", Connell responded to four other scholars of sociology, namely
Mustafa Emirbayer,
Patricia Hill Collins,
Raka Ray, and
Isaac Ariail Reed, who had all written critically about her work on Southern Theory. While acknowledging how Connell's work has sparked important discussion, the arguments of these sociologists included Ray claiming that Southern Theory marks a tipping point for postcolonial sociology rather than global sociology, Reed finding Connell's theoretical concepts to be underdeveloped, Emirbayer's view that Connell tends to overgeneralize "Northern Theory" while making unfounded claims about "Southern Theory", and Collins' identification of two issues: the centring of the North and the silencing of much of the Global South by only examining the theories of Southern educated elite. In her response, Connell responds to certain points from each argument to stand by her work, countering their criticism by explaining the decisions behind her writing and affirming that her work is a jumping-off point for further discussion.
Honors and awards
*
The Australian Sociological Association Distinguished Service Award for services to Sociology in Australia (2007)
*Stephen Crook Memorial Prize, for her work ''Southern Theory'', The Australian Sociological Association (2008)
*Raewyn Connell Prize, a biennial award established in her honour by The Australian Sociological Association (2010)
*Jessie Bernard Award,
American Sociological Association
The American Sociological Association (ASA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the discipline and profession of sociology. Founded in December 1905 as the American Sociological Society at Johns Hopkins University by a group of fi ...
(2017)
*
International Sociological Association
The International Sociological Association (ISA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to scientific purposes in the field of sociology and social sciences. It is an international sociological body, gathering both individuals and national sociol ...
Award for Excellence in Research and Practice (2023)
*Honorary Doctorate,
Pompeu Fabra University (2023)
Bibliography
* 1967. ''Politics of the Extreme Right : Warringah, 1966'' (co-written with Florence Gould). Sydney University Press
* 1977. ''
Ruling Class, Ruling Culture: Studies of Conflict, Power and Hegemony in Australian Life''. Cambridge University Press
* 1980. ''
Class Structure in Australian History'' (co-written with Terry Irving).
[R. W. Connell and T. H. Irving, Class structure in Australian history, Longman Cheshire, Melbourne, 1980.] Longman Cheshire
* 1982. ''Making the Difference: Schools, Families and Social Division'' (Co-written). Allen & Unwin
* 1983. ''Which way is up? Essays on sex, class and culture''. Allen & Unwin
* 1987. ''Gender and Power: Society, the Person and Sexual Politics''. Allen & Unwin
* 1995. ''Masculinities''. Allen & Unwin
* 2000. ''The Men and the Boys''. Allen & Unwin
* 2000. ''Male Roles, Masculinities and Violence: A Culture of Peace Perspective'' (co-edited). UNESCO Publishing
* 2007. ''Southern theory: the global dynamics of knowledge in social science''. Polity
* 2009. ''Gender: in world perspective''. Polity
*
* 2019. ''The Good University: what Universities actually do and why it's time for radical change''. Zed Books
———————
;Bibliography notes
References
External links
*
A collection of papers by Raewyn Connellat XYonline
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Connell, Raewyn
1944 births
Living people
Academic staff of the University of Sydney
Australian sociologists
Australian transgender women
Australian transgender writers
Medical sociologists
Men and masculinities scholars
Overland (magazine) people
People educated at North Sydney Boys High School
Social constructionism
Transgender academics
Transgender scientists
Transgender studies academics
Transgender women writers
University of Melbourne alumni
Writers from Sydney