Biography

Margaret L. Andersen grew up in Oakland, located in the Bay Area of California, for the first ten years of her life; from about 1948 to 1958. She lived in what she was a working class urban community which possessed a mixture of mostly white and Asian families. Her family moved a lot because of her father’s occupation, so her childhood was not unfamiliar to new places. Sadly her father also died when she was a teenager and consequently Dr. Andersen and her mother relocated again.
Margaret Andersen’s father’s transfers led to her move from Oakland, as previously mentioned an urban town, to a small town in Georgia in 1958; of course at the height of the civil rights movement. Dr. Andersen describes Georgia as being a completely different environment than the one she had been used to in California. The school she attended was completely segregated and had a homogeneous population of all white students. It was in this atmosphere that she most clearly remembers seeing and being exposed to “serious” racial segregation. (An exposure which she later realized greatly contributed to her interest in race relations and structural oppression of disadvantaged groups) She also described her experience in Georgia as one full of teasing and name-calling because of the size of the town and her status as a new-comer and an outsider. She and her family lived in Georgia for three years, until she was about thirteen years old, and then relocated again this time to Boston, Massachusetts.
This setting was also segregated but “not the same [way] as Georgia.” Looking back, Dr. Andersen acknowledges the fact that being exposed to these different environments had a great impact in her interest in racial and ethnic relationships and perceptions. She also now realizes the different gendered perceptions and roles in each of these atmospheres contributed to her dedication to women’s studies. As she states, the “gender norms were different” in each respective place. In California, she remembers being treated as if she could do anything she set her mind to, as long as she put in the effort; however, in Georgia, this American ideal didn’t seem as applicable to women. In fact those women who were seen as intellectuals and academics were treated as outcasts of sorts; instead beauty was a valued characteristic for women. But the opposite was true of Boston; there intelligence seemed to matter whether for men or women. Again being in and out of these various settings essentially “laid the seed” for her work in the discipline of sociology, particularly in regards to her interest in the intersection of race, class, and gender in society.
Currently, Dr. Andersen holds the esteemed position of the Edward F. and Elizabeth Goodman Rosenberg Professor of sociology as well as Women’s Studies at the University of Delaware. In addition to the University of Delaware, her resume boasts visiting positions from both Sanford University and the Massachusetts Institution of Technology as professor in the Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity (Stanford) and Women’s Studies (M.I.T.) She is clearly ambitious and has shown a proclivity for higher education, a fact that is all too clear through her acquisition of a bachelor’s degree from the Georgia State University at Atlanta in 1970, a master’s degree from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1973, and lastly a doctorate from the same institution in 1976.
Dr Andersen has written and published a variety of books as wells as numerous scholarly articles regarding the disciplines of sociology and women’s studies. Her books accurately depict her interests which include, but are not necessarily limited to, social inequalities and the social structures which perpetuate and enforce these; the sociology of race and ethnicity, as well as that of sex and gender and finally sociological theory.
Her most recent work is a book titled On Land and On Sea: Women in the Rosenfeld Collection, a photographic essay of women across the course of the twentieth century. Her other notable books include Thinking About Women: Sociological Perspectives on Sex and Gender currently in its 7th edition; Race, Class and Gender, co-authored with fellow feminist sociologist Patricia Hills Collins in its 6th edition; Sociology: Understanding a Diverse Society and Sociology: The Essentials both written with Howard F. Taylor; Understanding Society: Readings in Sociology in and written with the help of former student Kim A. Logio and finally Social Problems co-authored with Frank R. Scarpitti and Laura L. O’Toole.

How She Became An Academic

Teaching Philosophy

In talking to Dr. Andersen for any length of time, her strong commitment to the improvement of higher education becomes quite evident. Clearly an intelligent and influential woman both in the scopes of sociology and women’s studies, Margaret Andersen, as described by former student and faculty member of Saint Joseph University’s Sociology Department, Kim Logio as a woman whose invested interest in the success and well being of her students is not only inspiring but exceptional. From the testament of those who have been fortunate enough to learn from Dr. Andersen, whether in undergraduate or graduate studies, her teaching philosophy has always lent itself to the idea of bringing students into the discussion; a relatively easy task considering her “unending energy and enthusiasm” for the subjects she teaches. In the eyes of her students, both current and former, she is an intellect who not only challenges them in their analyses of course materials but also encourages them to “write often and do more than [simply] memorize facts.”
She is clearly one who truly believes in the advantages the discipline has on society and consequently continually encourages her students to understand and appreciate the variety of ways, this discipline is applicable and useful in everyday life, even in the most mundane of behaviors. In the words of Dr. Logio, Margaret Andersen’s “scholarship is excellent; her teaching is impassioned; [and] her feminist spirit is true.”

Community Action

Margaret Andersen has had an incredible range of service and leadership positions throughout her career. These vary from serving as one of the founders of the American Sociological Association’s MOST program and being a co-director of that program at the University of Delaware, to serving as president of the Eastern Sociological Society. Although Dr Andersen finds it relatively difficult to summarize her work with the various organizations she has participated in over the years, she does say that much of her work has been “in the spirit of making institutions and organizations more diverse and open to women and people of color.” Several universities can attest to this statement, as they saw Dr. Andersen working for numerous years to change and improve curriculums in order to include more research and scholarship on race and gender “throughout— not just in courses on those particular subjects.” She has also worked on projects whose purposes were to encourage, and support the participation of minority students in order to decrease the homogeny of faculty and research scholars and increase racial and ethnic diversity in this academic scope. Additionally Dr Andersen has served as both Dean and Provost for the University of Delaware, positions which encompassed tasks such as budgeting, dealing with a variety of personal issues, and pushing for more equity in terms of sexism and racism at the university. Throughout participation in these organizations, Dr Andersen maintains that her sociological background never failed her, saying that much of her work has been like a “form of applied sociology” and that her “sociological judgment and perspective [were] really important” in these positions. Margaret Andersen is also currently the Chair of the National Advisory Board for the Stanford University Center for Comparative Study in Race and Ethnicity and plays an active role in a number of professional organizations such as the American Sociological Association whose Council she has served on. Finally she is often asked to serve as consultant to different university and college campuses in the development and reviews of their respective curriculums.

Research

Much of Margaret Andersen’s work is clearly influenced by her longstanding dedication to the advancement of gender, racial, and class equity as well as to the change of social institutions insofar as they perpetuate the oppression and discrimination of disadvantaged groups in society. Many of Dr. Andersen’s publications can be seen as analyses of gender with intersecting ideas of race and class. Her publication titled “Restructuring for Whom? Race, Class, Gender and the Ideology of Invisibility” is no different. In this publication, originally presented as the presidential address for the Eastern Sociological Society (in 1999) Margaret Andersen examines and analyzes how the restructuring of society has differently affected the lives and perceptions of particular racial, as well as class and gender groups.
She takes a closer look at how restructuring has not only affected the situations of various groups, both subordinate and insubordinate and how this has changed the ideologies of race, class and gender as well as the visibility or invisibility as the case may be or these effects. Dr. Andersen concludes that this ideology of invisibility in regards to the intersecting effect of race, class and gender has essentially resulted in the hypersensitivity of people regarding these issues, even in the discipline of sociology.
She ends with a plea to her fellow colleagues to take off their “race-blinders” in order to improve the teaching and discussions of not necessarily overt but structural discrimination, whether classist, racist, or sexist; any ism that produces and reproduces inequality. Articles includes a variety of statistics regarding social institutions and how they structurally enforce and reinforce class-based, gender-based and race-based oppression
In the article, Dr. Andersen also discusses the dominant belief systems that frame our current ideologies about race, class and gender. She calls for the need for studies that identify and expose the “hidden racism and discrimination that persists in housing, employment, policing, education” and proposes that we should use sociological studies to raise public awareness of the perpetuation of structural inequity.
As an expert in both race and ethnic studies and women’s studies, Dr. Andersen accurately analyzes the effects and consequences of what she refers to as “race-blind, class-blind, and gender-blind” mentality which seems to have pervaded through contemporary American society, particularly in the ideology of the dominant group. Although she clearly states the problems facing our society, there is a sense of hope, as she encourages her readers to “speak about/write about/[and] think beyond the limits of liberal thinking, thinking that is framed in a perspective that race, class and gender should not matter.” She encourages the reader to “make the invisible visible and envision a more just world.”
As an expert in both race and ethnic studies and women’s studies, Dr. Andersen accurately analyzes the effects and results of what she refers as race-blind, class-blind, and gender-blind mentality which seems to have pervaded contemporary American society, predominantly in the ideology of the dominant group. Although she clearly states the problems facing our society there is a sense of hope, as she encourages her readers to “speak about/write about/[and] think about beyond the limits of liberal thinking, thinking that is framed in a perspective that race and class and gender should not matter.” She encourages the reader to “make the invisible visible and envision a more just world.”
Dr. Andersen just recently finished writing a book which will be out this summer. The book is a biography of Paul R. Jones, an African American art collector who donated a lot of his private collection of African American art to the University of Delaware, where Dr. Andersen is a faculty member. Paul R. Jones is an eighty year old man, who grew up in Alabama; and worked as a government civil servant for most of his life. He is now the owner of the largest privately held collection of African American art in the country, more information on the topic can be found on the University of Delaware museum web site.

Accomplishments

Although her career is far from over, Margaret Andersen’s resume already possesses various prestigious awards, honors and positions. From the University of Delaware alone, where she has held positions ranging from instructor to Interim to Vice Provost for Academic Affairs since 1974, she has received the Outstanding Teaching Award from the College of Arts and Science as well as the university’s Excellence in Teaching Award. She has also been awarded the Faculty Mentor Award from the McNair Scholars Program, a program designed to encourage students of color to pursue graduate degrees specifically in the social sciences and sciences. She has also been awarded the E. Arthur Trabant Institutional Award for Women’s Equity. While serving as Dean of the College of Arts and Science, she also received a grant from the Hewlett Foundation to modify undergraduate education by improving the quality of introductory level courses across the set of courses offered. Furthermore, Dr. Andersen, as an important figure in the sociology of gender, was the 2006 recipient of the American Sociological Association’s Jessie Bernard Award; an award given “in recognition of scholarly work that has enlarged the horizons of sociology to encompass fully the role of women in society.” In acknowledging the outstanding and invaluable work Margaret Andersen has brought to the disciplines of sociology and women’s studies, the American Sociological Association describes her as “[having] tremendous feminist vitality, [as well as] enormous integrity and a commitment to supporting other women at faculty and student levels.” In short she is viewed by her colleagues as “a model for current and future gender scholars.”
Dr. Andersen has also been the editor of Gender & Society for five years, and was the first person to teach Women’s Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1984. Twenty years later in 2004, she received the Feminist Lecturer Award from the Sociologists for Women Society in acknowledgement of the benefits her work provided women as well as the I. Peter Gellman Award from the Eastern Sociological Society. She has also been honored with the AAUW Outstanding Young Scholar Award by the state of Delaware and has been a member of the Alpha Kappa Delta Sociology Honors Society as well as Phi Kappa Phi; the nation’s oldest and most selective all discipline honor society.

Although she has received a plethora of awards in recognition of her outstanding work, Dr. Andersen’s most meaningful accomplishment is the publication of her most recent book On Land and On Sea; as well the continual success of her book Thinking about Women—a book which has lived on with a multitude of revisions, for the past 25 years.

Alternative Career Paths

When Margaret Andersen went to college, she initially went pre-med and really wanted to be a doctor. She says she never really considered the sciences and that at the time they were quite hostile to women so she didn’t really look forward to dealing with that. She worked full time as a departmental secretary while doing her undergraduate studies and after having done so, moved on to do her graduate studies.