Annie Marion MacLean facts for kids
Annie Marion MacLean (1869–1934) was an important American sociologist. A sociologist studies how people live and interact in groups. She was a key part of the "women's Chicago School" of sociology, a group of thinkers from the University of Chicago. Some people call her the "mother of contemporary ethnography." Ethnography is a way of studying people by observing them closely, sometimes by joining their groups.
MacLean was one of the first women to have a professional career in sociology. She is remembered for her new ways of studying people, like "participant observation." This is where a researcher joins in with the group they are studying to understand them better. She used her research to help solve real-world problems. She was especially known for her studies of working women and women who had recently moved to a new country (immigrants). MacLean worked closely with social reformers like Jane Addams and important sociologists like Albion Small and George Herbert Mead.
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Early Life and Learning
MacLean was born in St. Peters Bay, Prince Edward Island, and grew up in Nova Scotia, Canada. Her father was a Baptist minister. She went to Acadia Seminary in Wolfville, Nova Scotia. She then studied at Acadia University, earning her first degree in 1893 and her master's degree in 1894.
After that, she moved to Illinois, USA. She wanted to study at the University of Chicago, which was new at the time. Her brother had moved to Chicago earlier and told her about the city. Because she didn't have much money, she first worked for two years at Shimer College.
MacLean was the first woman to earn a master's degree in sociology from the University of Chicago in 1897. She was also the second woman to get a Ph.D. (a very high degree) in sociology from the same university in 1900. Her master's paper was about laws for women working in factories in the United States. This work set the stage for her lifelong study of working women. Her Ph.D. paper was about immigration, focusing on people from Acadia in Nova Scotia.
Teaching and Work
We know very well that the world would still wag on if all the wise tariff talkers succumbed to starvation today; while if the cooking sorority went on strike Time would be exchanged for Eternity, which is only another way of saying that women are handling the real business of life, and we should be glad to see that they are introducing scientific management into it, and are promoting it with zeal.
MacLean started her teaching career at Shimer College in Mount Carroll, Illinois. She worked there from 1894 to 1896. She taught Latin and was also the "lady principal," a role similar to a Dean of Women today. Her sister, Mildred, also worked at Shimer. The MacLean sisters stayed in touch with the Shimer community even after they retired.
Because she was a woman, MacLean faced challenges getting regular teaching jobs in sociology. Even though she did more research than many male students, she was not hired into the sociology department at the University of Chicago. Her first teaching jobs after her graduate studies were at Royal Victoria College in Montreal (1900-1901) and Stetson University in Florida (1901-1903).
From 1903 until shortly before her death in 1934, she taught online courses for the University of Chicago's Home Study Department. She also taught as a professor of sociology at Adelphi College from 1906 to 1916. She taught at the YWCA National Training School during the same years. In the Home Study Department, MacLean worked with other important women sociologists like Edith Abbott and Sophonisba Breckinridge. She taught courses on topics like rural life, social technology, and immigration. During her career as an online professor, she taught 799 students.
Studying Society and Writing
MacLean was a very skilled researcher. She used a mix of methods to answer specific questions. Her techniques included participant observation, where she joined the groups she studied. She also used social surveys, which involve asking many people questions to gather information.
Her most important research was a study she led in 1907-1908 for the YWCA. She managed a team of 29 women sociologists. They surveyed 400 companies that employed 135,000 women in more than 20 cities. This study led to her important book, Wage-Earning Women (1910), which focused on women's jobs.
Later Life and Impact
In the 1920s, MacLean's health made her stop teaching in person. She died on May 1, 1934, at her home in Pasadena, California. She had been living there with her sister Mildred since 1925.
MacLean used participant observation long before it became a common research method. Because of this, some people call her the "mother of ethnography." However, some scholars say that other researchers, like Harriet Martineau, did ethnographic work even earlier. MacLean's biographer, Mary Jo Deegan, sees her as an early example for later research methods like case study research and feminist ethnography. Her dedicated work as an online educator, which was quite new at the time, has also gained attention recently.
