Joan Acker

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title: "Joan Acker" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1924-births", "2016-deaths", "20th-century-american-sociologists", "20th-century-american-women-sociologists", "21st-century-american-sociologists", "21st-century-american-women-sociologists", "american-women's-rights-activists", "feminist-studies-scholars", "hunter-college-alumni", "university-of-chicago-alumni", "university-of-oregon-alumni", "university-of-oregon-faculty", "scientists-from-illinois", "21st-century-american-educators", "american-women-human-rights-activists"] description: "American sociologist (1924-2016" topic_path: "law" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Acker" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American sociologist (1924-2016 ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox academic"]

Field	Value
name	Joan Acker
birth_name	Joan Elise Robinson
birth_date
birth_place	Illinois, United States
death_date
spouse
alma_mater	University of Oregon
main_interests	Feminism, race, class, gender
known_for	gendered organizations, gender inequality as institutionalized
influences	Dorothy E. Smith, Heidi Hartmann, Rosabeth Moss Kanter
discipline	Sociology, organizational studies
::

| name = Joan Acker | image = | image_size = | alt = | caption = | native_name = | other_names = | birth_name = Joan Elise Robinson | birth_date = | birth_place = Illinois, United States | death_date = | death_place = | death_cause = | spouse = | era = | region = | alma_mater = University of Oregon | school_tradition = | main_interests = Feminism, race, class, gender | known_for =gendered organizations, gender inequality as institutionalized | principal_ideas = | major_works = | awards = | influences =Dorothy E. Smith, Heidi Hartmann, Rosabeth Moss Kanter | influenced = | footnotes = |discipline=Sociology, organizational studies}}

Joan Elise Robinson Acker (March 18, 1924June 22, 2016) was an American sociologist, researcher, writer and educator. She joined the University of Oregon faculty in 1967. Acker is considered one of the leading analysts regarding gender and class within the second wave of feminism.

Education

Acker was born in Illinois in 1924. She received her bachelor's degree from Hunter College, her master's from the University of Chicago, and her Ph.D. from the University of Oregon.

Career

Acker is best known for her theories on the relationship between race, class, and gender. She discusses this relationship in several of her publications, including her 2006 book Class Questions: Feminist Answers. Acker describes the need to think about race, class, and gender not as separate entities but as "intersecting systems of oppression".

Acker was professor of sociology at the University of Oregon until her retirement in 1993. In 1973, Acker founded the Center for the Study of Women in Society at the University of Oregon. She was also professor at The Swedish Center for Working Life. She successfully helped to raise pay wages for low-wage jobs in Oregon while serving on a state task force from 1981 to 1983. She also served as co-editor of the academic journals Gender & Society and Gender, Organisation and Work. In recognition of her scholarship, Acker received the American Sociological Association's Career of Distinguished Scholarship Award in 1993 and the Jessie Bernard Award for feminist scholarship in 1989.

Later life and legacy

She died on June 22, 2016, at the age of 92.

Selected works

Books

Chapters in books

Journal articles

• Acker, Joan (1990). "Hierarchies, Jobs, Bodies: A Theory of Gendered Organizations". Gender and Society. 4 (2): 139–158. ISSN 0891–2432.
• Acker, Joan (2006-08-01). "Inequality Regimes: Gender, Class, and Race in Organizations". Gender & Society. 20 (4): 441–464. doi:10.1177/0891243206289499. ISSN 0891–2432.

References

References

1. "Acker, Joan". Library of Congress.
2. "Joan Acker {{!}} Department of Sociology".
3. Feminism, John Bellamy Foster Topics. (June 2012). "Joan Acker's Feminist Historical-Materialist Theory of Class".
4. (1989). "International Who's Who of Professional and Business Women". Melrose Press.
5. Barbara J. Love. (2006). "Feminists who changed America, 1963-1975". University of Illinois Press.
6. Williams, Christine. (April 2007). "Class Questions, Feminist Answers". Gender & Society.
7. Anderson, Margaret. (May 2007). "Class Questions: Feminist Answers". Contemporary Sociology.
8. "Prof. Joan Acker".
9. "Obituary of Joan Acker {{!}} Musgroves - Musgrove Mortuary".
10. "American Sociological Association: W.E.B. DuBois Career of Distinguished Scholarship Award".
11. (2009-05-29). "American Sociological Association: Jessie Bernard Award".
12. Acker, Joan. (1990). "Hierarchies, Jobs, Bodies: A Theory of Gendered Organizations". Gender and Society.

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