• How do I meet like-minded persons at regional and national meetings?
• I want to develop leadership skills in a nurturing environment.
• How should I prepare for the job market?
• I'm the only woman of color in my department.
• How do I publish a paper or get a research grant?
• I want to join others to use feminist sociology for social change.
• How do I meet people with whom I can work on the issues that really concern me?

Sociologists for Women in Society is an international organization of social scientists -- students, faculty, practitioners, and researchers -- working together to improve the position of women within sociology and within society in general. Our goals are to:

• promote and disseminate research about women -- on race and gender inequity in pay, the struggles of women of color and working class women, on the feminization of poverty and the effects of welfare reform, on issues of health, sexuality, invisibility, violence, and sexual harassment.
• educate our sociological colleagues as well as the general public and government officials about the results and implications of research on women.
• help women to establish careers as sociologists through professional development workshops at national and regional meetings, a mentoring program, supporting a minority fellowship, and providing scholarships to support research.
• offer help and mutual support to women and men who share our concerns through an information network and friendship.
• take political action to improve women's lives by preparing resource papers for use by policy makers, supporting feminist candidates for public office, consulting with feminist groups on research and data analysis, lobbying and testifying at legislative sessions.

We have a high-spirited organization in which we share knowledge, advice, humor, sympathy, friendship, and professional expertise. Contributions to the tangible advancement of women in and out of the social science community include:

• founding and sponsoring the journal Gender & Society, the primary journal for high quality, social science research on gender.
• establishing a Feminist Lectureship, with an annual lecture published in Gender & Society and presented to two or three campuses where feminist scholarship is rarely heard.
• establishing a mentoring program which provides a way for senior scholars to help junior scholars revise a manuscript for publication.
• helping to support an ASA Minority Scholar each year.
• providing critical financial support to women sociologists waging legal battles against discrimination.
• supporting research on breast cancer with the Barbara Rosenblum Cancer Dissertation Award.
• supporting new scholarship on women and work with the Cheryl Allyn Miller Award.
• honoring the work of SWSers with the annual Mentoring Award and Pauline Bart Feminist Activism Award.
• dramatically increasing the numbers of pro-feminist women and men who are on journal editorial boards or who hold offices within ASA and the regional organizations.
• convincing ASA to provide child care at annual meetings.
• offering support networks and pragmatic help through programs at regional and national meetings on topics such as how to survive graduate school, prepare a vita, apply and interview for jobs, negotiate dual career marriages, pursue anti-discrimination action, publish papers, fight sexism and discrimination.
• establishing the Sex and Gender section of the ASA.
• making the ASA national meeting a less alienating experience by providing a hospitality suite and annual banquet where one can relax, talk, find someone to share a meal with and make new friends.

Read more: SWS Activism: A Brief History by Heather Laube and Beth Hess 2001

In 1969, several hundred women gathered at a "counter-convention" at Glide Memorial Church rather than attend the ASA meetings at the Hilton Hotel. Sharing feelings of insecurity and stories of initially mystifying experiences as graduate students and faculty, and encouraging each other with applause, they came to see that some of the stresses in being sociologists were not idiosyncratic, but part of the experience of being women. Later that year, some 20 founding women met to build an organization and network. Although SWS was created to redress the plight of women sociologists, SWS has become an organization that also focuses on improving the social position of women in society through feminist sociological research and writing.

SWS Is An Open Door. Connecting with SWS is easy. First, join the organization, and then volunteer to do some work that you think needs doing -- organize a task force, work on the publications, discrimination, or career development committees. Any and every sociologist who undertakes to coordinate work for the national SWS is welcome to participate in our governance. We meet twice a year, once with the American Sociological Association meetings in late summer, and then again in late February at various locations.

"Feminist professionals certainly know about role conflict. SWS is one organization where the various roles of sociologist, activist, parent, partner, friend, mentor, teacher, and writer find holistic support and development. SWS is a home base, a safe house, a launching place. Join the circle."
--Carla Howery, SWS President (1992)