Controlling Women : The Normal and the Deviant

Originally published in 1981 Controlling Women critically examines the forms of moral regulation and social control that were exercised over women at the time, arguing that the study of ‘deviant’ women cannot be separated from the study of how all women are defined and controlled. Contributors consider motherhood, prostitutes, abortion, alcoholism, retirement, geriatric patients, Broadmoor patients and legal controls of sexuality in Britain.

Social definitions of women and institutional arrangements are used to control women, often in such a way that women see them, not as control, but as part of everyday routines – part of the ‘natural’ order of things. The book identifies some of the ways in which women seek to resist or circumvent these forms of control.

The book will still be of interest to all those concerned with the position of women in our society and, more specifically, to students and teachers of sociology, social policy and theories of deviant behaviour. Its focus on images of women and the exercise of control will be of particular interest to professionals concerned with the counselling of women, whether in social, therapeutic or medical fields.

Bridget Hutter was Professor of Risk Regulation in the Department of Sociology at the London School of Economics, and was previously the Director of the Centre for Analysis of Risk and Regulation at the LSE. Bridget was a fellow of Jesus College, Oxford from 1987-1995, during which time she was awarded a British Academy Fellowship. Bridget published a wide range of socio-legal work on compliance and risk regulation in the fields of environmental, health and safety, and food regulation.

Dr Gillian Williams worked as community worker, probation officer and mental health social worker before training and working as a psychotherapist in the NHS. Since retiring, her doctoral research at Coventry University has explored constructions of disability through the performance and works of professional choreographers with disabilities.