16 Introduction Some Facts in the Case 17 women in politics ten years ago,Kathleen Newland argued that The second assumption is that the two levels'of fact discussed a global change in the political position of women was under way. in this chapter -personal life and collective social arrangements Legal equality (for example the right to vote)was now established -are linked in a fundamental and constitutive way.It makes no and there was extensive participation in grass-roots politics.'Yet sense to theorize one without also theorizing the other.I introduced women have only rarely surfaced among the leaders in politics. this chapter with a case study,not to humanize the statistics,but They are nearly absent from the positions where policy is hammered because of this basic point about method.The large-scale structures out,where decisions are made,where real power resides.'Ten of gender relations are constituted by practices such as those Delia years later it seems that not a great deal has changed.The levers Prince and her family are engaged in.At the same time their of state power are still in men's hands. practice cannot float free;it must respond to,and is constrained by,the circumstances which those structures constitute. The facts just recited are a very small fragment of the evidence This is an abstract point in theory,but it is also a tangible now available on the social positions of women and men and on reality.A final point about Delia will illustrate this.Delia told us relationships surrounding different forms of sexuality.Though she wanted to be a veterinarian.Her parents knew of this and some of the details will be relevant to later steps of the argument, were willing to bear the cost of her training,not a small matter just one conclusion needs to be drawn here.The patterns of gender for them.When we returned to that school several years later to and sex that appear through this evidence are not just an important report back and follow up,we learnt how things had turned out feature of human life;they are specifically social.They involve Delia had left school at sixteen,as she had predicted;and she had inequalities of income,the working of institutions,the distribution found a job.It was a notable one both in terms of the general of power,the division of labour and other distinctively social facts. sexual division of labour and the specific history of her parents' Whether these social facts have non-social causes will be considered marriage.She was not a veterinarian but a veterinary nurse. in chapter 4. There would be value in thinking through a life history in Two assumptions or working hypotheses underpin the argument greater depth,as will be argued in Part III;but it is also important that follows.First,that the facts set out in this chapter are to know that conclusions go beyond the one case.Accordingly I connected with each other;that is,we are dealing not with a will leave the Princes at this point and move on to other sources shapeless heap of data but with a social structure,an organized in later chapters.The approach to personal life that their interviews field of human practice and social relations.This hypothesis is helped to develop nevertheless remains basic to the treatment of needed to get the analysis under way,though the evidence cited historical,psychoanalytic and other evidence. already suggests that it is sound,given the way similar patterns It has been difficult,and remains difficult,to get the field of reappear across different fields of social life.A general concern of gender relations into focus.Strong emotions are involved.For the book,and the specific topic of Part II,is how this structure many people it is threatening even to see these patterns as social. can be understood. It is comforting to think the patterns are 'natural'and that one's There is no convenient name for this subject.Terms like 'sexual own femininity or masculinity is therefore proof against challenge. politics'and 'patriarchy'are useful in pointing to parts of it but Western intellectuals,by and large,have helped this evasion.The not to the whole.An American conference in the mid-1970s grand systems of philosophy and social analysis,from Thomism managed to invent a whole new science of gender and call it through Marxism to functionalism and systems theory,have taken 'dimorphics';luckily no more was heard of that.Gayle Rubin the gender arrangements of the day pretty much for granted. wrote of'the sex/gender system',which is better but begs questions Conventional politics marginalizes 'women's issues'equally firmly. about what exactly a 'system'is.Kate Young and her co-authors Nevertheless feminism,gay liberation and the research they speak of'the social relations of gender',the most precise term but have stimulated,have now made a case that cannot be ignored. an awkward phrase.'Gender relations'is a reasonable abbreviation A vast field has been opened up and existing theory and practice and I will use it as a name for the whole domain. must be reconstructed in the light of it.The habit of mind that