Margaret Maruani


Margaret Rose Maruani Rey was a Tunisian-born French sociologist and director of research at the French National Centre for Scientific Research in Paris. She was the founder and editor-in-chief of the academic journal, Travail, Genre et Sociétés and directed the international and multidisciplinary research network "Marché du travail et Genre" .

Early life and education

Margaret Rose Maruani was born 25 February 1954, in Tunis, Tunisia. She arrived in France with her family in 1967. She studied at Sciences Po, and then pursued a diploma in Sociology at the Instituts d'études politiques in Paris. She defended her doctoral thesis in Sociology at the IEP in Paris in 1978. Her thesis, entitled "L'expression des problèmes féminins dans les syndicats et à travers les conflits sociaux" was supervised by Jean-Daniel Reynaud. It was published in 1979 under the title, Les syndicats à l’épreuve du féminisme.

Career and research

Maruani began her career in 1976 as a research fellow at the Conservatoire national des arts et métiers, in the sociology of work laboratory. She was then appointed Assistant, and in 1983, became a CNRS researcher, attached to CNAM's sociology of work laboratory. In 1991, she passed the requirements to direct research at the IEP in Paris, under the direction of Jean-Daniel Reynaud and joined the "Centre de sociologie urbaine". In 1992, Maruani was promoted to research director at CNRS. Three years later, she founded the MAGE–CNRS research group, the first research group on gender at CNRS. In 1999, she established the academic journal, Travail, genre et sociétés, of which she then became the editor-in-chief, before becoming its editorial advisor.
She taught for several years at the University of Geneva, as guest professor in 2002 and 2003, then as full professor and director of gender studies, from 2005 to 2009, and again as guest professor since 2012. In 2006, she created the Master in Gender Studies there.
Since 2010, she was attached to the "Centre de recherche sur les liens sociaux", CNRS laboratory-Paris Descartes University. She directed MAGE, which in 2011, became an international and multidisciplinary research network "Labour market and gender" which now brings together 30 universities and research centres in 13 countries.
Maruani's research focused on women's work, employment and trade unionism and on the analysis of the labor market and employment from a gender perspective. She thus articulates research and feminist commitment. She is one of the pioneers in France and internationally in the field of studies crossing sociology and gender applied to questions of work and employment. She was also one of the pioneers in the institutionalisation of the field of gender studies. Her publications have been translated into many languages.

Awards and honours

Selected works

Books

Travail et genre dans le monde. L'état des savoirs, Paris, La Découverte, 2013Un siècle de travail des femmes en France 1901–2011, Paris, La Découverte, 2012 Travail et genre. Regards croisés France, Europe, Amérique latine, Paris, La Découverte, Coll. "Recherches", 2008 Femmes, genre et sociétés. L'état des savoirs, Paris, La Découverte, 2005Le travail du genre. Les sciences sociales du travail à l'épreuve des différences de sexe, Paris, La Découverte, Coll. "Recherches", 2003 Les mécomptes du chômage, Paris, Bayard, 2002Masculin-féminin : questions pour les sciences de l'homme, Paris, PUF, 2001 Travail et emploi des femmes, Paris, La Découverte, coll. "Repères", 2000 Les Nouvelles frontières de l'inégalité. Hommes et femmes sur le marché du travail, Paris, La Découverte, Coll. "Recherches", 1998
  • avec Emmanuèle Reynaud, Sociologie de l'emploi, Paris, La Découverte, Coll. "Repères", 1993.Au labeur des dames, métiers masculins, emplois féminins, Paris, Syros, 1989 La flexibilité en Italie, Paris, Syros, 1989 Le temps des chemises. La grève qu'elles gardent au cœur, Paris, Syros, 1982