Jessie Shirley Bernard, was a prominent and "unusually visible" contemporary American sociologist who over her professional lifetime changed from a traditional positivist sociology to a feministically informed viewpoint (Bannister 1991). Privately, Bernard struggled with her Judaic heritage, conflicting pressures for family and career and the demands made by Bernard's husband. All of the battles that Bernard faced throughout her life, were essential in the creation of Bernard's sociological theories.
Bernard was born in Minnesota on June 8, 1903 to Roman Jewish parents who had recently immigrated to the United States. With an entrepreneurial "capitalist" father and a stay at home mother, Bernard was raised in a suburban, middle-class family (Bernard 1989,326). …
