Evelyn Nakano Glenn

Evelyn Nakano Glenn is a prominent American sociologist and professor emerita at the University of California, Berkeley, where she served as founding director of the Center for Race and Gender. Her research and writings focus on gender, race, labor, and citizenship in the United States. Glenn's most influential work explores the intersections of race, gender, and labor, particularly examining how women of color have been historically positioned in care work and domestic service. Her book "Forced to Care: Coercion and Caregiving in America" (2010) analyzes how care work has been extracted from marginalized groups through various forms of coercion. Her 2002 book "Unequal Freedom: How Race and Gender Shaped American Citizenship and Labor" is considered a significant contribution to understanding how citizenship rights and labor systems in the United States have been structured by race and gender hierarchies. The work examines three regions of the United States during the period between the Civil War and World War II. Glenn's scholarship has earned multiple awards from the American Sociological Association, including the Jessie Bernard Award and the Race, Gender and Class Section's Distinguished Career Award. She served as president of the American Sociological Association in 2009-2010, becoming the first Asian American to hold this position.

Readers describe Nakano Glenn's works as methodical and research-heavy, with detailed historical analysis of race, gender, and labor intersections. Her writing is cited frequently by students and academics. Readers appreciate: - Clear explanations of complex social theories - Extensive primary source documentation - Connection of historical patterns to current issues - Analysis of citizenship and immigration policies Common criticisms: - Dense academic language that can be difficult for general readers - Some repetition of ideas across chapters - Limited coverage of certain geographic regions - Higher price point for academic texts Ratings: Goodreads: "Unequal Freedom" - 4.2/5 (87 ratings) "Forced to Care" - 4.1/5 (42 ratings) "Issei, Nisei, War Bride" - 4.3/5 (15 ratings) Amazon reviews note the books work well as course texts but may be too theoretical for casual reading. Multiple reviewers mention highlighting passages for future reference.

Forced to Care: Coercion and Caregiving in America (2010) Examines how care work in the United States has historically relied on coercion of women, immigrants, and people of color through both legal and cultural mechanisms.

Unequal Freedom: How Race and Gender Shaped American Citizenship and Labor (2002) Analyzes how citizenship rights and labor systems in the United States were constructed through intersecting racial and gender hierarchies in three regions: Hawaii, the U.S. South, and California.

Issei, Nisei, War Bride: Three Generations of Japanese American Women in Domestic Service (1986) Documents the experiences of three generations of Japanese American women who worked as domestic servants in the United States from the early 1900s through the post-World War II period.

Mothering: Ideology, Experience, and Agency (1994) Presents a collection of essays exploring how mothering practices and ideologies vary across different cultural, racial, and class contexts.