Non-Fiction Books
For books co-authored or co-edited with others see full CV.
Forgotten Wives: How Women get Written Out of History
(2021). Bristol: Policy Press.
'Lucidly written, carefully researched and fascinating to read, Forgotten Wives rescues from obscurity the women who have too often been marginalized' (Times Literary Supplement).
Women, Peace and Welfare: A Suppressed History of Social Reform, 1880 - 1920
(2019). Bristol: Policy Press.
'Few books can boast of the right author meeting the right subject. Here is a glorious exception, which is part of Oakley's life work of refocusing the lens so that the role of women in establishing the welfare state is fully and justifiably recorded.'' (Frank Field, MP).
Father and Daughter: Patriarchy, Gender and Social Science
(2014). Bristol: Policy Press.
'A very important contribution to historical and sociological scholarship...an original and carefully researched corrective to the existing "business as usual" institutional and intellectual history of conflicts and tensions in the development of sociology' (Times Higher Education).
A Critical Woman: Barbara Wootton, Social Science and Public Policy in the Twentieth Century
(2011). London: Bloomsbury Academic.
'an immensely readable biography...unputdownable' (Times Higher Education).
Fracture: Adventures of a Broken Body
(2007). Bristol: Policy Press.
'a highly polished essay on the body' (Ageing and Society).
The Ann Oakley Reader: Gender, Women and Social Science
(2005). Bristol: Policy Press.
'She is a pioneer in her field' (Times Higher Education).
Gender on Planet Earth
(2002). Cambridge: Polity Press.
'Yet another exceptionally good book' (Acta Sociologica).
Experiments in Knowing: Gender and Method in the Social Sciences
(2000). Cambridge: Polity Press. New York: The New Press.
'This book is a tour de force' (Social Policy).
Man and Wife: Richard and Kay Titmuss, My Parents' Early Years
(1996). London: HarperCollins.
'honest, heartfelt, and eye-opening' (British Medical Journal).
Essays on Women, Medicine and Health
(1993). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
'It is one of life's greatest pleasures to watch a smart, creative, playful mind at work' (Women & Health).
Social Support and Motherhood: The Natural History of a Research Project
(1992). Oxford: Basil Blackwell. Reprinted Bristol: Policy Press 2018
'Read this book if you are interested in the relation between social stress and health' (British Medical Journal).
Telling the Truth about Jerusalem: Selected Essays
(1986). Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
'Ann Oakley is the Barbara Cartland of feminist social science' (Tribune).
The Captured Womb: A History of the Medical Care of Pregnant Women
(1984). Oxford: Basil Blackwell. Extract
'Should be compulsory reading for all doctors and midwives' (Health and Social Service Journal).
Taking it Like a Woman
(1984). London: Jonathan Cape. Fontana paperback 1985; Random House, New York. Extract,
'It is an important addition to the feminist archives... it is about the human condition and concerns us all.' (New Society)
Subject Women
(1981). Oxford: Martin Robertson.
'A leading reference source for women's rights' (The Guardian).
Women Confined
Towards a sociology of childbirth (1980). Oxford: Martin Robertson. Extract
'A superb study of what it is like to have a baby in Britain' (New Society).
From Here to Maternity: Becoming a Mother
(1979). Oxford: Martin Robertson. Reprinted as Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1981, new edition Bristol: Policy Press, 2018.
'a landmark in publications about childbirth...If only this book could be available to all women thinking of launching into pregnancy' (Women Speaking).
Housewife
(1974). London: Allen Lane. Extract
'should be compulsory reading for those people who think that a woman's place is, always was, and ever shall be, in the home' (New Statesman).
The Sociology of Housework
(1974). London: Martin Robertson. Reprinted with new Introduction. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1985, new edition Bristol: Policy Press, 2018. Extract
'A unilateral, one-woman attempt to bridge the gap in the sociological literature' (New Statesman).
Sex, Gender and Society
(1972). London: Temple Smith. Reprinted with new Introduction, London: Gower, 1985. Extract
New edition with substantial new introduction. London: Ashgate 2015.
'an excellent book... fills a wide gap in the literature...Scholars will find her perspective challenging and provocative' (Reviews in Anthropology).