Henderson and the Sociology of Women 
Henderson and the Sociology of Women 
Henderson, like Small, was a "religious" sociologist.Unlike Small, Henderson was more involved with controversial reform.Henderson probably supported a more liberated variety of separatespheres ideology or even women's suffrage. Unlike many of his"liberated" colleagues, however, he did not protestthe segregation policy at the university.
Regardless of his ideas about women, he did work closely withwomen professionals. For example, from 1894 until his death in1915, Henderson was on the Board of Directors of the Universityof Chicago Settlement where he worked directly with Mary McDowell,the Head Resident. Henderson also worked with Edith Abbott andSophonisba Breckinridge through the Chicago School of Civics andPhilanthropy (CSCP), and with Alice Hamilton on the Illinois Commissionon Occupations and Diseases. Although each of these relationshipsis discussed elsewhere, it is worth noting that these professionalrelationships were a group influence that helped to shape histhought. They also reveal the permeable boundaries of the sexsegregated networks.
His attitudes toward sex education were also remarkably liberalfor his day. Advocating sexual instruction in the school and home,Henderson adopted a stance still unacceptable to many "modern"communities. In a lengthy discussion of venereal disease, he arguedfor medical tests to be conducted before marriage to prevent infectionof a new spouse. Similarly, he advocated public health clinicswhere treatment for venereal disease would be available to allwithout punishment or restrictions. [34]
Like Thomas, Addams, and Mead, Henderson advanced a more tolerantsocial acceptance of the prostitute, while arguing against stateregulation or repression. Education, to this entire group, wasa cornerstone for eliminating this "social evil and vice."Starting with "nature studies" and proceeding throughoutthe life cycle, Henderson mapped a program of sex education forstudents in public schools. Although opposed to masturbation andsupportive of the home as the major source of explicit sex instruction,he nonetheless advocated that "some instruction" beincluded throughout the school curriculum.
Thus, Henderson was a mixture of "old-fashioned" sexualstandards and more "progressive" ones. In addition tocondemning masturbation, he defended chivalry and treating women"with modesty and respect." [35] In his favor, he didsuggest that ignorant women were not modest and to be lauded,but the victims of a repressive ideal. Clearly, he was more advancedthan Small and Vincent, the latter discussed next, but less openthan the women sociologists or his male colleagues, Mead and Thomas.
34. Charles R. Henderson, Education with Reference to Sex,Eighth Yearbook of the National Society for the Scientific Studyof Education (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1909).
35. Ibid., pt. 2, p. 33.
From Mary Jo Deegan, Jane Addams and the Men of the Chicago School, 1892-1918.New Brunswick NJ: Transaction Books, 1986, pp. 199-200.
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