Arlie Russell Hochschild

Arlie Russell Hochschild – Life, Work, and Influential Ideas

Explore the life, scholarship, and enduring ideas of Arlie Russell Hochschild — born January 15, 1940 — whose work on emotion, labor, and social life reshaped sociology and public discourse.

Introduction

Arlie Russell Hochschild is a towering figure in contemporary sociology and emotional life studies. Her penetrating insight into how emotions are socially structured has influenced work on gender, care, labor, politics, and identity. As a professor emerita at the University of California, Berkeley, Hochschild has authored seminal books such as The Managed Heart, The Second Shift, The Time Bind, and Strangers in Their Own Land. Her scholarship bridges the personal and political, giving language and theory to phenomena many feel but rarely name: emotional labor, feeling rules, deep stories, and the divided self in modern capitalism.

In a time when public life seems increasingly fueled by resentment, polarization, and loss, Hochschild’s work is deeply resonant. Her more recent book Stolen Pride examines how emotional dynamics—especially shame, loss, and pride—fuel political realignments.

Early Life and Family Background

Arlie Russell Hochschild was born on January 15, 1940 in Boston, Massachusetts.

She was the daughter of Ruth Alene (Libbey) and Francis Henry Russell, the latter a diplomat in the U.S. Foreign Service.

One anecdote she later recalled: as a child she would pass a bowl of peanuts among guests at formal diplomatic dinners and watch how smiles and faces shifted depending on viewing angle and context — this early observation of “emotional display as performance” became one seed for her later thinking about emotional labor.

In 1965, she married Adam Hochschild, a writer and journalist.

Education and Academic Career

Undergraduate and Graduate Studies

Hochschild attended Swarthmore College, graduating in 1962 with a major in International Relations. University of California, Berkeley, earning her M.A. in 1965 and Ph.D. in 1969.

Her doctoral research led to her first book, The Unexpected Community, based on a study of elderly residents in a lower-income housing project.

Academic Positions & Honors

After finishing her Ph.D., Hochschild taught at the University of California, Santa Cruz (1969–1971) before joining the Berkeley faculty. professor emerita in the Sociology Department.

Over her career, Hochschild has received many honors: honorary doctorates from institutions such as Harvard, Lausanne, Westminster College, among others.

Major Works & Intellectual Contributions

Hochschild’s influence lies not just in volumes of scholarship but in the conceptual categories she introduced — categories that now anchor fields such as sociology of emotion, gender and care, labor studies, and political sociology. Below are some of her foundational works and ideas:

The Managed Heart and Emotional Labor

One of Hochschild’s best-known concepts is emotional labor: the work of managing one’s emotions or emotional display to meet organizational or social expectations, especially in service work. The Managed Heart (1983), she examines how flight attendants and bill collectors, among others, must “sell” emotional states (friendliness, calm, compliance) as part of their jobs.

She also introduced feeling rules — socially constructed norms about what and how one should feel in particular contexts.

Her work demonstrates how emotion is not purely individual or psychological, but shaped by social, cultural, and institutional frames.

The Second Shift and Gender/Household Division

In The Second Shift (co-written with Anne Machung), Hochschild analyzes how working women come home to a “second shift” of housework and childcare.

The Time Bind

In The Time Bind: When Work Becomes Home and Home Becomes Work, Hochschild explores how many workers report more satisfaction at work than at home, even though they claim family is their priority.

Global Woman, The Outsourced Self, The Commercialization of Intimate Life

Later works pushed her ideas into global and intimate domains. In Global Woman (co-edited), she examines how care work, domestic service, and emotional labor cross international borders (the “global care chain”). The Outsourced Self explores how intimate life (care, relationships, identity) is increasingly mediated via the market. The Commercialization of Intimate Life collects essays on how emotions, relationships, and household life are shaped by market norms.

Strangers in Their Own Land and Stolen Pride

In more recent years, Hochschild moved toward political and cultural sociology. Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right (2016) is based on ethnographic work in Louisiana, asking how and why people in disadvantaged regions support movements and politicians who may act against their economic interests. “deep story” — a narrative that feels true emotionally though not always factually.

Her newest book, Stolen Pride: Loss, Shame, and the Rise of the Right (2024) continues the investigation into how pride, shame, loss, and emotional experience fuel political alignment.

Themes & Intellectual Legacy

Hochschild’s contributions rest on several interlocking themes:

1. Emotion as social structure
   She argues that emotions are not purely internal, but shaped and constrained by social, cultural, and institutional norms (feeling rules).

2. Labor and feeling
   In modern economies, emotional labor is pervasive — especially in service, care, and relational work. Her work made visible the hidden costs of these “invisible labor” sectors.

3. Gender, inequality, and dignity
   By analyzing how care and emotion operate within families and institutions, she links micro emotional experience to broader gender and economic inequalities.

4. Political culture and emotional identity
   Her more recent work connects emotion, identity, and political orientation, showing how narratives of loss, belonging, and respect shape civic life.

5. Bridging scholarship and public discourse
   Hochschild’s writing is notable for its accessibility. She has contributed to public debates, op-ed pages, and become a sociologist with broad reach beyond academia.

Many scholars in sociology, psychology, feminist studies, and political science continue to build on her frameworks (emotion work, emotional labor, care chains, deep stories). Her lexicon now undergirds much contemporary analysis of inequality, labor, mental health, and populism.

Personality, Style, and Approach

Hochschild is known for her intellectual generosity, intellectual curiosity, and deep respect for her subjects. Her methodology often involves long-term fieldwork, immersion, and deep interviews with people who live at emotional margins (e.g., service workers, rural communities, care workers).

Her prose style balances conceptual rigor with narrative sensibility — she often weaves stories, quotations, and reflections to make theoretical moves accessible. This makes her work appealing not only to specialists but also to broader audiences interested in the emotional dimensions of modern life.

Notable Quotes by Arlie Russell Hochschild

Here are several quotes that capture her voice and the insights she brings:

“Feeling rules tell us what we should feel, when we should feel it, and how we should show it.”

“We don’t simply feel what we feel; we ‘try’ to feel the way we should.”

“Many women cut back what had to be done at home by redefining what the house, the marriage and, sometimes, what the child needs. One woman described a fairly common pattern: I do my half. I do half of his half, and the rest doesn’t get done.”

“For many of us, the work place is the one place we feel appreciated, recognized, seen.”

These reflect her commitment to naming how emotion is embedded in institutions, relationships, and social expectations.

Lessons from Arlie Russell Hochschild

From the life and work of Hochschild, several lessons stand out for scholars, activists, and anyone thinking about modern life:

• Make the invisible visible. Hochschild’s conceptual contributions often concerned things people live but don’t name (emotional labor, feeling rules). Naming matters.

• Bridge theory and lived experience. Her work roots normative claims in ethnographic detail. Theory gains force when tied to stories.

• Respect subjectivity. To understand social processes, one must treat people’s feelings as data, not distraction.

• Attend to the emotional dimension of politics. Policy, power, and ideology operate not only through interests or institutions but through emotional narratives.

• Pursue rigorous but accessible scholarship. Hochschild shows that academic work can be deeply serious and still engage wider audiences.

Conclusion

Arlie Russell Hochschild remains one of the most original and influential social thinkers of our time. Her pioneering work on emotional labor, care, gender, and moral identity has reshaped how scholars and publics understand the ties between feeling and structure. In a world where politics, technology, and inequality increasingly press on emotional life, her insights are more relevant than ever.

If you’re interested in further exploring how emotion underlies society, I encourage you to read The Managed Heart, The Second Shift, and Strangers in Their Own Land, and reflect on how emotional norms shape your own life and world.