Ann Oakley is one of the most influential feminist voices of twentieth-century English sociology. She has worked primarily on the life-experiences which differentiate women from men, like housework, child-bearing, and the operation of gender in the family. She has edited broader collections of essays reflecting on the travails and achievements of the women's movement, and has commented trenchantly on medical culture, the workings of the welfare state, and the epistemology of knowledge in the social sciences. She has also written autobiography, family memoir, novels, and many articles in academic and non-academic journals.