Jean Martin was a pioneer of sociology, inventing a version of the discipline that was uniquely suited to Australia in the post - war period. Jean Isobel Martin (1923 - 79) made herself a sociologist before the discipline was established in Australia. Regarded as a founder of Australian sociology, her writing, teaching and policy helped shape Australia in the period of economic growth and social development that followed World War II. The Martin Presence is a biography that examines her life and her work across the concerns of the time - the needs of country towns, the factory work floor, families and urban structure, poverty and inequality, education and immigration - and explores her far - reaching influence on the social sciences in Australia.