She and Allen kept an open house at times, hosting a diverse range of guests from intellectuals to trade unionists.
[2] From a personal perspective, McKenny (who went by her married name Allen after 1968) became interested in sociology as a means of understanding and improving the world.
[2] The Independent described her as "an uncompromising intellectual, feminist, and socialist, and an impressive role model for generations of students who were taught, mentored, challenged, argued with and supported by her.
She understood the importance of power relations and divisions of every sort in society – ethnicity, class, gender, disability.
[3] In 1974, she organised (with Diana Leonard) the first British Sociological Association conference on sexual divisions within society.