The Gendered Society: Readings

Are men and women really from different planets? How are they different? And what do these differences mean? Why is it that every society differentiates people on the basis of gender? Why is it that virtually every known society is also based on male domination? These are questions that have captivated social scientists for generations and these are the questions The Gendered Society Reader attempts to answer. This reader provides students with a sense of the various discourses on gender that have been produced by a wide range of disciplines including the biological sciences, anthropology, psychoanalysis, developmental psychology, and sociology. Designed as a companion volume to Kimmel's textbook, The Gendered Society (January 2000), these readings, both classic and contemporary, focus on the two major issues in gender studies--gender difference and male domination.

Mirroring the overall structure of The Gendered Society, the first sections of The Gendered Society Reader are organized by discipline, collecting classic statements of different theoretical perspectives and research inquiries. The final sections address various substantive issues such as work, education, the family, and love and sex. Contributors range from Margaret Mead and Lewis Terman to Peggy Reeves Sanday, Joan Acker, Robert M. Sapolsky, Scott Coltrane, Judith Lorber, Lillian Rubin, and many more. In its focus on both empirical and theoretical issues as well as its broad interdisciplinary perspective, The Gendered Society Reader is informative and entertaining for scholars, students, and the general reader.

The Gendered Society provides readers with a sense of the different discourses on gender. The readings cover a number of disciplines including the biological sciences, anthropology, cross-culture studies, psychoanalysis, developmental psychology, and gender studies. Kimmel focuses on the two major issues in the study of gender — difference and domination — asking such fundamental questions as: How are males and females different? What do these differences every mean? Why does society differentiate people on the basis of gender?

Are men and women really from different planets? How are they different? And what do these differences mean? Why is it that every society differentiates people on the basis of gender? Why is it that virtually every known society is also based on male domination? These are questions that have

captivated social scientists for generations and these are the questions The Gendered Society Reader attempts to answer. This reader provides students with a sense of the various discourses on gender that have been produced by a wide range of disciplines including the biological sciences,

anthropology, psychoanalysis, developmental psychology, and sociology. Designed as a companion volume to Kimmel's textbook, The Gendered Society (January 2000), these readings, both classic and contemporary, focus on the two major issues in gender studies--gender difference and male domination.

Mirroring the overall structure of The Gendered Society, the first sections of The Gendered Society Reader are organized by discipline, collecting classic statements of different theoretical perspectives and research inquiries. The final sections address various substantive issues such as work,

education, the family, and love and sex. Contributors range from Margaret Mead and Lewis Terman to Peggy Reeves Sanday, Joan Acker, Robert M. Sapolsky, Scott Coltrane, Judith Lorber, Lillian Rubin, and many more. In its focus on both empirical and theoretical issues as well as its broad

interdisciplinary perspective, The Gendered Society Reader is informative and entertaining for scholars, students, and the general reader.

Introduction, Michael S. Kimmel