Synopses & Reviews
Thoroughly updated and revised, the second edition of The Gendered Society explores current thinking about gender, both inside academia and in our everyday lives. Part I examines the latest work in biology, anthropology, psychology, and sociology; Part II provides an original analysis of the gendered worlds of family, education, and work; and Part III focuses on the gendered interactions of friendship and love, sexuality, and violence. As a result of his research, author Michael S. Kimmel makes three claims about gender. First, he argues that the differences between men and women are not as great as we often imagine, and that in fact women and men have far more in common with one another than we think they do. Second, he challenges the notions of the many pop psychologists who suggest that gender difference is the cause of the dramatic observable inequality between the sexes. Instead, Kimmel reveals that the reverse is true: gender inequality is the cause of the differences between women and men. Third, he argues that gender is not simply an aspect of individual identity but is also an institutional phenomenon, embedded in the organizations and institutions in which we interact daily. Kimmel concludes with a brief epilogue looking ahead to gender relations in the new century. The second edition includes a new chapter, "The Gendered Body," and a sharper critique of biological differences. The Gendered Society, 2/e, is a well-reasoned, authoritative, and keenly animated statement about contemporary gender relations, written by one of the country's foremost thinkers on the subject. It is an essential text for both scholars and students alike. Kimmel's companion book, The Gendered Society Reader, 2/e, (OUP, 2003), provides a perfect complement for classroom use.
Review
"Readers curious about what it means to say we live in a gendered society but confused by the trendy mixture of pop psychology, neo-Darwinism, and Mars-Venus theories will value this well-reasoned study. Sociologist Kimmel...demolishes 'fictitious pseudoscientific claims,' misunderstandings and myths, organizing his analysis around difference (how different
are men and women) and dominance (how are gender difference and gender inequality related)."--
Booklist"Kimmel aims to unsettle the masculine and feminine ideals that confine us to gendered codes of proper and improper behavior by emphasizing the wide range of behaviors that men and women share; and, perhaps more crucially, he endeavors to expose the gendered society as the source rather than the effect of gender difference."--The Boston Book Review
"An engaging, intelligent, and blessedly readable book about the status of gender politics today."--The Trenton Times
"This is a current look at a topic which is of genuine importance. The author does a fine job in presenting the material in a fashion that is very readable. I shall consider it when next I teach my course."--Robert Langran, Villanova University
"At last! A summary work of decades of recent scholarship on gender which sifts through the huge amount of accumulated data, judiciously weighs the evidence and brings immense clarity and insight to the major areas of contention. I cannot imagine anyone who would not profit from reading this scrupulous, comprehensive, incisive book."-Martin Duberman, Distinguished Professor of History, Graduate Center, City University of New York and the author of Paul Robeson and Left Out: The Politics of Exclusion
"The Gendered Society is a compendium of knowledge, theory, and fact about gender that is by far the best and most comprehensive book on the subject. In refreshingly jargon-free prose, Professor Kimmel offers a penetrating and subtle examination of how the gender difference and inequality that are so much a part of everyday life are socially structured and maintained in both our public and our personal lives."-Lillian B. Rubin, author of The Transcendent Child
"In this important and lively book, Michael Kimmel explodes myths about the 'natural' bases of gender distinctions in society. With careful analysis and thorough research The Gendered Society is a major antidote to pop psychologists who claim men and women come from different planets and 'don't understand' each other."--Cynthia Fuchs Epstein, Distinguished Professor of Sociology, Graduate Center, City University of New York and Author of Deceptive Distinctions
Review
"I was sold on this book as soon as I saw the topical outline of the chapters! Finally, a gender textbook that took gender seriously--and that transcended the 'sociology of women' that was the field's first attempt at analyzing gender."--Lynn Appleton, Florida Atlantic University
"The text's strengths are its easy-to-read prose and clear explanations of complex theory, making the text highly engaging and easy to employ in introductory level courses."--Abby Ferber, University of Colorado-Colorado Springs
"This is a superb book, well-written, and characterized by current and relevant scholarship. It is one of the most objective books on the topic, and will be appreciated and, I predict, enjoyed by undergraduate students. The underlying themes that gender is constructed, and that gender differences are in large part due to gender inequalities are well-argued and cogently presented. The book is comprehensive in scope and incisive in argumentation."--Dudley Poston, Texas A&M University
(on the first edition) "At last! A summary work of decades of recent scholarship on gender which sifts through the huge amount of accumulated data, judiciously weighs the evidence, and brings immense clarity and insight to the major areas of contention. I cannot imagine anyone who would not profit from reading this scrupulous, comprehensive, incisive book."--Martin Duberman, City University of New York Graduate Center
"The Gendered Society is a compendium of knowledge, theory, and fact about gender that is by far the best and most comprehensive book on the subject. In refreshingly jargon-free prose, Kimmel offers a penetrating and subtle examination of how the gender difference and inequality that are so much a part of everyday life are socially structured and maintained in both our public and our personal lives."--Lillian B. Rubin, author of The Transcendent Child
Synopsis
"The Gendered Society is a compendium of knowledge, theory, and fact about gender that is by far the best and most comprehensive book on the subject. In refreshingly jargon-free prose, Kimmel offers a penetrating and subtle examination of how the gender difference and inequality that are so much a part of everyday life are socially structured and maintained in both our public and our personal lives."--Lillian B. Rubin, author of The Transcendent Child
Synopsis
Includes bibliographical references (p. 295-333) and index.
Synopsis
Thoroughly updated and revised, the second edition of The Gendered Society explores current thinking about gender, both inside academia and in our everyday lives. Part I examines the latest work in biology, anthropology, psychology, and sociology; Part II provides an original analysis of the gendered worlds of family, education, and work; and Part III focuses on the gendered interactions of friendship and love, sexuality, and violence. As a result of his research, author Michael S. Kimmel makes three claims about gender. First, he argues that the differences between men and women are not as great as we often imagine, and that in fact women and men have far more in common with one another than we think they do. Second, he challenges the notions of the many pop psychologists who suggest that gender difference is the cause of the dramatic observable inequality between the sexes. Instead, Kimmel reveals that the reverse is true: gender inequality is the cause of the differences between women and men. Third, he argues that gender is not simply an aspect of individual identity but is also an institutional phenomenon, embedded in the organizations and institutions in which we interact daily. Kimmel concludes with a brief epilogue looking ahead to gender relations in the new century. The second edition includes a new chapter, "The Gendered Body," and a sharper critique of biological differences. The Gendered Society, 2/e, is a well-reasoned, authoritative, and keenly animated statement about contemporary gender relations, written by one of the country's foremost thinkers on the subject. It is an essential text for both scholars and students alike. Kimmel's companion book, The Gendered Society Reader, 2/e, (OUP, 2003), provides a perfect complement for classroom use.
Table of Contents
Preface
1. Introduction
Part One: Explanations of Gender
2. Ordained by Nature: Biology Constructs the Sexes
3. Spanning the World: Cross-Cultural Constructions of Gender
4. "So, That Explains It": Psychological Perspectives on Gender Development
5. Inequality and Difference: The Social Construction of Gender Relations
Part Two: Gendered Identities, Gendered Institutions
6. The Gendered Family
7. The Gendered Classroom
8. The Gendered World of Work
Part Three: Gendered Interactions
9. Gendered Intimacies: Friendship and Love
10. Gendered Sexualities
11. The Gender of Violence
Epilogue: A Degendered Society?