Synopses & Reviews
Gender systems pervade and regulate human livesin law courts and operating rooms, ballparks and poker clubs, hair-dressing salons and kitchens, classrooms and playgroups. . . . Exactly how gender works varies from culture to culture, and from historical period to historical period, but gender is very rarely
not at work. Nor does gender operate in isolation. It is linked to other social structures and sources of identity.”
So write womens studies pioneer Catharine R. Stimpson and anthropologist Gilbert Herdt in their introduction to Critical Terms for the Study of Gender, laying out the wide-ranging nature of this interdisciplinary and rapidly changing field. The sixth in the series of Critical Terms” books, this volume provides an indispensable introduction to the study of gender through an exploration of key terms that are a part of everyday discourse in this vital subject.
Following Stimpson and Herdts careful account of the evolution of gender studies and its relation to womens and sexuality studies, the twenty-one essays here cast an appropriately broad net, spanning the study of gender and sexuality across the humanities and social sciences. Written by a distinguished group of scholars, each essay presents students with a history of a given termfrom bodies to utopiaand explains the conceptual baggage it carries and the kinds of critical work it can be made to do. The contributors offer incisive discussions of topics ranging from desire, identity, justice, and kinship to love, race, and religion that suggest new directions for the understanding of gender studies. The result is an essential reference addressed to students studying gender in very different disciplinary contexts.
Review
"I recommend it with great enthusiasm; a delight to read."
Mary Evans, Times Higher Education
"Ideal for students as an introduction to gender studies and gender theory and also well worth reading for anyone who is familiar with Connell’s work ... The enjoyment in reading Connell lies in the inventiveness with which she formulates concepts and images."
Gender: Journal for Gender, Culture and Society
"Presenting the leading edge of gender theory and research, the second edition of Gender is the smartest and most compelling introduction to critical gender studies that is currently available. Connell remains a steady and reliable guide for the student of gender and society."
Steven Seidman, State University of New York at Albany
"This is an important and eminently readable introduction to 'gender', now updated to provide an even more useful guide to a complex, and increasingly global, interdisciplinary field. Connell's narrative style and abundant examples make it very accessible, but it never oversimplifies. She manages to keep in sight both social structure and human agency while tackling debates that span the personal and the political. Few texts are able to cover this much ground without sacrificing complexity, but Connell does it with great success."
Barbara Marshall, Trent University
Review
“This modest title belies an extraordinary collection. Featuring not only leading but founding scholars in the interdisciplinary field of womens, gender, and sexuality studies, Critical Terms for the Study of Gender provides sophisticated genealogies of concepts that have transformed scholarship in the humanities and social sciences over the past four decades. Illuminating conceptual limitations of traditional approaches to these topics, this volume demonstrates the importance of feminist and queer scholarship to an adequate understanding of the complexities of contemporary life.”
Synopsis
How can we understand gender in the contemporary world? What differences now exist between women and men? How are masculinities and femininities made? And what is the impact of globalization on gender issues?
Raewyn Connell, one of the world's leading scholars in the field, answers these questions and more. In this book she provides a readable introduction to modern gender studies, covering empirical research from all parts of the world in addition to theory and politics. As well as introducing the field, Gender provides a powerful contemporary framework for gender analysis with a distinctive global awareness. Highlighting the multi-dimensional character of gender relations, Connell shows how to link personal life with large-scale organizational structures and how gender politics changes its form in changing situations.
The second edition of this influential and accessible book brings the review of research up to date and includes new discussions of gender theory in the global periphery, the legacy of colonialism, the intersection of structures, the impact of deconstructionist theory and politics, and understanding transsexual and transgender lives.
Gender is engaged scholarship that moves from personal experience to global problems and offers a unique perspective on gender issues today.
About the Author
Catharine R. Stimpson is University Professor and dean emerita of the Graduate School of Arts and Science at New York University. She is the founding editor of Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society and the author or editor of many books.Gilbert Herdt is professor and director of the Graduate Program in Human Sexuality at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco and director emeritus of the National Sexuality Resource Center at San Francisco State University. His books include Sambia Sexual Culture: Essays from the Field, also published by the University of Chicago Press.
Table of Contents
Introduction * Catharine R. Stimpson and Gilbert Herdt
1 Bodies * Carroll Smith- Rosenberg
2 Culture * Kate Crehan
3 Desire * Lauren Berlant
4 Ethnicity * Anna Sampaio
5 Globalization * Carla Freeman
6 Human Rights * Elizabeth Swanson Goldberg
7 Identity * Raewyn Connell
8 Justice * Jane Mansbridge
9 Kinship * Janet Carsten
10 Language * Deborah Cameron
11 Love * Lauren Berlant
12 Myth * Wendy Doniger
13 Nature * Anne Fausto- Sterling
14 Posthuman * Ruth A. Miller
15 Power * Wendy Brown and Joan W. Scott
16 Public / Private * Michael Warner
17 Race * Hortense Spillers
18 Regulation * Judith Butler
19 Religion * Regina M. Schwartz
20 Sex / Sexuality / Sexual Classification * David M. Halperin
21 Utopia * Sally L. Kitch
Contributors
Index