The Gendered Society

by Kimmel, Michael S.

• ISBN13: 9780195125887
• ISBN10: 0195125886
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-01-20
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

The Gendered Society provides an overview to current thinking about genderin the social and behavioral sciences. Through an examination of existingliterature in biology, anthropology, psychology, and sociology (in Part I) andan original analysis of the gendered worlds of family, education, and work (inPart II) and the gendered interactions of friendship and love, sexuality, andviolence (in Part III), Kimmel makes three claims about gender: First he arguesthat 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 thanthey are different. Secondly, He challenges the notions of many poppsychologists who suggest that gender difference is the cause of the dramaticobservable inequality between the sexes. Actually, the reverse is true: genderinequality is the cause of the differences between women and men. Third, Kimmelargues that gender is not simply the property of people but that gender is alsoan institutional phenomenon, embedded in the organizations and institutions inwhich we interact daily. Additionally, Kimmel's brief Epilogue looks ahead togender relations in the next century and in the next millennium.The Gendered Society is a well-written, well-reasoned, and authoritativestatement about gender relations today. It is appropriate for scholars, students- who wil find that Kimmel's companion book, The Gendered Society: Readings,provides a perfect compliment for classroom use -- and the generalreader.

Author Biography

Michael S. Kimmel is Professor of Sociology at State University of New York at Stony Brook.

Table of Contents

Preface	xi
Introduction	1	(20)
PART 1: EXPLANATIONS OF GENDER
Ordained by Nature: Biology Constructs the Sexes	21	(26)
Spanning the World: Cross-Cultural Constructions of Gender	47	(19)
``So, That Explains It'': Psychological Perspectives on Gender Development	66	(20)
Inequality and Difference: The Social Construction of Gender Relations	86	(25)
PART 2: GENDERED IDENTITIES, GENDERED INSTITUTIONS
The Gendered Family	111	(39)
The Gendered Classroom	150	(22)
The Gendered Workplace	172	(31)
PART 3: GENDERED INTERACTIONS
Gendered Intimacies: Friendship and Love	203	(18)
Gendered Sexualities	221	(21)
The Gender of Violence	242	(22)
Epilogue: A Degendered Society?	264	(5)
Notes	269	(34)
Index	303