Kirjahaku

In Gender Inequality: Feminist Theories and Politics, Fifth Edition, internationally renowned feminist Judith Lorber examines thirteen evolving theories of gender inequality. Tightly structured around Lorber's own paradigm of "reform, resistance, rebellion," this combination text/reader acknowledges feminism's significant contributions to redressing gender inequality and celebrates its enormous accomplishments over the last forty years. It also documents feminism's ongoing political activism, and with an exploration of postmodern and third-wave trends, points toward its future. Significantly rewritten, reorganized, and updated, the fifth edition includes: * More coverage of cultural feminism* New readings on such topics as deconstruction, ecofeminism, and Chicana feminism* An expanded discussion of postmodern feminism, including transgendering and its congruences and conflicts with feminist theory and politics* New references on transnational feminism and feminist studies of men

In this pathbreaking book, a well-known feminist and sociologist—who is also the Founding Editor of Gender & Society—challenges our most basic assumptions about gender. Judith Lorber views gender as wholly a product of socialization subject to human agency, organization, and interpretation. In her new paradigm, gender is an institution comparable to the economy, the family, and religion in its significance and consequences. Drawing on many schools of feminist scholarship and on research from anthropology, history, sociology, social psychology, sociolinguistics, and cultural studies, Lorber explores different paradoxes of gender:—why we speak of only two "opposite sexes" when there is such a variety of sexual behaviors and relationships; —why transvestites, transsexuals, and hermaphrodites do not affect the conceptualization of two genders and two sexes in Western societies;—why most of our cultural images of women are the way men see them and not the way women see themselves;—why all women in modern society are expected to have children and be the primary caretaker;—why domestic work is almost always the sole responsibility of wives, even when they earn more than half the family income;—why there are so few women in positions of authority, when women can be found in substantial numbers in many occupations and professions;—why women have not benefited from major social revolutions. Lorber argues that the whole point of the gender system today is to maintain structured gender inequality—to produce a subordinate class (women) that can be exploited as workers, sexual partners, childbearers, and emotional nurturers. Calling into question the inevitability and necessity of gender, she envisions a society structured for equality, where no gender, racial ethnic, or social class group is allowed to monopolize economic, educational, and cultural resources or the positions of power.

Lorber argues that it is time to rebel against gender as a social institution—to challenge its basic processes and practices. Feminists have tried to restructure and change the dynamics of interaction between women and men, but they have not pushed their agenda to the point of calling for the abolition of gender boundaries and categories. Breaking the Bowls explores why undoing gender must be the ultimate feminist goal and how that goal can be reached. Breaking the Bowls is part of the Contemporary Societies series.

Today, in Western countries, we are seeing both the fragmentation of the gender binary (the division of the social world into two and only two genders) and its persistence. Multiple genders, gender-neutral pronouns and bathrooms, X designations, and other manifestations of degendering are becoming common, and yet the two-gender structure of our social world persists. Underneath the persistence of the binary and its discriminatory norms and expectations lurks the continuance of men’s power and privilege. So there is the continued need to valorize the accomplishments of women, especially those of denigrated groups. This succinct and thoughtful book by one of the world’s foremost sociologists of gender shines a light on both sides of this paradox – processes in the fragmentation of gender that are undermining the binary and processes in the performance of gender that reinforce the binary, and the pros and cons of each. The conclusion of the book discusses why we haven’t had a gender revolution and how degendering would go a long way in creating gender equality.

Today, in Western countries, we are seeing both the fragmentation of the gender binary (the division of the social world into two and only two genders) and its persistence. Multiple genders, gender-neutral pronouns and bathrooms, X designations, and other manifestations of degendering are becoming common, and yet the two-gender structure of our social world persists. Underneath the persistence of the binary and its discriminatory norms and expectations lurks the continuance of men’s power and privilege. So there is the continued need to valorize the accomplishments of women, especially those of denigrated groups. This succinct and thoughtful book by one of the world’s foremost sociologists of gender shines a light on both sides of this paradox – processes in the fragmentation of gender that are undermining the binary and processes in the performance of gender that reinforce the binary, and the pros and cons of each. The conclusion of the book discusses why we haven’t had a gender revolution and how degendering would go a long way in creating gender equality.