Marriage, Psychological Self-Help - General & Miscellaneous, Feminism & Feminist Theory, Marriage - Psychological Aspects, Sex Role - General & Miscellaneous, Relationships - Interpersonal
In one of the first psychological studies of women in heterosexual relationships, Caroline Dryden examines the social context of their experiences and emotional struggles. Unlike the developmental literature in which women are studied only as mothers, or the clinical literature which has little theoretical basis, Being Married, Doing Gender places case study material in the context of the power balance between women and men. Caroline Dryden finds that there are contradictions between stereotypical gender roles and the maintenance of an equal partnership that can cause problems for both women and men. Being Married, Doing Gender will be valuable to students studying psychology or gender and women's studies and to marriage guidance counsellors and psychotherapists.
Echoing messages of "tissues of lies" and the "chains that marriage represents" from Anne McManus' poem , Dryden advocates feminist research on marriage due to the turmoil in which the institution finds itself, its contradictory meanings, and neglect by academic psychology. The author's constructionist approach owes a debt to Jenny Williams' description of marriage as situated at the crossroads between intergroup and interpersonal relations. Biographical sketches of interviewed married couples serve as the "conversational data" for an analysis of marital identity, emotional experience, and gender power struggles. She concludes that post- feminism is premature. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknew.com)
