The Gendered Society

They say that we come from different planets (men from Mars, women from Venus), that we have different brain chemistries and hormones, and that we listen, speak, and even define our morals differently. How is it then that men and women live together, take the same classes in school, eat the same food, read the same books, and receive grades according to the same criteria? In The Gendered Society, Michael S. Kimmel examines our basic beliefs about gender, arguing that men and women are more alike than we have ever imagined.
Kimmel begins his discussion by observing that all cultures share the notion that men and women are different, and that the logical extension of this assumption is that gender differences cause the obvious inequalities between the sexes. In fact, he asserts that the reverse is true—gender inequality causes the differences between men and women. Gender is not simply a quality inherent in each individual—it is deeply embedded in society's fundamental institutions: the family, school, and the workplace. The issues surrounding gender are complex, and in order to clarify them, the author has included a review of the existing literature in related disciplines such as biology, anthropology, psychology and sociology. Finally, with an eye towards the future, Kimmel offers readers a glimpse at gender relations in the next millennium.
Well-written, well-reasoned and authoritative, The Gendered Society provides a thorough overview of the current thinking about gender while persuasively arguing that it is time to reevaluate what we thought we knew about men and women.

Publishers Weekly

Frustrated at the dearth of materials available for him to assign to students in his courses on the sociology of gender, Kimmel, a sociology professor at State University of New York, Stony Brook, has written an up-to-date survey of the academic literature that should serve his purposes nicely, although this book will be heavy going for anyone for whom it is not assigned reading. His secondary motivation is to counter the "fictitious pseudoscientific claims" of popular writers who preach that men and women are from different planets: "We're not opposite sexes," writes Kimmel, "but neighboring sexes." In chapters that will clearly serve as units on a syllabus, Kimmel (Manhood in America; Changing Men) reviews, from a feminist-friendly perspective, current research on how gender affects biology, sexuality, the family, parenting, marriage, the workplace, the classroom and violence. His thesis that "gender difference is the product of gender inequality, and not the other way around" leads to the conclusion that "the society of the third millennium will increasingly degender traits and behaviors without degendering people." Although Kimmel's emphasis is frequently on the necessity of transforming masculinity--the unfinished second half of the gender revolution of the 20th century--he is scrupulous in maintaining balance and comprehensiveness, discussing the lives of both women and men in a variety of cultural contexts. (Mar.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|

Michael S. Kimmel is a Professor of Sociology at State University of New York, Stony Brook. Author of the highly acclaimed Manhood in America: A Cultural History, he lives in New York City.