Gender and Everyday Life / Edition 1

by Mary Holmes

Overview

Why are we so insistent that women and men are different? This introduction to gender provides a fascinating, readable exploration of how society divides people into feminine women and masculine men. Gender and Everyday Life explores gender as a way of seeing women and men as not just biological organisms, but as people shaped by their everyday social world. Examining how gender has been understood and lived in the past; and how it is understood and done differently by different cultures and groups within cultures; Mary Holmes considers the strengths and limitations of different ways of thinking and learning to ‘do’ gender.

Key sociological and feminist ideas about gender are covered from Christine Pisan to Mary Wollstonecraft; and from symbolic interactionism to second wave feminism through to the work of Judith Butler. Gender and Everyday Life illustrates gender with a range of familiar and contemporary examples: everything from nineteenth century fashions in China and Britain, to discussions of what Barbie can tell us about gender in America, to the lives of working women in Japan. This book will be of great use and interest to students to gender studies, sociology and feminist theory.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415423496
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	08/07/2008
Series:	The New Sociology
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	180
Sales rank:	1,140,452
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.70(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Mary Holmes is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at Flinders University, Australia. Currently she is co-writing a book called Adventures in Heterosexuality (with Chris Beasley and Heather Brook) and is the author of What is Gender? She is coeditor of Critical Concepts: The Sociology of the Body (also published by Routledge).

Table of Contents

Introduction: Gender and Everyday Life 1. Sexed Bodies? 2. Learning and Doing Gender in Everyday Life 3. Gendered Relationships in Everyday Life 4. Resisting Gender in Everyday Life 5. The Future of Gender Conclusion: Gender, Everyday Life and Degendering

Editorial Reviews

'Holmes provides an excellent overview of understanding of gender through a sociological lens and encourages readers to recognize the importance of reflecting and critically thinking about the impact gender has on their lives - recommended.' – Choice, August 2009

From the Publisher