Strong Mothers, Weak Wives: The Search for Gender Equality / Edition 1

by Miriam M. Johnson

Overview

A leading theorist in the sociology of sex and gender, Miriam Johnson establishes as her starting point the belief that inequality is not inherent or inevitable in heterosexual relations. In Strong Mothers, Weak Wives she develops this notion by examining how gender differences get translated into gender inequalities and how this process relates to the structure of the nuclear family and to the social organization of modern societies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520061620
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	06/22/1990
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	325
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.81(d)

About the Author

Miriam M. Johnson is Professor of Sociology at the University of Oregon.

Table of Contents

	Preface	ix
	Acknowledgments	xi
1.	Introduction	1
2.	The Question of Difference	16
3.	Defining Difference: Psychological Perspectives	44
4.	Women's Mothering and Male Misogyny	71
5.	Mothers versus the Male Peer Group	96
6.	Fathers and Difference	128
7.	Freud, the Oedipus Complex, and Feminism	157
8.	Psychoanalysis and the Making of Mothers into Wives	186
9.	Women as Wives: Cultural and Historical Variations	221
10.	Mothers as Wives in an Individualistic Society	246
	Notes	271
	References	299
	Index	329

Editorial Reviews

With the intent of describing ``. . . some connections that run so deep they go unnoticed in our everyday lives,'' Johnson tracks the perpetuation of male dominance through the institution of marriage. Specifically, she sees daughters learning from their fathers how to be subordinate wives and sees mothering, otherwise a source of strength, diminished by its control by men. Her analysis is perceptive, even brilliant, and her arguments persuasive. The result compares favorably with such important works as Jean Baker Miller's Toward A New Psychology of Women (Beacon, 1986. 2d. ed.) and Carol Gilligan's In a Different Voice (Harvard Univ. Pr., 1982). A scholarly and well-written monograph; highly recommended. Kathryn Hammell Carpenter, Univ. of Illinois, Chicago

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