The Gendered Society

The Gendered Society examines current thinking about gender, both inside academia and in our everyday lives. Through an examination of current work in biology, anthropology, psychology, and sociology (in Part I), an original analysis of the gendered worlds of family, education, and work (in Part II), and the gendered interactions of friendship and love, sexuality, and violence (in Part III), Kimmel makes three claims about gender. First, he argues that the differences between men and women are not as great as we often imagine, and that in fact women and men have far more in common with one another than we think they do. Second, he challenges the notions of many pop psychologists who suggest that gender difference is the cause of the dramatic observable inequality between the sexes. Instead, Kimmel reveals that the reverse is true: gender inequality is the cause of the differences between women and men. Third, Kimmel argues that gender is not simply an aspect of individual identity but is also an institutional phenomenon, embedded in the organizations and institutions in which we interact daily. Kimmel concludes with a brief Epilogue looking ahead to gender relations in the new century. The Gendered Society is a well-reasoned, authoritative, and keenly animated statement about gender relations today, written by one of the country's foremost thinkers on the subject. It is an essential text for both scholars and students alike. Kimmel's companion book, The Gendered Society Reader (OUP, 1999), provides a perfect complement for classroom use.