Thinking Critically about Gender Issues

Carefully reasoned and well-supported, this witty and engaging book asks us to be critical of common unconscious assumptions (e.g., the "male-as-normative" standard) and shows us the actual research evidence on gender. Tavris questions the conventional myths of innate male aggression and female passivity, the trendy idea that women are morally superior, and the simplistic notions that women and men are the same or opposite. Possibly the single best book yet on the psychology of gender.

A thorough and well-supported analysis and critique of the biological, psychological, genetic, and evolutionary evidence for a biological basis to gender-related behavior. If you think it's been proven that males are innately aggressive or better in math than females, you may be more skeptical after you read this biology professor's persuasive arguments. Clear and understandable but never simplistic, Fausto-Sterling offers a powerful antidote to the seemingly unending stream of superficial, unsubstantiated and sloppy pop books that claim or imply that anatomy is destiny.

Moving beyond popular notions about gender, the authors assert that much of the existing research on sex and gender is not well-established. They then provide constructive critical tools that readers (both students and others) can apply to analyze research and research methods and arrive at realistic conclusions. Paula Caplan, a psychology professor and researcher, is known for her careful logic and analysis.

A sensible, balanced analysis of what has gone wrong with the women's movement, it asserts that "victim feminism" (women as sexually pure, mystically nurturing; stressing the "evil" things done to women) is obsolete. Instead, Wolf calls for "power feminism" (women as powerful human beings, no better or worse than men) and offers strategies for psychological and social change. Includes a balanced look at the issue of "political correctness" calling for "both/and" rather than "either/or."

Demonstrates the negative image of women in both the Old and New Testament by quoting over 200 verses from the Bible, showing what it actually says about women on issues that include marriage, prostitution, motherhood, menstruation, adultery, rape, women as property, and women's supposed "nature."

The first collection of its kind, featuring 51 different women and 64 articles. Includes Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Mary Wollstonecraft, Voltairine de Cleyre, Emma Goldman, Margaret Sanger, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Queen Silver, Anne Nicol Gaylor, Meg Bowman.

A chilling futurist novel about a puritanical religious fundamentalist takeover of America, in which women capable of bearing children are forced to be baby machines. Well-written, powerful and compelling, it is a logical projection of where the authoritarian religious right could take us.