Gender Theory Readings

The following recommendations for readings appropriate for an
undergraduate-level Gender Theory course were sent to WMST-L in
September 2003.  For additional WMST-L files available on the
Web, see the WMST-L File Collection.

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I have been asked to develop an undergrad-level Gender Theory course for a
program that has recently transitioned from "women's studies" to "gender
studies." I'm writing to obtain suggestions for books and/or articles to
assign for this course.  What I am especially looking for are books that
address gender theory broadly rather than needing separate texts for
feminist, queer and masculinity theory - and of course a global perspective
would be desirable.  Even so, I would welcome comments on texts in any/all
of these areas (keeping in mind that the "core lists" on feminist theory
provides a great compilation of feminist theory books -
http://www.library.wisc.edu/libraries/WomensStudies/core/crfemthe.htm ).  I'm
guessing public posts would be appreciated by others on the list, but I will
compile both the public and private posts in a week or so.

Thanks for any and all help.  For those familiar with me, please note my new
contact information/campus affiliation.

Betsy Eudey, PhD
Director, Gender Studies
CSU Stanislaus
801 W. Monte Vista Ave
Turlock, CA 95382
(209) 664-6673
BEudey  AT  csustan.edu

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SOME BASIC READINGS IN GENDER THEORY

Bem, S.L. 1993. The Lenses of Gender: Transforming the Debate on Sexual
Inequality. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Butler, J. 1990. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of 
Identity.  New York and London: Routledge.

Connell, R.W. 1987. Gender and Power. Stanford, CA: Stanford University
Press.

_____. 1995. Masculinities. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Fenstermaker, S. and C. West (eds.). 2002. Doing Gender, Doing
Difference: Inequality, Power, and Institutional Change. New York: Routledge.

Ferree,  M.M., J. Lorber and B.B. Hess (eds.). 1999. Revisioning Gender.
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Foster, J. 1999. "An Invitation to Dialogue: Clarifying the Position of
Feminist Gender Theory in Relation to Sexual Difference Theory," 
Gender & Society 13:431-456.

Kessler, S.J. and W. McKenna. 1978. Gender: An Ethnomethodological
Approach. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Lorber, J. 1994. Paradoxes of Gender. New Haven, CT: Yale University
Press.

_____.  2001. Gender Inequality: Feminist Theories and Politics. 2nd ed.
Los Angeles: Roxbury.

Thorne, B. 1993. Gender Play: Girls and Boys at School. New Brunswick,
NJ: Rutgers University Press.

***************************************************************

Judith Lorber, Ph.D.
Professor Emerita
Brooklyn College and Graduate School, CUNY
Email: judith.lorber  AT  verizon.net

***************************************************************

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To Judith Lorber's list, I would add Judith Kegan Gardiner's excellent
MASCULINITY STUDIES AND FEMINIST THEORY (Columbia UP, 2002).

In addition, my book, THE GENDERED SOCIETY (Oxford UP, second edition,
2003), reviews a set of theories about gender difference and gender
inequality.

Michael Kimmel

***********************
Michael Kimmel
Brooklyn, NY
michaelskimmel  AT  compuserve.com
www.michaelkimmel.com

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The most far-reaching, path breaking works in gender theory are, and remain:
Marilyn Frye, Politics of Reality
Catharine MacKinnon, Feminism Unmodified and Toward a Feminist Theory of the
State
Carole Pateman, The Sexual Contract
Colette Guillaumin, Racism, Sexism, Power and Ideology
Christine Delphy, Close to Home

These books exist in a domain beyond academic texts.  They incite the kind
of thinking that brings feminist scholarship back to its roots in feminist
practice.

Kathy Miriam
kmim  AT  earthlink.net

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Great questions Betsy. Here are some additions:

Beer, Ursula - you should be able to find some material by her in
English.

Fausto-Sterling, Ann. I think Judith Lorber already mentioned her.

Harding, Sandra (material you can find on her discussions on science)

Hill Collins, Patricia. 1991. Black Feminist Thought,

hooks, bell

Gerda Lerner (was it called the History of Patriarchy in English?)

Parpart and Staudt (ed.) 1989. Women and the State in Africa. (maybe)

Wallach Scott, Joan also came out with her reader of her works

Sichtermann, Barbara. 1986. Femininity. The Politics of the Personal.
Minneapolis. University of Minnesota Press.

Taylor, Verta et al. (eds.) 2004. Feminist Frontiers.


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There is quite a good new(ish) book which I think would work
very well at undergraduate level -  "Gender Studies: Terms and
Debates" by Anne Cranny Francis et al , Palgrave Macmillan, 2002.

Cheers

Marysia

----------------------
Dr Marysia Zalewski
Reader
Centre for Women's Studies
School of Sociology and Social Policy
Queen's University
Belfast
BT7 1NN
Tel: + 44(0)2890 3237

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I recently compiled a list of newer readers --

GENDER READERS

Estelle Disch (ed.)  Reconstructing Gender: A Multicultural Anthology
(3rd ed.,  McGraw-Hill, 2003). 76 short articles, covering social contexts
(intersection with race, ethnicity, and social class), socialization,
embodiment, communication, sexuality, families, education, paid work and
unemployment, violence, health and illness, welfare, racism, sexism,
violence, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and women's human rights.

Michael Kimmel and Amy Aronson (eds.) The Gendered Society Reader (2nd
ed. Oxford 2003).  Sections on the biology-gender controversy, cultural
constructions of gender, the psychology of sex roles, the social
construction of gender relations, the gendered family, classroom,
workplace, intimacies, and violence.

Laurel Richardson, Verta Taylor, and Nancy Whittier (eds.) Feminist
Frontiers (6th ed. McGraw-Hill 2003). Offers a wide range of articles on
diversity and difference, representation, language and culture,
socialization, work, families, sexuality, bodies, violence against
women, global politics and the state, protest and the feminist movement

Joan Spade and Catherine Valentine (eds.) The Kaleidoscope of Gender
(Wadsworth, 2004). Covers the meaning of gender as well as gender as a
social institution. Provides extensive introductions to each section and
describes gender theories. Multicultural and non-Western readings.

Dana Vannoy (ed.) Gender Mosaics: Social Perspectives (Roxbury 2000).
Original articles for lower-level undergraduate courses.


MORE ADVANCED:

Mary Evans, Kathy Davis, and Judith Lorber (eds.) Handbook of Gender
Studies and Women's Studies, (Forthcoming, Sage, 2005). Original contributions
review and critique the use of gender in theory and research in
different areas. Begins with a review of women's studies, gender studies, men's
studies and the sex/gender debate. 

Myra Marx Ferree, Judith Lorber, and Beth B. Hess (eds.) Revisioning
Gender (Sage 1999). 16 original articles discuss the transformation of specific
fields by gender theory and research.

Michael Kimmel, R.W. Connell and Jeff Hearn (eds.). Handbook on Studies
of Men and Masculinities (In press, Sage, 2004). Original contributions map
out the current theories and research in particular areas. Includes
international perspective.


***************************************************************

Judith Lorber, Ph.D.
Professor Emerita
Brooklyn College and Graduate School, CUNY
Email: judith.lorber  AT  verizon.net

***************************************************************

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I'd like to learn which of the newer texts on gender offer transnational
perspectives.  (We've had a fair amount of discussion about "global feminisms,"
and I'm trying to get a picture of how "global gender studies" would differ from
"global women's studies" or "transnational feminist theory.")
Thoughts/suggestions?

Janet Gray
gray  AT  tcnj.edu

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There is another reader that comes to mind:

Stevi Jackson and Sue Scott (eds.. 2002. Gender. A Sociological Reader.
London and New York: Routledge.

Best wishes,
Sabine Merz

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Below is the list of responses I received regarding books to use in a new
Gender Theory course at a campus that is in the process of moving from a
"women's studies" to "gender studies" program.  Thanks for the rich and
diverse resources offered by list members.  Please note that in my query I
mentioned the valuable list of "feminist theory" books offered at
http://www.library.wisc.edu/libraries/WomensStudies/core/crfemthe.htm.

>From Marysia Zalewski:
"Gender Studies: Terms and Debates" by Anne Cranny Francis et al , Palgrave
Macmillan, 2002.

>From Alyson R. Buckman:
You may want to try Judith Lorber's work on sport and gender:
Lorber, Judith.  "The Social Construction of Gender." The 1992 Cheryl Miller
Lecture.   Sage Publications, 1992.  This has also been collected in a few
women's studies anthologies.  Dreamworlds II might also fulfill the need for
a video since it addresses masculinity as well as femininity.

>From Sabine N. Merz:
Beer, Ursula - you should be able to find some material by her in English.

Fausto-Sterling, Ann. I think Judith Lorber already mentioned her.

Harding, Sandra (material you can find on her discussions on science)

Hill Collins, Patricia. 1991. Black Feminist Thought,

hooks, bell

Gerda Lerner (was it called the History of Patriarchy in English?)

Parpart and Staudt (ed.) 1989. Women and the State in Africa. (maybe)

Wallach Scott, Joan also came out with her reader of her works

Sichtermann, Barbara. 1986. Femininity. The Politics of the Personal.
Minneapolis. University of Minnesota Press.

Taylor, Verta et al. (eds.) 2004. Feminist Frontiers.

Stevi Jackson and Sue Scott (eds.. 2002. Gender. A Sociological Reader.
London and New York: Routledge.

>From Kathy Miriam:
Marilyn Frye, Politics of Reality

Catharine MacKinnon, Feminism Unmodified and Toward a Feminist Theory of the
State

Carole Pateman, The Sexual Contract

Colette Guillaumin, Racism, Sexism, Power and Ideology

Christine Delphy, Close to Home
These books exist in a domain beyond academic texts.  They incite the kind
of thinking that brings feminist scholarship back to its roots in feminist
practice.

>From Judith Lorber:
SOME BASIC READINGS IN GENDER THEORY
Bem, S.L. 1993. The Lenses of Gender: Transforming the Debate on Sexual
Inequality. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Butler, J. 1990. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subver-sion of Identity.
New York and London: Routledge.

Connell, R.W. 1987. Gender and Power. Stanford, CA: Stanford University
Press.

_____. 1995. Masculinities. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Fenstermaker, S. and C. West (eds.). 2002. Doing Gender, Doing Difference:
Inequality, Power, and Institutional Change. New York: Routledge.

Ferree,  M.M., J. Lorber and B.B. Hess (eds.). 1999. Revisioning Gender.
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Foster, J. 1999. "An Invitation to Dialogue: Clarifying the Position of
Feminist Gender Theory in Relation to Sexual Difference Theory," Gender &
Society 13:431-456.

Kessler, S.J. and W. McKenna. 1978. Gender: An Ethnomethodological
Approach. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Lorber, J. 1994. Paradoxes of Gender. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
_____.  2001. Gender Inequality: Feminist Theories and Politics. 2nd ed. Los
Angeles: Roxbury.

Thorne, B. 1993. Gender Play: Girls and Boys at School. New Brunswick, NJ:
Rutgers University Press.

Estelle Disch (ed.)  Reconstructing Gender: A Multicultural Anthology (3rd
ed.,  McGraw-Hill, 2003). 76 short articles, covering social contexts
(intersection with race, ethnicity, and social class), socialization,
embodiment, communication, sexuality, families, education, paid work and
unemployment, violence, health and illness, welfare, racism, sexism,
violence, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and women's human rights.

Michael Kimmel and Amy Aronson (eds.) The Gendered Society Reader (2nd ed.
Oxford 2003).  Sections on the biology-gender controversy, cultural
constructions of gender, the psychology of sex roles, the social
construction of gender relations, the gendered family, classroom, workplace,
intimacies, and violence.

Laurel Richardson, Verta Taylor, and Nancy Whittier (eds.) Feminist
Frontiers (6th ed. McGraw-Hill 2003). Offers a wide range of articles on
diversity and difference, representation, language and culture,
socialization, work, families, sexuality, bodies, violence against women,
global politics and the state, protest and the feminist movement

Joan Spade and Catherine Valentine (eds.) The Kaleidoscope of Gender
(Wadsworth, 2004). Covers the meaning of gender as well as gender as a
social institution. Provides extensive introductions to each section and
describes gender theories. Multicultural and non-Western readings.

Dana Vannoy (ed.) Gender Mosaics: Social Perspectives (Roxbury 2000).
Original articles for lower-level undergraduate courses.

MORE ADVANCED:
Mary Evans, Kathy Davis, and Judith Lorber (eds.) Handbook of Gender Studies
and Women's Studies, (Forthcoming, Sage, 2005). Original contributions
review and critique the use of gender in theory and research in different
areas. Begins with a review of women's studies, gender studies, men's
studies and the sex/gender debate.

Myra Marx Ferree, Judith Lorber, and Beth B. Hess (eds.) Revisioning Gender
(Sage 1999). 16 original articles discuss the transformation of specific
fields by gender theory and research.

Michael Kimmel, R.W. Connell and Jeff Hearn (eds.). Handbook on Studies of
Men and Masculinities (In press, Sage, 2004). Original contributions map out
the current theories and research in particular areas. Includes
international perspective.

>From Michael Kimmel:
To Judith Lorber's list, I would add Judith Kegan Gardiner's excellent
MASCULINITY STUDIES AND FEMINIST THEORY (Columbia UP, 2002).

In addition, my book, THE GENDERED SOCIETY (Oxford UP, second edition,
2003), reviews a set of theories about gender difference and gender
inequality.

Betsy Eudey, PhD
Director, Gender Studies
CSU Stanislaus
801 W. Monte Vista Ave
Turlock, CA 95382
(209) 664-6673
BEudey  AT  csustan.edu

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