Gender Roles: A Sociological Perspective

Gender Roles: A Sociological Perspective, Sixth Edition, delivers a clear and concise review of the foundations of knowledge in the field of gender studies with historical, contemporary and cultural context. The text provides important, essential commentary on current research in the field. The sixth edition tackles gender myths, gendered trends in health and mental health, and provides a framework for understanding gender roles within traditional and contemporary media. New research in this edition expounds and delinates a wide variety of topics, including masculinity norms in social institutions, gender roles within political elections, and the gender issues that intersect with public policy.

The text is organized in an attentive and deliberate manner that provides structured context to the sociological commentaries. The content is divided into three parts, namely: “Part I: Theoritical and Interdisciplinary Perspectives,” “Part II: Gender Roles, Marriage, and the Family,” and “Part III: Gender Roles: Focus on Social Institutions.” Part I lays the groundwork with in-depth exposition of fundamental sociological concepts, feminism, and gender theories, providing the natural history and historical context of these perspectives. Part II addresses gender issues within the social constructs of family, marriage, and household. Part III summarizes the key theories and points, culminating in application of central concepts to contemporary issues in business, education, economics, religion, public policy, law, and the media. The information is uniformly and cogently organized with each part subdivided into sections. Each section begins with learning objectives and ends with a summary of emphasized concepts, section of key terms, and critical thinking questions. The organization is simple yet thoughtfully structured providing effective guidance.

This well-structured organization is repeated throughout the text. For example, Part II is divided into sections on love and marriage, family relations, and men and masculinity. The first section in “Part II” is a section (chapter 7) entitled “Gendered Love, Marriage, and Emerging Lifestyles.” This chapter distinguishes between the concepts of love, friendship and marriage, challenges regarding some common myths surrounding romance and love. Further, this articulate, excellently written chapter introduces avant-garde styles of relationships. This leads into the next chapters in Part II which discuss the gender issues within family relationships; and lastly, new research on gender issues from the “micro-level” of sociological inspection; specifically, male gender roles and masculinity. The natural step-wise progression of the text builds a strong context before introducing the new research and its commentaries. To balance the interpretations of these sociological views, critiques, given their own sub-sections, are found throughout the text and provide unbiased opposing views.

Gender Roles: A Sociological Perspective offers readers both historical and contemporary views of the gender issues. The text provides not only context but also examples for these issues within a wide array of frameworks including political, economic, and cultural contexts. Initially introducing the foundation of sociological concepts needed to understand these issues, the text allows novice readers to quickly develop a sophisticated working knowledge about these important issues. This book is highly recommended not only for public consumers and students, but also for experts in the field who will appreciate the astute description and discussion of the latest research, as well as a rich, comprehensive review of fundamental sociologic concepts.