Gender
Key Concepts
2. Edition October 2012
Hardcover
Wiley & Sons Ltd
Gender issues continue to be a prominent concern of academics and
policy-makers, and increasingly arise in various forms to be
debated in the public sphere and popular media. But what exactly do
we mean by gender? How can we best understand gender differences?
How are current gender relations changing? What new paths are
'femininity' and 'masculinity' taking? What
would it be like to live in a society in which differences of
gender were transcended?
In this new edition of her popular and highly lauded book, Harriet
Bradley provides an introduction to the concept of gender and the
different theoretical approaches which have developed within gender
studies. Utilizing life narratives, she investigates processes of
gendering in three important spheres of contemporary social life:
production, reproduction and consumption. The book highlights the
centrality of gender in everyday life and shows how thinking about
gender is influenced by changing political contexts. As well as
updating the discussion with the latest scholarship, political
concerns and economic data, the new edition pays closer attention
to intersectionality and hybrid identities, as well as exploring
the complexities of contemporary relations of masculinity and
femininity in the light of new feminist activities.
This lively and accessible book will be of interest to students
across the social sciences, as well as anyone interested in
contemporary relations between women and men.
Introduction: The Concept of Gender 1
IN AND OUT OF THE FRAME: A PERSONAL HISTORY OF GENDER 9
1. What's in a Name? Meanings and Usages of Gender 15
GENDERING AND CLASS: GROWING UP GIRL, GROWING UP BOY 29
2. Gender and Modernity 37
'WHAT'S IT ALL ABOUT?' BEING A MAN IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
54
3. Gender and Postmodernity 64
'SISTERS UNDER THEIR SKINS'? IDENTITIES IN A GLOBAL AGE 87
4. Gendered Worlds: Production 98
HAVING IT ALL: FAMILY AND EMPLOYMENT IN WOMEN'S LIVES 118
5. Gendered Worlds: Reproduction 129
MEN, MARRIAGE AND EMOTIONS: ARRANGEMENTS BETWEEN THE SEXES
150
6. Gendered Worlds: Consumption 159
IT DOESN'T HAVE TO BE THIS WAY: GENDERED UTOPIAS 183
Conclusion: What the Future Holds - Gender, Theory and
Politics 195
Questions for Discussion 221
Glossary 223
References 227
Index 242
accessible overview of the changing understanding of this powerful
social construct. Using a narrative story-telling approach, Harriet
Bradley shifts seamlessly between analyses of how gender shapes
everyday life and discussions of how it is deployed in various
institutions. By weaving together her own experience of gendered
processes with the structural practices of consumption, production,
and reproduction in local and international contexts, Bradley gives
new meaning to "the personal is
political".'
Nancy Naples, University of Connecticut
'Harriet Bradley has succeeded in producing a unique and
extremely engaging introduction to the complex concept of
"gender" which will invigorate scholars at all levels.
Dispelling any notion that either feminist theory or gender
analysis are passé, she deftly interweaves theoretical
exegesis, analysis of contemporary social and political issues, and
vignettes which illustrate gender as a lived
experience.'
Barbara L. Marshall, Trent University, Canada
'The first edition of Gender has become an
indispensable guide to sociological debates in the field. This
revised edition is even better. Harriet Bradley turns her clear
analytical gaze on the changing nature of gender relations in an
era of austerity, seeing both optimistic and pessimistic trends in
the emergence of a new politics of gender.'
Linda McDowell, University of Oxford
