Add to Shopping Cart

151 indexed pages. Name and date in front fly. This powerfully written book challenges the logic of much of the current feminist literature in the social sciences. Although loyal to the tradition of feminist scholarship, Margrit Eichler argues that many feminist writers have unintentionally reinforced the sexual stereotypes that they seek to destroy, by using the wrong conceptual tools and the wrong language. Terms like ‘sex roles’ and ‘sex identity’ have been especially distorting because they are ambiguous, and in themselves become instruments of sexism. In both the language they employ and the explanations they offer, feminists must transcend sex as a criterion of social difference if they wish to overcome sexism in language and thought. This book argues that the double standard is the only relevant criterion for determining whether an identi?ed sex difference is a matter of concern or not. (A double standard implies that two things which are the same are measured by different standards). Although usually employed in a strictly sexual sense the concept may be used for all types of behaviourin which sex plays a role. Work and play provide one of the mostimportant examples of this. Until recently work was equated with paid work only. Unpaid work was considered non-work and therefore did not deserve pay. Recent analyses of the work women do has demonstrated that women do a lot of work which is substantially comparable to work done by men but women do it without pay. If we put the stress on the behaviours themselves - the work process - it is clear that a double standard has been applied which has differentially rewarded the sexes for engaging in identical behaviour. The arguments of this book are controversial and provoking, but they sharpen the thinking of the feminist critique in a way that few other books have achieved. CONTENTS: lntroduction; The Double Standard in Behaviour; Expectations: the lnadequacy of the Sex;Roles Approach; The Double Standard Internalised: the Inadequacy of the Sex Identity Approach; The Double Standard in the Social Structure: the lnadequacy of Class Analysis; Conclusion: Whither Feminism?

Feminism  -  Feminist  Social  Science  -  Feminist  Critique 

Add to Shopping Cart