Where the Millennials Will Take Us: A New Generation Wrestles with the Gender Structure

by Barbara J. Risman

Are today's young adults gender rebels or returning to tradition? In Where the Millennials Will Take Us , Barbara J. Risman reveals the diverse strategies youth use to negotiate the ongoing gender revolution. Using her theory of gender as a social structure, Risman analyzes life history interviews with a diverse set of Millennials to probe how they understand gender and how they might change it. Some are true believers that men and women are essentially different and should be so. Others are innovators, defying stereotypes and rejecting sexist ideologies and organizational practices. Perhaps new to this generation are gender rebels who reject sex categories, often refusing to present their bodies within them and sometimes claiming genderqueer identities. And finally, many youths today are simply confused by all the changes swirling around them.

As a new generation contends with unsettled gender norms and expectations, Risman reminds us that gender is much more than an identity; it also shapes expectations in everyday life, and structures the organization of workplaces, politics, and, ideology. To pursue change only in individual lives, Risman argues, risks the opportunity to eradicate both gender inequality and gender as a primary category that organizes social life.

Genres: Sociology, Nonfiction, Academic, Gender, Feminism, Social Issues, LGBT

376 pages, Hardcover

First published February 27, 2018

Reviews

[Emma · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am sure this book has a host of information that is very well researched and detailed however it is so boring. I have this as an audiobook and every time I have listened to it, it has sent me to sleep. Also I am not an expert but the audiobook reads out the references which was so annoying. It is more than likely better as a print book but I associate it so much with boredom now it will never be read.

[Bailey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for SOC111. Really interesting to read about the shift we've made in society about the definitions of gender roles, as well as the categorization based on how someone adheres/does not adhere to those roles.

[Eve · Rating 5 out of 5]

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/...

circa 1%
we found out at 10% that the author affirms transgender people, & that's why the term structure is used, even though that application of the term means practically all sociologists are structuralists.

more specifically, a lot of the book descriptions say like break the binary/dismantle gender vs essentialism, etc. i'm also not sure what sorts of contradictions the author means (as a trans person the contradiction of reputation vs reality, the noise involved in communication, all these are very well known. it's partly why i like card & dice games with imperfect knowledge.)

i am excited to hear about her takes on the gender structures though, because i sure do know that gender identity doesn't invalidate those & the structures don't invalidate gender identity. so overall, i'm very apprehensive, but i am excited, and i am eager to hear what our elders have to say & the possible intergenerational translation about to be attempted.

by the way, i am enjoying the inline citations & jargon

at 5%
i am thankful for learning that "role" is considered an inaccurate framework for discussing gender due to not accounting for intersectionality, that is while a woman litagator has different (still haven't learned the proper term yet) compared to men litagators, that due to women being litagators & nurses just like men are that it is inaccurate to say role because it implies homogenity.

at 10%
the author clarifies their stances, and i think she's correct because gender identity has to do with how we process ourselves not only alone but also thruout the world. like why solitary confinement makes us insane. so yeah. the author is cool, not transphobic.

49%
so currently i'm trying to figure out where i fit on this schema, lol. i'm a no-op trans woman.

100%
i enjoyed this book. i liked it more when the conclusions got written up. the case by case made me irritable due to my own past trauma. i'm a mix of innovator & rebel. but yeah, i appreciated this.

i think she got her dates wrong because for example the national geographic gender revolution issue was published in 2017 january, yes, but the info was compiled in 2016 & earlier. this is also the 45 trump era pre-squad which affects the flavor of the zeitgeist. so for example we've been having the feminist foresight since long before 2017. which, sigh, scale, but a publication date is not the research/writing period. the zeitgeist of this book was very halsey "new americana", and it helped show how our overton window gauges don't fit revolutionary frameworks.

seeing electoral politics as sane. that is especially bad with my hindsight because turns out that DOTB coment i made at the update progress 92% note is putting us in a warzone. so we need to make our own abortificants because otherwise our major revolution in usa, the lavendar one, will be under attack & will be a wreck upon our values as millenials & zoomers.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book contains a great deal of information based on 100+ interviews of college students about their experiences with gender. it's a great way to access a wide variety of thoughts and feelings about gender in today's societies and how young people are interacting with gender. For that reason, I found the book very informative. I also agree with her conclusions. However, the book is also fairly heavy on sociological jargon and very academic, and nearly all of my "points off" are for that reason.

[Kai Van]

was the author ever made aware that in 2018 millennials weren't a new generation of young adults but actual adults either about to turn 30 or already in their 30s? cuz this title makes zero sense. the new young adults in 2018 were gen z, not millennials what 😅

[Mills College Library]

305.30973 R5959 2018