Paradoxes of Gender

by Judith Lorber

In this pathbreaking book, a well-known feminist and sociologist―who is also the Founding Editor of Gender & Society ―challenges our most basic assumptions about gender. Judith Lorber views gender as wholly a product of socialization subject to human agency, organization, and interpretation. In her new paradigm, gender is an institution comparable to the economy, the family, and religion in its significance and consequences.

Drawing on many schools of feminist scholarship and on research from anthropology, history, sociology, social psychology, sociolinguistics, and cultural studies, Lorber explores different paradoxes of
―why we speak of only two "opposite sexes" when there is such a variety of sexual behaviors and relationships;
―why transvestites, transsexuals, and hermaphrodites do not affect the conceptualization of two genders and two sexes in Western societies;
―why most of our cultural images of women are the way men see them and not the way women see themselves;
―why all women in modern society are expected to have children and be the primary caretaker;
―why domestic work is almost always the sole responsibility of wives, even when they earn more than half the family income;
―why there are so few women in positions of authority, when women can be found in substantial numbers in many occupations and professions;
―why women have not benefited from major social revolutions.

Lorber argues that the whole point of the gender system today is to maintain structured gender inequality―to produce a subordinate class (women) that can be exploited as workers, sexual partners, childbearers, and emotional nurturers. Calling into question the inevitability and necessity of gender, she envisions a society structured for equality, where no gender, racial ethnic, or social class group is allowed to monopolize economic, educational, and cultural resources or the positions of power.

Genres: Sociology, Gender, Feminism, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Gender Studies, Grad School

437 pages, Paperback

First published April 27, 1994

About the author

Judith Lorber is Professor Emerita of Sociology and Women’s Studies at the CUNY Graduate Center and Brooklyn College of the City University of New York. She is a foundational theorist of social construction of gender difference.

Reviews

[Steven · Rating 3 out of 5]

The biggest knock against this book is a feature I've noticed with a lot of books written by sociologists: hardly a sentence gets by without a footnote or a bibliographic reference. In fact you can read page after page and not find a sentence that is Lorber's own: if it's not a direct quote, it is a paraphrase. The endnotes, bibliography, index make up more than 25% of the book—122 pages! Scrupulously researched, and a compendium of facts and viewpoints on gender. It's a great sourcebook for tracking down other writing that had something interesting to say about gender. The other thing I noticed is that the book seems dated. Many of Lorber's points are no longer controversial, have become commonplaces. Perhaps it took her so long to assemble the sources that the argument lost the timeliness it had when she began the project? Or perhaps I'm just in the choir she is preaching too. I doubt that those that might be influenced by a book such as this would even read it, and if they did they certainly would be turned off by the cobbled together prose of others. Even her beginning and concluding chapters are laced with quotes and bibliographic attributions. Where was her editor? Still, as a compendium of the arguments that gender is a social construction that is shot through our society in ways not always obvious, this is a comprehensive and indispensable book.

[The Angry Ambisextress · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Night to His Day"

[Lauren Bugg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fabulously insightful.

[Savana Capp · Rating 4 out of 5]

“gender is at present a system of power and dominance mostly favoring men.” such a good book to breakdown, understand and reframe our ideas about (the social construction of) gender.

[slumpeer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Didn’t like this one as much, but still intriguing

[Randi · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's very thorough and can be a bit redundant but it's a good intro into gender studies or a refresher for those already aware.