Making a Difference : Psychology and the Construction of Gender

Drawing on postmodernist skepticism about what we know and how we know it, and on recent developments in the philosophy of science and feminist theory, five leaders in feminist psychology offer a new perspective on the meaning of gender, one that is not determined by the traditional focus on male-female differences. "These brilliant and provocative essays step back from the trees-the millions of studies of sex and gender difference, non-differences, and meta-differences-and show us instead a way through the forest: the meanings and inventions of gender in modern life. This book is must reading for psychologists, but it is so lucidly written that scholars in other fields will profit from it as well. This is a terrific book."-Carol Tavris "This book deserves to be read, and reread, especially by those most resistant to feminist thought and ideology. . . . The gauge of genuine scholarship is the ability of a work to generate critical and empirical debate and to foster change. This new book does so, clearly and with power."-Choice "Beautifully written and argued essays by leaders in feminist theory and research. . . . The contributors offer exciting evidence that feminist challenges to old paradigms are beginning to transform our view of a gendered landscape into a peopled one."-Nia Lane Chester, Teachers College Record "This book . . . makes . . . significant theoretical issues accessible and relevant to the concerns and assumptions of most psychologists. . . . . Every feminist concerned with feminism and psycholoby should read [it]."-Mary Brown Parlee, Psychology of Women Quarterly