It's common knowledge that responsibilities in the home are not divided equally between men and women. Feminists bemoan how slowly this gender gap is changing. Sociologist Oriel Sullivan, however, focuses on the neglected topic of the processes of change, discussing changing domestic gender practices on many different levels-from changes in attitudes about gender equality in the home to the quantitative analysis of change in the domestic division of labor. His newly developed theoretical approach connects the wider discussion of gender practices within the home to the interactions and...

The experience of men and women in later life varies enormously, not only along lines of gender but also due to ethnicity, class, sexual orientation, and race. In this text on gender issues among the aging, Calasanti and Slevin explore these differences, their genesis, their meaning to men and women, and their treatment in the policy arena. The authors also take to task traditional research on aging and how it ignores these issues. The authors cover topics of work and retirement, body image, sexuality, health, family relationships, and informal care, among many others. The current research...

Do men and women experience participation in social movements differently? Are gender roles reproduced or undermined during a struggle for liberation? In this brief text examining gender roles in social movements, M. Bahati Kuumba shows how liberation struggles are viewed through women's eyes and how gender affects women's mobilization, strategies, and outcomes in social movement organizations. Using two well-known examples, the American civil rights movement and the South African national liberation movement, Kuumba documents the circumscribed roles of women, the unheralded role of movement...

Judith Lorber and Lisa Jean Moore consider the interface between the social institutions of gender and Western medicine in this brief, lively textbook. They offer a distinct feminist viewpoint to analyze issues of power and politics concerning physical illness. SIGNS labeled the first edition 'a rich and imaginative work.' In the extensively revised second edition of this successful text, the authors add chapters on disability and genital surgeries. They also update and expand their discussions of social epidemiology, AIDS, the health professions, PMS, menopause, and feminist health care. For...

Fred C Pampel describes how age combines with other components of inequality by comparing the influence of group membership on social inequality before and after the life course transition to old age. He looks at the differences in public policy and how age inequality - more than the other sources of inequality - relates closely to government policies and studies other societies in which both age group differences and overall inequality differ from those in the United States. Pampel makes comparison of the United States with other nations a central component of the book, providing greater...