From respected academics like Carol Gilligan to pop-psych gurus like John Gray, and even the controversial Harvard President Lawrence Summers, the message has long been the same: Men and women are fundamentally different, and trying to bridge the gender gap can only lead to grief. But as the New York Times Book Review raved, Barnett and Rivers "debunk these theories in a no-nonsense way, offering a refreshingly direct (i.e. unashamedly judgmental) critique of traditional parental roles, tututting at the couples they interviewed who cling to stereotyped ideas of the family." "Blending...

At her first press conference, Eleanor Roosevelt, uncertain of her role as hostess or leader, passed a box of candied grapefruit peel to the thirty-five women journalists. Nearly sixty years later, Hillary Clinton, an accomplished professional woman and lawyer, tried to mollify her critics by handing out her chocolate-chip cookie recipe. These exchanges tells us as much about the social--and political--roles of women in America as they do about the relation of the first lady to the press and the public. Looking at the personal interaction between each first lady from Martha Washington to...

Readable and challenging, this four-year study of three hundred middle-class and working-class couples debunks the myth of the overwrought working mother with her insensitive husband and neglected children. Drawing on extensive cross-disciplinary research, Rosalind Barnett and Caryl Rivers argue that "collaborative couples," busy as they are, thrive in their diverse roles, and inspire competence and confidence in their children.

Caryl Rivers and Rosalind C. Barnett are widely acclaimed for their analyses of women, men, and society. In The Truth About Girls and Boys, they tackle a new, troubling trend in the theorizing of gender: that the learning styles, brain development, motivation, cognitive and spatial abilities, and "natural" inclinations of girls and boys are so fundamentally different, they require unique styles of parenting and education.

Ignoring the science that challenges these claims, those who promote such theories make millions while frightening parents and educators into enforcing old...

With longer life spans, adult vigor can be extended well into the ninth decade of life. What does this mean for us as individuals and as a society? From re-imagining the workplace to rethinking marriage, sex, and social connections, this book examines how our institutions and attitudes must change to accommodate our new longer lives.