Gender Inequality: Feminist Theories and Politics, Third Edition

"After reading Lorber's Gender Inequality, I know I have a more complete understanding of the multiple feminist perspectives. I also have an intense desire to jump back into classic and contemporary feminist discourse. For these two reasons--increased knowledge and renewed excitement about feminist theory--I highly recommend Lorber's Gender Inequality to anyone interested in 'feminism.'"

--Kaye E. Van Straten, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, from a review in Teaching Sociology

Judith Lorber asks --
Is feminism dead, or has it gone mainstream? Are we into a third wave or still in the second wave? What did feminism accomplish in the past 40 years? What still needs to be done about persistent gender inequality? Do we need a new feminism?

Gender Inequality: Feminist Theories and Politics, 3rd edition, answers these questions. It presents the variety of feminist theories developed to explain the sources of gender inequality, and how the various theories have diverged and converged in the second wave of feminism as a political movement. It describes feminism's significant contributions to redressing gender inequality, gives credit for its enormous accomplishments in the last 40 years, documents on-going political activism, and points to where feminism is going in its postmodern and third-wave phases.

THE THIRD EDITION INCLUDES:

* A review of thirteen types of feminism organized into three typologies, with two excerpts from primary sources for each

* Checklists for sources of gender inequality, politics, and contributions to social change for each perspective

NEW IN THIS EDITION:

* Fifteen new readings

* Separate chapters on marxist feminism and socialist feminism

* A chapter on third-wave feminism

* "Do We Need a New Feminism?"-a chapter on current trends in feminist theory,research, and politics

* Updated and expanded text and reading lists

* Updated internet sources

* Glossary and index

The Third Edition continues the main perspectives of the first two editions-setting forth the sources and the politics for gender inequality, as seen by a variety of feminisms. These are:

* Gender reform feminisms (liberal, marxist, socialist, post-colonial)-who want to purge the gendered social order of practices that discriminate against women

* Gender resistance feminisms (radical, lesbian, psychoanalytic, standpoint)-who want women's voices and perspectives to reshape the gendered social order

* Gender rebellion feminisms (multicultural/multiracial, feminist studies of men, social construction, post-modern, third-wave)-who want to take apart the gendered social order by multiplying genders or doing away with them entirely