Classics in Gender Studies – serie

Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Home is a scathing attack on the domesticity of women in the early 20th century. Her central argument, that "the economic independence and specialization of women is essential to the improvement of marriage, motherhood, domestic industry, and racial improvement" resonates in this work. Throughout, she maintains that the liberation of women—and of children and of men, for that matter—requires getting women out of the house, both practically and ideologically. AltaMira Press is proud to reprint this provocative work and introduce Charlotte Perkins Gilman to a new generation of students and feminist scholars.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Home is a scathing attack on the domesticity of women in the early 20th century. Her central argument, that 'the economic independence and specialization of women is essential to the improvement of marriage, motherhood, domestic industry, and racial improvement' resonates in this work. Throughout, she maintains that the liberation of women—and of children and of men, for that matter—requires getting women out of the house, both practically and ideologically. AltaMira Press is proud to reprint this provocative work and introduce Charlotte Perkins Gilman to a new generation of students and feminist scholars.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman's His Religion and Hers is a brave critique of organized religion and the consequences that a male-constructed religion has on everyday life. She suggests that through the development of secular ethics, religion can be directed not to the anticipation of a mythical afterlife, but instead to the transformation of the present. Courageously questioning why 'neither religion, morality, nor ethics has made us good,' she demonstrates the ways in which a male driven ideology has produced a religion focused on death and discourages any attention to the improvement of life on earth. Offering new thoughts that advocate a collective change of view, this volume delves intensively into religion and the influence of gender. Coming generations will welcome this new edition of His Religion and Hers, now with an introduction by noted scholar Michael S. Kimmel.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman's His Religion and Hers is a brave critique of organized religion and the consequences that a male-constructed religion has on everyday life. She suggests that through the development of secular ethics, religion can be directed not to the anticipation of a mythical afterlife, but instead to the transformation of the present. Courageously questioning why 'neither religion, morality, nor ethics has made us good,' she demonstrates the ways in which a male driven ideology has produced a religion focused on death and discourages any attention to the improvement of life on earth. Offering new thoughts that advocate a collective change of view, this volume delves intensively into religion and the influence of gender. Coming generations will welcome this new edition of His Religion and Hers, now with an introduction by noted scholar Michael S. Kimmel.

S. Weir Mitchell's work on the etiology and treatment of neurasthenia, commonly called "brain drain," provided the intersection of medical diagnoses of a serious ailment with cultural critiques of modernity and the vigorous reassertion of traditional gender ideologies. It was for neurasthenia that Mitchell treated feminist Charlotte Perkins Gilman and countless others, for whom the pace and pressures of modern society had proved too difficult to bear, and who were exhibiting symptoms ranging from severe depression and unbearable lassitude, to anxiety and panic disorders. First published in 1871, Wear and Tear became a best-seller, a popular general treatise on culture and mental and physical health and brought Mitchell significant public attention. More than a century later, Wear and Tear may be seen as cautionary tales, reminding contemporary readers of the persistence of traditional gender ideologies, and the ways in which pseudo-scientific arguments have undermined women's claims for an equal footing in the public and private spheres.

This volume presents one of Mitchell's touchstone texts of neurasthenia—cultural critique as medical diagnosis. Fat and Blood was a best seller in its time and went through multiple printings and numerous editions. It fused the cultural critique of modern society and the inversion of gender roles with the medical analysis of this strange new ailment. Today we are likely to read it angrily, as it serves to enforce the most pernicious stereotypes abut women (and not so incidentally, about men)—stereotypes that have proved resilient obstacles to women's advancement. But Fat and Blood supports another reading, a bit more contemporary and certainly more engaged. There are constant arguments that resound across more than the century since they were written.

In Women in College, feminist and sociologist Mirra Komarovsky interviewed women who entered Barnard College in the fall of 1979, finding that the demands of college life facilitated and occasionally forced many of these women to change their self-concept. Many felt trapped between new ideals of femininity - including action, vigor, rational competence, and effectiveness - and traditional notions of femininity, centered around emotional nurturance, passivity and kindness. This study forms the basis of her critique of the struggle that arose from the differences in what were seen as the mutually exclusive roles of homemaker and those who pursued work outside the home.

In Women in the Modern World, noted feminist and sociologist Mirra Komarovsky begins with a consideration of biology. Reflecting on these now-familiar arguments that the natural biological differences between women and men dictate different social roles, Komarovsky demolishes these arguments by carefully reviewing studies that find sex differences in cognitive abilities, achievement, and psychological predispositions. In successive chapters, Komarovsky explores how differential socialization produces the differences that we think we observe between women and men, and how gender inequality disfigures the lives of women, men, and the relationships between them. One chapter examines how it plays out among college students at Barnard in the first college generation after the Second World War. Many of these bright and ambitious women feel trapped between their talents and the constraints of feminine domesticity mapped out for them by social expectations. Successive chapters examine the costs of choosing either alternative. Full-time homemakers feel, at best, overworked and undervalued, and at worst resentful and bitter. Many regret the 'painful reorganization of life,' and long, instead 'for the relinquished occupation.' It is this longing, she argues that leads so many women to 'flit from one evanescent interest to another, arriving at late or middle age without anything that would given meaning or continuity to their lives.'

In Women in the Modern World, noted feminist and sociologist Mirra Komarovsky begins with a consideration of biology. Reflecting on these now-familiar arguments that the natural biological differences between women and men dictate different social roles, Komarovsky demolishes these arguments by carefully reviewing studies that find sex differences in cognitive abilities, achievement, and psychological predispositions. In successive chapters, Komarovsky explores how differential socialization produces the differences that we think we observe between women and men, and how gender inequality disfigures the lives of women, men, and the relationships between them. One chapter examines how it plays out among college students at Barnard in the first college generation after the Second World War. Many of these bright and ambitious women feel trapped between their talents and the constraints of feminine domesticity mapped out for them by social expectations. Successive chapters examine the costs of choosing either alternative. Full-time homemakers feel, at best, overworked and undervalued, and at worst resentful and bitter. Many regret the 'painful reorganization of life,' and long, instead 'for the relinquished occupation.' It is this longing, she argues that leads so many women to 'flit from one evanescent interest to another, arriving at late or middle age without anything that would given meaning or continuity to their lives.'

In Dilemmas of Masculinity, noted sociologist Mirra Komarovsky turns her attention to the consequences of feminism among women on the lives of men. As she'd documented in Women in the Modern World, and would again in Women in College, women's lives had changed enormously in the thirty-plus years Komarovsky taught at Barnard College. Women now are able to own their intelligence without apology, and most of the women had career aspirations that were equal to the men across the street at Columbia. In fieldwork conducted with Columbia College seniors in 1969-1970, she continually found that women's newly claimed freedoms, however, sat uneasily on men who had been raised in traditional homes. On the one hand, they respected women's intellectual achievements and even welcomed women's career aspirations. The campus ethos "demanded that men pay at least lip service to liberal attitudes towards working wives," Komarovsky wrote in an article based on the research. On the other hand, they didn't want to sacrifice any of the privileges they had been taught to expect - that their wives would do virtually all the child care and housework. As a result, the men were utterly unprepared for the new world of gender equality that women were beginning to demand.

In Dilemmas of Masculinity, noted sociologist Mirra Komarovsky turns her attention to the consequences of feminism among women on the lives of men. As she'd documented in Women in the Modern World, and would again in Women in College, women's lives had changed enormously in the thirty-plus years Komarovsky taught at Barnard College. Women now are able to own their intelligence without apology, and most of the women had career aspirations that were equal to the men across the street at Columbia. In fieldwork conducted with Columbia College seniors in 1969-1970, she continually found that women's newly claimed freedoms, however, sat uneasily on men who had been raised in traditional homes. On the one hand, they respected women's intellectual achievements and even welcomed women's career aspirations. The campus ethos "demanded that men pay at least lip service to liberal attitudes towards working wives," Komarovsky wrote in an article based on the research. On the other hand, they didn't want to sacrifice any of the privileges they had been taught to expect - that their wives would do virtually all the child care and housework. As a result, the men were utterly unprepared for the new world of gender equality that women were beginning to demand.

In The Unemployed Man and His Family, noted sociologist and feminist Mirra Komarovsky poses the question: what happens to the authority of the male head of the family when he fails as a provider? Between 1935 and 1936, Komarovsky interviewed 59 families in 1935-36 in which the male had been unemployed for at least a year. Interestingly, in many cases, the husband's struggle in the economic sphere did not offset the solidity and happiness of the marital relationship. But unemployment seems to have affected the men's sense of their own position as head of household and providers. For one thing, it undermined their sense of themselves as breadwinners. Most found it unbearably humiliating to accept relief. Perhaps her most important finding—which still resonates today—was that those men who thought of themselves exclusively as providers suffered far more than those who had developed alternative identities as father and husband.

In The Unemployed Man and His Family, noted sociologist and feminist Mirra Komarovsky poses the question: what happens to the authority of the male head of the family when he fails as a provider? Between 1935 and 1936, Komarovsky interviewed 59 families in 1935-36 in which the male had been unemployed for at least a year. Interestingly, in many cases, the husband's struggle in the economic sphere did not offset the solidity and happiness of the marital relationship. But unemployment seems to have affected the men's sense of their own position as head of household and providers. For one thing, it undermined their sense of themselves as breadwinners. Most found it unbearably humiliating to accept relief. Perhaps her most important finding—which still resonates today—was that those men who thought of themselves exclusively as providers suffered far more than those who had developed alternative identities as father and husband.

Human Work represents the first ground breaking analysis on the equal importance of work in the lives of men and women. Noted feminist Charlotte Perkins Gilman maintains the notion that it was 'sexuo-economic oppression of women' and not women's biology that kept women from achieving in all areas of work. Accusing men of appropriating certain work as 'men's work' and masking the process as a biological locus rather than an exercise in power relations, Gilman asserts that men created an economic dependence that has prevented women from success in the workplace. Introduced by noted scholars Michael Kimmel and Mary Moynihan, Human Work is necessary reading for anyone interested in power and gender structures in the workplace.