Women, Men, and Society (5th Edition)

Women, Men, and Society (5th Edition)

By: Claire M. Renzetti   Daniel Curran  

Buy it now at Amazon.com!

Average Customer Rating: 4.0 out of 5

Key Topic:
This popular book looks at the ways in which gender is socially constructed, how sexism and gender inequality affect men and women, and how other variables compound the problem of gender inequality.

Key Benefit:
Authors' goal is to assist students in connecting a central element of their own lives–their personal gender experiences–with the social and political world in which they live.

Publisher: Allyn & Bacon

Customer Review: 5 out of 5
Women, Men, and Society - This was a new edition and very difficult to find. The cost was much higher at other places I checked. Needed for college class. Good price and delivery.

Customer Review: 1 out of 5
Classic feminist sexism - This book is blatant and undressed in its sexist portrait of men. As noted in the previous reviews, it is entirely dedicated to women's oppression. Worse yet is how it almost comically negates men's suffering and oppression. Pick any page and you will most likely find nothing other than women's issues. When the authors do approach the suffering of men, without exception the metrics and truth itself will be subverted and the issues either negated or astonishingly twisted back to be presented as women's suffering. For example, in a book that waxes wildly on classic and obvious issues when the subject is women, hardly a sentence is offered when addressing the fact that 92% of all fatalities at work are men. Then, shockingly, a few paragraphs are dedicated to actually representing this figure as oppression of women, that they aren't given the opportunity to be exposed to the same toxic, hazardous, dangerous and low paying jobs as the men that make up this startling percentage. When discussing media, particularly magazines aimed at men compared to those of women they mention two of each that they claim are comparable. Then, instead of comparing those mentioned, they pick two other men's magazines that they openly admit is aimed at younger men ( in their 20's .) They take the issue of sex and sexuality and describe it when occurring in the womens magazines as being oppressive to women. Specifically that it is geared to getting and keeping "your man." In the men's magazines, it's labeled as objectifying women. As mentioned in a previous review, when addressing homelessness, they portray the information so dishonestly that it is unclear that nearly the entire population of homeless are men.
This book is useful as an example of the twisted, disrespectfully, sexist, hypocritical, and ugly treatment men are treated to by much of the feminist community.

Customer Review: 4 out of 5
Informative, though gender Biased - From the title of the book and the course description I didn't fully expect the course to be solely based around women and their oppression. It gets very very repetitive by the end of the course. Even so much to say by the middle of the course you are completely tired of hearing the word "gender". The material is presented in an appropriate chronology and the categories are sensible enough, yet I kept finding myself thinking that all this material, the studies and statistics are pretty much common sense. Most of the terms any sociology student would be familiar with, and the language of the text is at best elementary.

I was quite bored with the course by the end. The simple nature of the material covered is enough to drive you mad.

I did, however, score a very high A in the class mainly because I read the text in depth and took very good notes. Be able to spew out everything you've ingested from your readings into class essays and you'll score A's.

Customer Review: 3 out of 5
Some caveats - A well researched book, but tendentious. I taught that book and I had trouble trying to explain to my students that most of the homeless people are men. The confusion of my students was the result from the way that Renzetti and Curran presented the issue (See Box 7.1 "Gender and Homelessness" p.213, Fourth Edition). I simply found disingenuous their statistical treatment of homeless and gender because a few pages later (p.237) Renzetti and Curran criticize the use of their reasoning when they dispute some analyses of the relationship between gender and delinquency. Then they pointed out that the fact that the growth rate of delinquency is greater among women does not mean that more women are turning into crime because the number of women committing crimes is proportionally smaller than that of men. I found this double standard disappointing because the relationship between gender and homelessness is important for understanding how the gender role of men is a social problem. Rather than focusing on the structural aspects of gender, sometimes the valuable work done by Renzetti and Curran get lost because a rather simplistic picture of the issues.

Customer Review: 5 out of 5
Every Women's Studies student should read this book - This is one of the most comprehensive gender studies books I have come across. Renzetti and Curran have explored virtually every avenue from sociologic/feminist/historical perspectives to childhood socialization and communication, to higher education, employment, crime, spirituality, health, government and social issues. I picked up the book to read the family/domestic violence section and could not put it down. This book should be a requirement for women's studies and gender studies students. Renzetti has done a great deal of groundbreaking work in same-sex battering and this title was great exposure to her other efforts. A remarkable researcher! I found this book at the library, and after reading 1/2 of it, I returned it, drove straight home and ordered it, so I could mark it up. It is a valuable piece of research and a work that I will reference for years to come. I wish I had found this book 4 years ago while I was an undergraduate student!

--> Find out more about "Women, Men, and Society (5th Edition)" at Amazon.com or Order Now