The gendered society / Michael Kimmel, Stony Brook University, State University of New York.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

"Featuring a timely new chapter on gender and politics, the fifth edition of The Gendered Society explores current thinking about gender, both inside academia and in our everyday lives. Michael Kimmel challenges the claim that gender is limited to women's experiences--his compelling and balanced study of gender includes both masculine and feminine perspectives. Kimmel makes three bold and persuasive statements about gender. First, he demonstrates that gender differences are often extremely exaggerated; in fact, he argues that men and women have much more in common than we think they do. Kimmel also challenges the pop psychologists who suggest that gender difference is the cause of inequality between the sexes; instead, he reveals that the reverse is true--gender inequality itself is the cause of the differences between men and women. Finally, he illustrates that gender is not merely an element of individual identity, but a socially constructed institutional phenomenon."--Page 4 of cover.

Introduction: Human beings : an engendered species -- Part 1. Explanations of gender. Ordained by nature : biology constructs the sexes -- Spanning the world : culture constructs gender difference -- "So, that explains it" : psychoanalytic and developmental perspectives on gender -- The social construction of gender relations -- Part 2. Gendered identities, gendered institutions. The gendered family : biology constructs the sexes -- The gendered classroom -- Gender and religion -- Separate and unequal : the gendered world of work -- The gender of politics and the politics of gender -- The gendered media -- Part 3. Gendered interactions. Gendered intimacies : friendship and love -- The gendered body -- The gender of violence -- Epilogue: "A degendered society"?