Gender and the Life Course is an interdisciplinary collection of essays on the lives of women and men as they are affected by history, culture, demography, economic and political stratification, and the biopsychological processes that attend maturation and aging. The book covers three major topics. Part I, which examines gender and the life course in broad historical perspective, includes a summary of recent work in biological ecology and primatology, and an analysis of the persistence of cultural and gender differences in role organization in societies undergoing the transition from agrarianism to industrialism. Other essays trace the changes in sources of household income of industrial workers over the life span, and review temporal and gender differences in life span transitions.Part II examines gender differentiation in a variety of contexts: psychological, psychobiologi-cal, and sociological. Alice Rossi''s ASA Presidential Address reviews recent work on fathering and mothering, and argues that sociological explanations of such gender differences need supplementation by concepts from evolutionary theory and the neurosciences. Three essays deal with gender and economy: one shows how gender stratification took hold in the early stages of industrialization in France, another demonstrates the persistence of gender stratification in modern economies, the third focuses on ideology in relation to gender and political power.Part III examines various aspects of the aged in contemporary society, including an argument for an jnterpretive social science that uses diverse methods to improve our ability to describe and interpret many facets of the lives of elderly men and women; a review of the methodology used to study changes in the aged population over time; and an overview of existing data sets that permit further cohort and longitudinal analyses of the aged. The final essays review social policies as they affect the elderly, with particular attention to the fact that most very old people are women, and the impact of the greatly expanded life course for family and kin relations.Gender and the Life Course is a state-of-the-art assessment of the best work currently being done'' on gender and age a''s maturational factors and is essential reading for anyone interested in adult development and gender roles.
Industry Reviews
-[T]he articles in this volume represent some of the most careful and thought-provoking research being done on age and gender in a variety of intellectual disciplines. Important, original ideas are developed to answer age-old questions on the forces that maintain gender inequality and age-grading in societies.-
--Jennifer Glass, Journal of Marriage and Family
-Rossi is to be congratulated for introducing into sociology what I like to think is anthropology's major contribution to the social sciences: the commitment to see humanity whole. Medical anthropologists may be able to use this book as a friendly introduction into sociology literature and it is to be hoped that sociological interest in the biosocial domain will continue.-
--Roberta L. Hall, Medical Anthropology Quarterly
-[T]he overwhelming impact of this work advances the state of sociological thinking about age and gender as dynamic properties over the life span and as continuously evolving features of diverse human experience. It offers a challenge to the sociological imagination to acknowledge that social significance of biological ontogeny and sexual dimorphism; it steadfastly refuses to take monistic epistemological stands.-
--David L. Featherman, Contemporary Sociology
-Demographers, researchers interested in the role of biological and social factors in producing gender difference, gender-stratification experts, and researchers in the area of aging will all find something appetizing here.-
--Mary C. Brinton, American Journal of Sociology "[T]he articles in this volume represent some of the most careful and thought-provoking research being done on age and gender in a variety of intellectual disciplines. Important, original ideas are developed to answer age-old questions on the forces that maintain gender inequality and age-grading in societies."
--Jennifer Glass, Journal of Marriage and Family
"Rossi is to be congratulated for introducing into sociology what I like to think is anthropology's major contribution to the social sciences: the commitment to see humanity whole. Medical anthropologists may be able to use this book as a friendly introduction into sociology literature and it is to be hoped that sociological interest in the biosocial domain will continue."
--Roberta L. Hall, Medical Anthropology Quarterly
"[T]he overwhelming impact of this work advances the state of sociological thinking about age and gender as dynamic properties over the life span and as continuously evolving features of diverse human experience. It offers a challenge to the sociological imagination to acknowledge that social significance of biological ontogeny and sexual dimorphism; it steadfastly refuses to take monistic epistemological stands."
--David L. Featherman, Contemporary Sociology
"Demographers, researchers interested in the role of biological and social factors in producing gender difference, gender-stratification experts, and researchers in the area of aging will all find something appetizing here."
--Mary C. Brinton, American Journal of Sociology "[T]he articles in this volume represent some of the most careful and thought-provoking research being done on age and gender in a variety of intellectual disciplines. Important, original ideas are developed to answer age-old questions on the forces that maintain gender inequality and age-grading in societies."
--Jennifer Glass, Journal of Marriage and Family
"Rossi is to be congratulated for introducing into sociology what I like to think is anthropology's major contribution to the social sciences: the commitment to see humanity whole. Medical anthropologists may be able to use this book as a friendly introduction into sociology literature and it is to be hoped that sociological interest in the biosocial domain will continue."
--Roberta L. Hall, Medical Anthropology Quarterly
"[T]he overwhelming impact of this work advances the state of sociological thinking about age and gender as dynamic properties over the life span and as continuously evolving features of diverse human experience. It offers a challenge to the sociological imagination to acknowledge that social significance of biological ontogeny and sexual dimorphism; it steadfastly refuses to take monistic epistemological stands."
--David L. Featherman, Contemporary Sociology
"Demographers, researchers interested in the role of biological and social factors in producing gender difference, gender-stratification experts, and researchers in the area of aging will all find something appetizing here."
--Mary C. Brinton, American Journal of Sociology
