Doing Gender, Doing Difference: Inequality, Power, and Institutional Change

For the past decade, the work of Sarah Fenstermaker and Candace West has revolutionized our understanding of gender and the notion of difference. Now for the first time these repeatedly anthologized works have been collected along with new essays to provide a complete understanding of this topic of tremendous importance to scholars in sociology, women's studies and other social sciences. With a foreword by distinguished scholar, Dorothy Smith, and with pieces by Barrie Thorne, Howard Winant, and Patricia Hill Collins among others, this collection will serve as the definitive guide for gender and difference scholars.

Table of Contents:
Section I Foreword -Dorothy E. Smith Introduction -Sarah Fenstermaker & Candace West Section II - Theoretical Formulation, Criticism, and Response 1.Doing Gender Candace West & Don H. Zimmerman 2.Gender Inequality: New Conceptual Terrain Sarah Fenstermaker, Candace West & Don H. Zimmerman 3.Power, Inequality and the Accomplishment of Gender: An Ethnomethodological View Candace West & Sarah Fenstermaker 4.Doing Difference Candace West & Sarah Fenstermaker 5.Gender & Society Symposium on Doing Difference -Patricia Hill Collins, Lionel A. Maldonado, Dana Y. Takagi, Berrie Thorne, Lynn Weber, Howard Winant Reply - (Re)doing Difference - Candace West & Sarah Fenstermaker Section III: Empirical Applications 6.Conclusion to The Gender Factor - Sarah Fenstermaker 7.Accounting for Cosmetic Surgery: The Accomplishment of Gender - Candace West & Diana Dull 8.Accountability in action: The Accomplishment of Gender, Race, and Class in a Meeting of the University of California Board of Regents - Cadance West & Sarah Fenstermaker 9.Doing Gender Differently: Institutional Change in Second Parent Adoptions - Susan Dalton & Sarah Fenstermaker Section IV - Theoretical Elaborations 10.Performance and Accomplishment: Reconciling Feminist Conceptions of Gender -Molly Moloney & Sarah Fenstermaker 11.Doing Difference Revisited: Power, Resistance, and the (Mis)reading of Feminist Theory - Sarah Fenstermaker & Candace West Conclusion 12.Central Problematics: An Agenda For Feminist Sociology -Sarah Fenstermaker & Candace West References

About the Author :
Sarah Fenstermaker is Professor of Sociology and Women's Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and is the author of The Gender Factory: TheApportionment of Work in America. Candace West is Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Review :
"Doing Gender, Doing Difference is a fascinating and coherent collection showing the development, spanning 25 years, of theorizing about the social construction of gender and other inequalities. The book will be essential reading for scholars coping with the theoretical difficulties of bringing together analyses of gender, race, and class." -- Joan Acker, author of DoingComparable Worth: Gender, Class, and Pay Equity "Doing Gender, Doing Difference is engaging and thought-provoking. Fenstermaker and West offer an inspiring model of how theory-building might and should proceed, through dialogue with other scholars and creative empirical work." -- Evelyn Nakano Glenn, author of Unequal Freedom: How Race and Gender Shaped AmericanCitizenship and Labor "Doing Gender, Doing Difference is a major contribution to the gender field. Fenstermaker and West superbly integrate classic conceptual works on gender as an accomplishment with new evidence and theorizing on gender and difference." -- Maxine Baca Zinn, author of Diversityin Families "Over a decade ago, the argument that gender is a matter of active 'doing' rather than passive 'being' opened fresh perspectives and lines of research. In this wonderfully informative collection, two key theorists reflect upon and further extend the intellectual reach of this approach...Important and compelling." -- Barrie Thorne, author of Gender Play: Girls and Boys in School