Gender Dialogue

Fundamental commonalities between women & men. So what are the issues? power/control; second class citizenship; double standard in various areas of crs (eg, sexuality).

Sandra Bem's 1993 The Lenses of Gender: cultural imposition of strict male-female dichotomy (posits discomfort in culture with gender noncomformity, homosexuality).

Women's movement since late 60s has diminished what Jessie Bernard (1982 Future of Marriage) termed the downsides of traditional marriage-- make women mentally & physically sick. Makes men happy and successful.

Probable differences in female-male styles in various areas (not nec. Rel. To power, bias). Eg, Lillian Rubin's (1983 Intimate Strangers) argument that men operate on logic of mind, while women operate both on logic of mind & heart?

Tannen's argument about different styles of communicating: women more interested in "troubles talk," talking to connect; men using talk to solve problems & less inclined to talk about more intimate issues.

Other presumed differences:

women more thinking and attributions about relationship.
women more juggling career and domestic obligations—hochschild’s second shift.
from late 70s on, women as inclined toward premarital and extramarital sexuality as men—eichenreich et al. Remaking love.

women more selective especially in long-term commitments than men (follows from evolutionary psychology)