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I am happy to announce the publication of my new book WHEN SEX BECAME GENDER.

Author: Shira Tarrant
Publisher: Routledge
List Price: $27.95 (paperback)
ISBN: 0-415-953472

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

This book is a study of post World War II feminist theory from the viewpoint of intellectual history. The key theme is that the social construction of gender has its origins in the feminist theorists of this period. This paradigm is a key foundational element to both second and third wave feminist thought. It will focus on the five key scholars of the period: Komarovsky, de Beauvoir, Mead, Klein and Herschberger. This has been a somewhat overlooked period in the development of feminist theory and philosophy and Tarrant makes a compelling case for it (the fifties) being the turning point in the study of gender.

FROM THE BACK OF THE BOOK:

How did the term “sex” develop into “gender”? And is it really true that a vibrant feminist movement disappeared entirely after suffrage gains were won, only to suddenly resurface in the late 1960s?

Conventional wisdom tells us that feminism died by the mid-1940s when women left their wartime factory jobs to return home. But this version of the story is not entirely true. When Sex Became Gender brings to light dominant ideas about sex roles and the feminist critiques these generated in the years between World War II and the women’s liberation movement in the late 1960s. While discussing the famous feminist scholars—Simone de Beauvoir, Margaret Mead—the book also hinges on the work of scholars who are lesser known to American audiences—Mirra Komarovsky, Viola Klein, Ruth Herschberger. In contrast with current books that reinforce the divisions, disagreements, and disappearances between feminist generations, this book highlights the continuities between postwar interest in sex roles and contemporary arguments about gender. By establishing the historical and theoretical connections between feminist eras, Tarrant shows how protofeminist ideas of the past served as the foundation for today’s focus on the social construction of gender.

What’s Being Said About When Sex Became Gender:
“Contrary to conventional wisdom, Shira Tarrant argues that feminism didn’t languish between the 1920s and the 1960s. Instead, the conceptual foundations of second-wave feminism were created by a wave of extraordinarily imaginative and bold academic women in the early postwar years. In this original and indispensable book, Tarrant uncovers a crucial missing chapter in the history of modern feminism.” —Steven Seidman, author of Beyond the Closet

“In When Sex Became Gender, Tarrant expounds upon a relatively understudied period of feminist theory and incorporates figures that have not traditionally been included as part of the feminist canon. The book challenges us to see feminist theory as unfolding throughout history rather than being restricted to a few ‘waves’ of activism. An excellent work that strongly makes a case for the importance of the events of the 1950s and their influence on what was to follow.”
—Judith Grant, author of Fundamental Feminism

WHEN SEX BECAME GENDER is available at amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0415953472/qid=1149618021/sr=12-1/102-3... and at your local, independent bookstore.