Subject Women

Where Women Stand Today- Politically, Economically, Socially, Emotionally. Well known for her work on women's roles as housewives and mothers, Ann Oakley broadens her scope in Subject Women to explore virtually all aspects of the position of women in contemporary society. Surveying and synthesizing the most important research findings of recent years, Oakley draws on data from history, sociology, psychology, biology, anthropology, and many other fields to illuminate six aspects of women's experience: legal changes in the status of women, the biological and cultural construction of femininity, women's relationships with men, children, and other women, the role of women in the work force, and the role that work plays in women's lives, women's access to power and their participation in politics, the position of women's studies in the academic world As Oakley documents, women have made progress in all these areas but still have not achieved full equality with men. Subject Women illuminates the hidden obstacles that have stood in their way, from the psychological to the economic, and gives a wealth to examples from other cultures showing that more roles are available to women and men worldwide than we imagine, so conditioned are we by the constraints of our own society.