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Since its inception, Polity has been committed to publishing pioneering and innovative texts in gender studies and feminist theory. The objective has been twofold: to produce a distinctive list in these areas and to integrate a concern with gender and feminist insights into the list as a whole.
Among our many well known authors in this field are Carole Pateman, Henrietta Moore, Anne Phillips, Catherine Hall, Michèle Barrett, Nancy Fraser, Seyla Benhabib, Raewyn Connell, Lois McNay, Lynne Segal, Susan Hekman, Judith Squires, Mary Lyndon Shanley, Donna Dickenson, Sylvia Walby, Rosalind Minsky, Anne Oakley, Jeffrey Weeks, Elizabeth Wright, Rosi Braidotti, Linda McDowell, Jill Steans, Lucy Bland, Lorna Doan, Nicole Ward Jouve, Janet Wolff, Hilary Rose and Leonore Davidoff.
Visit our highlights page for more information on our new and forthcoming general interest titles.
Connell: Gender 2nd edition
"Presenting the leading edge of gender theory and research, the second edition of Gender is the smartest and most compelling introduction to critical gender studies that is currently available. Connell remains a steady and reliable guide for the student of gender and society."
Steven Seidman, State University of New York at Albany
Bradley: Gender
"Harriet Bradley’s Gender is a wide-ranging and impressive survey of 30 years of feminist theorizing. Interleaved with gripping reflections on an individual's gendered life, this book will be an invaluable resource for teaching about gender across the social sciences."
Linda McDowell, University of Oxford
Talbot: Language and Gender 2nd edition
"A comprehensive, theoretically-sophisticated and accessible introduction to the field of language and gender. Unlike other language and gender textbooks, Talbot foregrounds the importance of language and gender studies to the analysis of popular culture and mass media ‘texts’. Thus, Talbot’s book will appeal not only to students and scholars of linguistics, but to anyone with a serious interest in cultural studies."
Susan Ehrlich, York University
Gill: Gender and the Media
"Gender and the Media is a lively and stimulating read and works as an excellent introduction for students in the field of media and gender studies. It is also a grown-up book that moves beyond the current feminist preoccupation with ‘girls’, to a renewed focus on ‘women’ in their infinite variety. I strongly recommend it."
European Journal of Women’s Studies
Rose: What is Gender History?
Paying close attention to both classic texts in the field and the latest literature, Rose examines the origins and development of the field of gender history and elucidates current debates and controversies: the significance of race, class and ethnicity for how gender affects society, culture and politics; the histories of masculinity; how gender illuminates the histories of revolution, war and nationalism, industrialization and labour relations, politics and citizenship, colonialism and imperialism.
Phillips: Gender and Culture
The idea that respect for cultural diversity conflicts with gender equality is now a staple of both public and academic debate. Yet discussion of these tensions is marred by exaggerated talk of cultural difference, leading to ethnic reductionism, cultural stereotyping, and a hierarchy of traditional and modern. In this volume, Anne Phillips firmly rejects the notion that ‘culture’ might justify the oppression of women, but also queries the stereotypical binaries that have represented people from ethnocultural minorities as peculiarly resistant to gender equality.
Moore: The Subject of Anthropology
"Henrietta Moore seeks to build a theory of gendered subjectivity by articulating the insights of psychoanalysis, anthropology and feminism. The extended readings of psychoanalytic theory through anthropological and feminist eyes are clear and illuminating. This is a rich and thought-provoking book."
Sherry B. Ortner, University of California-Los Angeles
Connell: Masculinities 2nd edition
This is an exciting new edition of Connell's ground-breaking text, which has become a classic work on the nature and construction of masculine identity. Connell argues that there is not one masculinity, but many different masculinities, each associated with different positions of power. In a world gender order that continues to privilege men over women, but also raises difficult issues for men and boys, her account is more pertinent than ever before.
Entwistle: The Fashioned Body
"The Fashioned Body by Joanne Entwistle is an important acquisition for historians or students of fashion because the author rejects all overarching or reductive theories and, instead, examines fashion as something that is both produced and consumed."
The Art Book
Lloyd: Judith Butler
"For students and faculty struggling to understand Judith Butler, I strongly recommend this book. Lloyd proves to be a reliable guide who is not afraid to engage critically with Butler’s gender theory and politics."
Steven Seidman, University at Albany, SUNY
