Paradoxes of Gender

Drawing on many schools of feminist scholarship and on research from anthropology, history, sociology, social psychology, sociolinguistics, and cultural studies, Lorber explores different paradoxes of gender:

—why we speak of only two "opposite sexes" when there is such a variety of sexual behaviors and relationships;

—why transvestites, transsexuals, and hermaphrodites do not affect the conceptualization of two genders and two sexes in Western societies;

—why most of our cultural images of women are the way men see them and not the way women see themselves;

—why all women in modern society are expected to have children and be the primary caretaker;

—why domestic work is almost always the sole responsibility of wives, even when they earn more than half the family income;

—why there are so few women in positions of authority, when women can be found in substantial numbers in many occupations and professions;

—why women have not benefited from major social revolutions.

Lorber argues that the whole point of the gender system today is to maintain structured gender inequality—to produce a subordinate class (women) that can be exploited as workers, sexual partners, childbearers, and emotional nurturers. Calling into question the inevitability and necessity of gender, she envisions a society structured for equality, where no gender, racial ethnic, or social class group is allowed to monopolize economic, educational, and cultural resources or the positions of power.