Miriam M. Johnson
Strong Mothers, Weak Wives
The Search for Gender Equality
$26.95, £15.95 paperback
978-0-520-06162-0
Available Now
"Strong Mothers, Weak Wives is a culmination of Johnson's fruitful career, inasmuch as it critically reflects upon that considerable storehouse of theory and research findings at her command. To this knowledge Johnson adds a much-needed dose of common sense in what I interpret to be the accomplishment of two central tasks: addressing the division between those feminist scholars (and activists) who stress gender similarity and those who stress gender differences (and womanly superiority); and distinguishing clearly between women as wives and women as mothers in order to demonstrate that it is the former, not the latter, which undergirds gender inequality."—Janet Saltzman Chafetz, Contemporary Sociology
"Johnson tracks the perpetuation of male dominance through the institution of marriage. . . . Her analysis is perceptive, even brilliant, and her arguments persuasive. . . . Well written [and] highly recommended."—Kathryn Hammell, Library Journal
"[Her] clear, well-organized, well-documented argument corrects gender theories of Parsons, Mead, and Freud."—B. Miller, Choice
"Johnson tracks the perpetuation of male dominance through the institution of marriage. . . . Her analysis is perceptive, even brilliant, and her arguments persuasive. . . . Well written [and] highly recommended."—Kathryn Hammell, Library Journal
"[Her] clear, well-organized, well-documented argument corrects gender theories of Parsons, Mead, and Freud."—B. Miller, Choice
"For years I have been impressed by the originality and insight of Johnson's articles on gender, sexuality, and male dominance. This book continues and expands the excellent quality of the earlier work. . . [It] provides an original argument about the central structural locus of gender inequality, and makes a major advance in its insightful and insistent focus on the role of the father in gender differentiation and sexual dominance. . . . It will surely be recognized as a major work of feminist theory."—Nancy Chodorow, author of The Reproduction of Mothering
"This thoughtful and provocative book greatly deepens the debate over the effects of mothers and fathers on their children."—Arlie Hochschild, author of The Second Shift: Inside the Two-Job Marriage
"This thoughtful and provocative book greatly deepens the debate over the effects of mothers and fathers on their children."—Arlie Hochschild, author of The Second Shift: Inside the Two-Job Marriage
A leading theorist in the sociology of sex and gender, Miriam Johnson establishes as her starting point the belief that inequality is not inherent or inevitable in heterosexual relations. In Strong Mothers, Weak Wives she develops this notion by examining how gender differences get translated into gender inequalities and how this process relates to the structure of the nuclear family and to the social organization of modern societies.