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 DOI: 10.1177/0361684312446794

2012 36: 508Psychology of Women QuarterlyMichele Hoffnung

Book Review: Gender: Psychological Perspectives (6th ed.) and Psychology of Gender (4th ed.)  

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Etaugh and Bridges write in an engaging and personal way

that helps students connect to the presentation of material.

Their use of vignettes and quotes enrich the chapters.

Consistent with feminist values, the authors effectively use

first person to reduce the hierarchy of relationships between

authors and students. And, their own seasoned facility with

issues relevant to the psychology of women is evident from

their clear and succinct coverage of them. The use of pedago-

gical tools is also quite effective in fostering active learning

and helping students relate to the material; in particular, the

new addition of chapter sections, ‘‘What You Can Do,’’ helps

students understand activism more broadly and encourages

them to get involved in making changes.

Like in their previous editions, they offer an approach that

many other textbooks in this area neglect—one that covers

the life span of women. They do this topically rather than

devoting individual chapters to women at different stages

of development, which illustrates the unique issues faced

by women at different points in their lives. This is a refresh-

ing change from other texts in the area, and it is probably the

greatest strength of the textbook.

Another advantage is that they discuss diversity more

broadly than other textbooks, including information on

women with disabilities in most chapters, which is rarely

done. They provide a more comprehensive and

well-integrated treatment of sexual orientation than many

other textbooks in the field. They attempt to incorporate

the growing body of literature on ethnic minority women

in all chapters; but, their presentation suffers from what

the field itself suffers from—not enough research devoted

to the rich subcultures that exist within groups. Like most

other textbooks, they focus on the traditional groupings of

ethnic minority women, including Blacks, Native Ameri-

cans, Latinas, and Asian Americans, which may

oversimplify the complexities of the differences within

these broad cultural groups. Their inclusion of research

on women from other cultures in the ‘‘Explore Other

Cultures’’ sections is an asset, and I suspect as this field

of research grows, so too will their coverage of these

topics in subsequent editions of the textbook. The authors

approach diversity with an intersectional approach; how-

ever, the full meaning of how each component of diversity

(e.g., class, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, physical

ability, religion, and nationality) truly intersects is some-

what vague, which again may be mostly a result of a lack

of research that examines these complex issues fully.

Although discussion of diverse girls and women is well

integrated in most chapters, there are still some instances

where the Eurocentric bias that has permeated research on

women for decades persists as the authors make

comparisons to the White ‘‘norm.’’

Similar to other textbooks in this area, the authors use a

feminist perspective; however, their discussion of feminism

could be expanded. For example, one addition to the descrip-

tion of feminism and the movement that may make the rest of

their presentation of feminism more palatable to some

students is to include the perspective of the movement as

seeking equality for all people, regardless of gender.

Additionally, because the textbook presupposes no prior

knowledge of psychology, a more extensive discussion of

how the feminist perspective differs from traditional

psychological approaches to women may be necessary. Over-

all, despite a few minor shortcomings, the strengths of this

text make it an excellent choice for an introductory

textbook on the psychology of women.

Bio

Ayesha Shaikh, PhD, is an associate professor and chair of

psychology at Whittier College. She is a licensed clinical

psychologist.

Linda Brannon (2011)Gender: Psychological Perspectives (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn &Bacon. 560 pp. $118.20 (paperback). ISBN 9780205001651.

Vicki S. Helgeson (2011)Psychology of Gender (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson. 656 pp. $128.00(paperback). ISBN 9780205050185.

Reviewed by: Michele Hoffnung, Quinnipiac University, Hamden, CTDOI: 10.1177/0361684312446794

Being asked to review the new editions of Linda Brannon’s

Gender: Psychological Perspectives and Vicki S. Helgeson’s

Psychology of Gender motivated me to consider once again

the issues that spurred the development of psychology of

women courses in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In that era,

topics of special concern to women’s experience, such as

pregnancy, childbirth, menopause, and violence against

women, were absent from traditional courses. In addition,

discussions of topics that applied to both genders, such as

leadership or retirement, were presented from a male perspec-

tive and were often based upon evidence gathered exclusively

from men. Psychology of women was a course designed to

put research about girls’ and women’s experiences firmly at

its center. To do that, it challenged the gender-neutrality of

the research enterprise and raised awareness of social con-

straints on both women and men. To focus on women, the

course had to teach about gender, which typically led to dis-

cussions of race, class, and sexual orientation.

Several decades later, some departments have replaced

psychology of women with psychology of gender. This

change implies that we are past needing to pay special

508 Psychology of Women Quarterly 36(4)

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attention to women and can present the full human picture in

a gender course. This change also represents an effort to

appeal to male undergraduates, at a time when few of them

enroll in psychology of women. (When I taught psychology

of women during the 1970s, both women and men eagerly

enrolled. My current class has no men.) Given these develop-

ments, I looked to see how these gender texts present issues

that are of particular importance to understanding the female

experience.

In all textbooks, I expect up-to-date references to studies

that are explained fully enough for students to understand

how the conclusions were drawn. I want students to explore

how we know what we know, to learn to identify bias, and

to understand that different research approaches often yield

different results. These methodological concerns are espe-

cially important in the area of gender research because stu-

dents typically believe that they already know about

women and men. In addition, I look for contrasting points

of view. I do not wish students to be presented with simple

answers about complex human experience. I want them to

consider the various ways that data can be collected and inter-

preted, as well as to be skeptical.

Linda Brannon’s Gender: Psychological Perspectives has

a relatively conventional organization of the material. Her

chapter ‘‘Researching Sex and Gender’’ includes a good pre-

sentation of how research is done and the many ways biases

creep into gender research. Her thorough chapter on biology,

‘‘Hormones and Chromosomes,’’ includes an explanation of

the menstrual cycle and a critical appraisal of premenstrual

syndrome, as well as the impact of testosterone levels. This

chapter serves as an example of how using the ‘‘gender’’

approach can maintain the focus on topics that are particular

to women and broaden it to include information about men.

Brannon makes some unconventional choices. Her chapter

‘‘Emotion’’ organizes information about emotionality,

aggression, attachment, and nurturing in an interesting and

unusual way. Nonetheless, relegating the topic of sexual vio-

lence as a subsection of this chapter underplays its impor-

tance to understanding the experience of gender in

contemporary society. She devotes two chapters to mental

health: one focuses on stress, coping, and psychopathology

and the other on treatments. That is a lot of coverage within

the time span of a semester. She ends up with 16 chapters;

yet, there are none about pregnancy/childbirth/motherhood,

violence against women, and midlife and later adulthood. I

understand that these would need to be reframed with titles

about parenting and gender-related violence, but I believe

doing so is essential if psychology of gender is to replace psy-

chology of women. As the book stands, menopause is not in

the subject index; pregnancy and childbirth fill one page of

the health and fitness chapter. Pregnancy, childbirth, postpar-

tum, and the transition to parenting are major life events for

fathers as well as for mothers (for more about this point, see

Hoffnung, 2011). To reduce them to a paragraph is to miss an

important educational opportunity.

In contrast, Vicki S. Helgeson’s Psychology of Gender

says in the Preface that it will discuss gender primarily

within the context of relationships and health. These topics

are of great interest to students and are consistent with

Helgeson’s research interests. In actuality, those topics are

confined to the last four chapters of the text. The first six are

relatively standard chapters (Introduction, Methods and His-

tory, Gender-Role Attitudes, Sex-Related Comparisons:

Observations, Sex-Related Observations: Theory, Achieve-

ment). I assume this is because not every topic that needs to

be covered fits neatly into her framework.

My problem with Helgeson’s presentation is not with the

organization, but with the exclusion of important topics.

Family is a primary aspect of human relationships, but it is

missing from this book that focuses specifically on gender

in the context of relationships. Pregnancy, childbirth, and

reproductive health are not included. There is little mention

of parenting. The short section called ‘‘Parenting and Health’’

provides little evidence and is based on very few studies. For

example, she cites one study that says having children at

home leads to lower satisfaction among U.S. women. What

about the studies which indicate that family roles add to life

satisfaction? There is no mention of menstruation, and con-

dom use is relegated to a boxed feature. In fact, the only pre-

sentation of puberty or adolescence is as a subsection of the

chapter on mental health.

Aside from the missing topics, Helgeson’s presentation

sometimes seems light on evidence. Little relevant research

is cited and not enough effort is made to include contrasting

points of view. I hate to be writing about this shortcoming for

a text successful enough to be in its fourth edition. For example,

among the terms she defines in her opening chapter is ‘‘inter-

sex.’’ ‘‘Intersex persons are those who are born with ambiguous

genitals; these persons typically have surgery to alter their gen-

itals so they can be consistent biologically’’ (p. 7). Although it is

true that most American surgeons recommend surgery, some

intersex adults and advocates argue that children should not

be surgically forced into one sex or the other before they are old

enough to know what sex they feel like and can make their own

decisions about body alterations that have such serious implica-

tions. I believe professors are called upon to complicate issues

like this one and thus to make students think. In a course about

gender, intersex could be used as a tool to understand cultural

forces and to make prospective parents more sensitive to devel-

opmental differences among children.

Each of these texts has interesting features. In every

chapter, Helgeson includes several ‘‘Do Gender’’ boxes, each

of which suggests a data-gathering project. Most, but not all,

provide enough direction for students to try them on their

own. Brannon includes several boxes in each chapter: ‘‘Head-

line,’’ ‘‘Gendered Voices,’’ and (side-by-side) ‘‘According to

the Media,’’ and ‘‘According to Research.’’ All of these will

catch students’ attention and add perspective.

Each of these textbooks has strengths. Brannon’s book is

very well written and uses current research to support her points.

Else-Quest et al. 509

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Each chapter ends with an engaging ‘‘Considering Diversity’’

section. Brannon’s chapter ‘‘Sexuality’’ is a particularly good

example of the benefits of the gender perspective because it

clearly compares and contrasts male and female anatomy, atti-

tudes, and experience. Helgeson’s text combines sociological

and psychological approaches in very advantageous ways. Her

chapter ‘‘Sex Differences in Health: Evidence and Explana-

tions,’’ for example, discusses morbidity and mortality statis-

tics, as well as health behaviors. And it clearly emphasizes

that apparent gender differences may be due to the ‘‘artifacts’’

of confounding variables, such as socioeconomic status.

Both books do a good job with many topics, but I do hope

future editions will have better coverage of women’s unique

concerns. Otherwise, I think the change from psychology of

women to psychology of gender will be a step backward

rather than a step forward.

Reference

Hoffnung, M. (2011). Teaching about motherhood: Revisioning

family. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 35, 327–330. doi:10.

1177/0361684311401824

Bio

Michele Hoffnung, PhD, is a professor of psychology at the Quin-

nipiac University, Hamden, Connecticut.

Janice D. YoderWomen and Gender: Making a Difference (4th ed.). New York, NY:Sloan Publishing, 2013. 532 pp. $84.95 (paperback). ISBN:1597380407

Reviewed by: Taryn A. Myers, Virginia Wesleyan College, Norfolk, VADOI: 10.1177/0361684312456301

For those who teach undergraduate courses such as Psychol-

ogy of Women or Psychology of Gender, it is often difficult

to find a textbook that is engaging to students and also

includes cutting-edge research findings from the science of

psychology. The fourth edition of Yoder’s Women and

Gender: Making a Difference manages to meet both of these

needs while being extremely readable and informative for

both student and professor alike.

Yoder’s text, the previous edition of which was published

in 2007, has been an excellent option for coursework for

years, and this recent edition is no exception. Yoder’s

increased focus on a social justice approach to issues related

to the psychology of women make this edition even more

applicable to university courses where service-learning and

other active-learning activities are becoming increasingly

popular. Other useful additions include an emphasis on the

updated principles for feminist psychotherapy created by a

joint task force of members of American Psychological

Association Divisions 17 and 35, cutting-edge information

about intersexuality, and incorporation of research from the

fields of body image, objectification theory, and ambivalent

sexism. The clear explanations of novel findings from

extremely recent studies throughout the book are particularly

helpful. Most citations in the book are now from the last

decade of work, ensuring that students receive up-to-date

information about topics where new information provides a

more holistic and inclusionary view.

The book is very user-friendly, with information clearly

explained in language appropriate for even first-year and

sophomore students. Boxes in each chapter are helpful and

thought-provoking, making them excellent potential

jumping-off points for class discussion. However, sometimes

placement of the boxes in the chapter is far from the location

where the topics are discussed in the text, disrupting continu-

ity. The book is written to engage the reader at all times, as

Yoder includes anecdotes from her own experiences as a

woman, scholar, and parent throughout the book. She also

grabs the reader’s interest with powerful vignettes, like those

that begin Chapter 13’s discussion of violence against

women, and statements that challenge, such as a brain teaser

about the surgeon that leads into Chapter 7’s discussion of

sexism. This text also challenges the reader to explore topics

further. Each chapter ends not only with a list of suggested

readings but a brief explanation as to why each is recom-

mended, making connections for students who may otherwise

ignore such helpful lists.

In reading this book, it is clear that Yoder draws on her own

experience as a researcher, professor, and editor. For example,

in Chapter 1, she seems to anticipate the types of questions and

arguments often encountered when concepts such as oppres-

sion and inequality are introduced in the classroom, such as

‘‘What about sexism against men?’’ and ‘‘What about

racism?’’ The inclusion of these issues in the initial chapter

reflects the wisdom of someone who has encountered these

arguments previously. Chapter 2 also includes a frank, no-

holds-barred discussion of the problems in the field of psychol-

ogy regarding how psychologists have traditionally treated

both the topic of gender and female academics and clinicians.

There are two minor concerns with this text. First, the

material about balancing multiple roles is divided into

Chapter 8, which explores close relationships, and Chapter

9, which examines work-related issues. This division seems

to further emphasize, rather than continue to challenge, the

conflict between work and home life for women. Second,

although it is discussed later in Chapter 13, the omission

of any reference to sexual harassment in Chapter 9’s treat-

ment of sexist discrimination seemed problematic. How-

ever, for every small issue to be found with the text, there

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