Do women express their feelings more than men? Popular stereotypes say they do, but in this provocative book, Leslie Brody breaks with conventional wisdom. Integrating a wealth of perspectives and research--biological, sociocultural, developmental--her work explores the nature and extent of gender differences in emotional expression, as well as the endlessly complex question of how such differences come about. Nurture, far more than nature, emerges here as the stronger force in fashioning gender differences in emotional expression. Brody shows that whether and how men and women express their feelings varies widely from situation to situation and from culture to culture, and depends on a number of particular characteristics including age, ethnicity, cultural background, power, and status. Especially pertinent is the organization of the family, in which boys and girls elicit and absorb different emotional strategies. Brody also examines the importance of gender roles, whether in the family, the peer group, or the culture at large, as men and women use various patterns of emotional expression to adapt to power and status imbalances. Lucid and level-headed, Gender, Emotion, and the Family offers an unusually rich and nuanced picture of the great range of male and female emotional styles, and the variety of the human character.
A bold dive into the emotional labor women have shouldered for far too long—and an impassioned vision for creating a better future for us all. Day in, day out, women anticipate and manage the needs of others. In relationships, we initiate the hard conversations. At home, we shoulder the mental load required to keep our households running. At work, we moderate our tone, explaining patiently and speaking softly. In the world, we step gingerly to keep ourselves safe. We do this largely invisible, draining work whether we want to or not—and we never clock out. No wonder women everywhere are overtaxed, exhausted, and simply fed up. In her ultra-viral article “Women Aren’t Nags—We’re Just Fed Up,” shared by millions of readers, Gemma Hartley gave much-needed voice to the frustration and anger experienced by countless women. Now, in Fed Up, Hartley expands outward from the everyday frustrations of performing thankless emotional labor to illuminate how the expectation to do this work in all arenas—private and public—fuels gender inequality, limits our opportunities, steals our time, and adversely affects the quality of our lives. More than just name the problem, though, Hartley teases apart the cultural messaging that has led us here and asks how we can shift the load. Rejecting easy solutions that don’t ultimately move the needle, Hartley offers a nuanced, insightful guide to striking real balance, for true partnership in every aspect of our lives. Reframing emotional labor not as a problem to be overcome, but as a genderless virtue men and women can all learn to channel in our quest to make a better, more egalitarian world, Fed Up is surprising, intelligent, and empathetic essential reading for every woman who has had enough with feeling fed up.
The second edition of A Handbook for the Study of Mental Health provides a comprehensive review of the sociology of mental health. Chapters by leading scholars and researchers present an overview of historical, social and institutional frameworks. Part I examines social factors that shape psychiatric diagnosis and the measurement of mental health and illness, theories that explain the definition and treatment of mental disorders and cultural variability. Part II investigates effects of social context, considering class, gender, race and age, and the critical role played by stress, marriage, work and social support. Part III focuses on the organization, delivery and evaluation of mental health services, including the criminalization of mental illness, the challenges posed by HIV, and the importance of stigma. This is a key research reference source that will be useful to both undergraduates and graduate students studying mental health and illness from any number of disciplines.
Do women express their feelings more than men? Popular stereotypes say they do, but in this provocative book, Leslie Brody breaks with conventional wisdom. Integrating a wealth of perspectives and research--biological, sociocultural, developmental--her work explores the nature and extent of gender differences in emotional expression, as well as the endlessly complex question of how such differences come about. Nurture, far more than nature, emerges here as the stronger force in fashioning gender differences in emotional expression. Brody shows that whether and how men and women express their feelings varies widely from situation to situation and from culture to culture, and depends on a number of particular characteristics including age, ethnicity, cultural background, power, and status. Especially pertinent is the organization of the family, in which boys and girls elicit and absorb different emotional strategies. Brody also examines the importance of gender roles, whether in the family, the peer group, or the culture at large, as men and women use various patterns of emotional expression to adapt to power and status imbalances. Lucid and level-headed, Gender, Emotion, and the Family offers an unusually rich and nuanced picture of the great range of male and female emotional styles, and the variety of the human character. Reviews of this book: Gender, Emotion, and the Family focuses on gender differences in the experience and expression of emotion...[Brody] has gathered an amazing amount of data from innumerable studies...[and gives] a balanced account of the effect of environmental variables on the development of emotion. --Lucy Horwitz, Boston Book Review Reviews of this book: Finally, an accurate and well-balanced discussion of topics that are on everybody's mind. Brody integrates research on the socialization of violence in boys and of the caretaking role for girls. Both this book and actual scientific research strongly support the role of nurture rather than nature in gender socialization...[A] highly recommended book. --F. Smolucha, Choice Reviews of this book: Drawing on a wealth of information, [Leslie Brody] illuminates the ways in which men and women, boys and girls, develop and express emotions in the context of the family...This in-depth research addresses many issues, from power in relationships to the physiological expression of emotion; evidence of contradictory findings is detailed. This is a valuable addition to the ever-changing frontiers of behavior research. --Margaret Cardwell, Library Journal Reviews of this book: Beyond the main points about the complexities and contingencies of gender differences and their development, the book contains accounts of many, many fascinating studies and intriguing points of view. . . . Brody ultimately succeeds in articulating a comprehensive, thoughtful, and intellectually rigorous review of the research literature on gender differences in emotional expression, from a feminist empiricist perspective. This is an important book to own . . . . a valuable reference for researchers and professionals. --Contemporary Psychology Brody has formidable mastery of this burgeoning field. Gender, Emotion, and the Family offers new theoretical insights for lay readers and fellow scholars alike. Highly readable, responsible, and original, this will be the major work on the socialization of emotion for a long time to come. --Judith A. Hall, Northeastern University A beautifully written text that integrates theory and research in a sophisticated yet highly readable way. Brody examines the development of emotional experience and expression in the family and the intimate connections between emotion, familial relationships, and gender. Brody's tremendous breadth of scholarship shows in every chapter, and her thoughtful, comprehensive, and insightful responses to the complex questions in the field are a must read for students and scholars alike. --Amy G. Halberstadt, North Carolina State University Leslie Brody provides a careful evaluation of the research data on precisely what the gender differences are--and are not--in emotional experience and expression, but that is only the first strength of her book. With an original and complex transactional theory, she shows how physiological, relational and cultural factors interact in creating gender differences in emotion, and reminds us how peculiar it is to try--as psychologists have!-- to make much of any single factor. Gender, Emotion, and the Family outlines a compelling research agenda that will move the next generation of empirical studies to a new and much more exciting level. --Abigail Stewart, Professor of Psychology and Women's Studies, University of Michigan An invaluable resource for researchers on all aspects of the psychology and sociology of gender, Gender, Emotion, and the Family comprehensively synthesizes and re-analyzes the enormous research literature on supposed gender differences in emotional expression. Leslie Brody offers a clear and compelling critique of the widespread belief that males and females have essentially different emotional styles. Arguing that apparent gender differences in emotion are closely related to gender differences in dominance and power, Brody illuminates the great diversity of experience and behavior found among members of the same sex, and reminds us of the powerful role played by stereotypes in dictating emotions that men and women should display, and the pressures they feel to conform to those stereotypes. --Elizabeth Aries, Amherst College Brody has formidable mastery of this burgeoning field. Gender, Emotion, and the Family offers new theoretical insights for lay readers and fellow scholars alike. Highly readable, responsible, and original, this will be the major work on the socialization of emotion for a long time to come. --Judith A. Hall, Northeastern University Leslie Brody provides a careful evaluation of the research data on precisely what the gender differences are--and are not--in emotional experience and expression, but that is only the first strength of her book. With an original and complex transactional theory, she shows how physiological, relational and cultural factors interact in creating gender differences in emotion, and reminds us how peculiar it is to try--as psychologists have!-- to make much of any single factor. Gender, Emotion, and the Family outlines a compelling research agenda that will move the next generation of empirical studies to a new and much more exciting level. --Abigail Stewart, University of Michigan
Donald R. McCreary and Joan C. Chrisler The Development of Gender Studies in Psychology Studies of sex differences are as old as the ?eld of psychology, and they have been conducted in every sub?eld of the discipline. There are probably many reasons for the popularity of these studies, but three reasons seem to be most prominent. First, social psychological studies of person perception show that sex is especially salient in social groups. It is the ?rst thing people notice about others, and it is one of the things we remember best (Fiske, Haslam, & Fiske, 1991; Stangor, Lynch, Duan, & Glass, 1992). For example, people may not remember who uttered a witty remark, but they are likely to remember whether the quip came from a woman or a man. Second, many people hold ?rm beliefs that aspects of physiology suit men and women for particular social roles. Men’s greater upper body strength makes them better candidates for manual labor, and their greater height gives the impression that they would make good leaders (i. e. , people we look up to). Women’s reproductive capacity and the caretaking tasks (e. g. , breastfeeding, baby minding) that accompany it make them seem suitable for other roles that require gentleness and nurturance. Third, the logic that underlies hypothesis testing in the sciences is focused on difference. Researchers design their studies with the hope that they can reject the null hypothesis that experimental groups do not differ.
A large segment of the population struggles with feelings of being detached from themselves and their loved ones. They feel flawed, and blame themselves. Running on Empty will help them realize that they're suffering not because of something that happened to them in childhood, but because of something that didn't happen. It's the white space in their family picture, the background rather than the foreground. This will be the first self-help book to bring this invisible force to light, educate people about it, and teach them how to overcome it.
At the Heart of Work and Family presents original research on work and family by scholars who engage and build on the conceptual framework developed by well-known sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild. These concepts, such as "the second shift," "the economy of gratitude," "emotion work," "feeling rules," "gender strategies," and "the time bind," are basic to sociology and have shaped both popular discussions and academic study. The common thread in these essays covering the gender division of housework, childcare networks, families in the global economy, and children of consumers is the incorporation of emotion, feelings, and meaning into the study of working families. These examinations, like Hochschild's own work, connect micro-level interaction to larger social and economic forces and illustrate the continued relevance of linking economic relations to emotional ones for understanding contemporary work-family life.
In this treatment manual, Adele Lafrance, Katherine A. Henderson, and Shari Mayman provide mental health professionals with guidelines for implementing emotion-focused family therapy (EFFT), an exciting new intervention in which caregivers are the primary healing agents in their loved one's treatment. EFFT was initially created to treat eating disorders, and then developed into a transdiagnostic approach that can be applied to any emotion- or behavior-based disorder with various relationship dynamics across the lifespan, including parent-child relationships (even if the child is an adult) and romantic partnerships. The authors describe how to teach caregivers advanced skills for supporting their loved ones through emotion and behavior coaching. Therapists will also learn collaborative strategies for strengthening healing bonds between the caregiver and the loved one and healing relational ruptures. Techniques for processing caregivers' emotional blocks are also explored, as are methods for clinicians to work through their own blocks via supervision. Vivid case examples illustrate the implementation of EFFT in a wide variety of realistic scenarios. Clinical handouts are included in the appendices, which are also available under clinician and practitioner resources.
This aim of this open access book is to launch an international, cross-disciplinary conversation on fatherhood engagement. By integrating perspective from three sectors -- Health, Social Policy, and Work in Organizations -- the book offers a novel perspective on the benefits of engaged fatherhood for men, for families, and for gender equality. The chapters are crafted to engaged broad audiences, including policy makers and organizational leaders, healthcare practitioners and fellow scholars, as well as families and their loved ones.
