Framed by Gender: How Gender Inequality Persists in the Modern World By Cecilia L. Ridgeway Oxford University Press. 2011. 248 pages. $24.95 paper

Abstract

In Framed by Gender: How Gender Inequality Persists in the Modern World, Cecilia Ridgeway has given a true gift to the field of gender inequality. The book moves the field forward in a number of ways. First, whereas many studies focus either on the workplace or the household as sites of gender-role reproduction and negotiation, Ridgeway provides a theoretical framework to explain gender inequality in both of these spheres. Second, research on gender inequality has been dominated by a structural framework and what Andrew Abbott (1997) has termed “variable-based analysis.” While Ridgeway's analysis is arguably a deeply institutional one, cultural understandings of gender take center stage and processes assume pride of place over variables in her book. Third, Ridgeway draws on a breathtaking array of fields to substantiate her theoretical perspective, from social and cognitive psychology to evolutionary psychology, from cultural anthropology to studies of labor market gender stratification to sociological inquiries into the private sphere of the household and intimate relations. The book's bibliography is a treasure trove of high-quality studies in all of these fields, representing much of the best social scientific work on gender in recent decades. Fourth, and most important, Ridgeway shows us a new path to follow in research and teaching on gender, a point to which I will return below.