Abstract
Q: How can something as mundane as clear nail polish and salmon-colored shoes create dissent?
A: If they’re worn by a man or a boy!
The gender structure and how millennials grapple with it are the main focus of Barbara Risman’s new book. This is pioneering work that examines the lives of this particular generation through the gender lens. The book describes the gender structure—a fragile, yet persistent, social structure—and how it manifests itself in millennials’ lives and vividly shows us how little it takes to rock this structure, thereby creating crisis tendencies. The author also illustrates how the female body, in a climate in which women are told they can accomplish anything, is a target for sexism and misogyny. Females in particular express gender through their bodies, yet are taught simultaneously to hate their bodies.
The book comprises 10 chapters. Following a comprehensive introduction, Chapter 2 provides a critical and concise overview of nature/nurture arguments, citing new and relevant research, but the author’s main focus is on expanding her own theory on the gender structure (Risman, 1998), while factoring in previous criticisms. Chapter 3 places millennials, an under-researched demographic, in context by citing previous findings and counter-arguments. Chapter 4 discusses 116 life-history narratives from a volunteer and convenience sample of participants living or currently visiting the large Chicagoland area. Most are working-class college students or recent graduates between the ages of 18 and 30. The chapter discusses how the interviews were conducted and analyzed, referencing much-appreciated appendices with an interview schedule and a coding scheme that help illuminate the data collection and analysis and can be read as an invitation to replicate the research in other contexts.
The book’s main text, Chapters 5–8, analyzes the narratives, which are split into four categories: 30 true believers who follow tradition when it comes to the gender structure; 21 innovators who strive to undo gender by breaking the connection between what is traditionally viewed as masculine/feminine in male/female bodies; 17 rebels who challenge the gender structure and whose narratives form the highlight of the analysis; and 48 straddlers whose inconsistencies in their descriptions regarding the gender structure are the only thing they have in common.
The participants—more than two-thirds female and six trans—are diverse in terms of ethnicity, race, religion, and sexual and gender identity, but other variables of difference, such as disability, do not enter the analysis. These chapters are, for the most part, structured the same way—leading the reader from micro- to interactional (meso) and finally to macro-level analysis, illustrating how the gender structure manifests itself in participants’ lives along these levels of analysis.
Chapter 9 summarizes and contextualizes the four groups, and Chapter 10 suggests moving beyond gender itself and, as a start, how this can be achieved through individual change that can lead—through feminist solidarity and under the best of circumstances—to social change.
The book is written for scholars and undergraduates alike, in an accessible language and style, and has a pedagogical structure to always keep the reader on track. The book seems to be aimed at US readers in particular, as a certain “cultural” literacy is called for, evident in how abbreviations are presented without any further explanations (e.g., “ROTC,” “4-H,” and “CTA”).
The concept hegemonic masculinity is referenced throughout the text (citing Connell, 1987; 1995), sometimes conflated with “traditional masculinity” and discussed as a monolithic entity or a set of toxic traits. Missing from the analysis are Connell and Messerschmidt’s (2005) revisions of the concept, opening up the possibility for hegemonic masculinity that is responsive to equality with women—a possible reformist outcome of crisis tendencies created within the gender structure.
The participants are introduced in tables at the beginning of the respective chapters, with their pseudonyms, gender, sexual identity, race, religion, and immigration status provided. What is missing from these tables are family status (children or childless), residence status (living with family of origin, friends, etc.), and age. Age in this regard is an important characteristic, as the 18–30 age range cited is quite wide (my single 18-year-old self would have interviewed quite differently than my 30-year-old mother self!).
The analysis sometimes lacks depth. For example, bullying is mentioned on several occasions, citing participants’ lived experiences, but no mention is made of its gendered aspects—i.e., gendered bullying and harassment—to put their experiences in a theoretical context. The same goes for femininity, as this reader notices a lack of references to emphasized femininity (Connell, 1987) to put some of the females’ experiences in context.
All in all, these shortcomings leave the reader wondering: “What else is missing?” I also wonder whether richer descriptions and greater theoretical density would give the reader a stronger sense of “knowing” and caring for the participants, a hallmark of qualitative research. Regarding the author’s vision for the future, no mention is made of feminism being hijacked by neoliberalism and women who serve the gender structure, convinced that it is their own free and feminist choice (Rottenberg, 2018).
Despite these shortcomings, this reviewer applauds the author for taking on the task of looking into the future, that is, “Where will the millennials take us?” I heartily agree with the author’s views in this passage: One indisputable fact is that social structures do change over time, including gender structures. My goal as a feminist scholar is to understand how and why, so that change that liberates us all from gendered constraints can be instigated and supported. (p. 36)
To conclude, I want to believe that change is coming, but the evidence presented here is not convincing, as both the theoretical and methodological parts of the analysis are somewhat lacking at times. Nevertheless, I encourage myself and researchers worldwide to take up Risman’s offer, using the interview schedule and coding scheme provided to conduct similar research, so that with evidence from the Global South and Global North, we can collectively dismantle the gender structure.