1st Edition

Rewriting the Sexual Contract

By Geoff Dench Copyright 1999
    310 Pages
    by Routledge

    310 Pages
    by Routledge

    This book brings together a wide selection of viewpoints on what is happening to relations between the sexes and the sexual division of labor in contemporary society. The contributors look at the ways in which gender relationships are changing, the consequences of these changes for family life and society generally, and the part the state should play in future developments. Rewriting the Sexual Contract encompasses the views of people with widely differing orientations, stretching across the moral and political spectrum.

    The contributors provide varied interpretations of what the recent sexual revolution means and where it may be leading us. The questions discussed include: Are the life-styles of men and women converging or polarizing? Do men and women place the same value on family life? Do most mothers want to work full-time while their children are young? Are families strengthened by a sense of differentiation and interdependence between the sexes? Does social policy need to recognize sexual differences in order to maximize social equality?

    The contributors represent a wide range of viewpoints, but are all involved in analyzing and influencing public attitudes in this area. They include Carole Pateman, Roger Scruton, Ruth Lister, Fay Weldon, Michael Young, and Barbara Cartland, among others. Rewriting the Sexual Contract examines issues pertinent to the current social and political culture and will be of interest to sociologists, gender studies scholars, and political theorists.

    Geoff Dench is a senior research fellow at the Institute of Community Studies and a visiting professor at Middlesex University. He is the author of Transforming Men and Minorities in the Open Society: Prisoners of Ambivalence.

    Where We Are Coming From; Beyond the Sexual Contract?; The Best Years of My Life: Trading Sex for Security; Family Roles from the Dawn to Dusk of the New Elizabethan Era 1; Nearing Full Circle in the Sexual Revolution; The State We Are In; Sex in the Commodity Culture; Was Feminism Wrong about the Family?; Evaluating the Effects on Children of Mothers’ Employment; The Fragility of Fatherhood; Fathers as Mothers: Lone Parenting for Men; Families after Separation: Equal Careers and Equal Parenting; The Father from Heaven; Patterns of Change in Gender-Role Attitudes 1; Sexual Divisions and the Distribution of Work in the Household; New Ties to Bind; Future Models & Options; Diversity and Choice in the Sexual Contract: Models for the 21st Century; Promoting Women’s Economic Independence 1; The Case for a Ministry of the Family; Putting Families at the Centre for Women; The Politics of the Family; Declaration of Peace between the Genders; A Manifesto for Men 1; What Do We Need Men For Anyway?; The Androgynous Generation; Rebuilding the African-Caribbean Family in Britain 1; Back to Basics and the Search for Love

    Biography

    Dench, Geoff