Woman's nature: Rationalizations of inequality (The Athene series)

178 Pages·1983·30.496 MB·English

by  Marion Lowe (editor), Ruth Hubbard (editor)

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Woman's Nature
Rationalizations of Inequality
Marian Lowe
Boston University
Ruth Hubbard
Harvard University
Pergamon Press
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Copyright © 1983 Pergamon Press Inc.
Second printing, 1984.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Main entry under title:
Woman's nature.
(Athene series)
Includes index.
Contents: Introduction/Marian Lowe & Ruth
Hubbard--Social effects of some contemporary myths
about women/ Ruth Hubbard-Women's nature and
scientific objectivity / Elizabeth Fee--[etc.J
1. Women-Social conditions--Addresses, essays,
lectures. 2. Equality--Addresses, essays, lectures.
3. Femlnism--Addresses, essays, lectures.
4. Rationalization (Psychology)--Addresses, essays,
lectures. I. Hubbard, Ruth, 1924- . II. Lowe,
Marian. Ill. Series
HQ1206.W865 1983 305.4 83-4066
ISBN 0-08-030143-6
ISBN 0-08-030142-8 (pbk.)
All Rights reserved. No part of //11s publication may be reproduced.
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elecrronic. elecr,osratic, magne11c rape, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or orherw1se. without permission 1n wr,t1ng from the
publishers
Printed In the United Slates of America
Contents
LIST OF FIGURES vu
INTRODUCTION - Marian Lowe and Ruth Hubbard 1X
Chapter
l SOCIAL EFFECTS OF SOME CONTEMPORARY
MYTHS ABOUT WOMEN
Ruth Hubbard l
2 WOMEN'S NATURE AND SCIENTIFIC
OBJECTIVITY
Elizabeth Fee 9
3 BLACK WOMEN AS PRODUCERS AND REPRODUCERS
FOR PROFIT
Dorothy Burnham 29
4 THE DIALECTIC OF BIOLOGY AND CULTURE
Marian Lowe 39
5 INDIAN WOMEN: TRIBAL IDENTITY AS
STATUS QUO
Beatrice Medicine 63
6 THE SCIENTIFIC MYSTIQUE: CAN A WHITE
LAB COAT GUARANTEE PURITY IN THE
SEARCH FOR KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THE
NATURE OF WOMEN?
Karen Messing 75
v1 CONTENTS
7 FEMINIST ANALYSIS OF GENDER: A CRITIQUE
Joan Smith 89
8 IDEOLOGIES OF MALE DOMINANCE AS DIVIDE
AND RULE POLITICS: AN ANTHROPOLOGIST'S
VIEW
Eleanor Leacock 111
9 ORIGINS OF THE SEXUAL DIVISION OF LABOR
Lila Leibowitz 123
INDEX 149
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS 153
List of Figures
Figure
I Furniture Workers, Memphis, Tennessee Vlll
II Welders from "Good Work, Sister!" Women
sh.ipyard workers of World War II.
XlV
III Women Students in the Laboratory of the
International Institute for Girls
in Spain (1920) 10
IV Cotton Picker, Age Ten, Bolivar County,
Mississippi 28
V United Mine Workers, Buchanan County,
Virginia 40
VI STANDING WIND, "A Girlhood Chum of Chief
Gall's" 64
VII Garment Worker, Long Island City, New York 74
VIII Maids, Black River Falls, Wisconsin (c. 1905) 90
IX Marie and Michel Bastien, Northwest River,
Labrador (1951) 110
X Tongan Woman Painting Bark Cloth 122
Fig. I. Furniture Workers, Memphis, Tennessee. Photograph by Earl
rinttpr / A rnPr ir::in 1 "'h,,.,..