When Sex Became Gender

How did the term "sex" develop into "gender"? And is it really true that a vibrant feminist movement disappeared entirely after suffrage gains were won, only to suddenly resurface in the late 1960s? Conventional wisdom tells us that feminism died in the mid-1940s when women left their wartime factory jobs to return home. But this version of the story is not entirely true. When Sex Became Gender brings to light dominant ideas about sex roles and the feminist critiques these generated in the years between World War II and the women's liberation movement in the late 1960s. While discussing the famous feminist scholars-Simone de Beauvoir, Margaret Mead-the book also hinges on the work of scholars who are lesser known to American audiences-Mirra Komarovsky, Viola Klein, and Ruth Herschberger. In contrast with current books that reinforce the divisions, disagreements, and disappearances between feminist generations, this book highlights the continuities between postwar interest in sex roles and contemporary arguments about gender. By establishing the historical and theoretical connections between feminist eras, Tarrant shows how protofeminist ideas of the past served as the foundation for today's focus on the social construction of gender. Book jacket.

Shira Tarrant is Assistant Professor of Women's Studies at California State University, Long Beach