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[peacelovefloyd]

I recently got accepted into a MA program. I’m very excited! I want to study gender and ultimately write a thesis. :D

In between now and August, I would like to read some books on gender. Any recommendations?

Comments

[lostreality]

oh, ha, i see this is in sociologists, i thought it was in gradstudents when I wrote my comment. :)

But yeah, still stands- let me know what specifically you are interested in studying and I can let you know.

Also, since it seems you ARE a sociologist, I cannot say enough good things about joining the organization "sociologists for women in society" and getting on their listserv ASAP. Not only do you get the journal Gender & Society, which is the best gender journal out there, you also get to be on this awesome listserv where people like judith lorber sends out seemingly every newspaper article that deals with gender issues, and people trade videos and clips about gender for the classes they teach, and send out info on gender conferences and gender jobs, and compile lists of gender resources...basically it is THE place to be if you study gender- and it's a great way to keep up with the cutting edge discussions among feminist sociologists- pretty much every important feminist sociologist is on this listserv. I'm a bit too intimidated to post to the list more than rarely, but it is a great learning resource.

[peacelovefloyd]

That organization sounds amazing, I will definitely check it out in a minute!

Thanks for replying so soon! It has been a really long day for me, so I apologize if my comment doesn't make much sense. The program is disciplined based, and I am not sure about the approach I would be taking. Basically, right now, I am just trying to find some areas on gender that interest me and propose them to my advisor :) In my undergrad, I wrote my thesis* on eating disorders and body image, but I'm not too sure how a sociological approach would work on that. I'm just feeling a bit overwhelmed right now! I feel like I have some catching up to do, so if you can think of any more "staples" that would be wonderful!

*It was a psychology honors thesis. I double majored/minored. :)

[lostreality]

I wrote my very first sociology paper on eating disorders and deliberate self harm..there are several sociological ways of studying that, from discussing the specific groups in which these disorders are more likely to occur and how different background characteristics may affect likelihood of getting those eating disorders (a quantitative approach) to examining the media depiction of women and discussing how that media imagery can affect cultural perceptions of beauty (more qualitative).

I don't think you need to settle down on one area within gender yet and propose it already unless your adviser is specifically asking you to do that...i mean, it's important to think about what your thesis research will be on, but for now you want to orient yourself to the field and see where the important debates are happening, and where you might contribute to those debates. Most people in my program did not start off with a MA thesis idea, and some didn't even settle on a topic until half way through our second year (Which I do not recommend)

as for more staples..."The second shift" by arlie hochschild is a pretty important book in the area of housework/childcare and gender.

SWS also has some fact sheets on a bunch of different areas in sociology of gender, which may help when you are looking around for topics that interest you: http://www.socwomen.org/index.php?ss=25 . They just sent around the call for the next fact sheets they will be putting together and those are on the topics:
· Gender and Immigration
· Discrimination in the Academy
· Gender and Sport
· Gender and Environment
· Heteronormativity

Also, Gender & society has a website where they post the top 50 most read articles (updated monthly- my article is #43 this month, woo!). You may want to look through those articles, or just maybe read the abstracts, but it'll give you a good idea of what is going on in the field right now: http://gas.sagepub.com/reports/mfr1.dtl

[peacelovefloyd]

Most people in my program did not start off with a MA thesis idea, and some didn't even settle on a topic until half way through our second year (Which I do not recommend).

That makes me feel better! I'm definitely trying to avoid settling on a topic my second year. This is (mostly) a way for me to pass the time productively... since I hate my retail job, haha.

You are awesome for all these links, thank you very much.