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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]

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.