Gendered Lives: Communication, Gender and Culture

Gendered Lives is designed as an undergraduate textbook focusing on the complex relationship among communication, gender, and culture in contemporary North America. Wood’s aim is to help her readers understand that gendered issues are both personal and political, reflecting widespread cultural biases. Echoing her belief that gender inequities are socially constructed and harmful to society, Wood’s book features three distinguishing features: (1) it reflects a diversity of human voices straddling classes, ethnicities, races, and sexual orientations; (2) by use of inclusive language that recognizes women, and lesbians and gays, the book is designed to be accessible to all readers; and (3) the book is interspersed throughout with the narratives of male and female undergraduates.

Gendered Lives is a timely book, appearing when gender roles on campus are conflicted and often controversial—witness recent debates across North American campuses concerning date rape, sexual correctness, and gender equity; and the increase in courses and textbooks addressing issues of gender, feminism, masculinity, and gay and lesbian culture. It is a good rejoinder to those young women who say, “I’m not a feminist, but . . . ,” and should also be enjoyed equally by their male counterparts.

Through patient and lucid explanations, Wood provides an exhaustive survey of the essential literature on gender, feminism, psychology, sociology, education, and the various facets of communication—including speech communication and mass media studies. Each chapter is punctuated with the narratives of students, and concludes with discussion questions. Both a glossary and extensive bibliography are provided which expedite the research strategies of undergraduates.

Part 1, “Conceptual Foundations,” sets out the key concepts that form the framework of the book—definitions of gender, culture, and communication. These include explorations of the different images of masculinity and femininity and how they are influenced by culture; the creation of gender identity through communication; and how we use communication to express our masculinity and femininity in interpersonal interactions. Theoretical approaches to gender development that Wood examines encompass the biological, interpersonal influences (psychodynamic and psychological views), and cultural perspectives (anthropological, symbolic interactionism, and standpoint theory).

Part 2, “Creating Gendered Identities,” surveys formative influences on gender identity, such as parenting, schools, and peer relationships. A historical survey of the women’s and men’s movements and their various ideologies are explicated, including recent rhetorical movements such as the (male) mythopoetic movement, backlash politics as documented by Susan Faludi in her book of the same name, and ecofeminism. The chapters on gendered verbal and non-verbal communication explore a range of ways in which these communicative styles intersect with gender and culture.

Part 3, “Gendered Communication in Practice,” considers four sites: intimate relationships, education, the mass media, and organizational communication. The chapter on media, however, shows the limitations of packing a huge subject into a small chapter. For instance, in her discussion of pornography and its relationship to male violence against women, Wood does not mention that this body of empirical research has reached conflicting and inconsistent conclusions. Further, she does not mention the impassioned pornography debates between feminists, with anti-pornography feminists, who contend that pornography is sex discrimination, on one side; and “anti-anti-porn” feminists, who distrust censorship and fear that freedom of speech rights will be abridged, on the other side. Given that pornography has become an almost de rigueur topic in academia now, generating a bustling cornucopia of theoretical inquisitions, governmental commissions, public policy debates, and attempted anti-porn legislation in North America, there is a bounty of material Wood could have covered.

Another site of gendered practice which Wood did not include is technology. There is now a rich literature focusing on the intersection between gender and technology, perhaps first brought to the attention of communication scholars by Lana Rakow’s work. A recent focus of research has been on gendered practices within computer-mediated-communication (CMC), including analyses of interpersonal and group discourse practices on computer bulletin boards and mailing lists. As well, the literature on reproductive technologies certainly provides ample examples of gendered and class-based practices. Given the breadth of Wood’s research, these omissions are somewhat puzzling.

The examples Wood uses to illustrate her narrative are characteristic of her U.S. viewpoint; for instance, the company maternity leave policies discussed reflect the different social policies (or the lack thereof ) south of the Canadian border. And, given the currency of much of Wood’s citations, some oversights are understandable—for instance, the controversial opinions of Princeton University student, Katie Roiphe, on date rape are not mentioned.

Despite these limitations, Gendered Lives is notable for being an exceptionally clear textbook. Some readers might object to her tone of narrative; at times it seems that Wood is almost being too patronizing and nice. But the ultimate message of Wood’s book should not be lost on undergraduates: “What gender and culture will mean in the future is up to you” (p. 310), she says, and Gendered Lives is a good introduction to these issues.