Lisa Wade

Provides an introduction to the sociology of gender. Answers questions students usually bring  to the course in readable chapters that are packed with the most up-to-date scholarship available. Uses memorable examples mined from pop culture, history, psychology, biology, and everyday life to truly engage students in the study of gender and spark interest in sociological perspectives.

Explores how the idea of culture is mobilized in discursive contexts. Argues that this is crucial for both theorizing and building multicultural democracies.

Situates hookup culture within the history of sexuality, the evolution of higher education, and the unfinished feminist revolution. Maps out a punishing emotional landscape marked by unequal pleasures, competitions for status, and sexual violence, and discovers that the most privileged students tend to like hookup culture the most. Considers the effects of hookup culture on racial and sexual minorities, students who "opt out", and those who participate ambivalently.

Discredits the common explanations for the difference in frequency of orgasm for men and women who have heterosexual sex that women are somehow bad at orgasms. Offers alternative explanations for the gendered asymmetry in this one type of sexual pleasure.

Introduces students to the social science of gender through highlighting new and emerging work. Concludes with a discussion guide and group activities section that challenges readers to draw connections between the chapters, think more deeply and critically about culture and social life, and link to ongoing conversations and interactive posts online.

Reviews new developments in the biological sciences, in the sub-fields of genetics, hormones, and neuroscience, with special attention to the implications for sociologists interested in gender.