Mismeasure of Woman: Why Women Are Not the Better Sex, the Inferior Sex, or the Opposite Sex

by Carol Tavris

Book Overview

When "man is the measure of all things," woman is forever trying to measure up. In this enlightening book, Carol Tavris unmasks the widespread but invisible custom -- pervasive in the social sciences, medicine, law, and history -- of treating men as the normal standard, women as abnormal. Tavris expands our vision of normalcy by illuminating the similarities between women and men and showing that the real differences lie not in gender, but in power,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0671797492
• ISBN13: 9780671797492
• Release Date: February 1993
• Publisher: Touchstone Books
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.5" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Amazing book!!

This book was very interesting. I think any one interested in women’s history or women’s health would benefit from reading this. I am really glad I read this book!! Pages 20&21 are must reads! Anyone who is involved in the legal system in anyway should read pages 107-115. Chapter 5 is a must read!! Chapter 7 is an eye opener. It talks about how women are blamed for more than their fair share in marital problems and child rearing. At times it feels like this is being justified. I think it feels that way because it is facts and statistics more than anything. I think this is a really important chapter to read. It might be one of the most valuable chapters of any book I have read. Pages 326-333 are must reads!!!

Equality of outcome, not uniformity of treatment

It isn't necessary to agree with everything in this witty book to realize that its subject - male bias - is crucial to our understanding of ourselves as humans. It is such an obvious, if overlooked, fact that using the male as the standard of normalcy for humans is illogical. Tavris exposes the confusion between gender equality and gender sameness. Women and men do differ because of differences in reproduction and these lead to differences in health issues, life experiences, access to resources etc etc. When Tavris shows the results of using the female as the norm then female bias becomes obvious. Men become selfish with inflated self-esteem, narcissistic, inflexible etc etc and possibly many should be diagnosed with Delusional Dominating Personality Disorder. Not being able to see the male bias in so much of the debate about equality is surely a major block to its achievement. Imposing a male standard on both sexes does not lead to equal consequences for the sexes. As parents recognize the differences between their children, treating them equally does not mean treating them uniformly as if they are the same. This recognition of male bias and the difference between equality and sameness is essential. It is something so obvious that it is hard to believe we have been so blind to it for so long - a case of not being able to see the wood for the trees. Of course dominant groups are always in a position to impose their own perspective, experience and values as the norm and subordinate groups can be caught in the trap of either trying to prove they are the same or accept their difference and their consequent poor treatment. Some might attempt to assert their difference as superior, too, as some women do (and perhaps many more do in private). Tavris warns against all these outcomes of inequality and leads us to the acknowledgement of difference and a change of focus from equal/same treatment to equality of outcome.

A classic on women's identity & power

Carol Tavris, Ph.D., is a social psychologist who lectures and writes on many aspects of psychology. Her brilliant book, Anger: the Misunderstood Emotion, is a classic, and this book promises to become one, too.In Mismeasure of Woman, Dr. Tavris carefully exposes the origins and structure of the prevailing habit of virtually all societies, even our so-called "enlightened" one, of describing men--particularly socially powerful men--as the "norm" and derogatorily measuring women in comparison to them. Dr. Tavris's direct, concise, highly readable prose is filled with documented examples showing that the differences between men and women are not primarily biological. Instead, they are created by socially mandated discrepancies in power, resource allocation and life experience.Though many feminists have written about the relegating of women to penis-envying, second-class men, I consider Dr. Tavris one of the most clear and persuasive of those speaking out against this "mismeasure of woman." In this book, I believe she does a better job of describing the extent of the problem, and is very inspiring in brainstorming possible solutions.

A very important and thought-provoking book!

This book is an excellent analysis of women's roles and status in our culture today -- and a roadmap for making some very necessary changes. I agree with the reader from Dallas that this is not a book for people looking for support during their recovery from abuse (eight years ago I couldn't have read this book -- I was too busy in therapy, digging up painful aspects of my own childhood, and couldn't have comfortably considered her theses about some of the problems inherent in certain modern approaches to recovery).Rather, it is an analytical book that takes aim at _many_ different aspects of our culture and reveals how they play into perpetuating power iniquities. I definitely squirmed a couple of times while reading this book, when my own sacred cows were being gored, but ultimately I found myself persuaded. Very much worth your time and consideration, even if you don't agree with every point she makes.

One of the best gender books I've read

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in gender issues, and even those who aren't. It's very well put together. No, men and women aren't the same in all ways, and no, men aren't the norm and aren't the standard setters. We've probably all heard that women smile more than men or smile "too much" yet it could be that men don't smile enough! A simple point, yet one of many in her well written and researched book. The reader from CA is looking for compassion in this book, but it's not a theraputic book per se. The author's point of view is that women get stuck in being victims and it becomes their only identity and their only lense. Her point is that support groups can help but if women stay in the victim role for too long, they will focus inwardly on themselves and not realize some of the things that they're angry about are real - not just a reaction as an incest victim that's to be handled within themselves in therapy, but real injustice or not being treated with respect that needs to be dealt with.

Excellent look at how science studies women

An analysis of the way science views women, this book has three main points: Women are not inferior to men, women are not superior to men, and women are not the same as men.I read this book in college and almost immediately used a small portion of it in my final project for Human Sexuality. From my own research, I learned that the author's analysis of my topic (the G-Spot) agreed with the primary sources. I do not doubt that the rest of the book is just as accurate.The reviewer who said that the author does not address the issue of abuse properly doesn't understand what the book is really about. It certainly is not about abuse, incest, or the like, nor what to do when you are recovering from it. It is about SCIENCE, and examples of biased interpretations of the same.