When Sex Became Gender

Shira Tarrant is Assistant Professor of Women's Studies at California State University, Long Beach. She received her PhD in Political Science from the University of California, Los Angeles.

• 1. Confronting the Bonds of Ideology: Feminist Theory in the Cold War Years 2. The Setting: Postwar Politics in Britain, France, and the United States 3. On the Path to Gender: Margaret Mead, Socialization, and Sex Role Ideology 4. Mirra Komarovsky: Functional Analysis and the Poignant Signs of Discontent 5. Viola Klein: Sociology of Knowledge and the So-Called Feminine Character 6. Simone de Beauvoir and The Second Sex 7. No Woman Is an Island: Ruth Herschberger and Postwar Pollination 8. When Sex Became Gender

"Contrary to Conventional wisdom, Shira Tarrant argues that feminism didn't languish between the 1920s and 1960s. Instead the conceptual foundations of second-wave feminism were created by a wave of extraordinarily imaginative and bold academic women in the early postwar years. In this original and indispensable book, Tarrant uncovers a crucial missing chapter in the history of modern feminism."Steven Seidman, author of Beyond the Closet"It is an essential addition to second-wave feminist studies in the US."H.G. Kong, Indiana University, Choice