The Mismeasure of Woman

by Carol Tavris

Book Overview

The author of the bestseller Anger: The Misunderstood Emotion challenges the false assumptions that govern how we think about women and men, and dissects the myths that perpetuate misunderstandings. Tavris then moves the discussion beyond us-them arguments, and forces us to think anew about how women and men together can create the lives, the loves, and the society we most want.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0671662740
• ISBN13: 9780671662745
• Release Date: March 1992
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Length: 398 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.6" x 9.6"

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!!!

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.