Feb 14, 2018
Claudia Cragg (@KGNUClaudia, for @KGNU) speaks with Barbara J. Risman (@bjrisman) to find out if today's young adults are gender rebels or returning to tradition?
In Where the Millennials Will Take Us, Risman reveals the diverse strategies youth use to negotiate the ongoing gender revolution.
Using her theory of gender as a social structure, Risman analyzes life history interviews with a diverse set of Millennials to probe how they understand gender and how they might change it.
Some are true believers that men and women are essentially different and should be so. Others are innovators, defying stereotypes and rejecting sexist ideologies and organizational practices.
Perhaps new to this generation are gender rebels who reject sex
categories, often refusing to present their bodies within them and
sometimes claiming genderqueer identities. And finally, many youths
today are simply confused by all the changes swirling around
them.
As a new generation contends with unsettled gender norms and
expectations, Risman reminds us that gender is much more than an
identity; it also shapes expectations in everyday life, and
structures the organization of workplaces, politics, and,
ideology.
To pursue change only in individual lives, Risman argues, risks the opportunity to eradicate both gender inequality and gender as a primary category that organizes social life.