Gender Structure Book

While the study of  gender has become legitimate and even central to  the field of sociology,  the conceptualization of the term “gender” remains  remarkably vague and disputed.  In this book,  Professor Risman traces the history of ideas and development of the use of gender in sociological theory, and analysis.  She then offers her own feminist theory of gender as a social structure. The book provides elaboration of how gender is constructed and sometimes deconstructed  at the individual, interactional and institutional levels. By reviewing the articles and projects which have used her theory, Professor Risman revises her argument about how social change towards gender equality might effectively occur.  She ends with a utopian vision for a  society that has moved beyond gender. 

Feminists Wrestle with Testosterone

In a research study co-authored with Shannon Davis,  Professor Risman is re-analyzing  data which suggests  “biological constraints on gender.”  This analysis uses longitudinal quantitative data to assess the relative causal impact of hormones experienced in utero, remembered  parental socialization, and the  demand characteristics of adult social roles on women's self-reported sense of personality traits such as aggressiveness, nurturance,  and ambition (e.g.  usually labeled femininity and masculinity).  While the authores   predicted immediate life factors would be the most powerful,  childhood socialization effects are most predictive of current self-reports of gendered personality taits.  There remains a small but statistical effect of hormones in utero on self-reports of adult women.  The research was discussed in a panel on Gender and Biology at the 2011 meetings of the American Sociological Association.



The "Hooking Up" Project

Professor Risman has a current  research project  collaborating with three graduate students and a group of undergraduates to investigate the  college “hook up” culture. While recent  studies document the  emergence of hooking up as a new sexual script among college students, most of the research is based on white middle-class students at residential universities. Dr. Risman  broadens this research with her study on a diverse group of undergraduates at UIC,  an urban campus where more than half the students commute. In 2008, Dr. Risman brought the Online College Social Life Survey (OCSLS) led by NYU Professor Paula England,  a national investigation of collegiate social life, to UIC. The quantitative data collection is complete with over two thousand students participating. The next prase of the research, in collaboration with her research assistant Rachel Allison, has been to conduct  semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 76 undergraduates. The most recent phase of the project, in collaboration with graduate students Amanda Stewart and Ray Sin has targeted undergraduates who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or queer for in-depth interviews. To date, over 100 total interviews have been conducted. Analysis is now proceeding.  The first paper  explores   sexual attitudes among the national OCSLS sample,  with a particular interest in whether participating in mainstream campus organizations such as  Greek life  or varsity athletics creates social networks that influence attitudes towards, and experiences with, hooking up. The second paper currently under process  relys on mixed qualitative and quantitative data to understand the diversity of  women’s sexual attitudes and experiences across class backgrounds and racial identities.  Future work aims to spotlight the sexual experiences of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and queer young adults. The project is on-going.


Kids Equality Talk


Professor Risman and a team of graduate students at North Carolina State University completed ethnographic observations at a middle school and interviews with a racially diverse group of 44 middle-school children in a small southeastern city of the United States.  The focus of this research was how children just coming  into adolescence make sense of the gender and racial dynamics of the world around them. The research was a collaborative project with graduate students both at North Carolina State University and at University of Illinois at Chicago. One paper published in Families as they Really Are (Risman, 2011, Norton)  co-authored with Elizabeth Seale illustrates that girls have come a long way in terms of being willing to compete with boys in the classroom and as athletes on the field, but seem to have exaggerated concern with doing  femininity through bodily display.   Boys  peer groups constrained boys to avoid anything perceived to be feminine,  or to risk being labeled as gay, and ridiculed with  homophobic taunts. Thus boys’ gender performance was constrained by peer ridicule and stigma whereas girls had begun to undo gender except when it comes to how they focus on presenting their bodily images.

While other research has suggested that children in the 21st Century claim to be  colorblind, most children  in this  study claimed race matters. They offer alternative accounts for how and why.  Some explain race as social inequality, while others offer cultural accounts of racial differences that are either based on racial negative stereotypes or descriptive perceived cultural differences.  These interview  data suggest that among  white children, girls far more likely to  see racial inequality, while  boys offer cultural explanations for why race differences.  This research, co-authored with Pallavi Banerjee,  has been presented at meetings of the Midwest Sociological Society, and the American Sociological Association.  It is  is currently under review for publication.    A methodological article based on this research is also under preparation with co-authors Professors Tricia McTague and Carissa Froyum.
   
Download Barbara's CV here: RismanCV

Research Interests: Gender Inequality, Families, Feminist Activism, and Public Sociology 
Recent Courses: 
  • Feminist Thought
  • Sociology of Gender
  • Sociology of the Family 
  • Contemporary Social Theory
  • Introduction to Sociology: a Blended Learning Exprience

Selected Publications:

Risman. 2011. “Gender as Structure or Trump Card?” Journal of Family Theory & Review 3:1.

Risman, Barbara J. (Ed.) 2010. Families as They Really Are. W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. 

2010 Risman, Barbara J. and Elizabeth Seale. "Betwixt and Between: Gender Contradictions in Middle School." In Families as They Really Are, edited by B Risman. New York, NY: Norton Publishers.

Risman, Barbara J. 2009. "From Doing to Undoing: Gender as We Know It." Gender & Society 23:1.

Risman, Barbara. 2006. “Feminist Strategies for Public Sociology:” In Public Sociologies Reader, edited by Judith Blau and Keri Lyall Smith. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.

Risman, Barbara J. 2004. "Gender as a Social Structure: Theory Wrestling with Activism." Gender & Society.

Risman, Barbara J., and Pepper Schwartz. 2002. “After the Sexual Revolution: Gender Politics in Teen Dating,” Contexts 1:1.
Reprinted in Sciences Humaines, Sept. 2002 (France).

Risman, Barbara J. 1998. Gender Vertigo: American Families in Transition. Yale University Press.