When sex became gender /

Tarrant (women's studies, California State Univ., Long Beach) brings to light protofeminist theories and ideas that survived under the dominant postwar natalist rhetoric (which considered motherhood as the only and proper womanhood) in England, France, and the US between WW II and the women's liberation movement of the 1960s. The most valuable insight is the author's comparative approach to two well-known feminists (Margaret Mead and Simone de Beauvoir), lesser-known scholars (Mirra Komarovsky, Viola Klein, and Ruth Herschberger), and second-wave feminism pioneer Betty Friedan. Despite their different scholarly backgrounds, these intellectuals agreed that women were made, not born, through the social, cultural, ideological, and political conceptualizations of womanhood, maternity, and sex roles. By examining the origins and processes of sociopolitical inequality between men and women, they provided a stepping-stone for the next generation of feminists. Although this book discusses both English and French protofeminism, it is an essential addition to second-wave feminist studies in the US, along with Daniel Horowitz's Betty Friedan and the Making of The Feminine Mystique (CH, Mar'99, 36-4078) and Sara Evans's Tidal Wave (2003). Accessible writing style; extensive bibliography but no illustrations. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. H. G. Kong Indiana University