MARGARET MEAD'S `MALE AND FEMALE' REVISITED

Abstract

The book Male and Female, originally published in 1949, has been hailed as an early work of feminism. However, its connotations and objections were different in three respects from contemporary sociology of gender. First, the book envisaged gender as a male-female relationship which is socially structured albeit biologically based. Second, the book followed on from Mead's work anticipating political reconstruction for Germany (and Japan) as it was prepared in various contexts during World War II. Third, the book may be placed in a biographical female-male situation of Mead's life with Gregory Bateson in the 1930s and 1940s (including The Importance of Dr Spock). The article reconstructs these three frames of reference into which the book belongs.