Gender Threat American Masculinity in the Face of Change

"This fascinating study reveals how threats to traditional masculine identities can fuel political polarization and anti-female backlash, but also shows that some men respond by reworking their definitions of masculinity in positive, egalitarian ways."-Stephanie Coontz, author of A Strange Stirring: The Feminine Mystique and American Women at the Dawn of the 1960s "This compelling, highly readable, wide-ranging book deftly maps the shifting terrain of American masculinity and the complex relationship between men's identities and social behavior. Masculinity is dangerous, but fragile; based on traditional roles, but highly adaptable. As Besen-Cassino and Cassino illustrate, this malleability also sows the seeds of social change."-Philip N. Cohen, University of Maryland "This timely, well-researched social scientific study is based on the premise that men perceive themselves to be less advantaged than they once were compared to women and, in response, engage in what the authors describe as compensatory acts, sensing a threat to their masculinity. ... Recommended."-S. J. Bronner, CHOICE