The gender of psychology

"Gender of Psychology" is a South African based textbook looking at the relationship between gender and psychology.

Psychology as a discipline has historically been criticised for perpetuating sexism, reproducing gender inequality and neglecting women's and other marginalised perspectives.

There has been an increasing attempt internationally to provide a critical gender analysis of the discipline and practice, and to theorise the contributions that psychology may indeed make to addressing such issues.

This collection of chapters, contextualised within contemporary South Africa, attempts to span the diversity of psychological knowledge and practice through the lens of gender.

The text is divided into three broad key sections. The first is a section entitled (Re)production of knowledge in psychology.

It includes chapters that focus on gendered issues relating to knowledge production, research, authorship and publishing in psychology.

The second section is entitled De/re-constructing psychological knowledge about gender. This section addresses key areas of psychology that have theorised and researched gender issues, critically reflecting on the ways in which psychology has set itself up as an authority on issues of gender and sexuality - frequently to the detriment of women and other gender/sexual minorities.

The final section looks at some of the professional areas of psychology, critically assessing the extent to which the applied aspects of psychology are sensitive to gender difference, as well as exploring the ways in which psychology has tended to reproduce relations of power and control and perpetuate normative, oppressive practices with respect to gender, sex and sexuality.

Written in an accessible and interactive format, the text should stimulate critical and applied thinking.