Book1869
The Subjection of Women
John Stuart Mill
Argues that the legal and social subordination of women rests on custom dressed up as nature, and that it damages both sexes by suppressing half of human capacity.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Gender & Sexuality
How societies organise sex, gender and family roles.
9 topics · 9 curated works
Topics
- 01Foundations & Overviews1
- 02Gender Roles & Socialisation1
- 03Feminist Theory1
- 04Gender & Labour1
- 05Masculinity Studies1
- 06Sexuality Studies1
- 07Queer Theory1
- 08Gender & Politics1
- 09Comparative Gender Systems1
Reading in Gender & Sexuality
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The Subjection of Women
John Stuart Mill · 1869
Argues that the legal and social subordination of women rests on custom dressed up as nature, and that it damages both sexes by suppressing half of…
Then
Assumes you know the vocabulary.
Enfranchisement of Women
Harriet Taylor Mill · 1851
Argues that women's exclusion from political rights cannot be justified by their supposed nature, since that nature has never been observed under…
+4 more at this level
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Primary sources and full treatments.
Sexual Inversion
Havelock Ellis & John Addington Symonds · 1897
Argues that homosexuality is a natural variation rather than a moral vice or disease, an argument so controversial on publication that the book was…
+2 more at this level
9 works
Essay1851
Enfranchisement of Women
Harriet Taylor Mill
Argues that women's exclusion from political rights cannot be justified by their supposed nature, since that nature has never been observed under conditions of actual equality.
link checked 17 Sept 2026FreeIntermediate
Book1898
Women and Economics
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Argues that women's economic dependence on men is a social arrangement rather than a natural one, and that it distorts both marriage and the work women are permitted to do.
link checked 17 Sept 2026FreeIntermediate
Book1935
Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies
Margaret Mead
Argues, from three neighbouring New Guinea societies with three different gender arrangements, that masculine and feminine temperament are cultural constructions rather than biological givens.
link failing as of 17 Sept 2026FreeIntermediate
Paper1987
Doing Gender
Candace West & Don H. Zimmerman
Argues that gender is not a fixed trait people have but an ongoing accomplishment produced through everyday interaction, continually held accountable to normative conceptions of manhood and womanhood.
PaidIntermediate
Paper2005
Hegemonic Masculinity: Rethinking the Concept
R. W. Connell & James W. Messerschmidt
Reassesses the influential concept of hegemonic masculinity after fifteen years of use, arguing it should describe a contested, historically variable pattern of practice rather than a fixed male character type.
link checked 17 Sept 2026FreeIntermediate
Book1897
Sexual Inversion
Havelock Ellis & John Addington Symonds
Argues that homosexuality is a natural variation rather than a moral vice or disease, an argument so controversial on publication that the book was prosecuted as obscene and withdrawn in Britain.
link checked 17 Sept 2026FreeAdvanced
Paper1979
The Unhappy Marriage of Marxism and Feminism: Towards a More Progressive Union
Heidi Hartmann
Argues that Marxism explains capitalism's structure but is blind to gender, while radical feminism sees patriarchy but not capitalism, so the two must be combined to explain why capitalism and patriarchy jointly assign women to low-paid and unpaid labour.
link checked 17 Sept 2026FreeAdvanced
Essay1984
Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality
Gayle S. Rubin
Argues that sexuality has its own political economy of stigma and privilege, independent of gender oppression, and proposes a hierarchy that ranks sexual acts and identities as respectable or deviant regardless of their harm.
link checked 17 Sept 2026FreeAdvanced
In order written
1851 – 2005- 1851Enfranchisement of WomenHarriet Taylor Mill
- 1869The Subjection of WomenJohn Stuart Mill
- 1897Sexual InversionHavelock Ellis & John Addington Symonds
- 1898Women and EconomicsCharlotte Perkins Gilman
- 1935Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive SocietiesMargaret Mead
- 1984Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of SexualityGayle S. Rubin
- 1987Doing GenderCandace West & Don H. Zimmerman
- 2005Hegemonic Masculinity: Rethinking the ConceptR. W. Connell & James W. Messerschmidt