Framed by Gender

In an advanced society like the U.S., where an array of processes work against gender inequality, how does this inequality persist? Integrating research from sociology, social cognition and psychology, and organizational behavior, Framed by Gender identifies the general processes through which gender as a principle of inequality rewrites itself into new forms of social and economic organization.

Cecilia Ridgeway argues that people confront uncertain circumstances with gender beliefs that are more traditional than those circumstances. They implicitly draw on the too-convenient cultural frame of gender to help organize new ways of doing things, thereby re-inscribing trailing gender stereotypes into the new activities, procedures, and forms of organization. This dynamic does not make equality unattainable, but suggests a constant struggle with uneven results.

Demonstrating how personal interactions translate into larger structures of inequality, Framed by Gender is a powerful and original take on the troubling endurance of gender inequality.


Impeccably titled, this meticulous scholarship showcases the richness of social psychology...Ridgeway's conclusion offers added urgency to the twin mandates that work become more family friendly and men become more thoroughly involved in caretaking in order for persisting gender inequalities to be overcome. Highly recommended. --CHOICE

It's rare that one of this generation's leading scientists creates an accessible book that tackles the really big questions. And it is even rarer to have such an important theoretical work, backed by decades of research, written so beautifully. You can use this book in a graduate seminar, or give it to your neighbor to show why treating boys and girls differently perpetuates women's disadvantage. If you only read one book about inequality this decade, make it this one. --Barbara J. Risman, University of Illinois at Chicago

In lucid prose, Cecilia Ridgeway describes the social psychological processes that continually reproduce gender inequality. Marshalling research from sociology and psychology, Framed by Gender explains why women have not attained equality and what would be required to reach that goal. --Alice H. Eagly, Professor of Psychology, Northwestern University

The most important book on gender I have read in decades. Why has gender proved so unbending? Ridgeway gives us answers, and paves the way for a new feminist theory that incorporates decades of studies on how gender bias operates at home and at work. --Joan C. Williams, Distinguished Professor of Law, University of California, Hastings College of the Law

There is much to like about this book. It is clearly written and accessible to a scholarly audience. Ridgeway presents a powerful and convincing account of how gender inequality works and is reproduced in everyday interactions. Her argument that gender lurks in the background, always available as a way of understanding others or anticipating their behavior, fits well with the sort of 'now you see it, now you don't' way that many women experience gender in the workplace. --merican Journal of Sociology

Ridgeway provides a compelling argument that gender framing helps to stabilize gender inequality and is one important source of resistance to the movement toward gender equality. Ridgeway's argument carefully and effectively details mechanisms that connect cultural conceptions of gender, patterns of individual cognition, patterns of individual behavior, aggregate consequences of gender-related actions, and the relationship among these phenomena across time. --Contemporary Sociology

In Framed by Gender, Cecilia Ridgeway has given a true gift to the field of gender inequality... In her interrogation of the mutually reinforcing influences between culture and structure, Ridgeway has opened up a new path for us to traverse as we explore how gender can become less consequential for inequality. --Social Forces