Dress and Gender

Dress is one of the most significant markers of gender identity, yet is only rarely explored in depth. This volume addresses the relationship between gender and dress, opening up fascinating aspects by covering a great variety of ethnographic areas reaching from Asia, Europe and Africa to North and South America. The time span is equally wide-ranging and offers present-day material as well as studies based on historical data.

Ruth Barnes is at Ashmolean Museum.

Joanne B. Eicher is Regents Professor Emerita at the University of Minnesota. Joanne is Editor-in-Chief, Encyclopedia of Dress and Fashion (Bloomsbury and OUP); Series Editor, Dress, Body Culture (Bloomsbury); Author, Editor, Co-Editor, The Visible Self, (Fairchild); Dress and Gender (Berg); Dress and Ethnicity (Berg); Beads and Beadmakers (Berg); Mother, Daughter, Sister, Bride (National Geographic); a wide variety of published articles in professional journals and chapters in books.

"...this important, thought-provoking work, breaks new ground and could conceivably spawn future Women's Studies research in many lands and languages." --Dress

"...a rich and diverse collection of essays, with a wide ethnographic and historical range that makes it a valuable and useful book for those interested in either dress or gender, and indispensable for those interested in both." --Journal of the Anthropological Society of Oxford

"This excellent volume should serve as a useful resource." --Choice

"... an extremely rich analysis of dress as a form of gender identification." --ITAA Newsletter