Mismeasure of Woman: Why Women are Not the Better Sex, the Inferior Sex, or the Opposite Sex [Paperback]

When man is the measure of all things, woman is forever trying to measure up. In this enlightening book, Carol Tavris unmasks the widespread but invisible custom -- pervasive in the social sciences, medicine, law, and history -- of treating men as the normal standard, women as abnormal. Tavris expands our vision of normalcy by illuminating the similarities between women and men and showing that the real differences lie not in gender, but in power, resources, and life experiences.
Winner of the American Association for Applied and Preventive Psychology's Distinguished Media Contribution AwardCarol Tavris, Ph.D.,is a social psychologist, lecturer, and writer on many aspects of psychology. Her books includeAnger: The Misunderstood Emotion.Tavris is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association. She lives in Los Angeles, California.Introduction

The Universal Male

Man is the measure of all things.

Protagoras (c. 485-410 B.C.)

Join me, if you will, in a brief flight of fancy. George Jones, age thirty-four, visits the psychology and health section of his local bookstore. There he finds an assortment of books designed to solve his problems with love, sex, work, stress, and children:

* Women Who Hate Men and the Men. Who Love Themexplains why he remains in a self-defeating relationship with Jane.

* The X Spot and other new findings about male sexualitytells him exactly how to have the right kind of multiple orgasm that women have.

* The Male Managershows why his typically male habits of competitiveness and individualism prevent him from advancing in the female-dominated, cooperative corporate world.

* Cooperation Trainingoffers practical instructions for overcoming his early competitive socialization as a man, showing him how to get along more smoothly with others.

* The Superman Syndromeexplains that because men are physically lesslý