Sistering Power and Change in Female Relationships [Hardcover]

Sister stories are rare compared with images of celebrity sisters and 'sisterhood'. Based on 37 interviews, this fascinating book uncovers sisters' complex relationships. Readers will play 'mapping' games to guess where they figure in its patterns. Sisters talk passionately about how their closeness and distance affects the power-balance between them. Making parallels with friendship and caring, it explores formations of gender, identity and intimacy in family life. Sistering was nominated for the British Sociological Association's 2003 Philip Abrams Prize.List of Tables Acknowledgements Introduction Sistering and Friendship Buddies and Best Friends Power Relationships Motherly Sistering Kindred Spirits Lovers and Marriage Divorce and Bereavement Changing Subjectivity Conclusion Appendix 1: The Sisters Appendix 2: Method and Methodology Notes Bibliography Index

'There is not much research on sister relations, in spite of the metaphoric meaning of sisterhood in the feminist movement. Melanie Mauthner's new book Sistering fills this gap excellently. Using biographies of pairs of adult sisters, she analyses various discourses of sistering. She discusses, for example, the changes in sistering as women grow older, and pays attention to the different ways that women actively do sistering rather than passively experience it. I warmly recommend this book for students and researchers in the fields of feminist studies, education, sociology and family research. But it provides a fascinating reading experience for others as well. The narratives of the interviewed pairs of sisters captivate, and they also seduce the reader to personal memories and reflections - to relations with their own sister or, as in my case, to the re-recognition of the sorrow of not having a sister.' - Elina Lahelma, Academy Fellow, University of Helsinki, Finland

'It is not that often that academics uncover a whole new area of research, and more rarely still do they show us it wlcè