The Third Sex: The New Professional Woman

In this informative study, anthropologist/journalist McBroom sets out to determine not only how the lives of the new breed of professional women have been affected by their careers, but what impact they have had on the fabric of the family and society. The author interviewed, and quotes extensively, 44 female and 12 male executives in the male-dominated field of finance. Women today, she found, are still subject to traditions of a 19th century European patriarchal society not unlike those of many tribal cultures. As several of the women testify, corporate value systems and pressures have forced them to renounce or hide their feminine identity at work and have led most of them to delay or decide against child-bearing and marriage. To overcome this split identity, the author asserts, women must learn to value their female strengths and the gender spheres must be integrated both in the workplace and at home, where men must expand their parenting role. (April 23)