Our shopping cart is currently down. To place an order, please contact our distributor, UTP Distribution, directly at utpbooks@utpress.utoronto.ca.
Evangelical Identity and Gendered Family Life
Evangelical Identity and Gendered Family Life provides a sociological and historical analysis of gender, family, and work among evangelical Protestants. In this innovative study, Sally Gallagher traces two lines of gender ideals—one of husbands’ authority and leadership, the other of mutuality and partnership in marriage—from the Puritans to the Promise Keepers into the lives of ordinary evangelicals today. Rather than simply reacting against or accommodating themselves to “secular society,” Gallagher argues that both traditional and egalitarian evangelicals draw on longstanding beliefs about gender, human nature, and the person of God.
The author bases her arguments on an analysis of evangelical family advice literature, data from a large national survey and personal interviews with over 300 evangelicals nationwide. No other work in this area draws on such a range of data and methodological resources. Evangelical Identity and Gendered Family Life establishes a standard for future research by locating the sources, strategies, and meaning of gender within evangelical Protestantism.
Gallagher has taken advantage of extensive data and interviews with American evangelicals to examine their views and practice in family life. . . . She looks not only at what evangelicals say but also what they do. . . . This excellent book is highly recommended.
Sally Gallagher does a subtle and convincing job of understanding the æcultural tool kitÆ that evangelical Protestants use when understanding and interpreting gender and family. This book should enrich, and lend considerable nuance to future debates about the dynamics of religion and family values.
Bravo! This book represents the next generation of scholarship on evangelicals. GallagherÆs volume significantly broadens the line of inquiry from evangelical womenÆs gender identity negotiation to a more holistic, multidimensional rendering of conservative Protestant gender and family relations. Gallagher moves gracefully between the broad sweep of historical analysis and the personal reflections of evangelical men and women today.
One of the best interpretations of American evangelicalism and gender and family. Gallagher deftly interprets the data. An insightful must-read on this fascinating topic.
Part I Evangelical Ideals -
Evangelical Family Values in Social Discourse
A History of Mutuality and Gender Hierarchy
Twentieth-Century Evangelical Ideals
Part II Symbolic Traditionalism and Pragmatic Egalitarianism Faith and Family -
Spiritual Leadership and Decision Making
Dividing the Labor of Parenting and Housework
Employment and the Needs of Children
Part III Understanding Evangelical Identity, Gender, and Family -
What Would Be Lost If Evangelicals Abandoned the Notion of Husbands' Headship?
History, Community, and Identity: Tools and Truths in the Evangelical Tool Kit
Appendix A: Research Methods
Appendix B: Tables
Appendix C: Excursus into Exegesis: Essentialist and Biblical Feminist Interpretations of Key Biblical Texts
Notes
Bibliography
Index
