The Double Standard

First published in 1980, The Double Standard is a powerfully written book challenging the logic of much of the feminist literature in the social sciences. Although loyal to the tradition of feminist scholarship, Margaret Eichler argues that many feminist writers have unintentionally reinforced the sexual stereotypes that they seek to destroy, by using the wrong conceptual tools and the wrong language. The terms like sex roles and sex identity have been especially distorting because they are ambiguous, and in themselves become instruments of sexism. In both the language they employ and the explanations they offer, feminists must transcend sex as a criterion of social difference if they wish to overcome sexism in language and thought. This book argues that the double standard is the only relevant criterion for determining whether an identified sex difference is a matter of concern and not. (A double standard implies that two things which are the same are measured by different standards). Although usually employed in a strictly sexual sense the concept may be used for all types of behavior in which sex plays a role. The arguments of the book are controversial and provoking, but they sharpen the thinking of the feminist critique in a way that few other books have achieved. This is a must read for scholars and researchers or feminism, sociology of gender, and gender studies.