The Psychology of Women by Margaret Matlin - Essay Example

I believe that all sexes have equal rights in society. The facts in the book are based on a meta-analysis of research. However, due to its biased nature, it may fail to capture the attention of many readers and audiences. Despite all these, the book offers an extraordinary, enjoyable well-detailed introduction to the psychology of women. This book is hence appropriate for audiences and readers from a broad and/ or variety of backgrounds. As comprehensive as it is, the book depicts the experiences of women through an emphasis on empirical research and direct quotations. The book is known for its effective balance of readability, scholarship, and inclusion of several kinds of women. The book also reflects the genuine understanding and interest of its audience and readers for whom the text was written for.

The book includes discussions of topics like pregnancy, welfare issues, and women's retirement, as well as a chapter on old age. These elements are central in the lives of many women and are not covered consistently in other books.
The book has an intense introduction to the psychology of women and the aspects that women go through in their entire lives. In an intense analysis of the book, the book details gender stereotypes and other gender biases, adolescence, childhood and infancy, achievement motivation and cognitive abilities, women and work, gender comparisons in personality and social characteristics, love relationships, childbirth, pregnancy, and motherhood, sexuality, women and physical health, violence against women, and women and psychological disorders, and women and older adults.

These are covered in detail in this book, hence giving the readers an intense summary of what the life of most women entails. The book also provides an up-to-date examination of the comprehensive coverage of the topics and the field of women's psychology. This sixth edition has also been updated and has the most current research incorporated. The book has also continually examined various topics that form the center of the lives of most women just as mentioned above. Matlin has also provided coverage of significant topics on the lives of women such as ethnic diversity, social class, women’s retirement, and pregnancy. Through this Margaret Matlin has continuously led the way for the course of psychology of women.

The book has addressed well four vital themes that relate to the life of a woman. These themes include different reactions of people to women and men; the typical inconsistent and small psychological gender difference; the variations of women from one another; and the visibility of women compared to men in some significant areas. The book also has consistent and proven features of pedagogy such as outlines that offer an overall structure of each chapter in the beginning, as well as true or false statements close to the beginning of every chapter which encourages the students to foreshadow the vital issues and concerns to be addressed in the book.

The key terms are also defined as they are introduced and then listed near the end of every chapter to facilitate the review. There are also included review questions at the end of every chapter to encourage students to synthesize and clarify the concepts covered in the book, and the recommended readings provide additional sources for exploration of the topics in each chapter in greater detail. The book enables the student to evaluate and examine topics of the course using the most current topic perspective.

This is so because of being known remarkably as up-to-date, with many citations derived from the sources that were published in 1998 and later. The organization of the text also combines an approach of lifespan and a topical approach with a clear writing style, which engages and interests readers and audiences with various quotations and examples where women discuss their own life experiences. The informal demonstrations included in the book also encourage among the students, an active involvement and clarity of the procedures involved in crucial research studies. Margaret Matlin focused on the psychological perspectives and aspects of women and themselves, instead of focusing on the psychological gender differences that exist between men and women. She ended up putting women at a higher bar than men.

In summary, Matlin’s book keenly integrates cross-cultural research and discusses the relevance of women of color in her book. Generally, her writing style is so terrific. The level of writing is hence good for students in general. This is because of the inclusion of many exercises and demonstrations. The authors have also engaged the readers and audience through the use of the first person, the use of humor, the use of diverse women's voices in different paragraphs, and the use of gentle satire. The book has also detailed recent findings on census information about women of color, racism, the invisibility of women in art, attitudes towards the pleasantness of women, gender discrimination, infants’ knowledge about gender, stereotyped representations in a media society, selective abortion, and television programs for children, parental influence on the type of gender, and female infanticide. Matlin also compared gender memory, information on body image, older women and sexuality, and taboos and cultural attitudes toward menstruation. Read More