Modern Families: Stories of Extraordinary Journeys to Kinship, by Joshua Gamson Through a series of ‘creation stories’, E. Stina Lyon hears how individuals are breaking ground as they form families By E. Stina Lyon 26 November
The Only Woman in the Room: Why Science Is Still a Boys’ Club, by Eileen Pollack Cait MacPhee on personal accounts of gender trouble in the sciences By Cait MacPhee 19 November
Interview with Reina Lewis We speak to the London College of Fashion professor and author of a new book on Muslim fashion By John Elmes 5 November
University of British Columbia chair resigns over academic freedom case Independent investigation of university finds professor’s academic freedom was not protected after blog posts on gender balance in university’s leadership By Ellie Bothwell 19 October
Not Gay: Sex Between Straight White Men, by Jane Ward It’s communal, kinky, defiant – but whatever it is, don’t call it that, says Kalle Berggren By Kalle Berggren 8 October
The Feminism of Uncertainty: A Gender Diary, by Ann Snitow Emma Rees lauds an essay collection that highlights the American scholar’s game-changing writing By Emma Rees 17 September
From France with Love: Gender and Identity in French Romantic Comedy, by Mary Harrod Gemma Edney on the arguments for the academic study of a genre too often dismissed for being à l’Américaine By Gemma Edney 17 September
Riotous Flesh: Women, Physiology, and the Solitary Vice in Nineteenth-Century America, by April R. Haynes A study of anti-masturbation campaigns reveals many unexpected allegiances, says Heike Bauer By Heike Bauer 10 September
Soft Force: Women in Egypt’s Islamic Awakening, by Ellen Anne McLarney Caron E. Gentry praises a work that reveals the contributions of female Muslims By Caron E. Gentry 10 September
SlutWalk: Feminism, Activism and Media, by Kaitlynn Mendes Emma Rees on the social networking origins of a 21st-century political movement By Emma Rees 20 August
Higher Education, Leadership and Women Vice Chancellors: Fitting in to Communities of Practice of Masculinities, by Paula Burkinshaw Mary Evans on proposals for achieving equal representation of women and men in university hierarchies By Mary Evans 6 August
Africa’s female leaders are ‘expected to act like mothers’ Women who head universities say their gender is an extra job By Ellie Bothwell 18 July
The Rise of Women’s Transnational Activism: Identity and Sisterhood between the World Wars, by Marie Sandell This valuable work sheds light on the building of an ‘international sisterhood’ to further the struggle for women’s rights, says June Purvis 30 April
Seeing Sodomy in the Middle Ages, by Robert Mills A sensitive study of transgression breaks new ground for queer theory, says Rachel Moss 19 March
Radical Feminism: Feminist Activism in Movement, by Finn Mackay Lynne Segal on one woman’s efforts to revitalise a political force 19 February
Plucked: A History of Hair Removal, by Rebecca M. Herzig There’s a piggy in the middle of this gripping tale of depilation, finds Emma Rees 5 February
Sex in China, by Elaine Jeffreys with Haiqing Yu Jonathan Mirsky on a revealing study about the roots of changes in sexual habits 29 January
Pressed for Time: The Acceleration of Life in Digital Capitalism, by Judy Wajcman It’s not machines but rather man that makes us dread the clock’s tick, Stina Lyon discovers 22 January
Motherload: Making It All Better in Insecure Times, by Ana Villalobos E. Stina Lyon on the unrealistically high expectations placed on women 15 January
Technologies of Sexiness: Sex, Identity, and Consumer Culture, by Adrienne Evans and Sarah Riley Emma Rees on the difficulties of defining and exploring women’s sexual subjectivities in the 21st century 1 January
The Secret History of Wonder Woman, by Jill Lepore Giulia Miller writes on the weird backstory to a female superhero, from women’s suffrage to lie detectors 4 December
British Women’s Life Writing, 1760-1840, by Amy Culley Clare Brant on a form of writing that offers a unique insight into the private lives of women 27 November
Hate Crimes in Cyberspace, by Danielle Keats Citron A compelling argument for strong-arm tactics against those who perpetrate abuse on the net. By Helen Fenwick 20 November
Why Gender Matters in Economics, by Mukesh Eswaran This text plugs a gaping hole and shows that successful economies need women who are free to succeed, writes Victoria Bateman 13 November
There Goes the Gayborhood?, by Amin Ghaziani Mapping queer spaces is revealing, but ghettos are also places of the mind, says Sally R. Munt 6 November
Father and Daughter: Patriarchy, Gender and Social Science, by Ann Oakley E. Stina Lyon admires a hybrid of personal memoir and post-war English social history 23 October
Pornotopia: An Essay on Playboy’s Architecture and Biopolitics, by Beatriz Preciado Richard Williams on Hugh Hefner’s attention to the enhancement of pleasure through erotic design 16 October
Feminism Unfinished: A Short, Surprising History of American Women’s Movements, by Dorothy Sue Cobble, Linda Gordon and Astrid Henry Mary Evans on a study of the US feminist movement from the 19th century 2 October
Fat Gay Men: Girth, Mirth, and the Politics of Stigma, by Jason Whitesel Sally R. Munt lauds an ethnographic study of men who are ‘out’ about their weight 11 September
From Eve to Evolution: Darwin, Science, and Women’s Rights in Gilded Age America, by Kimberly A. Hamlin Ellen Carol DuBois extols a study of a scientific theory’s impact on the pursuit of empowerment 28 August
Female Tommies: The Frontline Women of the First World War, by Elisabeth Shipton Niamh Gallagher on the women who challenged the consensus of who could serve at the front 21 August
Feminism, Gender and Universities: Politics, Passion and Pedagogies, by Miriam E. David A study of pioneering women collates stories that might otherwise be lost, writes Ruth Woodfield 7 August
Birth Control and the Rights of Women: Post-Suffrage Feminism in the Early Twentieth Century, by Clare Debenham Carmel Quinlan on the social and cultural history of the birth control movement from 1921 to 1973 19 June
Hard-Core Romance: Fifty Shades of Grey, Best-Sellers, and Society, by Eva Illouz Laura Frost on the needs met by an erotic best-seller 19 June
Women of the World: The Rise of the Female Diplomat, by Helen McCarthy Roger Morgan applauds a pioneering work offering a welcome introduction to a neglected set of issues 29 May
One Hour in Paris: A True Story of Rape and Recovery, by Karyn L. Freedman Lynne Segal on an analytic philosopher’s first-hand account of sexual violence and its aftermath 22 May
Gender and Violence in Haiti: Women’s Path from Victims to Agents, by Benedetta Faedi Duramy In a culture of impunity, the categories of victim and perpetrator are still blurred, says Gwendolyn Beetham 8 May
Vanishing for the Vote: Suffrage, Citizenship and the Battle for the Census, by Jill Liddington New data enrich an account of the activists who refused to be counted in 1911, says June Purvis 17 April
The Crisis of Islamic Masculinities, by Amanullah De Sondy Julia Droeber praises an interrogation of the image of the Muslim man 20 March
The Politics of the Body: Gender in a Neoliberal and Neoconservative Age, by Alison Phipps Mary Evans agrees that feminism today focuses on women’s agency and identity at the expense of examining framing structures 20 February
Celibacies: American Modernism and Sexual Life, by Benjamin Kahan Laura Frost on a portrayal of abstinence not as an absence of sex, but as an organisation of pleasure 30 January
The Pleasure’s All Mine: A History of Perverse Sex, by Julie Peakman Alison Oram on changing attitudes to sexual perversions 5 December
An American Bride in Kabul: A Memoir, by Phyllis Chesler Shahidha Bari would like more light and shade in this personal account 5 December
Pythagorean Women: Their History and Writings, by Sarah B. Pomeroy Barbara Graziosi on female adherents to an ancient philosophy 28 November
Housewives and Citizens: Domesticity and the Women’s Movement in England, 1928-64, by Caitriona Beaumont June Purvis discusses conservative contributions to gender equality 21 November
Out of Time: The Pleasures and the Perils of Ageing, by Lynne Segal Stina Lyon ponders life’s many shades of grey 21 November
Safe Space: Gay Neighborhood History and the Politics of Violence, by Christina B. Hanhardt Marian Duggan takes a tour of the US LGBT liberation movement 14 November
Do Muslim Women Need Saving?, by Lila Abu-Lughod The convictions of those involved in efforts to ‘rescue’ women from religion will be unsettled by this work, says Madawi Al-Rasheed 7 November
Nature’s Noblemen: Transatlantic Masculinities and the Nineteenth-Century American West, by Monica Rico Peter Messent on why upper-class men felt at home on the frontier 31 October
A Most Masculine State: Gender, Politics, and Religion in Saudi Arabia, by Madawi Al-Rasheed Pernille Arenfeldt on a fine counterargument to reductionist claims about women and Islam 31 October
Menstruation and the Female Body in Early Modern England, by Sara Read Helen Fulton looks at social attitudes to women’s monthly cycle in the 16th to 18th centuries 17 October
Redefining Rape: Sexual Violence in the Era of Suffrage and Segregation, by Estelle B. Freedman Joanna Bourke on a meticulous analysis of the responses of civil rights movements to sexual violence against women and girls 17 October
Seriously! Investigating Crashes and Crises as if Women Mattered, by Cynthia Enloe Gwendolyn Beetham on what we can learn from observations of society’s dismissal of women 17 October
Working Lives: Gender, Migration and Employment in Britain, 1945- 2007, by Linda McDowell Pat Thane on a book that provides important insights into the experience of female immigrants 10 October
Ain’t No Trust: How Bosses, Boyfriends and Bureaucrats Fail Low-Income Mothers and Why it Matters, by Judith A. Levine Angelia R. Wilson on welfare, women and unresolved political tension 3 October
Gentlemen’s Disagreement: Alfred Kinsey, Lewis Terman, and the Sexual Politics of Smart Men, by Peter Hegarty Donna Drucker on the relationship between intelligence and sex 3 October
Just Queer Folks: Gender and Sexuality in Rural America, by Colin R. Johnson Small towns were often accommodating to those without a straight sensibility, finds Sally R. Munt 26 September
Fashion and Age: Dress, the Body and Later Life, by Julia Twigg Cheryl Buckley considers our changing relationships with clothes and fashion as we grow older 19 September
Rocket Girl: The Story of Mary Sherman Morgan, America’s First Female Rocket Scientist, by George D. Morgan Margaret Weitekamp on a woman who helped get the US space programme off the ground 12 September