This book uses previously unknown archive materials to explore the meaning of the term ‘incapable of work’ over a hundred years (1911–present). Nowadays, people claiming disability benefits must undergo medical tests to assess whether or not they are capable of work. Media reports and high profile campaigns highlight the problems with this system and question whether the process is fair. These debates are not new and, in this book, Jackie Gulland looks at similar questions about how to assess people’s capacity for work from the beginning of the welfare state in the early 20th century. Amongst many subject areas, she explores women’s roles in the domestic sphere and how these were used to consider their capacity for work in the labour market. The book concludes that incapacity benefit decision making is really about work: what work is, what it is not, who should do it, who should be compensated when work does not provide a sufficient income and who should be exempted from any requirement to look for it.

With recent "tough on crime" policies of the 1990s, the negative impact on women and children reverberates with social unawareness. Using a feminist perspective, Crime Control and Women explores the adverse effects of the U.S. crackdown on crime. Edited by Susan L. Miller, this book exposes the unintended consequences of today crime control policies: how cuts from social services to pay for crime control can disproportionately affect women; how women incur increased responsibility for family while men serve longer sentences; and how government often victimizes women as third parties when women are associated with criminals. Using policy-oriented contributions, the book discusses empirically driven and theoretically driven implications of today crime control policies. Miller provides a substantive introductory overview and a concluding summary, creating a cohesive text that emphasizes a reduction in crime through commitments to prevention, education, and treatment. A timely book, Crime Control and Women is vital for criminal justice academics and practitioners, mental health professionals, and policy makers. It future implications also make it an essential component for courses related to criminology, criminal justice, gender studies, sociology, public policy, and social work.

This new introduction to the sociology of gender and sexuality provides fresh insight into our rapidly changing attitudes towards sex and our understanding of masculine and feminine identities, relating the study of gender and sexuality to recent research and theory, and wider social concerns throughout the world.

Originally published in 1984. The history of sex in the last 100 years has usually been written as a story of progress from repression to sexual liberation. This book argues that the reverse is true, demonstrating that the ‘sexual revolution’ came as a backlash to a women’s movement which challenged men’s sexual abuse and tried to reconstruct male sexuality in women’s interest. At first it looks at those groups at the turn of the twentieth century who campaigned to challenge prevailing ideas about sexual behaviour. It moves on to review the work of the most influential sexologists Ellis, Kinsey, Masters and Johnson, and then presents a critical analysis of the sex magazine Forum.

A collection of essays about women and welfare in America, this book discusses how welfare programmes affect women and how gender relations have influenced the structure of such programmes. Issues such as race and class are also discussed.

Innovative readings and blog posts show how sociology can help us understand everyday life.