Male and Female by Margaret Mead

First published: 1949

Type of work: Social criticism

Form and Content

In Male and Female: A Study of the Sexes in a Changing World, drawing upon data she had gathered during field trips in Oceania among seven diverse cultures, anthropologist Margaret Mead explored the formation of gender roles among human beings. In every known culture, humans have emphasized differences in gender and have valued male and female roles unequally. Whereas in previous studies, such as Coming of Age in Samoa (1928) and Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies (1935), Mead had sought cultural determinants in gender formation, in Male and Female she searched for universal biological constants. She did so by applying Freudian psychoanalytic theory.

Male and Female is divided into four sections. In part 1, Mead described the nature of her inquiry and the methods by which she, as an anthropologist, observed and analyzed cultures. In part 2, adapting Freudian theory, which credits the management of biological milestones such as suckling, weaning, and control of bodily eliminations with determining adult character, Mead evaluated the process by which individuals define their gender identity. In part 3, she investigated the variant biological rhythms of males and females and the means by which societies balance their needs. She also described the forms of the family in which children are nurtured and inculcated in the values of their culture and through which they learn to assume their gender roles.

Whereas the previous sections were concerned with primitive cultures, in part 4, Mead scrutinized American society, identifying common denominators found in American life. Furthermore, she recorded her concerns about the future of American families, a subject she addressed throughout her life.

Although the subject of Male and Female is of scholarly concern, Mead wrote for an intelligent popular audience. To that end, she avoided technical language and included few footnotes. Her arguments are clear, and for the ease of the reader, she included a brief description of each culture at the beginning of the book. There are difficulties, however, for the general reader. Because Mead uses a psychoanalytical approach to human culture, although with her own variations—womb envy, rather than penis envy, for example—the reader must possess a fundamental knowledge of psychoanalytical theory. In addition, although biological determinants are the underlying theme of Male and Female, there is an apparent lack of connectedness between individual sections, which is particularly evident in part 4, where Mead abandons psychoanalytic theory in her scrutiny of American society. In spite of these difficulties, however, Male and Female contributes to the ongoing scholarly and public dialogue regarding the nature of gender.

Context

Throughout her professional career, Mead was concerned with the impact of culture on personality. Prior to Male and Female, she viewed character formation, including gender, as culturally determined and culturally defined, apparently not recognizing biological bases for masculinity or femininity. In Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies, for example, she depicted the range of behaviors found in three Oceania cultures to illustrate the culturally determined basis for gender. Male and Female, however, marked a departure for Mead, for in it she explored the biological underpinnings of masculinity and femininity. In addition, she analyzed cultures from a Freudian perspective.

Reflecting the infusion of Freudian psychologists into the United States in the 1930’s and 1940’s and the adoption of psychoanalytic theory by American social scientists, Mead for the first time employed psychoanalytic theory in examining the pertinency of childhood experiences to adult character formation. In searching for biological constants among human beings, she glorified the female role of child bearing. Contrary to her previous attribution of male and female behavior to the cultural environment, Mead in Male and Female found individuals, particularly women, mired in biology. “If women are to be restless and questing, even in the face of child-bearing,” wrote Mead, “they must be made so through education.” She described motherhood as a woman’s most fulfilling role. Furthermore, Mead wrote, men and women have their special “superiorities,” and it benefits neither sex if women enter fields defined as male, for it “frightens the males” and “unsexes women.” She even accepted, apparently uncritically, the notion of male superiority in mathematics, science, and instrumental music, with concomitant female superiority in human sciences requiring “intuition.”

Mead’s influence on American women was profound; she was a role model for intelligent, aspiring young women, providing the example of a woman whose education, professional accomplishments, and intellectual achievements rivaled those of any of her colleagues, male or female. Yet her post-World War II espousal of the primacy of the biological role of motherhood was a primary influence in the development of restrictive societal roles for women in the 1950’s.

Feminist response to Margaret Mead has been predictably mixed. Many post-1960’s feminists have focused on Mead’s early cultural analysis of gender, seemingly ignoring her later and more problematic emphasis on female biology. Others, particularly Betty Friedan, have criticized Mead’s glorification of women’s biological role at the expense of female creativity and intellection. Indeed, Friedan considered Male and Female a cornerstone of the “feminine mystique,” or the idealized image of woman as suburban mother, subordinating all private desires, goals, or prior accomplishments to her husband and children.

By describing the vast range of behavioral characteristics attributed to individuals by virtue of their sex, Mead’s lifetime corpus of work illustrated the culturally as well as biologically specific nature of gender. Mead’s legacy in Male and Female, however, contributed to the restriction of women to the exclusively domestic, childbearing roles of the suburban housewife of the 1950’s and beyond.

Bibliography

Cassidy, Robert. Margaret Mead: A Voice for the Century. New York: Universe Books, 1982. Although Cassidy’s analysis tends to be simplistic, his work provides a useful overview of Mead’s varied achievements, including a chapter on her views and her impact on feminism. His book is arranged topically, with only a brief paragraph following each chapter describing the sources he used.

Friedan, Betty. The Feminine Mystique. New York: W. W. Norton, 1963. In her seminal work, Friedan devotes chapters to Freudian psychoanalysis and to Margaret Mead as primary influences on the “feminine mystique.”

Mead, Margaret. And Keep Your Powder Dry: An Anthropologist Looks at America. New York: William Morrow, 1942. Mead provides a rationale for the implementation of national character studies and develops many of the ideas and explanations that she uses in describing American culture in Male and Female.

Mead, Margaret. Blackberry Winter: My Earlier Years. Gloucester, Mass.: Peter Smith, 1989. Mead’s autobiography provides insight into her early influences, philosophies, and personal relationships and discusses her professional work. Illustrated and indexed.

Metraux, Rhoda. “Margaret Mead: A Biographical Sketch.” American Anthropolo-gist 82 (June, 1980): 262-269. Metraux, Mead’s friend and collaborator from the American Museum of Natural History, offers a concise but detailed biography of Mead that provides a description of her early life and influences as well as information on her professional career.

Tong, Rosemarie. Feminist Thought: A Comprehensive Introduction. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1989. Tong provides an excellent introduction to feminist theory and theorists by analyzing a variety of women, including many who operate from the premise that gender is culturally specific. Organized topically, the book has sections on liberal, Marxist, radical, psychoanalytic, socialist, existential, and postmodernist feminism. Includes an extensive bibliography.

Yans-McLaughlin, Virginia. “Margaret Mead.” In Women Anthropologists: A Biographical Dictionary, edited by Ute Gacs et al. New York: Greenwood Press, 1988. A concise biographical essay on Margaret Mead that helps to place Male and Female within the context of her prolific career. Provides a selected bibliography of work about and by Margaret Mead.