Table of Contents

Introduction page 1

1 Change among the Gatekeepers: Men, Masculinities and Gender Equality 7

2 Steering towards Equality? How Gender Regimes Change inside the State 25

3 The Neoliberal Parent: Mothers and Fathers in Market Society 41

4 Working-Class Families and the New Secondary Education 58

5 Good Teachers on Dangerous Ground 73

6 Not the Pyramids: Intellectual Workers Today 89

7 Sociology has a World History 103

8 Paulin Hountondji's Postcolonial Sociology of Knowledge 119

9 Antonio Negri's Theory of Empire 136

10 Bread and Waratahs: A Letter to the Next Left 154

Acknowledgements 167

References 170

Index 187

About the Author

Raewyn Connell is University Professor at University of Sydney. She is an internationally renowned researcher in the field of sex and gender; her previous publications include Masculinities, Gender and Power, Making the Difference, and Southern Theory.

Reviews

"You may not agree with Connell's profound critique of neoliberalism, which according to her is responsible for the inequalities of our time, but this book will at the very least provoke you to rethink and reanalyze the current system. This volume is a valiant and much needed call for action." The Global Journal "This book is well worth reading by a wide range of sociologists who wish to connect up their technical work with wider currents of society and who might wish to see this approach to sociology as an explicitly justified model." International Sociology "Confronting Equality showcases sociology at work, making sense of complex and shifting global dynamics of class, gender, and intellectual labor. And since this is the work of Raewyn Connell, it is also social science at its best: characterized by richly theorized empirical research, and carving out a place for a radically generative and engaged world sociology." Michael A. Messner, University of Southern California "Confronting Equality illuminates the contemporary historical period with a blend of incisive theorizing and careful empirical work. Connell explores the shaping force of neoliberalism, the dynamics of global inequality, and processes of social change through a wide-range of topics: masculinities, struggles for gender equality, class inequality in schooling and in family life, intellectual work in the global metropole and periphery. A timely and thought-provoking book." Barrie Thorne, University of California, Berkeley