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Male and Female Roles, edited by Karen Miller. 229 pgs. Farmington Hills, MI : Greenhaven, 2010. 978-0-7377-4528-3.

The introduction immediately undermines conventional wisdom of fundamental gender equality with an analysis of the role testosterone has been demonstrated to play in the financial industry. Spikes of that hormone were associated with success in market trading, suggesting women might not be engineered to dominate Wall Street as it exists. This contribution to the Opposing Viewpoints series focuses on the resulting intersection of the sociocultural and biological perceptions of gender.

The first couple of articles are academic in nature, but the tone of the pieces varies throughout. The failure of male academics, especially when married to female academics, to take part in childcare is fascinating, as is the assignment of domestic duties mimicking traditional gender roles in long-term homosexual couples.

Despite thorough investigation of gender segregation among preschoolers in one particular research context, many larger cultural and historical questions are never broached. Yet the essays are informative in tangible ways. Hard data reflects women play video games, albeit different games from those men tend to play. Both genders demonstrate web design preferences along gender lines; gender even transcends nationality in predicting aesthetic. Two companion essays about whether women are able to compete athletically with men are particularly relevant for student research.

The third of the four sections focuses on exploding gender stereotypes, introducing the female war hero and the stay-at-home dad. Also examined is the failure of women to work the same hours as their male counterparts at every level, long before childcare responsibilities are a factor, which one author argues is the reality behind male-dominated corporate leadership. Two essays discuss whether the United States would elect a female president, which is another recurring research topic.

The fourth section focuses on predictions about male and bed female roles in a future punctuated with reproductive technology, fertility tourism, and recreational hormone use. The year 2025 as heralded by metrosexuality, androgyny, and legislated gender equity is represented by a matrix of potential family structures. Gender could be a choice, or it could be an obsolete concept altogether.

There are guiding questions throughout a periodical bibliography for each of the four sections as well as question for further discussion and a integrated bibliography of books and topic index. The volume’s 305.3 Dewey classification represents "men and women," but Male and Female Roles could be lost on the shelf among the many "Groups of people" in the 305s; additional analytics are suggested because of the very general title and skeletal CIP data. Because it includes some explicit information about sexual behaviors, its appropriateness for particular collections can best be evaluate by a librarian with a knowledge of local needs. Recommended for larger public libraries and collections devoted to all aspects of health and wellness.