Men in the Public Eye: The Construction and Deconstruction of Public Men and Public Patriarchies (Critical Studies on Men and Masculinities, No 3)

Men's domination of the public domain is obvious, yet this is often ignored in social and political analyses. This text examines the problems of "public men" within "public patriarchies". It addresses two central questions. Why and how do men dominate in the public worlds of work, politics and culture? How do these public worlds construct public men and public masculinities in different and changing ways? These questions are examined through a focus on the past, specifically the period 1870-1920, a period of massive growth and transformation in the power of the public domain. A continuing theme is that the present exists in the past, and the past in the present. "Men in the Public Eye" attempts to reveal why men's domination in and out of the public domain is a vital feature of gender relations in patriarchy, and how public domains dominate the private domains. This book should be of interest to undergraduates, postgraduates and academics interested in gender studies and women's studies.