Thank you very much for your invitation to join the sex & gender section of the ASA. I would love to do so. I am already a member of four sections, but one more is o.k., too! Gender is a socially constructed aspect of our “semiotic selves.” ( I recently wrote on Norb Wiley’s 1994 book The Semiotic Self.) The idea of a “social structural stratification system” may have to be analyzed a bit, but certainly Patrimonalism has been one of my interests for a long time. Max Weber’s ideal type of patrimonialism is discussed at length in his Economy & Society, but it seems to not have received much attention outside of political science, political sociology, Weber studies, etc. I feel that the book Love & Greatness may be a somewhat distorted discussion of what Weber was trying to do, but it is certainly worth discussing. I will be at the ASA in Las Vegas (although my paper on the concept of the Marginal Human Being will be at SSSI). J. I. Hans Bakker http://www.semioticsigns.com

I encourage you to join the sex & gender section of the ASA. Only if men who understand gender as a social structural stratification system, including but not limited to socially constructed selves, will we begin to dismantle the gender segregation of the discipline.

Here’s a challenge to all the men out there who have been reading and participating in this discussion. don’t assume that to de-segregate sociology women should join sections beyond the ones we are currently in. It’s also up to men who study inequality that includes gender to join sections now dominated by women.

I find this discussion about segregation inside our own house depressing, if not surprising. It seems to me we need to clean up our own house.

barbara risman