Dorothy Dinnerstein
| Dorothy Dinnerstein | |
|---|---|
| Born |
April 23, 1923 The Bronx, New York, USA |
| Died |
December 17, 1992 (aged 69) Englewood, New Jersey, USA |
| Fields | Psychology |
| Institutions | Rutgers–Newark |
| Alma mater |
New School for Social Research Brooklyn College |
| Known for | The Mermaid and the Minotaur (1976) |
| Influences | Melanie Klein |
Dorothy Dinnerstein (April 4, 1923 – December 17, 1992) was an American feminist academic and activist, best known for her book The Mermaid and the Minotaur (1976), published in the UK as The Rocking of the Cradle and the Ruling of the World (1987). Using some elements of Sigmund Freud's psychoanalysis, particularly as developed by Melanie Klein, Dinnerstein argued that sexism and aggression are both inevitable consequences of childrearing's being left more or less exclusively to women;[1] the issues intrinsic to a child's engagement with and separation from its mother, Dinnerstein thought, end up being conflated with gender relations. As a solution Dinnerstein proposed that men and women share equally in infant and child care.[2]
Biography
Born in The Bronx, Dinnerstein went to Brooklyn College for her undergraduate degree and earned the Ph.D. in psychology from the New School for Social Research in 1951. A resident of Leonia, New Jersey, she taught at Rutgers–Newark in New Jersey from 1959 until three years before her death in Englewood, New Jersey after an automobile accident. She was survived by a daughter and two step-daughters.[3]
Notes
- ↑ Dinnerstein, Dorothy (1987). The Rocking of the Cradle and the Ruling of the World (trade paperback) (Reprint with new introduction ed.). London: The Women's Press. p. 26 and 33–34. ISBN 0-7043-4027-5.
What is important is the effect of predominantly female care on the later emotional predilections of the child. The point of crucial consequences is that for virtually every living person, it is a woman—usually the mother—who has provided the main initial contact with humanity and with nature.
- ↑ Dinnerstein, Dorothy (1987). The rocking of the cradle and the ruling of the world. London: Women's Press. ISBN 0-7043-4027-5.
- ↑ "Dorothy Dinnerstein; Feminist Writer Was 69" (OBITUARY). The New York Times. December 19, 1992. Retrieved April 2, 2011.
Bibliography
- The Mermaid and the Minotaur: Sexual Arrangements and Human Malaise Open Press, 1999. ISBN 1-892746-25-5
- With introduction by Vivien Bar, The Rocking of the Cradle and the Ruling of the World, Women's Press (1987), trade paperback, 288 pages, ISBN 0-7043-4027-5
External links and further reading
- Questia Online Library article "Dorothy Dinnerstein." (subscription req'd to read entire content)
- Review of The Mermaid And The Minotaur by Vivian Gornick in The New York Times Book Review November 14, 1976 (subscriber paywall)
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