#Gender

Research indicates that adults aged 18-24 are the largest users of Facebook (25.7%), Instagram (32%), and TikTok (45%). The average adult consumes two and a half hours of social media per day, which continued to increase during the COVID-19 pandemic. College students utilize social media for entertainment and communication as well as news stories and current events, and as a result, social media, known for brief sound bites, video clips, and short blurbs of information, has increasingly become the way students interact with the world. While current gender textbooks provide the academic foundation to gender analysis, #Gender: Gendered Social Problems through a Social Media Lens leverages social media content to critically examine gendered social problems and further students’ understanding and application of concepts. Chapter topics include toxic masculinity, sexual assault and #metoo, the gender pay gap, reproductive rights, intimate partner violence, and politics. The textbook begins with an introduction outlining terminology and ends with a conclusion discussing social change and feminism. Using this book, undergraduate students will learn practical ways in which gender informs their individual lives and wider societal structures. In addition, readers are provided talking points to help them become conversational in present day issues around gender and sexuality. Instructor ancillaries for the text include a test bank and videos links (such as TED Talks, media clips, and commercial examples to further illustrate concepts).

Sarah DeWard is a lecturer in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and affiliate faculty in the Department of Women’s and Gender studies at the University of Michigan- Dearborn. She has taught at many universities, including Clemson University and Eastern Michigan University, for over 15 years. DeWard is a former trainer the New York State Coalition Against Domestic Violence where she provided national and statewide training about domestic violence advocacy and intimate partner sexual violence, among other topics. She has worked as a counselor, support group facilitator, advocate, consultant, and grant-writer in domestic violence programs in Michigan, South Carolina, and New York.