Gender Flashpoints
(Russell Sage Foundation, 2026)
Americans are deeply divided about gender. Debates about gender are extremely polarized—sparking intense anger and conflict. These “gender flashpoints” include gender identity, gender and parenting, gender-neutral restrooms, pronouns, and participation in women’s sports. Even the term gender itself has become contested. In this divisive social context, advocates on both sides have reduced complex issues to all-or-nothing propositions, leaving many people confused, embarrassed about what they don’t know, or afraid of saying the “wrong thing.”
Drawing on over ninety interviews with activists across the full political spectrum, Gender Flashpoints gets to the root of these disagreements. It uncovers both deep points of contention and surprising areas of agreement. At the crux of many debates are disputes about the goals of gender-related advocacy, the strategies to achieve them, and whose rights are being centered. Differences that appear to be simply about language—”pregnant person” versus “pregnant woman,” for instance—turn out to be disagreements about worldviews.
Gender Flashpoints advocates for honest dialogue about charged issues as a way to identify workable solutions to seemingly intractable social problems—offering both a comprehensive account of some of the most divisive topics of our time and a path toward common ground.
Blurbs
“Gender Flashpoints represents a vital contribution to understanding gender as both a major axis of social inequality and a central aspect of personal identity. Through a wide-ranging analysis of what we know about gender―coupled with original research on the activists who are shaping current debates―Abigail Saguy does a masterful job of shining light and lowering the heat on this important but increasingly contentious subject. Her fair-minded insights accomplish the remarkable feat of addressing the variety of issues that have divided scholars and political activists alike while also remaining above the fray. By providing a road map for thinking about the diverse points of disagreement, she has given us a brave book that is a gift to researchers, teachers, and students at all levels.”
“Americans have been talking past each other on hot-button gender questions for decades, barely stopping to consider what each other is saying. Gender Flashpoints is a crucial gift: it lays out the terrain, the fissures, the assumptions, and the conflicts that these debates presume. People on all sides of sex and gender debates will find this guide essential.”
“Gender Flashpoints is a terrific book that should be required reading for scholars and students of sex and gender no matter the discipline. It provides a thick, nonjudgmental description of how different individuals and groups within and outside of feminism think about sex and gender. The book is novel and brave in this respect but also in its normative contribution: Abigail Saguy identifies both the collisions and the points of agreement that can provide the basis for rigorous dialogue and potential resolution.”