Comment

In the last two or three years there has been an increasing emphasis on research in the psychology of women and men. This has yielded a proliferation of symposia, workshops, journals, newsletters, and enthusiasm. One of the major themes is the reexamination of past relationships between the sexes, which includes the following: long-term relationships, the effect of therapist gender on analysis, dependency needs and nurturing potential in men as well as in women, two-salary families, the effect of the woman's greater status or salary on the male partner. And this is just the tip of the iceberg.

In its earlier years, the main thrust of the women's movement was for separation and individuation of women. At that time, women needed to move out from overdependence on men, a deep-seated attitude even in highly creative and successful women. But now, the success of many goals of the evolution of the movement has led to a greater interest in new facets of woman/man relating.

As young adults, women move out from the protection of loving (and often conflicted) parents. At that time there is difficulty in separating the individual parent from the representative of the establishment. Similarly, in the women's movement, there was difficulty in separating individual men from the perception of men's group blindness to women's aspirations. But later, as women have achieved more personal confidence, they often attempt rapprochement with parents on the basis of equality, in the hope that the family will be open to their attempt to close the rift. In the same way, they are declaring that for them the “battle of the sexes” is not relevant any longer, and that they are prepared for a new quality of relatedness with men.

Contemporary research has challenged and frequently negated older concepts of mental and emotional “givens” in the masculine and feminine personality. A pioneering edge today underscores that in order to live together on a level of dignity and full use of potential both sexe