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As the title suggests, this book does not attempt to answer any questions for its readers about the psychology of women. It sets forth no comprehensive theory or framework within which to try to formulate answers to the many challenging questions posed by scholars, clinicians, and others, which are particular to members of the female sex. What the book does attempt, as stated in the introduction by its editor, Mary Roth Walsh, is "to confront the reader with some of the diverse viewpoints which exist in the psychology of women … to serve as a springboard to encourage further debate and controversy and stimulate the evaluation of information from different perspectives" (p. 5). The attempt is certainly admirable; it is not always successful.
The format chosen by the editor in trying to achieve these goals is literally that of confrontation. She presents her readers with debates on fourteen topics, each presented as a separate chapter that addresses a question relevant to the lives and psychology of women. Each chapter contains two articles, one approaching the question from the affirmative position and the other from the negative. The fourteen issues are grouped under four headings, with two chapters devoted to "Psychoanalytic Theory and the Psychology of Women," three chapters to "Femaleness and Psychological Health," four chapters to "New Theories and Evidence in the Psychology of Women," and five chapters to "Social Issues Affecting Women."
In the first section the reader is asked to ponder whether psychoanalytic theory is relevant to the psychology of women, as well as whether women are masochistic. Then, in the next group of chapters about psychological health, the topic of whether women are more likely to be mentally ill is addressed, along with questions about the effects of menstruation and menopause on women's mental health. Articles by Matina Horner, Nancy Chodorow, Carol Gilligan, and Sandra Lipsitz Bem, each as the proponent of a "New Theory," are t