Gendered Kiwi

Blokes, sheilas, good keen men, ladies with plates, Silver Ferns, All Blacks, marching girls and Boy Scouts: New Zealand society teems with images of women and men. This collection of essays analyzes the ways Pakeha masculinity and femininity - gender relations - have changed over time. It brings together previously unpublished essays on topics as diverse as 1930s fashion and feminist men in the 1970s. Scholars such as Charlotte Macdonald re-opens the debate about whether colonial New Zealand was really a man's country, while Jock Philips asks new questions about late-20th century leisure. Other writers canvass the stresses of depression-era masculinity, men's and women's different use of public space, office politics and power dressing. Gender relations and the family are a theme in several essays, including those about the colonial family, 19th-century criminal trials and World War II. ""The Gendered Kiwi"" builds on existing work in men's history and women's history and points to new ways to analyze New Zealand's past.