"Sally Gallagher does a subtle and convincing job of understanding the "cultural tool kit" that evangelical Protestants use when understanding and interpreting gender and family. This book should enrich, and lend considerable nuance to future debates about the dynamics of religion and family values."-Rhys H. Williams, editor, Promise Keepers and the New Masculinity: Private Lives and Public Morality

"Bravo! This book represents the next generation of scholarship on evangelicals. Gallagher's volume significantly broadens the line of inquiry from evangelical women's gender identity negotiation to a more holistic, multidimensional rendering of conservative Protestant gender and family relations. Gallagher moves gracefully between the broad sweep of historical analysis and the personal reflections of evangelical men and women today."-John Bartkowski, author of Remaking the Godly Marriage: Gender Negotiation in Evangelical Families

"One of the best interpretations of American evangelicalism and gender and family. Gallagher deftly interprets the data. An insightful must-read on this fascinating topic."-Christian Smith, author of Christian America? What Evangelicals Really Want

Evangelical Identity and Gendered Family Life provides a sociological and historical analysis of gender, family, and work among evangelical Protestants. In this innovative study, Sally K. Gallagher traces two lines of gender ideals-one of husbands' authority and leadership, the other of mutuality and partnership in marriage-from the Puritans to the Promise Keepers into the lives of ordinary evangelicals today. Rather than simply reacting against or accommodating themselves to "secular society," Gallagher argues that both traditional and egalitarian evangelicals draw on longstanding beliefs about gender, human nature, and the person of God.

The author bases her arguments on an analysis of evangelical family advice literature, data from a large national survey and personal interviews with over 300 evangelicals nationwide. No other work in this area draws on such a range of data and methodological resources. Evangelical Identity and Gendered Family Life establishes a standard for future research by locating the sources, strategies, and meaning of gender within evangelical Protestantism.

Sally K. Gallagher is an associate professor of sociology at Oregon State University and the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship for fieldwork on families in Damascus, Syria.