Author: Leticia Steffen

About The Author

Leticia Steffen is an associate professor in the Department of Mass Communications at Colorado State University-Pueblo. Steffen joined the CSU-Pueblo faculty in 2004. A native of New Hampton, Iowa, Steffen completed her bachelor's degree at Saint Louis University with a double major in history and communication. Steffen worked as a correspondent for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the Suburban Journals of St. Louis before moving to Colorado to complete a master's degree in mass communications and journalism studies at the University of Denver. While living in the Denver area, Steffen completed stints as a science writer and editor with the University of Denver's communications office, Chief Editor of News/Entertainment for the new media company InfoBeat, Publications Editor at Metropolitan State College of Denver and instructor at the Community College of Aurora. Steffen teaches in the journalism emphasis at CSU-Pueblo, serving as faculty adviser to the student-produced Today news website and magazine. She also teaches the Women and Media and Gender and Film courses at the university. The youngest of six daughters, Steffen has had a life-long interest in women's rights issues and in all issues related to the differing expectations for men and women in our society.

About The Book

"Women (and Men) & How Media Attempt to Define Us" was written to help students analyze and find ways to resolve some of the dissonance they may experience between the expectations they face in their lives as men and women, and the expectations they see media place on men and women. Throughout the book, the author hopes to show that media do attempt to create gender definitions that often run counter to our personal experiences, and to help students become more sophisticated and more analytical about the way women and men are presented in the media. The book provides some very basic theoretical frameworks to help students analyze how media, including the film industry, may be defining gender. The book ends with additional ideas to help students analyze gender portrayals in more modern ways, taking into account the sophistication of today's media and media consumer.