The Hite Report On The Family; Growing Up Under Patriarchy is a fascinating and well-researched look at women under a patriarchal system. This book was fifteen years in the making and 3000 women from around the world contributed to the findings in this book.

The report examines the inherent eroticism of children and how family members' parents and siblings relate and contribute to this. It also examines how the traditional model of the nuclear family has contributed to the disenfranchisement of each member of the family, not just women, but men as well.

This is a fantastically interesting book mainly I think because Shere Hite did not just pose questions and responses to those question on her questionnaire but used an essay format. This means that the readers don't just get the doctors idea of what acceptable responses are but real responses to her questions.

This book is is a fantastic reference for those who are interested in Women's Studies.

A timeless treasure, this is the book to keep for a lifetime, and leave to daughters and granddaughters. Not to be read like a novel, (although it is much more readable than some novels!), try cruising the Contents pages for specific areas of interest. Hite does not write textbook prose - her compelling style captures and holds the reader's fascination, page after page. Hite's approach is far from that of the "expert" who tells women how they should behave, what they should feel, and prescribes the "best" pattern for their lives. This is reality: 4,500 women telling it as it is, with absolute candor. And Shere Hite writing it all down truthfully, no frills added. This BIG handsome book is full of surprises, as well as comforting discoveries, like "Sounds just like my husband!" and, "Oh-I-thought-I-was-the-only-one!"

This book should be required reading for men and women alike, whether they are sexually active or not. "Women as Revolutionary Agents of Change: The Hite Reports and Beyond" is a concisely written and informative book. Read it to better understand yourself, your sexuality, and that of the opposite sex.

The book serves well as for the testimonies it has. It keeps a neutral line as for instructing the best sexual approach following the duality presented in the testimonies in the subject of orgasm and sexual joy by vaginal sex vs. non-vaginal sex.

This book has received praise from media and institutions all over the world. For example, Reuters has remarked that it 'has left an indelible mark on Western civilization.' Others, including the prestigious Frankfurter Allgemeine, have called it 'legendary'. The London Times has listed it as one of the top one hundred key books of the twentieth century. It received the distinguished service award from America's largest organization of sex researchers and counselors, AASECT (American Association of Sex Educators, Counselors and Therapists).

Why? Because it was the first and still in many ways is the only book to 'make the case' for the beauty and pleasure of clitoral stimulation for female orgasm. It galvanized and helped create a cultural revolution, documenting in women's own voices and with statistics (based on its own independent sample of over 3,000 women of all ages and walks of life) that almost all women can orgasm easily and efficiently with clitoral or exterior stimulation of the vulva -- and going on to question why this is not considered a 'normal part of sex'? Why is there no word for this, i.e., why is this 'act' never shown in films or pornography (where the focus is almost always on coitus, bondage or fellatio)? Yes, this is a feminist analysis of 'sex', stating (it was the first to do so) that our definition of sex is a cultural and historical phenomenon, not simply a 'biological inevitability.'

Read this book if you want to understand anything about female sexuality.

When this book was at first published, it was revolutionary. Following the female version, it showed men's oppinions about sexuality in a way that had never been discussed before. For people living in the nineties, just a small portion of the book remains interesting. Besides its obsolence, The Hite Report on Male Sexuality is statistically inaccurate, for it was proved that the choice of those 7000 men had a flawed criteria. The author based the research upon forms published in magazines she received. The result is that there's an abnormal concentration of men with sexual problems, causing a distortion in the result. Its historical importance, nevertheless, still remains, and that should be one's only reason to buy it.

I already read the Hite report for women and this one was just as good. Anything you need to know about men you will find in this book. I liked both, they are very informative and interesting.

Whether the study was accurate enough or not, a lot of data in this book is still valuable. A great amount of men spoke out to a woman who knows how to interpret and how to write. Certainly during the time she wrote it, people were more loyal to any kind of study than nowadays, so you can't just say this book is only a nice thing to have on your shelves (referring to the review of the anonymous man from Argentina here below). It is not fair to state things are inaccurate and proven without mentioning the full (traceable) resources. In the book you can also see she has had many interviews with a lot of men. I still think Shere Hite has managed to collect valuable, timeless data.

I admire Shere Hite's courage to cover such a controversial topic, but that doesn't make it a good book. The focus was more on making people shocked at such a controversial topic than on covering such a controversial topic. Even so, it brought up many taboo topics that should've been out in the open years ago. Good book, not well balanced. Shere Hite is a good writer. Someone who can rackle this sort of sexual topic has to be!