A decade of advice for women and men in the best-selling self-help literature

Many, human service professionals use self-help books to supplement their s ervices. A content analysis was conducted of the top 10 books on tile New Y ork Times be,best-seller list over 10 years (1988-1998) to determine the de gree to which the books empower individuals to resist gender-based socializ ation messages. The Sour best-selling books contained advice for both gende rs to behave consistently with traditional gender socialization. Other book s were generally empowering of women and men to resist these messages.