Women Books - Page 10

Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism

bell hooks

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Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> World Literature -> United States -> African American -> Hooks, Bell
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 16 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Here is where it all began 5 out of 5 stars.
17 of 20 people found this review helpful.

Those who would dismiss Hook's scholarship and arguments as substandard are truly threatened by the radical observations she makes about the world and black women's relationship to it and in it.

The "Clif Notes" version Hooks has been maligned for by her critics have been practiced openly by white feminists (and predominantly white groups) so I honestly cannot see what the criticism is about unless it is the particular ideas themselves and not the way they are phrased. Hook's work is radical because it forces readers to deal with the less than favorable aspects of American history.

Confronting the real truth about America and the way it has historically treated and maligned women of color (and how they moblized against this) can be a challenging read, but only if the reader comes in with a defensive mind, prepared to discount the work anyway. Individuals with an open mind should love the pages of this now-classic work.

I have always loved this book and it's practical insights on gender roles and a multifaceted approach to reproductive rights. Although Hooks is pro-choice, she reminds us that legalized abortion should be only one aspect of reproductive rights, and freedom from sterilzation abuse and full information on contraceptives is also important. It is a testament to Hooks and other activists that this paradigm has been adopted by the general feminist movement.

True women's liberation involves the liberation of all women from all artificially constructed notions about gender and ethnicity. While we as a nation have historically seen the civil rights movement as primarily for black men, and the feminist movement as being for white women, we have silenced and subjugated the black feminist who has one foot in each of these communities and is going to weave together her own experiences.

Editorial Review:

In this classic study, cultural critic Bell Hooks examines how black women, from the seventeenth century to the present day, were and are oppressed by both white men and black men and by white women. Illustrating her analysis with moving personal accounts, "Ain't I a Woman" is deeply critical of the racism inherent in the thought of many middle-class white feminists who have failed to address issues of race and class. While acknowledging the conflict of loyalty to race or sex is still a dilemma, Hooks challenges the view that race and gender are two separate phenomena, insisting that the struggles to end racism and sexism are inextricably intertwined.

Women's Realities, Women's Choices: An Introduction to Women's Studies (Hunter College Women's Studies Collective)

Hunter College Women's Studies Collective

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Editorial Review:

A landmark work in its first edition, this critically acclaimed text has been updated to incorporate the greatly strengthened and enlarged insights of feminist theory and practice, and the enormous changes in women's studies since the original edition's debut in 1983. The new edition covers the most recent developments for women in politics, labor, and the changing family dynamic, and pays particular attention to women of color and ethnicity. The authors present a wide array of literature, exploring controversial topics that are of day-to-day concern for women, from racism and homophobia to class conflict and discrimination. Examining women's lives as individuals, as family members, and as a force in the greater social fabric, the second edition of Women's Realities, Women's Choices remains the most timely, comprehensive, and compelling introduction to the increasingly vital field of women's studies.

New Women's Devotional Bible, Compact

Amazon Price: $28.39 List Price: $39.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Zondervan Amazon Marketplace: 29 new & used starting at $23.77

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Beautiful Bible 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

This Bible is the perfect size making it very portable. It has a beautiful leather cover that is also durable. The text contrast makes it easy to read even without my reading glasses! The daily devotionals are great and I find myself reading days' worth at a time. This Bible would make a wonderful gift or treat yourself like I did! It was also a great price here at Amazon-lots cheaper than my local Christian Book store.

Can't put it down!!! 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I love this Bible! I love the style and size...able to fit into any purse! But...most of all...I love the devotionals and the way they keep you wanting to read more and more and MORE!!! Thanks for offering this Bible at such a great price!!! UNBEATABLE!!! =0)

NICE GIFT: TEXT TOO SMALL 2 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Overall the compact size and organization of the bible is ideal; however, I was extremely disappointed in the very fine and small tan text lettering. Extremely difficult to read; I actually exchanged this item for another bible with larger text. Nice gift for a quick reference; compact for purse, but it did not work out for me for long term reading/studying.

Editorial Review:

Chocolate/Orchid. Written by women for women, the New Women’s Devotional Bible in NIV offers a fresh perspective on God’s Word through a year’s worth of relevant, engaging devotions placed throughout the text of the NIV.

Class Action: The Story of Lois Jenson and the Landmark Case That Changed Sexual Harassment Law

Clara Bingham, Laura Leedy Gansler

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 25 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

A petite single mother, Lois Jenson was among the first women hired by a northern Minnesota iron mine in 1975. In this brutal workplace, female miners were relentlessly threatened with pornographic graffiti, denigrating language, stalking, and physical assaults. Terrified of losing their jobs, the women kept their problems largely to themselves—until Lois, devastated by the abuse, found the courage to file a complaint against the company in 1984. Despite all of the obstacles the legal system threw at them, Lois and her fellow plaintiffs enlisted the aid of a dedicated team of lawyers and ultimately prevailed. Weaving personal stories with legal drama, Class Action shows how these terrifically brave women made history, although not without enormous personal cost. Told at a thriller’s pace, this is the story of how one woman pioneered and won the first sexual harassment class action suit in the United States, a legal milestone that immeasurably improved working conditions for American women.

In Search Of Our Mothers' Gardens: Womanist Prose

Alice Walker

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 15 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

The Loss of Black Creativity Due To Slavery 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

In her essay concerning post-Reconstruction African-American women, Alice Walker seeks to put a human face on what Americans may otherwise only remember as an unfortunate scar on our glorious history. She asks, "Who were the Saints? These crazy, loony, pitiful women?" And in answering herself, she replies in repetition, "our mothers and grandmothers." These are the human faces to which she has attributed all that is contemporary Black America.

"Moving to music not yet written," Walker's image of the former female slave is one, not necessarily of a battered laborer, nor of a heifer being kept only because of her ability to breed valuable livestock, but rather as an artist ahead of her time. These women made beauty while amidst horrible conditions. These women were not merely ex-slaves, but they were "Poets, Novelists, Essayists, and Short-Story Writers" whose potential was never met, and dreams were never realized. For this reason, Walker attempts to embolden and even mobilize African-American women with the responsibility of realizing the potential of black creativity denied their ancestors.

Walker asks, "Do you have a genius of a great-great-grandmother who died under some ignorant and depraved white overseers lash?" What an amazing question to ask. How many geniuses and artists were slain by the horror of slavery? Americans spend a lot of time and energy thinking about the economic, political, and social restrictions slavery imposed on African Americans, but I have never even heard elusions to the loss of black creativity due to slavery. I too have given more thought to the socioeconomic inequality within black America than I've ever given to the stifling of their creative ability. Perhaps, we should give this idea more thought, for it was the efforts of these "poets" in everyday life that transported black women to where they are today, and have arguably elevated the intellect, creativity, and soul of an entire nation.

Thought provoking; this is an essential read for anyone interested in understanding the effects of slavery, especially those effects that go beyond our typical understanding of oppression.

Editorial Review:

As a woman, writer, mother, and feminist, Walker explores the theories and practices of feminism, incorporating what she calls the “womanist” tradition of African american women.

May You Be the Mother of a Hundred Sons: A Journey Among the Women of India

Elisabeth Bumiller

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 20 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

A sensitive, honest, well-researched report on the lives of Indian women 5 out of 5 stars.
14 of 15 people found this review helpful.

Elisabeth Bumiller's account of the lives of women from various walks of life, accumulated during her time spent living in India in the 1980s via interviews and friendships and augmented by the extensive reading she did on the subject before, during, and after her time in India, proved to be a "good read". It was not merely a series of personal anecdotes (lacking in broader perspectives and studies) nor did it err on the other end by being little more than a dry, academic, emotionally detached account of bride burning, dowry murders, female infanticide, the film industry of Bollywood, overpopulation, arranged marriages, domestic hardships, and the like. Instead it was a passionate and thoughtful account by a Westerner living in India who grew to love the people she met and whose research reflected the respect and curiosity she had for the women of India.

Some of the reviews of this book have accused it of being "stereotypically western", "condescending", "shallow", "overgeneralized to the point of being trashy", exhibiting a "Western imperialism", "colonial mindset", or being a "stereotypical account with a liberal dose of sensationalism". I can only say that I found none of those things to be the case when I read the book. There is no doubt that the author's western background and mode of thinking provided the platform from which she observed and evaluated her experiences in India, but she went to a great deal of trouble to broaden her own impressions by consulting the people of India about the problems of India: through her friendships made in India, through numerous interviews (and follow-up interviews) with people from both city and rural areas and from different castes, through viewing of films and television, through reading various Indian magazines (e.g., India Today, Business India, etc.), various Indian newspapers (e.g., The Times of India, The Telegraph of Calcutta, Indian Express,etc.), through special reports (e.g., "Women in India: A Statistical Profile - 1988" put out by the Department of Women and Child Development via the Ministry of Human Resource Development in the Government of India), and through reading various books written by both Indian authors (e.g., Sudhir Kakir, Jawaharlal Nehru, Chidananda Das Gupta, et. al) and foreigners who had lived in India. The result is a balanced and broad view of some of the problems being faced by women in India, not a provincial, overgeneralized, condescending, stereotypical account of India.

Her account is certainly not a dry, emotionally detached one but rather one in which she is actively involved. Is she opinionated? Sure: that's what keeps the book from being boring. Yet it is important to note that the author is honest and fair enough to keep this book from degenerating into a one-sided polemic. Even when she disagrees with a practice she observes (such as female infanticide) she does more than present her own opinions: she also presents the opposing viewpoints and mitigating life circumstances that lead people to act as they do. Moreover, her disagreements are not made in a spirit of self-righteous condemnation but rather with a good deal of compassion. The reader is allowed to see the emotional and intellectual struggles the author goes through as she has her viewpoints challenged by what she sees and hears.

Having read about and traveled in India myself, I found this book to be enlightening. As I mentioned earler, it is a "good read", meaning that the book doesn't drag. Is it the "definitive" book about women in India? Of course not. Such a book doesn't exist. Moreoever, coming out as it did in 1990 (1991 for the paperback), it grows a little more dated each year. However, both as a valuable historical document and an anthropological tool for helping understand more of the Indian character, "May you be the Mother of a Hundred Sons" deserves a place alongside other books that are rightfully praised for their usefulness in throwing light on a fascinating country full of an immense diversity of peoples and practices.

Editorial Review:

"The most stimulating and thought-provoking book on India in a long time..Bumiller has made India new and immediate again."
THE WASHINGTON POST BOOK WORLD
In a chronicle rich in diversity, detail, and empathy, Elisabeth Bumiller illuminates the many women's lives she shared--from wealthy sophisticates in New Delhi, to villagers in the dusty northern plains, to movie stars in Bombay, intellectuals in Calcutta, and health workers in the south--and the contradictions she encountered, during her three and a half years in India as a reporter for THE WASHINGTON POST. In their fascinating, and often tragic stories, Bumiller found a strength even in powerlessness, and a universality that raises questions for women around the world.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

The Heroine's Journey

Maureen Murdock

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

an enlightening guide 5 out of 5 stars.
49 of 50 people found this review helpful.

Back in the 80's one of my favorite books on the inner journey was Joseph Campbell's Hero With a Thousand Faces. The problem with it, though, was that it was written from a male perspective. With The Heroine's Journey I am now at the end of my search for a book on the hero archetype from a feminine perspective. Although this book is not exactly Jungian in its approach, the author clearly seems to have been influenced by Jung's legacy of searching for mythic themes in our individual psyches. Thus, she writes of the archetype of the Journey, and all its symbolism, as it applies to the feminine psyche. But she goes beyond that and explores some of the modern social issues that have been quite troubling for many women.

For instance, in the chapter "The Illusory Boon of Success," she touches upon how many of us, in striving to fulfill our dream of making an impact on the world, often end up buying into aspects of the male-dominated business culture that don't really benefit us as women. She then describes the process of building into our work and personal lives values that do benefit us, as well as others. Her chapter on "Initiation and Descent to the Goddess" is very helpful in showing how we can use loss and grief to become more strong and whole. There are so many issues and themes explored in this book that it really demands at least a couple of readings. This book has given me so much to think about, and has helped me clarify my thoughts on many different issues pertaining to myself as a woman and as a spiritual being--I am very grateful to Maureen Murdock for writing it.

Editorial Review:

A 9 stage process that entails at first rejecting feminine values, making it in the man's world, experiencing spiritual death, and finally turning inward to reclaim the power and spirit of the feminine.

Leadership the Eleanor Roosevelt Way: Timeless Strategies from the First Lady of Courage

Robin Gerber

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 14 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

ER Lessons for Leadership and Lessons for the World Now 5 out of 5 stars.
15 of 15 people found this review helpful.

After reading about Colin Powel's style, Bush's War and Guiliani's book on Leadership, it was a nice break to read about one of history's greatest first ladies--Eleanor Roosevelt. It also served as a checkpoint for myself to have a peek at the early 20th century and the beginnings of the UN in light of recent events. This book was written by Robin Gerber who is a senior scholar at the Academy of Leadership which is part of the University of Maryland. Not only a biography of Eleanor, it's also a how-to on leadership and includes side information about how other women implement Eleanor's style in their lives today.
Key Takeaways:
Give Voice to Your Leadership--ER did not start out a brilliant and inspiring public speaker, she had to practice at it. She eventually managed to be an effective communicator through both speech and her writing in columns. She held press conferences at the White House for women reporters only--she identified an audience she could reach and began speaking to them.
Embrace Risk--despite many folks including herself being unsure of her and her role, at Truman's request ER took on a role within the formation of the UN and went on to be a leading proponant of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. She took this on shortly after the death of FDR--a time when she could have retired. Instead she started on a second life.
Never Stop Learning--this keeps coming up in the lives of leaders--they have an interest in the world and learning about it. ER traveled extensively in the latter part of her life and took a good deal of interest in learning about the world and the various cultures enhabiting it. She traveled throughout the middle east and India. She also used her columns, and speeches as a tool to educate others.

Editorial Review:

Eleanor Roosevelt's remarkable ability to confront and overcome hurdles-be they political, personal, or social-made her one of the greatest leaders of the last century, if not all time. In Leadership the Eleanor Roosevelt Way, author and scholar Robin Gerber examines the values, tactics, and beliefs that enabled Eleanor Roosevelt to bring about tremendous change-in herself and in the world. Examining the former first lady's rise from a difficult childhood to her enormously productive and politically involved years in the White House, as a U.N. delegate and an honorary ambassador, an author, and beyond, Gerber offers women an inspiring road map to heroic living and an unparalleled model for personal achievement.

Women In American Society: An Introduction to Women's Studies

Virginia Sapiro

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Editorial Review:

This interdisciplinary social science introduction to women's studies textbook (not a reader) provides a comprehensive investigation of the effects of gender on women's lives the United States. The text integrates the latest scholarship and research from a wide variety of disciplines including sociology, psychology, political science, education, history, economics, law, mass communications, and the health sciences.

Haruko's World: A Japanese Farm Woman and Her Community

Gail Lee Bernstein

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Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

In Japan as in the United States, family farming is on the wane, increasingly rejected by the younger generation in favor of more promising economic pursuits and more sophisticated comforts. Yet for centuries past, the village and the family farm have constituted the world of the vast majority of Japanese women, as of Japanese men. The dramatic economic and demographic developments of the past two decades have orced extensive changes in the lives of Japanese farm women, many of hwom have been left virtually in charge of their family farms.

This book is a study of Japanese farm women’s lives in the present era: its central figure is 42-year-old Haruko, a complex, vibrant woman who both exemplifies and makes a mockery of the stereotype of Japanese women. Through Haruko we learn the work routine, family relationships, and social life of the women who are the mainstay of Japanese agriculture. Other women from Haruko’s village also figure in the story, and the author’s observations of them, based largely on a six-month stay with Haruko and her family in 1974-75, are supplemented with data from questionnaires and personal interviews.

An epilogue recounts the author’s return to Haruko’s village in 1982 and describes the changes that have occurred since 1975 in the lives of Haruko’s family and other village women. The book is illustrated with photographs.