Women Books - Page 23

Women at the Top: Powerful Leaders Tell Us How to Combine Work and Family

Diane Halpern, Fanny M. Cheung

Amazon Price: $23.96 List Price: $29.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Wiley-Blackwell Amazon Marketplace: 40 new & used starting at $14.97

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A Must Read for Every Woman! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This book examines the lives of about 60 women at the top of their professions, from chief executives at big corporations such as Old Navy/Gap and IBM, to chiefs of police, and even the Prime Minister of Canada and shows the strategies they used to balance work and life.
It was inspiring to read the stories of women from across the globe, particularly the incredible stories of women in China and Hong Kong. Plus the stories from American women such as Valerie Staub (ABC TV) and Sharon Allen (Deloitte & Touche) hit very close to home. In today's world, the message seems to be women can't have it all. This book illustrates how women can create meaningful home and work lives. It will give any woman encouragement and empowerment in her struggle to be dually successful. I learned a lot from this book. Did you know that in some states it is still legal to discriminate against mothers in hiring? Did you know that companies with more women at top management levels perform better? Do you know what the esential first step is in taking control of your time? Read this book and find the answers to successfully combining work and family.

Editorial Review:

Using case studies of top-level women and research in the field, Women at the Top breaks new ground and offers new insight into how women can create dually-successful lives.

• explores the work histories, motivation, leadership styles, mentors, and family backgrounds of a diverse assortment of top-level women
  
• includes the case studies of the President of Old Navy/Gap, the Chairman of Deloitte and Touche, the VP of IBM operations, a Supreme Court Judge in China, President of Legislative Council in Hong Kong, several university presidents, and more
  
• weighs the positive effects of multiple roles and positive and negative work-life spill over
  
• discusses strategies for success (e.g., scaling back, juggling), the need for social support, and the importance of cultural context

Journey in Search of the Way

Satomi Myodo

Amazon Price: $20.65 List Price: $22.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: State University of New York Press Amazon Marketplace: 31 new & used starting at $13.71

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

Hunter College Women's Studies Collective

List Price: $52.95 By: Oxford University Press, USA Amazon Marketplace: 25 new & used starting at $0.24

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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.

Women Of Upper Class Pb (Women In The Political Economy)

Susan Ostrander

Amazon Price: $25.95 List Price: $25.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Temple University Press Amazon Marketplace: 27 new & used starting at $1.77

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

written in plain English by a professor 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Great job of exploring the lives and problems of upper class women. My only complaint is that the book should be updated (though it doesn't seem dated at all) because it has a copyright of 1984. I have to wonder what, if anything, has changed since then. I love books written by academics that are written in plain English.

There are great tidbits about class scattered, or perhaps just tossed out, though out the book: like the fastest way to move up in class. You'll have to read the book because I won't give it away.

Women of Class 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Women of "class" refers to upper class women; it is only they who have it. They view themselves and their children as special and better than others. They are snobs and they know it. They don't want the masses to know it so they pacify them by their so called charity work. There charity work is done to raise money for museums, art institutes, hospitals, clinics, etc. They are careful not to perform any real social change, not wanting to "rock the boat" (Ostrander). They have a bit of unnecessary guilt, but really it serves no purpose, because there is no shame in being rich.

Ms. Ostrander showed supreme objectivity in her writing. The tone of her book is honest and a little sad. This is one of those rare books that is worth reading again and again.

Editorial Review:

In a unique departure from the usual stereotypes, Susan Ostrander gained access to this elite community and interviewed the women in one U.S. region to study their roles, activities, and self-images. Among her conclusions, Ostrander shows that although these women are economically and socially powerful, they are for the most part, unliberated, being subservient to their husbands and to their duty to bear and raise children.

Safekeeping: Some True Stories From a Life

Abigail Thomas

List Price: $22.00 By: Knopf Amazon Marketplace: 12 new & used starting at $6.33

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 19 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Disappointing 2 out of 5 stars.
6 of 8 people found this review helpful.

Thankfully, Abigail Thomas followed the proverb, "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again," having recently composed a wonderful memoir of life before, during and (mostly) after her husband suffered a traumatic brain injury, entitled A Three Dog Life. Unfortunately, this earlier work, a 179-page collection of about 100 stories, ranging in length from one sentence to a few pages, was disappointing. In Safekeeping, snippets of her life from an eighteen-year-old pregnant wife, to grandmotherhood, her writing feels stiff and forced and even though I disliked it from the start, I trudged on hopefully. Unfortunately, my disappointment never disappeared and only wavered during two of the stories, I Ate There Once, about a conversation which takes place as she rides in a car with her second and third husbands and, What the Moment Can Hold, which tells of her feelings and actions during an encounter with her newborn granddaughter. Both felt authentic and true. As far as the rest of the stories, they seemed like what you'd get from an above-average college student if you assigned them to create a journal of life, specifying, "Write down any random thought you have." Additionally, it is written in the third person, which doesn't suit the theme, memoir-like "true stories from a life." Readers should skip Safekeeping in favor of her later and many-times-better memoir, A Three Dog Life.

Editorial Review:

A stunning new way to celebrate the small moments that make up a life.

In flashes of vivid prose — sometimes in pieces only one page long — Abigail Thomas breaks up the notion of what is "memoir" to tell us some true stories from her life: about love and upheaval, mistakes and loyalties, adventures and domesticities; marriage and motherhood at a very young age; a second husband who becomes both an ex and a dear friend in need; a smart-mouthed sister who helps her get through hard times; the many shades of feminine power and female rage; the changing face of desire.

Safekeeping is a book in which white space speaks as eloquently as what is revealed. Openhearted and effortlessly funny, these brilliantly selected glimpses of the arc of a life are, in the age of too much confession, a welcome breath of fresh air.

Something From the Oven: Reinventing Dinner in 1950s America

Laura Shapiro

List Price: $24.95 By: Viking Adult Amazon Marketplace: 46 new & used starting at $2.05

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 15 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

From Betty Crocker to Betty Friedan 4 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

Something From the Oven covers almost everything about American food culture during the post-World War II years until the mid 1960s. There are accounts of the advent of convenience foods, the literature of food, the rise of cooking shows on TV, and the phenomenon of cooking contests such as the Pillsbury Bake-Off.

The topics seem loosely connected, with no particular conclusions drawn. But it's a pop history book, not an academic tome, so sit back and enjoy an entertaining look at food from several historical angles.

Shapiro talks about the post-war need for convenience food. At least, manufacturers wanted there to be a need for convenience foods, whether American cooks agreed or not. There were a lot of experiments in the first days. Successful products included concentrated frozen orange juice and fish sticks. Unsuccessful product proposals included canned deep-fried hamburgers and concentrated distilled water. (I suspect if Shapiro is having us on with that last idea.)

The section on domestic literature was especially fun, although a lot of it had little to do with food. Shapiro discusses Shirley Jackson, Erma Bombeck, Peg Bracken, Bette MacDonald, Jean Kerr, and the Gilbreths of Cheaper By the Dozen fame, among others. She reveals that there was often a big difference between their supposedly non-fiction works and their actual lives. I look forward to rereading these old favorites with this new information in mind, as well as looking up some authors Shapiro mentions that I was not aware of.

The mini-history of Julia Child's career is entertaining, and the extensive bibliography is a treasure trove of further reading ideas. Recommended!

Editorial Review:

In this delightfully surprising history, Laura Shapiro—author of the classic Perfection Salad—recounts the prepackaged dreams that bombarded American kitchens during the fifties. Faced with convincing homemakers that foxhole food could make it in the dining room, the food industry put forth the marketing notion that cooking was hard; opening cans, on the other hand, wasn’t. But women weren’t so easily convinced by the canned and plastic-wrapped concoctions and a battle for both the kitchen and the true definition of homemaker ensued. Beautifully written and full of wry observation, this is a fun, illuminating, and definitely easy-to-digest look back at a crossroads in American cooking.

The Queen of Whale Cay

Kate Summerscale

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Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

British eccentric Marion "Joe" Carstairs (1900-1993) was a world-class speedboat racer, heiress to the Standard Oil fortune, ruler of her own Caribbean Island ... and a cross-dressing lesbian. This biography places Carstairs's adventurous life in the context of 20th-century attitudes toward sexual deviance. During the permissive 1920s, Carstairs was able to flaunt her taste for women in the bohemian circles of London and Paris. She had affairs with numerous gals, including Natalie Barney and Dolly Wilde, Oscar's niece. When writing about Carstairs's boat races, the press of that roaring decade regarded her as a loveable tomboy. But as social norms shifted in the '30s, Carstairs's lifestyle was frowned upon. So she acquired Whale Cay, an island off the coast of Florida, turned it into her own version of paradise, became a gentleman farmer, and had an affair with Marlene Dietrich. Carstairs's most important and long-term relationship, though, was with Lord Tod Wadley, a stuffed leather doll. --Rebecca Brown

Get to Work: A Manifesto for Women of the World

Linda R. Hirshman

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Total reviews: 67 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

When Linda R. Hirshman published an article called "Homeward Bound" in last December’s American Prospect, she fully intended to reignite the dying embers of feminism’s fire. But the ensuing maelstrom of criticism and applause from national op-ed columnists like David Brooks in The New York Times to mothers—stay-at-home and working mothers alike— surprised even her. Suddenly, the retired professor of philosophy and women’s studies is at the center of an increasingly hot debate on sexual politics. With Get to Work, Hirshman expands her now-infamous call for all women to realize the ideal of economic independence and self-determination.

Examining the trend of affluent, educated women abandoning their careers in order to raise children, Hirshman has concluded that the real glass ceiling that’s barring women from success in the workplace is in their own homes. Why, forty years after The Feminine Mystique, do men and women assign the low-level and generally unrewarding jobs of housekeeping and child rearing to women? The time is ripe for a new feminist revolution based on values and quality of life, not some false promise of "choice." Get to Work will lead the national discussion as Hirshman lays out a strategic plan to help women rediscover that their place is not necessarily in the kitchen.

Third Wave Feminism: Expanded, Second Edition

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Stronger edition 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

The second editon of this book built upon an already strong book. This one includes interviews and approximately an additional 5-7 new entries and an introduction.

This book covers the gamut from popular culture, philosophy, transgender/gender, girl/grrrls, the media, and more. I found that the book is greared for an academic audience--upper division undergrads in humanities, social sciences, communication/media studies or graduate level courses. The wide array of covered topics makes this book perfect for a seminar.

I was smitten most with the chapter on the media and another chapter on girls. The chapter about economics by the editors of Third Wave Agenda was another strong chapter. My copy of this book is dog-eared and has lots of comments in the margins.

What I liked best about this book is that it really was a critical exploration of the so-called third wave. Some of the contributors were skeptical of this thing we call third wave feminism or the next generation of feminists. I also liked the strong research about this history of the genre (3rd wave) and that the contributors were engaged in work that moved beyond the navel gazing. This book is well-researched and written.

Editorial Review:

This revised and expanded edition, new in paperback, provides a definitive collection on the current period in feminism known by many as the "third wave". Three sections--genealogies and generations, locales and locations, politics and popular culture--interrogate the wave metaphor and, through questioning the generational account of feminism, indicate possible future trajectories for the feminist movement. New to this edition are an interview with Luce Irigaray, a foreword by Imelda Whelehan as well as newly commissioned chapters.

Women and Power in American History (3rd Edition) (MySearchLab Series 15% off)

Kathryn Sklar, Thomas Dublin

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Editorial Review:

This anthology brings together carefully selected, quality articles in U.S. Women's History–organized around an interest in issues of gender and power in American society. Twenty-seven individual essays provide readers with a unifying theme, and a greater understanding of history and continuing changes in gender relations. The chosen works discuss the experience of white women in seventeenth-century Maryland, the beginnings of the Afro-American family in Maryland, religious women in revolutionary New England, the sexual division of labor and the artisan tradition in early industrial capitalism, female slaves, women's rights within the anti-slavery movement, sex roles and social stress in Jacksonian America, women and Indians on the frontier, Chinese immigrant women in nineteenth-century California, and much more. For individuals interested in the history of women in the United States.